Jay Barnes’ Defiant

From 1997

I found the Defiant fun to assemble, if not a bit irritating at times. Everything went together well, except the warp engine nacelles, which did not meet up well with the main hull. The kit was glued together and the nacelles required heavy filling and sanding. The rest of the kit only required minor filling and sanding. I hate to think of someone actually putting this one together using the “snap fit” as the kit was intended.

Some additions I made to my Defiant were some added detail in the nacelle intake area, vent strips on the warp nacelles made from sheet styrene, and “tripod” grating on the impulse engines. This grating was not seen on the Deep Space Nine miniature, but was clearly visible as Worf attacked the Borg cube in “First Contact”. I made the grates from some left over Millenium Falcon parts. I made a tiny spotlight from sprue and a plate to cover the bridge area on top of the hull out of some metallic gold thin plastic. This simulates the look of the same panel on the boxtop picture of the Defiant.

Overall color: White, Dark Gull Gray mixture
Hull Paneling: Neutral Gray, Dark Gull Gray and Navy Agressor Gray
Warp Coils: White, Ultramarine Blue mixture
Bussard Collectors: Flat Red, Flat White and Flourescent Orange mixture

My Defiant is not illuminated, but I painted all the windows, warp nacelles, etc. to appear lighted. Some weathering was done using pencil lead brushed on with a small brush then smeared with a tissue. This technique works great for weathering, and I intend to use the same technique on my TOS 22″ Enterprise. The model was painted masking off the various panels and then sprayed with glossy clear acrylic. The decals were applied then the model was oversprayed with Dullcote.

I really like this kit and its size. It’s a blast to build and paint, and with a few modifications like lowering the deflector module (which I didn’t do on mine) and adding more weathering and maybe some battle damage this could be an awsome model.

–Jay Barnes