1/72 Boulton-Paul Defender

[Brian da Basher]

In late 1939 production of Hurricanes hit a snag when simultaneously, the snack machine at the Hawker works ran out of Twiglets and the cafeteria experienced a shortage of pork pies. With the war on and Lord Beaverbrook well aware that the "Phony War" was just a temporary lull, a stop-gap measure had to be found and fast.

Fortunately, the Boulton-Paul Co. was ready with a solution. Their turret-armed Defiant was already in production, and with the Boulton-Paul employees having a ready supply of bacon butties (with both red and black sauce), no production difficulties were looming. Chief designer Paul Macca was ordered to re-design the Defiant as a single seat fighter and he worked eight days a week (even though he wasn't sure that was enough to show he cared) to accomplish the task. Design P.94 was quickly transformed into a prototype which exceeded all expectations. Various materials were contemplated and production manager John Lemmon suggested Norwegian Wood (isn't it good?) but more readily available local materials were decided upon and the new fighter, dubbed the Boulton-Paul Defender was quickly ordered into production.

By the summer of 1940, four full squadrons of Defenders were available to help cover the beaches of Dunkirk during the evacuation. Even though Hurricane production soon returned to healthy levels once the bottle-neck in Twiglet and pork pie supplies was resolved, the Defender had proved itself in combat and was still ordered in significant numbers until superceded by more advanced types.

The example shown here is the personal mount of Flight Leader Zac Gripweed of the all-volunteer Can-Am squadron. It is wearing experimental markings used during the Battle of Britain where Flight Leader Gripweed shot down eight German bombers. The Defender proved its resiliancy and agility time and time again, and was eventually used as a night fighter, fighter-bomber and an advanced trainer before being phased out of service in 1944. Flight Leader Gripweed's Defender is now on permanent display at the Liverpool War Museum on Penny Lane (near the roundabout).

1st of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

A while ago, that young Kiwi whiff-genius Zac sent me a box of goodies. Included in it was an old Boulton-Paul Defiant he'd built. Unfortunately, it was missing some parts, but when have missing parts ever stopped me? Well I knew just what to do as the ever generous Geoff sent me some cool design drawings of the Boulton-Paul P.94, a single-seat fighter that was derived from the famous Defiant. I was hoping for a quick build, a real "slammer". Little did I know...

2nd of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Zac's Defiant build was missing the canopy, ailerons, horizontal stabs, landing gear doors and propellor. These challenges would probably stop most sane modellers, but I decided to proceed bodly. Here's a cool head-on shot.

3rd of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

I was able to find a replacement for the prop easily, and I discovered that the horizontal stabs left over from the PZL-P.11 were a perfect fit. I had to use some left-over styrene to cobble together ailerons and I had to scratch gear doors from 10 thou. card. The hardest part of this build was fairing over the space where the gun turret was. This took an "almost-the-right-size" bit of blisterpack material, a lot of putty and a heap of patience. The canopy was no problem as I had a Squadron vac in the stash for some Japanese fighter that fit very nicely. With a little creative painting I was home free.

4th of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Speaking of painting, the entire model was brush-painted by hand with acrylics. I used ModelMasters Euro Green and Tamiya Brown on the uppers. ModelMasters RAF Sky was used for the cockpit and I used Tamiya Gunmetal on the exhausts. Windsor-Newton Artists' acrylics Mars Black and Cadmium Yellow were used on the prop and the Mars Black was used on the tailwheel too. I painted the undersides with Tamiya Sky. Speaking of undersides, here's a shot which highlights how much trouble I had getting those gear doors right even though I traced the shape on a piece of clear tape to transfer it to the 10 thou. card.

5th of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The decals were a mix of R.A.F. markings I had in my decal stash. They're not very accurate for a Battle of Britain fighter, but I've always been intrigued by the variations in R.A.F. markings and thought it might be possible they were testing out some ideas. The great thing about What-If is that any inconsistencies can be explained in the backstory. Accurate or not, I really like the way the yellow outlines highlight the roundels against the camoflage.

6th of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[The Rat]

Another winner Brian! You're going to be my inspiration when I start my Defiant tankbuster.  

[Brian da Basher]

While this project was a bit more challenging than I thought it would be, I still had a blast with it! I think old models are great for whiffery and are certainly easy on the wallet! Zac, thanks for sending me this old warbird! It made me very happy to bring her back to life! Hee's a shot that highlights the tailwheel fin I added to make this fighter even more closely resemble the famous Hurricane.

Last of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Mossie]

Bri, I'd always wondered why the Defiant wasn't given conventional armament once it was realised that the turret was useless.  I've got nothing to go on, but I've often thought it might have made a very good fighter in it's own right.  Thanks for making my musings a reality!

[Brian da Basher]

I'm glad you liked it Mossie! Here's  the design drawings that gave me the idea in the first place, courtesy of our own Thorvic, who is a vast wealth of information.

Brian da Basher

[Mossie]

Hmm, see in that clipping there was a turretless aircraft flown, wonder how well it performed?  You learn something new every day on this forum!

[retro_seventies]

[Brian da Basher]

Another winner Brian! You're going to be my inspiration when I start my Defiant tankbuster.

I'm glad you liked it, Mr. Rat-San! It's not too much of a stretch to imagine one of these in desert camo with a Vokes filter and maybe under-wing cannon pods. I hope you'll share pics with us of your Defiant tank-buster when you get it built!

Brian da Basher

[Chap]

Brian, that is one sleek little fighter! I love it , great work yet again!

~Steve

[K5054NZ]

BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!    

EDIT: Okay, upon further thought I've decided to also commit the following comments:

Nice work Brian! I love the camo, you've pulled off the BoB dayfighter look quite well. I enjoyed the mix of markings you used, highly creative. I, too, believe the P.94 should have progressed beyond paper. I can't imagine a better use for that old Airfix kit of mine. Thank you so very, very much for doing her justice.

Ben, thank you for providing an image of the turretless Defiant. I highly enjoyed the look of this fine machine.


*struggles to not sound sycophantic and keep comments balanced*