Subject: Re: Sillyweek(?) submission
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Ole A. Hoel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2014 13:05:23 -0800

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
ARC Air - Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.arcair.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ole A. Hoel 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2014 12:28 PM
  Subject: Sillyweek(?) submission

  Airfix 1/72 Defiant 
  by Ole A. Hoel 

   -------------------- 
        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 01.jpg here  

  Not so much of a silly idea as an exercise in self-inflicted pain and suffering (and finally, a little joy). The old (soon about a hundred years) Airfix defiant doesn't really have a single thing working for it; it's seriously undersized, has no real detail and has only the vaguest resemblance to the original. This was a recent boxing with very shiny, but usable decals, so I opted for the day-fighter colour scheme. 
        Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 03.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 03.jpg Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 04.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 04.jpg Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 05.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 05.jpg Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 06.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 06.jpg 

  To make the model into a somewhat more decent representation of the original, I used the wonderful drawings and the detail pictures in the Mushroom Publications book on the Defiant. The kit needed to be a lot wider, so it was beefed up with a thick slice of plastic card between the fuselage halves. The too small tail fin was built up in the same way, and the miniscule turret was replaced with the top turret from an Airfix Halifax (which was the same type). I scratchbuilt the interior of the turret and cockpit. The oil cooler under the nose was replaced with a vac-formed one, as was the cockpit canopy and the turret top with open doors. The wheel covers and wheel wells were made from plastic card, and the undercarriage was mostly scratch-built. Incredibly, the wings and tail surfaces were mostly usable.
          
        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 02.jpg here  

  All in all, the result was less than spectacular, but not too bad as an exercise in old-fashioned modelling. Somehow, it feels good to make something out of (almost) nothing.

  Happy Modelling
  Ole A. Hoel