Defiant TT

[claidheamhmor]

Completed, the Classic Airframes 1/48 Boulton Paul Defiant T.T. Mk1 target tug. Fascinating aircraft, converted from the Defiant turret-fighter to tow targets for fighter pilot training. This one was used by the USAAF, and they plastered US markings directly over the RAF markings, so the plane has both US and RAF markings. The kit comes with resin parts for cockpit, rear cockpit, winch, propeller for the generator, the tug stuff underneath, and wheel wells.

The kit itself is terrible, unfortunately. The resin parts are nice, but that's all. The rest is not nice. Parts don't fit (like, the nose is a couple of mm narrower than the fuselage, and the wing needs trimming to fit the fuselage), and there are no locating pins (I drilled holes and made my own pins for tailplanes), and more. So much wrong. The decals are thick and don't settle nicely over detail, and I think an entire decal sheet is missing (the instructions indicated lots of stencils that were not there, and one RAF roundel was absent). At least there are recessed panel lines (though I rescribed them anyway to make them a little deeper). The Defiant’s undercarriage is a little complex, but fortunately I got it right. I cut the front canopy open so that the inside was visible, but of course the sliding section didn't fit over the fuselage; I had to do lots of sanding.

Interesting subject though; the black and yellow underside is cool.

 

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