1:48 DEFIANT MkI

A fighter that shot backwards

The two-seat Defiant was built on the idea that the fire would be directed by a rotating turret behind the pilot's back and the aircraft itself would have nothing with which to shoot forward. Over Dunkirk in May 1940 that worked once: the opponent attacked from behind, because he took the machine for a Hurricane, and four barrels in the turret greeted him. The illusion lasted a few weeks. As soon as word spread about what the aircraft looked like and what it could not do, the daily losses began to grow and the type disappeared from daylight combat. A model of this machine stands or falls with two glazed assemblies: the pilot's cockpit and the dome of the gun position, which together form a long band of frames along the fuselage spine.

Which way to direct the stream of paint

The most common mistake when painting over an applied film is the angle. Anyone who aims the airbrush obliquely at the edge drives the paint straight under a lifted rim and the edge smears. Hold the nozzle at right angles to the surface and take the pass from the center of the mask outwards, never from outside in. On a curved canopy that means turning the model, not the gun. It pays to renew the pressure on the edge with a toothpick just before spraying, especially where the film follows a double curvature and tries to straighten itself out. A thin coat laid in two passes holds the edge better than one rich pass, because a wet film finds its own way to wherever the film has not seated fully. And the last thing people underestimate is the distance. From too far away the paint arrives half dry and the edge of the marking stays grainy.

List of the contents

• The glazing of the pilot and of the gun position, outer and reverse side
• Insignia masks in two sets
• A decal sheet for the same marking
• 1:48 scale