 | Defiant| Personal Gallery Discuss Defiant in the OFF-Topic / Misc. forums; This project has been rumbling on in the background for a few weeks, and now I am happy with it, ... |
|
08-01-2008, 12:18 PM
|
#1 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Deep in suburban Surrey
Posts: 1,432
Country:  | Defiant
This project has been rumbling on in the background for a few weeks, and now I am happy with it, and want to see what you all think before putting up on deviantArt etc.... As always, you get to see it first... 
__________________  | 
|  | |
08-01-2008, 01:12 PM
|
#2 | | Older Than Dirt
Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Virginia Beach, Virginia
Posts: 5,245
Country:  | Neat, Clave. This was not a well known bird, was it ?
Charles
__________________  I can only please one person per day.
Today is not your day.
Tomorrow doesn't look good either.... | |
| | |
08-01-2008, 01:14 PM
|
#3 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Dallas, Tx
Posts: 2,937
Country: | For some goofy reason, I always liked the Defiant. Maybe it's the turret with 4 .303's in it. Too bad it couldn't fire forward.
__________________  | |
| | |
08-01-2008, 01:32 PM
|
#4 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Phila, Pa
Posts: 2,613
Country: | Nice. Always liked the Defiant too. Would like to fly it, looks like an easy flyer. But I wouldn't want to fight in it. In that realm, it looks like a death trap. | |
| | |
08-01-2008, 03:34 PM
|
#5 | | World Traveler
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Royal Deeside/St Andrews, Scotland, UK
Posts: 11,708
Country: | It was a death trap (once the Germans realised it wasn't a great idea to attack it from directly behind as they would Spitfire/Hurricane).
Still excellent again Clave (like we've come to expect).
__________________  "Success is not Final, Failure is not Fatal, it is the Courage to Continue that Counts"
Sir Winston Churchill
"To him the People of the World Largely owe the Freedom and Liberties they Enjoy Today"
Enscription on Hugh Dowding's (AOC Fighter Command 1936-40) statue in London
Moderator WW2 Talk: A WW2 Discussion Forum
My Photo Collections on Flickr
| |
| | |
08-01-2008, 04:14 PM
|
#6 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Deep in suburban Surrey
Posts: 1,432
Country: |
It was switched to night operations (pics not done yet) where it had some degree of success. Flying directly below or to the side, the turret could swivel through quite a wide arc, and of course the 4 machine guns were very close together, so the firepower was concentrated.
But, there were many things against it too - the turret was extremely heavy, and it had the same engine as the Hurricanes and Spitfires of the time, so the performance lagged behind any fighter.
It was withdrawn from combat in 1942, for a new role in Air Sea Rescue. It was a simple enough conversion with canisters under each wing containing a dingy to be dropped into the sea.
The last gasp of the Defiant was as a target tug - a pretty low-grade job for this ingenious design...
__________________
Last edited by Clave : 08-01-2008 at 04:42 PM.
Reason: Turrets not removed on ASR versions
| |
| | |
08-01-2008, 04:52 PM
|
#7 | | aka Dickcheese
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Washington State
Posts: 10,900
Country: | Awesome as usual, Clave. [wait for it...] 
Okay, here I go. I always like your subjects, as it makes me thing about what I've seen. I am only superficially familiar with the Defiant. However the rear antenna certainly cannot be that long unless it retracts, right? The geometry would make the main landing gear 20ft tall. Am I missing something about this variant? I have attached a photo that looks like yours, but can't imagine how that would work without retraction. Help Micdrow!
Another couple of questions.
Wasn't there a seat brace visible behind the rearmost window?
And I also thought that the .303s were belt fed from the outtermost side (e.g., the L-.303s fed from the L-side, and R-.303s fed from the R-side).
__________________ 
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if
they made a difference in the world. But, the [U.S.]
Marines don't have that problem."
-- Ronald Reagan Master of Duplicate Posts | |
| | |
08-01-2008, 04:55 PM
|
#8 | | aka Dickcheese
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Washington State
Posts: 10,900
Country: |
__________________
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if
they made a difference in the world. But, the [U.S.]
Marines don't have that problem."
-- Ronald Reagan Master of Duplicate Posts | |
| | |
08-01-2008, 05:21 PM
|
#9 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,033
Country:  | Hi Matt,
>However the rear antenna certainly cannot be that long unless it retracts, right?
Right! It did in fact retract - at least, if all went as planned.
From "Turret Fighters" by Alec Brew:
"Sqn Ldr. Hunter [of 264 Squadron] had arrived at the factory on 11 April [1940] hoping to test this aircraft [a Defiant with a constant speed propeller], but it was not yet ready. He did take the opportunity to complain about the retracting rear wireless mast, which was snapping off at the rate of one a day because it did not retract whe the wheels were lowered, and hit the ground on touchdown. When he left Wittering there were only three Defiants with an intact rear mast. An investigation was instituted by the company."
Quite a good book, by the way - my most recent read, and I'm delighted to see that Clave has turned his attention to the Defiant, producing one of his great profiles to go along with my reading :-)
Regards,
Henning (HoHun) | |
| | |
08-01-2008, 06:17 PM
|
#10 | | Siggy Master
Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Poland
Posts: 7,191
Country:  | But the profile looks nice.Well done Clave. 
__________________  | |
| | |
08-01-2008, 07:36 PM
|
#11 | | aka Dickcheese
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Washington State
Posts: 10,900
Country: | Thanks HoHun!!!
__________________
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if
they made a difference in the world. But, the [U.S.]
Marines don't have that problem."
-- Ronald Reagan Master of Duplicate Posts | |
| | |
08-01-2008, 07:47 PM
|
#12 | | aka Dickcheese
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Washington State
Posts: 10,900
Country: | Quote:
Originally Posted by Wurger  But the profile looks nice.Well done Clave. | And Wurger, you got that right. Claves work is always first rate. 
__________________
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if
they made a difference in the world. But, the [U.S.]
Marines don't have that problem."
-- Ronald Reagan Master of Duplicate Posts | |
| | |
08-01-2008, 07:56 PM
|
#13 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Adelaide
Posts: 3,678
Country:  | Excellent again Clave!
__________________  | |
| | |
08-02-2008, 04:14 AM
|
#14 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Deep in suburban Surrey
Posts: 1,432
Country: | Quote: |
Wasn't there a seat brace visible behind the rearmost window?
| I spotted that about 10 minutes after I posted - I knew something was missing, but couldn't quite put my finger on it.
The aerial arrangement was strange, but makes sense in the light of having a turret swiveling around...
And thanks for the comments everyone!
I shall be off to make a few more versions now that the basics are right...
__________________ | |
| | |
08-02-2008, 04:15 AM
|
#15 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Adelaide Sth. Aust.
Posts: 5,678
Country: | Agreed, Top stuff as usual Clave!
__________________  | |
| | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | | Display Modes |  Linear Mode | 
Posting Rules
| You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off | | | All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:51 PM. | | |
