Anyone else built this kit?
I discovered it reduced to £6.99 at Modelzone (one of the few modelling "chain stores" in the UK) and thought I'd give it a try since I've recently become interested in large-scale ship/boat models. Though not as complex or interesting in appearance as a WW2 boat (IMHO) it's still not a bad model. The scale (1/131) is very odd, presumably it was made to fit the box!
I have added a number of small extra details such as a proper anchor chain, a glass dome on the turret, a reticle for the
Bofors AA gun, and doors/hinges for the deck storage boxes, as well as wire railings. However I'd be interested to hear if there are any other things that I could add. I really should have replaced the barrel for the turret gun (76mm) as it is a bit short and thin, compared to the depiction on the box art. However it's a bit too late for this now as the turret is assembled and painted.
I'm currently in the process of painting the model, and am following the colour scheme given in the kit instructions, as it seems to match up reasonably well with the single colour photo I've managed to find of the Defiance (basically Tamiya Sky Grey with German Grey for the deck)
I've done a lot of searching on Google and Yahoo but 99% of the links I got were to commercial sites selling
the kit!
However I found this site - http://www.gunboatriders.com - which has a lot of very interesting historical information
about all the ships/boats in this class. There are very few decent photos though.