**** DONE: GB-37 1:48 BP DEFIANT - Helicopters / Military a/c of BoB 1940

[fubar57]

Username: fubar57
First name: George
Category: Advanced
Manufacturer: Airfix
Add-ons: Eduard masks, AML Camouflage masks

My entry is from the No.2(Army Cooperation) Squadron, KO•I, s/n N1572. Only one was trialled and rejected.

: Raf-in-combat.com​

 

[fubar57]

The sprues...

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Clear parts with the option of posing the turret open,

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Deecals

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The Add-ons

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[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking forward to this Geo. Don't often see these.

 

[fubar57]

Thanks Andy and Wojtek. Getting the cockpit pieces cleaned up and figuring out what can be glued together before painting. A small amount of flash on the throttle levers and such.

 

[Airframes]

Good one Geo - got one in the stash, courtesy of Jan, for my BoB collection.
I should be going to RAFM Cosford again, at last, probably the first week in April, so I'll make sure I get plenty of pics of the defiant for you.

 

[Wurger]

 

[fubar57]

Which seat belts are good for the pilots seat. This is from the Pilots Notes book and it looks like the belt goes through the armor plating and then straight down the back to anchor in the floor

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These are the belts I have(if I can find them). The Eduard Zoom set for the Defiant looks more like the belt on the left but the above photo looks like the belt on the right...

 

[Airframes]

It should be the Sutton harness - the one on the right on the Eduard fret. The other set is the much later harness, I think from either late 1942, or probably 1943 / 1944.
The Eduard Sutton harness looks a bit yellow in that pic, should be either similar to the later harness, or a mid brown colour, depending on source, and age - they got quite grubby sometimes !

 

[pbehn]

The spruces...

When you mentioned spruces I thought it was a Mosquito

I love the Defiant, look forward to the build.

 

[fubar57]

Dang....corrected

 

[pbehn]

Dang....corrected

You have been too long in them, thar jungles of Canada, th'is seeing spruce everywhere.

 

[Airframes]

He's a lumberjack and he's alright , he works all day, and models all night ....................

 

[fubar57]

Former lumberjack if you please. Clean up complete and assembly started. The small amount of flash...

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Attached the seat to the rear frame: a very tight fit, no glue required but some given. It was then time to attach the seat supports with seat adjuster...fun, fun, fun. Almost an hours worth of fun, fun, fun. The left side took about 15 minutes. Very hard to hold onto and then get it to align with 3 attachment points

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The other side is where the real fun. fun, fun started. As I was test fitting the support, the upper support arm broke in two, no force involved. The only thing I can think of was that it was weakened when I removed it. Smart me would have re-attached it before proceeding but smart me couldn't be found
Anyhoo....its attached and resting comfortably. Smart me would have also opened the slot above the seat but again...............

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff, and nice fix. I had a similar, fiddly time with the rudder actuating rods in the Heinkel cockpit - took around an hour just to fit the darned things.
Just remembered, I've got some (1/72nd) scale drawings, and a cutaway, if you think they might be useful if so, give me a shout and I'll scan them and e-mail then to you.

 

[Donivanp]

Great call, I have this and thought about it.

 

[Crimea_River]

A shaky start but looks good. Hope smart Geo shows up soon.

 

[parsifal]

lots of detail included. should be good I think

 

[fubar57]

Thanks guys. I'm good Terry thank you . I started late so just going to add the seat belts which I found. I believe the gunner had a thick lap belt, if so I'll add a scratch built one here. The next step involved adding some piping(?) to the floor and a part Airfix lovingly call "C25" but I shall rename it PITA. It attaches to the floor with a small tab to an over-sized slot and is then suspended to be attached to the forward bulkhead

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This PITA is basically of my own making as I don't want to add the reservoir until after painting the cockpit as it is painted aluminum. So I've dry-fitted it to the bulkhead and then into the fuselage to make sure everything lines up.

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[fubar57]

Thanks Michael