24.01.2011, 19:00
![[Image: 517bb3d0446a2854f6609bf3e46626543e905684...f33e6g.jpg]](http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/517bb3d0446a2854f6609bf3e46626543e9056849e680207f8008ba5429ef33e6g.jpg)
I had already built an Airfix "economy" kit (FW190D) and it had pleased me, having a decent detail and a surprisingly good fitting. So I decided to give this Defiant a try.
Unfortunately, this time I soon started thinking I should have saved 6€.
It's hard to find anything positive to say about this kit. It's likely to be a re-packing of a very old release: raised rivets, general lack of detail, deformed parts, pieces free-floating all around the box (if not missing at all!), no cockpit detail (but a pilot figure and a seat) and plenty of flash and injection pins.
The fitting among parts is terrible. Gaps are everywhere, most edges are offset, the fuselage is twisted, upper-lower sides of wings don't fit each other, and so on. The turret rotates and its guns move, OK, but they suffer from bad fitting too: the turret is barely held in position, like if it was about to fall off, and the guns inside float freely (they should be kept in position by two pins, but you have to be Mandrake to fix them).
![[Image: a5676ee3983fdd1c5658ea885dcd767ec8d83775...3be16g.jpg]](http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/a5676ee3983fdd1c5658ea885dcd767ec8d837753667c68b9254e50b07233be16g.jpg)
The kit comes with decals for two planes, either a day or night fighter version. Decals, at least, are OK: there are only basic insignas and serials, but they are easy to attack and stick well, yet they suffer the thickness of raised rivets.
It's hardly worth spending time trying to add details, because the overall look will still remain below the average (at best). Moreover, I've read opinions from expert modelers stating that proportions and scale measurements in this kit are far from accurate (I haven't checked this on my own).
I built the model wheels up and used parts from main gear legs to make a pitot tube (not included in the kit) and replace bottom antennas/cable supports (one of them was missing in my kit).
![[Image: eeef78f58fe1b0a2407a31476a91620450146d05...51846g.jpg]](http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/eeef78f58fe1b0a2407a31476a91620450146d0576472a6470adf42d41e951846g.jpg)
CONCLUSIONS
The quality here is very low, even for an economy kit (the Dora, for the same price, is way better). Don't expect this to be an easy and quick build: it requires a significant effort just to overcome molding flaws. I can't recommend it, unless you're just looking for something cheap to try new techniques.
The pics you see look better than the real thing, just because the full black livery helps hiding most of the flaws. I didn't want to spend too much time on it, so this is the result. It doesn't suck totally, but it won't get the honour place on my shelf, for sure.
I'll be back with something better (so I hope)!
) 
