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

[Gnomey]

Good work so far George!

 

[Wayne Little]

Lookin' good George.

 

[le_steph40]

Good work so far George!

Agree !!!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Coming along nicely Geo and lots of good info guys.

 

[fubar57]

Thanks all. It's always hard to get out of night shift mode and be productive but I managed a couple hours of nap time and set off. Seat mounted to the floor

​

The instrument panel is, according to the instructions, attached to the fuselage via a slot in the IP and corresponding lip on the fuselage...

​

...after reading several other builds, a few mentioned that the IP was a tad too wide and bowed the forward fuselage join out a bit. I did a test fit and sure enough, the IP was too wide, by a tad. Brute force could have closed the fuselage but I chose to sand down the edges.....a tad, shown by the red arrow. The yellow arrow shows the slot used for attachment. Again this is a very tight fit, no glue required. The fuselage halves now fit a lot better

 

[Crimea_River]

That's looking the dog's danglies Geo. Good to read these reviews ahead of time as you did.

 

[Airframes]

Nicely done Geo, and noted for when I get around to doing mine.
It's now confirmed that Karl and I will be going to the RAF Museum at Cosford on Tuesday, April 10th, and I'll be taking loads of pics of the Defiant.
Let me know if there is anything specific you need in the way of detail shots.

 

[T Bolt]

Good catch in that IP George. I'm sure it saved a big headache later

 

[fubar57]

Thanks for the offer Terry. I'm good for this one but I may do another one as an RCAF bird. Final check before closing the fuselage, the rear decking. Ignore the seams as I am just holding this together by the tail. Note that the cross -members have been scored and will be removed once the fuselage has set...

 

[Donivanp]

Some top on work there Geo!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Nicely executed Geo, a good outcome.

 

[fubar57]

Thanks guys. The togetherness is happening and very little mud to be used: the silver coloured area at the back of the fuselage and inside both leading edge landing light receptacles. Not sure what happened here as the wings are a perfect fit but there is about a 1mm gap all around the light area.

 

[Crimea_River]

1 mm is a lot in that scale.

 

[Airframes]

Yes, it is. Maybe a locating pin not 'seating' properly ?
That happened on my Heinkel, and I had to enlarge the locating hole slightly, in order for the pin to drop in, which was due to the curvature of the leading edges at that point.

 

[fubar57]

No pins near the lights. As mentioned, the leading edges were darn near perfect. Speaking of perfect, the wing fillet/fuselage fit...

 

[herman1rg]

Those pipes on the cockpit floor must be for the bathtub radiator under the fuselage surely?

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Nicely done so far George!

 

[Crimea_River]

Wow, that fit looks amazing. I was impressed with my new tool Airfix Skyhawk for this reason as well.

 

[Airframes]

Sure looks like a good fit.