Airscale | AS-01-25 Boulton Paul Defiant

Reviewed by Iain Ogilvie

Background

The Boulton Paul Defiant was a British interceptor aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II. The Defiant was designed and built by Boulton Paul Aircraft as a "turret fighter" to meet the RAF requirement for day and night fighters that could concentrate their firepower on enemy bombers, which were not expected to have fighter escorts due to the distance from Germany to the United Kingdom.

The Defiant had all its armament in a dorsal turret offering the ability to fire in most directions. The same principle was used in the Royal Navy's Blackburn Roc, also built by Boulton Paul.

In combat, the Defiant was found to be effective at destroying un-escorted bombers, the role it was designed for, but was vulnerable to the Luftwaffe's more manoeuvrable, single-seat Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters operating from bases in Northern France, allowing them to escort bombers to London, although with fuel for only ten minutes of flying time there.

The Defiant had been designed only to destroy un-escorted bombers by means of beam or ventral attacks, and had no forward-firing armament; it proved to be very vulnerable to frontal attacks by fighters in daylight combat. It was withdrawn from daytime operations for use as a night-fighter, and found success in combination with the use of aircraft interception radar (A.I.) to locate the enemy.

The Defiant eventually equipped thirteen squadrons in this role, compared to just two squadrons as a day-fighter, though this was mainly due to slow initial production. In mid-1942 it was replaced by better-performing night-fighters, the Bristol Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito. The Defiant continued to find use in gunnery training, target towing, electronic countermeasures and air-sea rescue.

Defiant Pros

Innovative Turret Design: Equipped with a power-operated, four-gun (0.303-inch Browning machine guns) rear turret, the Defiant could engage enemy aircraft from flexible angles without needing to manoeuvre the entire aircraft, theoretically allowing surprise attacks.
The turret allowed the gunner to focus on targeting while the pilot concentrated on flying, potentially improving accuracy in certain scenarios.
Surprise Factor: Early in the war, the Defiant’s unconventional design confused enemy pilots, who mistook it for a conventional fighter like the Hurricane due to its similar silhouette. This led to initial successes, such as during the Battle of Britain in 1940, where Defiants downed several German aircraft.
Night-Fighter Role: The Defiant found a niche as a night-fighter, particularly in 1940–1941, where its turret armament and radar equipment (in later models like the Defiant NF Mk II) were effective against German bombers in low-visibility conditions.
Its stable platform and two-man crew made it suitable for night operations, contributing to early radar-assisted interceptions.
Crew Coordination: The two-man crew (pilot and gunner) allowed for specialised roles, improving situational awareness compared to single-seat fighters in certain contexts, especially during night operations or when engaging bombers.

Defiant Cons

Vulnerability to Enemy Fighters: The Defiant lacked forward-firing armament, making it heavily reliant on the turret for offense. This left it vulnerable to head-on attacks or agile single-seat fighters like the Messerschmitt Bf 109, which could outmanoeuvre it.
Once enemies recognised its design, they exploited its weaknesses by attacking from below, in front, or at high speed, where the turret was less effective.
Poor Manoeuvrability and Speed: Powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine (1,030–1,280 hp depending on the variant), the Defiant was underpowered for its weight (around 8,300 lbs loaded), resulting in a top speed of about 304 mph and sluggish maneuverability compared to contemporary fighters like the Spitfire or Bf 109.
Its heavy turret and two-man crew increased drag and weight, further hampering performance in dogfights.
Limited Daytime Effectiveness: The Defiant’s initial success in daytime operations during the Battle of Britain (e.g., May–August 1940) quickly waned as German pilots adapted. Heavy losses, such as those suffered by No. 264 Squadron in August 1940, led to its withdrawal from daytime fighter roles.
It was ill-suited for escort missions or engaging fast, manoeuvreable fighters, restricting its daytime utility.
High Crew Risk: The gunner’s position in the turret was exposed and lacked armour in early models, making gunners vulnerable to enemy fire.
The Defiant’s slow speed and poor climb rate (around 1,900 ft/min) made it difficult to evade attacks, increasing crew casualties.
Obsolescence: By 1941, advancements in fighter design and tactics rendered the Defiant’s concept outdated. Single-seat fighters with forward-firing cannons and greater speed were far more effective in most combat scenarios.
Its role as a night-fighter was also overtaken by more capable aircraft like the Bristol Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito, which offered better performance and armament.

Summary

The Boulton Paul Defiant's turret offered a unique tactical advantage in specific scenarios, particularly against un-escorted bombers or during night operations, and its early surprise factor yielded some success. However, its lack of forward armament, poor agility, and vulnerability to enemy fighters made it unsuitable for daytime combat against contemporary opponents. After heavy losses in 1940 its focus was changed to night-fighting, and relegated to secondary roles like training, target towing and Air-Sea Rescue, where it performed adequately but was soon outclassed by more advanced aircraft.

Anyone for a Large Scale Defiant?

The Defiant is an important type in RAF history, and many of us will have cut our Defiant teeth by building the elderly Airfix 1:72 'Series 1' kit back in the day. In 1:32 scale the subject has been poorly served with, if I recall correctly, a vacuum formed kit by ID Models (subsequently released by Tigger Models) and a relatively crude full resin kit from Scratchbuilders. I did have one of the latter, but sold it a long time ago as I thought I'd never get around to it.

Fast-forward to January 2025 and Peter Castle of Airscale pops up, somewhat nonchalantly, on the LSP forums to announce that he'd been drawing up the Defiant as a CAD model - with the intention of releasing his first full kit. Given Peter's reputation for superb cockpit detail sets, and most recently 3D printed accessories, the forums immediately lit up with interest - and here we are, Peter's first full kit!

If you haven't seen it already, forum member Tolga Ulgur has been building a test model from lower resolution development parts - with superb results!

Before I dive in...

In all photos I've deliberately upped the contrast a little to show details - and surface finish. Any 'flaws' you may see are purely surface marks - and the printed surfaces really are superb. Peter hasn't cut any corners with higher layer heights that would reduce printing times; he's very much gone for quality of prints, rather than speed/lower costs. Any surface imperfections that may be there will disappear under a layer of paint - or a very quick swipe over with some fine wet and dry paper (1200 plus).

Apart from that caveat, the pictures will, hopefully, do most of the talking!

This is very much an 'in-box' review covering what's included and the quality of those parts, I won't comment on the fit of parts, or accuracy, until I work through a build. Because of the delicacy of many of the parts I won't cut open the print 'boxes' until I actually make a start - which will be as soon as I finish this review! Details will be at the bottom...

What's in the Box?

There's often something about the way a kit is packaged that gives an idea of the thought and care that has gone into the contents. In this instance that is absolutely the case.

The artwork forms a slip cover over a very sturdy grey box - with a magnetic lid!

This should provide a lot of postal protection in addition to the bubble wrap and corrugated card shipping box, but each group of delicate detail parts is also printed in its own resin 'safety' box, as you'll see as we go through the review.

Fuselage Centre Section Halves

These are wrapped in bubble wrap and marked 'Fragile' for a reason! Nestled in a separate card structure (that also houses the Turret print) this *must* be removed from underneath the card structure - don't try to pull it up, it won't go as the wing root fairings are wider than the opening!

The prints themselves really are superb quality - and I type that as someone who does his own printing! The 'supports' that form part of the printing process, and that you'll see on the smaller components, have already been removed - so that will save the builder some time as they are pretty well ready to go. The vertical sides behind the front canopy are wonderfully thin, but they will be fragile! The two halves are loosely held together by a rubber band and I suggest you keep them that way until you are ready to use in your build!

Surface detail is sharp and clean.

One of the highlights of these parts is something you don't notice at first: superbly rendered structural detail inside the cockpit area - my first thoughts on seeing this was 'this is all going to look superb painted up!'

But we're not finished just yet: turn the mid fuselage sections upside down and you'll see fully detailed inner gear bays - with plumbing and details that would have taken a few parts in an injected kit to replicate - and the detail wouldn't have been anything like as fine!

Rear Fuselage

This is printed as a single, hollow, part - again with the supports already removed 'at the factory'. Surface detail is superb - and, once again, print quality is top notch.

Cowling

Last of the components that make up the fuselage structure, this is another single part component - with supports already removed. Again, superb print quality - with clean, sharp, surface detail - and really thin, hollowed out, intakes.

Wing Inner Sections

Wrapped in individual bubble-wrap bags we have separate port and starboard inner wing sections - printed semi-hollow and with all print supports removed.

Again - surface details are crisp and sharp, with just a hint of printing layers on the underside, which should take seconds to remove.

Underneath we also have the outer undercarriage bays, with more lovely detail, and what looks like substantial mountings for the undercarriage legs.

Wing Outer Sections

Individually 'gift wrapped' in bubble-pack bags - the quality is just as good as all the other components we've looked at so far. Again, printing supports have been removed already.

Box A - External Parts

This is the first of the 'boxes' - each of which protect their very finely printed cargoes!

In 'Box A' we have parts for the aelerons, tailplane, elevators, rudder, radiator bath, spinner, spinner backplate, prop blades (now redundant as Airscale have re-done these - see below), exhaust mounts and two types of exhaust for the day and night-fighter versions. Also provided are a boarding step, pitot tube etc..

All components are just beautifully done - and very thin where applicable. All items survived the postal system intact!

The instructions clearly label the components in each 'box' by part number - so identifying everything should be very straightforward.

Box B - Cockpit Parts

Well, it wouldn't deserve to have the Airscale brand attached to it if the kit came with a cockpit interior that was sub-standard in any way. The detail provided here is absolutely exquisite and I cannot see anything at present that would need to be added - it really is quite complete!

After careful removal of support material I strongly suspect this area is going to go together pretty quickly - and look stunning...

EDIT: Some more detailed images of the contents of 'Box B' now that I've started the project (I'll do the same with the other component 'boxes' as I work through them):

Box C - Turret Parts

This is one of the highlights of the kit in my humble opinion - and being the Defiant's raison d'être deservedly so.

I think I'll just let the photos do the talking here - it really is complete in it's coverage. It's going to look quite superb!

Box D - Wheels

This box contains the tyres, hubs and undercarriage doors, along with a set of wing lights that have been replaced in the kit with later parts, see below.

The tyres include slight flats and look prototypical.

ABS Box - Strong Parts

These stand out in the box as they are printed using a lighter coloured ABS-like resin that is tougher than the standard resin and ideal for parts that need a little more resilience, such as undercarrige legs, seat and the quad .303 Brownings.

The latter are printed as a single component that includes the breaches and mounts - and is a joy to see. An injection-moulded kit would need multiple parts here - and wouldn't come close to this in terms of finesse and detail.

Replacement Blades!

Marked 'Use these Blades', these are replacements for the blades mentioned above - a note in the instructions mentions that the mounting stubs as originally printed were too short. Another example of Peter's attention to detail and quality.

Replacement Landing Lights!

Again, these are replacements for the set mentioned above, modified so that they fit better into the outer wing sections.

Clear Parts

These make quite a statement: originally we were expecting the clear parts to either be vacuum formed, or cast in clear resin. But no, despite the specialised nature of this kit, and potentially low production runs, Peter has gone the whole hog in terms of investment and had these parts injection-moulded. I shudder to think about the possible expense involved...

The parts themselves are beautifully thin, clear and distortion free - and you can even have the turret 'doors' open on the finished model to display all the wonderful turret detail!

Sutton Harness

This is the standard Airscale 'Sutton Harness' set: pre-cut fabric effect material, with two photo-etched frets for the details.

The instructions include a 'not to scale' drawing to enable the modeller to cut the rear gunners lap belt from spare material around the edge of the 'fabric' material. Note that the size of this strap should be 9mm x 3.5mm in 1:32 scale.

Colour Schemes

Two options are included - covering the two main operational schemes:

Dark Green and Dark Earth day fighter scheme - L7021 of 264 Squadron, Royal Air Force, based at RAF Kirton in Lindsey, May 1940
Night-Fighter in overall Night Black - V1125 of 410 Squadron, Royal Air force, RAF Drem, August 1941

Decals

Printed by Fantasy Printshop these look superb. Colour, opacity and register look perfect and I've always had excellent results using decals printed by Fantasy Printshop.

As you'd expect, the sheet includes relevant instrument panels and placards, as well as full stencilling.

Masks/Film

A very useful set of vinyl masks are included for masking the clear components, along with a sheet of clear material for the windows to the rear of the cockpit canopy, and for use glazing the instruments when sandwiched between the various panels.

As a neat touch for those modellers that posses a digital cutter, a couple of QR Code blocks are included on the Instruction Guide so that you can download the artwork and cut your own masks for the markings on each of the two airframes covered.

Instructions

These are more of a 'Manual', rather than just instructions. Parts are clearly identified, and the instructions walk you through the build by way of drawings and detailed notes.

The two markings options are covered in full colour, along with detailed colour notes. The rear cover provides a number of period airframe photos.

Warranty Card

I love this: another indication (as if any were needed) of just how solidly Peter stands behind his products!

Conclusion

What more can I say, apart from absolutely brilliant!

Peter Castle's Airscale brand already had a reputation for detail, accuracy and research: intially with his instrument decals and associated etched sets, followed up by the launch of his 3D printed detail and correction parts. This first full kit from Peter sets a very high benchmark - and one that augurs well for anything he may choose to follow this up with.

Yes, it's not cheap, and that may put it financially out of reach for many, but given the nature of this kit: low volumes, completeness, the production methods used and design time, I honestly believe it represents great value - both for the contents of the box, and the uniqueness of the subject.

In my head I'm equating this to three Tamiya, or Kotare, Spitfire kits in cost - and I'll happily take 3 fewer Spits (I have a pile already) in exchange for one Defiant of this quality.

Very highly recommended!

Peter is currently awaiting everything being ready to make available to the market, including delivery of those injection-moulded clear parts. Peter being Peter - he won't take anyone's money until the kits are absolutely ready for despatch. When he gives the nod Airscale's superlative Defiant will be orderable here - but you'll need to be quick as the first run is 100 kits and I suspect they'll sell fast!

Oh, and this kit has inspired me so much that I've cleared the decks and will be making an immediate start on building it - follow the build review here.

Our thanks to Peter Castle/Airscale for allowing us to get an early look at this kit and share it here!