In defiance of convention

[The Wooksta!]

"Well, what have you brought me this time?"
I mentioned in one of my blogs a few days back that I'd found a part started Defiant TT that I didn't know about and I wasn't sure what to do with it.  I mean, there's a single seat fighter Defiant, but I've done one of those.  There's some other projects, but this one caught my eye:

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And I thought "That looks easy enough" then checked the dimensions.  Close enough to a Defiant to work.  I have to be honest, I don't like the line drawings at the back end as it looks a bit weedy for carrier use. As it was never actually built, I have some...leeway.  It came in two flavours - Griffon and Centaurus.  The latter looked like more work and the MB5 Griffon cowling seems to fit the artists impression.  Handily, I have a mould for that and a casting spare.

So this is what we'll start with for the fuselage.  I'm not interested in the wing yet

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The good thing about Pegasus plastic is that it's soft, easy to cut and work with.

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There's a lot to remove - the spine, the target drogue holder but for now it's just the engine.

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Cut about a mm in front of the firewall so I can sand back to it.

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And I couldn't resist...

[Weaver]

Yes I've looked at that pic thoughtfully a few times before now.

The cockpit canopy in the artwork looks like a Fw190 would be the closest thing.

[The Wooksta!]

"What's happened to all your clothes, Neil?"

I thought that too for about five minutes, but the windscreen is more Spiteful, so given that's just an artists impression, Supermarine likely bought their canopy from a sub contractor and the dead hand of the Ministry of Supply trying to stuff bits where they shouldn't be, I'll likely use a Spiteful one.

As I said earlier, the Pegasus plastic is soft and easy to work with.  Plus it's thick - his stuff got thinner later. The Defiant TT dates from about 1988 I think, whereas his MB5 was 1985 and out of the catalogue by 1990.  I got one in Jan '91 after a quick phonemail.  Anyway, being soft and thick, it means it didn't 't take too long to remove the drogue bit and cut down the spine.

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It's not so thick that bits don't vanish.  I knew underneath would from experience with the one I did as a single seater some years back.

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And the top.  I'll plank over it with sheet card.

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Not bad for about 30 minutes work.  You can see how much I'll need to sort out on the top, but the engine isn't too bad a fit.  Underneath it doesn't match - the cross section is a bit too square and it's a shade too deep - so I'll build it up with filler and put a vent in there.  The tail will need reshaping, plastic card core and build up with P38 perhaps.  Or I can rework a dead Tempest fin.  I have several fuselages to play with.

Next task is to sort out the wing centre section.  The guns - 4 20mm Hispanos by the looks of it - go outboard of the wheel wells. I think the wing is thick enough not to have to add blisters to cover the cannon breeches.

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Having looked at the cutaway, the fuselage looks a bit deeper than the Defiant and the pilot seems to sit higher.  I may use a Sea Fury cockpit tub for this, as I have a cast one spare to hand, and build up the whole top deck with sheet plastic card to revise the cockpit opening and raise the level to the top of the engine.  Moving the latter up by 2mm also fixes the lower issues.

[The Wooksta!]

"I'll handle this!"

I've had to carve out a huge channel in both sides to get the resin tub to fit.  It doesn't help that the fuselage is nigh on parallel whereas the tub is tapered.

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You can see just how sodding thick that plastic is.  I think the port half is about 2.5mm and starboard is nearer 3mm.

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Still, it's in.  Next bit is to cut some plastic card that'll sit on the top.  The front end may need a second plank to match the top of the engine at the rear.

[Captain Canada]

That's a neat looking machine. Looks like something from the Curtiss family.

[kitbasher]

That's a neat looking machine. Looks like something from the Curtiss family.

I was just thinking the tail, fin/rudder are P-40ish.  P-40N, specifically.

Great minds, eh?

[The Wooksta!]

"Six? No, it would be six if you killed him, Michael. Let's call it two."

Maybe if I had one to chop up, but I don't buy US aircraft let alone build them, so I'll likely cut down a dead Tempest fin.  I have a few to play with.

Anyway, the cockpit was primed and fitted, then given a good coat of black.  Once it's dried, I can think about gluing the fuselage together.

[kitbasher]

I've an old unbuilt FROG P-40E you can have if that helps?

[The Wooksta!]

"No we won't."

We're getting somewhere...

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Bare fuselage.  I've reamed it out some more and cut a channel for an instrument panel.

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Cockpit in and painted black.  I'm going for a late or postwar aircraft, when the Navy changed to black cockpits.

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Fuselage now glued together, time to start filling some holes.  Sprue, scrap plastic and filler. 

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Instrument panel now in place.  The white scraps are to help build up the sides.

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Sheet plastic top deck.  There's a lot of sanding to shape it, but we're getting there.

[The Wooksta!]

"I already know how to mix my drinks, Rick."

I've looked at the drawings again and in plan view, it looks like a slightly modified Defiant wing but the dihedral starts further inboard.  So I've affixed the outer panels in place and kept them flat.

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Top.  Standard filler over superglue.  I'm not bothering with baking soda as I've a little more control with this stuff these days.

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And underneath.  Supposedly the P.103 had an u/c that compressed upon retraction, but this will be an early one with a standard Defiant u/c.  I think I'll have to change the shape of the doors, as Hawkers did with the Tempest into Sea Fury to ensure they didn't foul on the arrestor wires.
With the dihedral starting further in, I'll slice the wings just outboard of the wheel wells and put a splice in to angle them upwards.  I'll reinstate the filled join as the wing fold - P.103 was intended for the Navy, but there's no indication as to where the wings folded on the few drawings in BSP Vol.3.

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Finally, progress, albeit some of it blu-tacked or taped in place to get an idea of the shape.  The fin is a Tempest one and is yet to be reshaped, but it gives an indication.

So obviously, there's a lot of sanding to do.  Woo hoo!  The fuselage aft of the cockpit might not look quite like the drawing - perhaps Boulton-Paul had to make some compromises or were pressured to reuse Defiant tooling - but it looks closer with that fin than it did with a Defiant one.

[The Wooksta!]

"Oh, yeah. 'Cornflakes.'"

So I've started the sanding...  There's a lot of it and very tedious, so let's cut to the end product.

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The wings.  I've yet to do the cuts, as I need to sort out the leading edge mould mismatch.

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And the fuselage looks a bit better.  I've glued the engine in place, sanded back the top decking to roughly the right shape, filled it and sanded some of it back.  It's not quite cured and already on it's third skim, mainly at the rear.

Although not photographed, I've made a start on reshaping that Tempest fin.  It's now smeared with filler.  I did a test fit and with it in position, the rear fuselage looks a bit closer to the drawing, so I think I might just get away with this one.

[The Wooksta!]

"Oh, it's broken."

Well, state of play this morning.

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Much sanding done and the fuselage now looks like this.  I added an extra plank of plastic card to build up the rear decking as it didn't look right.

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T'other side with added fin.  This is a reworked Heller Tempest fin, as I had one kicking about that looked ideal to hack around.  At this point, it's yet to see primer.

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Much bigger shot, albeit prior to the first primer coat.  It's had some remedial work, sorting out the trailing edge and I added some plastic card on the leading edge too.  Superglue and baking soda was also employed to build it up quickly.  I've also scribed in the hinge line and reinstated the trim tab from the Tempest.  The P.103 drawing doesn't show a trim tab, but it would have needed one nonetheless. I'll add the fillet to the fuselage come final assembly.

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And a dry fit showing current progress. TBH, it looks a bit like a Seafang or perhaps a Seafire 47.  The yellow tape is to define the cut line to reinstate some kind of dihedral.

It was at this point  I realised that the firewall on the P.103 is much further back and in line with the wing leading edge, so my engine is at least a scale foot too far forward.  The question is do I fix it - both because it's wrong and looks it - or leave it as I've made a few other deviations from the drawing anyway, one more won't matter too much?  I mean, the first prototype could have flown as was, but the cockpit was a bit too toasty, so the engine was moved forward 6 inches (happened with several aircraft, not least the Fw 190).  I minded to do the cut and fix it - I have to chop the wings anyway - but I have to confess that it looks good as is. 

No, sod it, I've just snapped it off and I'll sand back the fuselage.

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If it weren't knacked before, it is now.  Engine snapped off and the fuselage sanded back at least 3mm.  I may take it back a tad later.

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Engine taped back in and it looks a bit better than it did before.  Certainly looks a bit better with a shorter beak.

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The other version of the P.103 would have had a Centaurus, so I took the opportunity to fit one here - I meant to before I added the engine yesterday.  The installation in the drawing is different, but wartime exigencies and the dead hand of the Ministry of Supply might have gone with the Tempest power egg style installation.  They did with Sea Fury and Firebrand, so why not here?  Not now, perhaps for the future or maybe someone else could do it.  This cowling is for a Firefly and I have none left.

Time to glue that engine back on.

[PR19_Kit]

That's looking pretty darn sharp Lee. 

[Gondor]

This will really confuse the punters at shows.

[kitbasher]

Top notch, Lee, keep up the good work.  👍👍👍