Defiant Duo

[Mossie]

Nope, not Super Heroes!  I'm building a pair of P.94's, the single seat Defiant.  I'm trying to think of a name, I've got a few ideas but any others are welcome.

Obligatory box(es) shot.  I took the opportunity for 'Nev time', preparation allowing cutting to remove the spine from both aircraft:



This is my alternative history of the P.94:

Mk.I    - P.94 as per drawings (no flat on spine), 8 or 12 .303's, otherwise as per Defiant Mk.I
Mk.Ia  - Cannon armed Mk.I (real world proposal)
Mk.II   - Conversions of Mk.I Defiants, flat to spine as per K8310 to P.94 prototype, 8 or 12 .303's
Mk.IIa - Cannon armed Mk.II
Mk.III  - Merlin XX and other changes as per Defiant Mk.II, cannon armed
Mk.IV   - Sabre engined prototype as per P.96A
Mk.V    - Centaurus engined prototype as per P.96D
Mk.VI   - Merlin 24 as per proposed Defiant TT.II, cannon armed.

Simon

[Mossie]

For the 1WGB I'm going to build the Mk.I and Mk.II.

Tentative back story is that the Battle of Britain is going a little worse than real-world; a few different decisions, a few more bombs finding their targets.  Churchill orders work to begin on several proposed "Emergency Fighters".  One of those is the Boulton Paul P.94, a single seat development of the Defiant that has already flown.  It promises similar performance to Spitfire and Hurricane and is relatively quick to produce due to the Defiant already being in service.  This is the [insert name here] Mk.I



The screw tightens ever more and the RAF are getting desperate for aircraft.  The Defiant is not living up to expectations, so a further decision is made to convert existing Defiants and those on the production line to single seaters with minimum changes.  Instructions are sent to maintenance depots and work progresses quickly.  This is the [insert name here] Mk.II. 


(The backwards marks reflects what happened with the Target Tugs that won't exist in my version of events, the Defiant Mk.II was in service and conversions were desginated TT Mk.I, the improved TT.II never happened as Defiant Mk.I's were seen as sufficient which became the T.III).

These and other changes help pull Britain through the dark days of the Battle of Britain.  The [insert name here] is developed further throughout the war.

[Old Wombat]

Sorry, "Defender"'s been taken.

The Boulton-Paul/Westland NF.2 Defender Mk IV.

[Cobra]

Very Cool! how about Calling the P.94 "Protector"? think that would work for a Name? Dan

[zenrat]

Dauntless or Lionheart?

[NARSES2]

Always found the P.94 an attractive design. Looking forward to this

[Mossie]

A few coats of paint on the inside bits this morning, I should hopefully have both fuselages together this evening.

Sorry, "Defender"'s been taken.

Nice, and Dizzy did a Reliant so that's gone too.  Keeping the '-iant' theme, Valiant is a possibility, with a Deep Space 9 connection to boot.

Very Cool! how about Calling the P.94 "Protector"? think that would work for a Name? Dan

Protector, hmm, maybe.

Dauntless or Lionheart?

Dauntless was taken in timeframe the P.94 flew.  Lionheart's an interesting one, like that.

Always found the P.94 an attractive design. Looking forward to this

Me too.  My fascination with it dates back to the early days when I started on this forum, I wondered why the Defiant had never been considered without a turret and somebody enlightened me.  These are the two kits I picked up in Huddersfield.  I'd been waiting patiently to do this project for years, hoping Airfix would update their kit, only to stick them in the stash when they did.  I hadn't even considered them until a few days ago (sorry Bungle!) and they whispered to me from across the stash....

[The Wooksta!]

The real snag is that you're probably better off with the OLD Airfix kit, as the rear fuselage bulges out for the turret and thus any single seater is very draggy.  The old kit doesn't have these issues - slim fuselage, amongst it's other shortcomings - and better for conversion work.

[Mossie]

Trouble is it's much more effort to correct the old kits problems than to slim the hips on the new one.  What I plan to do is shore it up on the inside then sand the bejesus out of it.  Fortunately for me there's no detail in that area (should be a shed-load of rivets on the real thing).

[Mossie]

Didn't get the fuselage together but should have this done by the afternoon today.

As mentioned, I've added styrene sheets to the inside so I can sand back the bulge to get the slimmer rear fuselage for the production Mk.I Valiant (name might change again).  The check pattern is to encourage the styrene to conform to the shape of the fuselage, the first layer was thinner sheet to help with this.



As emergency conversions based on the prototype P.94, I don't need to do this for the Mk.II as the bulge will be retained.

[zenrat]

Dauntless or Lionheart?

Dauntless was taken in timeframe the P.94 flew.

The Defiant and the Dauntless were contemporarys so if Boulton Paul had been considering Dauntless alongside Defiant right from the beginning...
However, you've made your decision.
Personally i'd call it the Boulton Paul Deviant. 

[Mossie]

Dauntless or Lionheart?

Dauntless was taken in timeframe the P.94 flew.

The Defiant and the Dauntless were contemporarys so if Boulton Paul had been considering Dauntless alongside Defiant right from the beginning...
However, you've made your decision.
Personally i'd call it the Boulton Paul Deviant. 

Don't worry, Lionheart will get a mention.  As I go along, I'll give it different names to see how it feels, I'll give most suggestions a try. It's just Dauntless doesn't fit into my backstory.

[Mossie]

Cockpit together on the Lionheart Mk.II.   Close up photos make it look worse, but you can hardly see anything when they're together and I probably didn't need to spend as much time on them.  I'm a little behind as we had visitors yesterday so I didn't get finished until the wee-hours.



One buttoned up, both are together now.

[Captain Canada]

Love it. Great work so far !

[Old Wombat]

Prior to the mid-1920's Boulton Paul used names starting with "B" for their military aircraft.

After the mid-1920's it was a pretty mixed bag, so Lionheart fits.

Can't wait to see how she turns out!