Ozfly

It was a long time coming and a couple of smaller projects later, but I have completed my scratch built Bolton Paul Defiant fom the Dave Anderson Plan.
The final weigh in is 15 lb and I flies very nicely. I powered the model with a pumped Thunder Tiger 120 Pro. The Defiant flies comfortably on half throttle and pulls up under power nicely.

Evil_Merlin

My Feedback: (13)

What an ugly plane!

Glad to see you did it justice. I like the unusual stuff!

CastorTroy2150

My Feedback: (10)

Ha ha it is kind of ugly, I believe the idea behind it was to pull under bombers and destroy them with a burst from the turrent. Nice build she looks nice.

Evil_Merlin

My Feedback: (13)

Below or beside... but yep...

Ram-bro

My Feedback: (101)

they fooled the Germans initially thinking they were Spitfires, but that ended quik enuff....Nice build. Love the unusal and ugly....its like I am describing Evel Merlin himself....lol

alanc

always wondered with this warbird why we didnt fit forward firing guns as well, even a couple would have been ok, and de-tered the frontal attacks, may have been weight, we have one captive in out national museum over here, at hendon

nce model, by the way, ugly it is, but oh so differant than the usual

Ozfly

I did obtain information from Hendon. I emailed the museum seeking turret details and they were very forthcoming with reference material and extracts from the operators handbooks. I cannot thank them enough.
As for their role... they were successful in their first outings, however the turret was heavy and limited their speed and manoeuvrability making them a sitting duck the more agile 109s. Weight may have been a further consideration when the decision not to fit forward firing guns was made. They were later reassigned as a night fighter. They were recoloured black and would fly beneath enemy bombers, firing upwards.
And as for ugly... that's harsh. But I guess they have that "only a mother could love" look about them.
Cheers and thanks for the feedback.

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

nice model mate and a very unusual one at that. Makes a pleasant change from the usual run of warbirds we see. From what I ahve read theey gave quite a few 109 drivers a need for achange a underwaer and in fact then get a few successors until the jerries worked out what was what with them.

Are you in the SCAF group? If not you should get into it.

cheers
Peter

roydefiant

Very nicely done. It is my defiant on the cover of RCM in the mid 90's done in night fighter scheme. The plane took 3rd place in military scale at Toledo. The plane is a great flyer and I still have the plane although have not flown it for some time. I have blown the plans up to 1/5 scale and had custom gear made for it which is very scale. Have not started construction yet but will be doing with a gas motor. dave andersen is my wingman and I will let him know of your posting. If you have any specific info on the guns that would be helpful, specifically I am looking for barrel length outside of the turret and barrel diameter . Thanks Roy Maynard

LFC

Came across your interesting thread while searching internet for Bouton Paul Defiant plans. My late father experienced his first flight in one of these, and survived to tell the tale. He was a 14 year old member of Inverness Air Training Corps and in 1942 this involved helping the RAF in its war effort by doing chores around the aerodrome rather than simply being a recreational activity. As a reward one day one of the pilots offered to take him up in a Defiant and he jumped at the chance. There were none of todays health and safety regulations, nor any radio communication between cockpit and turret in his aircraft, so before take off he was given a parachute and told that if anything went wrong the pilot would turn the aircraft upside down and he was to pull a lever which would open the turret roof, then unfasten his seat harness and "drop out". How a 14 year old would then accomplish a low altitude, rip cord activated parachute descent over mountainous terrain or water was thankfully not tested on that occasion. Taxiing to take off they passed the charred remains of another Defiant which had crashed the previous week, killing it's crew. The next 30 minutes were some of the most memorable, thrilling, coldest and deafening of his life, as the turret, devoid of of it's weaponry, faced forward and a 300mph draught roared in through the empty gun slots. He never forgot what a fantastic experience it was. On landing the plane was followed by a racing firetruck and ambulance, which he thought was routine, and the pilot complemented him on being "a lucky lad to fly with". A tyre had burst on landing and they had come close to cartwheeling into the hereafter. Todays children just don't seem to get these experiences anymore...

Ozfly

LFC
The Anderson Plan is still available, but don't ask me where at this time. As I recall, I did much the same as yourself... searched the net for the plan. My inspiration, however, was not as interesting as your own. I simply wanted to be able to attend my club events with something other than the usual ... spitty, mustang etc, etc,etc. The Defiant was an interesting subject and the only way to have one at the time was to build it one's self. I have made some mods from the plan on mine such as the cockpit and turret detail and the access hatch to the working gear ... switches, charge plugs etc. I took a wedge off the bottom of the gear doors as I fly from a grass strip and feared in the event of a nose over on landing, the first part of the aircraft to contact the ground after the wheels would be th pointy edge of the gear doors. Such occurrence would turn the aircraft into an instant hand launched craft and I am neither that strong or fast. I am now seeking plans for my next project - a Polikarpov I16. Again around the 72" mark to allow the wing to fit into my ute.
Good luck with your build and feel free to get in touch if you think that I may assis in any way.
Cheers
Darren
[email protected]

LFC

Thanks Ozfly, thats a beautiful & inspiring model. I have ordered the Dave Anderson plans today, but with two 18 month sons to keep amused when my wife is otherwise occupied it is unlikely that building will commence in the near future. How did you obtain or make the turret /canopy glazing?

Ozfly

I constructed the turret base and frame as per the plans. When it came to the turret glazing I used Over head projector film. Each segment is individually glazed and fastened with canopy glue. I then used cut strips of lithoplate, that I perforated with a pin to provide a riveted effect, glued over the joins/supports. The sliding canopy is built on plastic rails. I obtained the canopy frame by laminating 4 x 1/64" ply over the fuse formers and then joining them with ply runers. The internal frame is balsa. The glazing is a single piece of ohp film and is affixed with doublesided tape. The single piece of material is light and provides the rigidity for the balsa frame. The front frame is also scratch built and used single pieces of celo fastened with canopy glue.

LFC

Thanks for this- the pictures are a great help too.

Superman2

Finally got round to building my Defiant from the Dave Anderson plans with a laser cut kit from Canada. its about 90% built. Dannis Richardson sent me some photos several years ago and some seem to be of your plane. he said someone in Oz was building one. I've lost contact with him now, which is a bit of a shame as he provided the inspiration to start the build.

Hope you still have it and its not been crashed.

regards

MrRover75

Hi all, greetings from Norway

Happy to find this thread, its a great insipiration on the road! I started building the Defiant this summer after downloading the Anderson plans from this site: https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=6347 . Planning to put a Saito FA125 in its nose. The project moves on slowly, but tries to do something now and then. Fuselage core are built, ready for balsa sheeting. A bit unsure on how large balsa sheets to use for this. A bit of me want to go strip-planking, but not sure if its neccesary. The wing ribs are cut out, so not long before I am starting to put together this one.

Superman2

Hi Mr Rover75
Glad to see someone else is building the defiant. Mine is now partially clad using 25gram fibreglass cloth. It's been a huge learning curve as this is the first time I've used glass cloth. We in new Zealand have difficulty in getting easily some of the components and materials described in the plans and documents for the original build. For instance, getting soft or hard balsa is difficult so for some of the tighter curved surfaces on the fuselage I had to soak balsa and pin it in place to dry before gluing. also the only retracts I could get were 90 degree and making that fit and work on the wing has meant the retracts lean inwards by around 5 degree rather than being upright as they should be.
Also had to make an exhaust manifold and muffler to fit the JBA 120 motor I had.
I'll put some photo up shortly of my progress.
cheers

MrRover75

Hi "Superman2"
Looking forward to your pictures! I appreciate all information shared from the building progress
It was actually my 14 year son that decided that we should build a Defiant when starting on a new project. He is a lot more interested in air planes than me I had never heard of this one, but has always had the urge of doing things different than the mainstream I have build, flown and crashed a huge number of rc planes from kits and plans many years back. Most of them built the conventional way with boxed fuselage, ribbed wings and covered with Monokote. I am now back into the hobby after 14 years and decided to take it a step up. First, I ordered a set of plans and canopy for a 72" defiant from Sarik hobbies https://www.sarikhobbies.com/product...fiant-mk-1-72/ . It seems to be a nice model but there was a few details not up to scale such as flat fuselage sides and not tapered wing center section. After finding the Anderson plans, I decided to build this one instead. It was a more "proper" design both scale wize and construction wize.
This is the first model I am building which has a fully curved fuselage and need to be covered with cloth/glass type of covering and painted. This is new to me, so no need to say its a learning curve here too. Here in Norway, I have basically good access to much of the know hardware from both Europe and the US but experience that a lot of pieces is harder to get now than in the mid -90`s. I guess the death of kit and scratch builders has to be blamed for this For the retracts, I have been in contact with Spring air products https://springairproducts.bigcartel.com which can supply my with a full kit from the US. They recommend a 102hd size for my model. Have not ordered yet, but will probably do when getting a few steps more ahead in the process.
I will try to post pictures here as I move forward

Superman2

Hi mrrover75
Good to hear from you. When I start my project (now 4 years ago) I hadn't built a model for nearly 40 years. Always had the defiant in mind. After moving from England to new Zealand and losing the set of original plans I had it wasn't until I found the Anderson plan while doing a google search one night the the project took form. The build to date while long was only really progressed after retirement from my work. The last model I had built before was control line scale and radio control has been a learning curve too. The defiant progressed rapidly last year through our Covid lock down.
I was originally conversing with Dennis Richardson in this site who had build a defiant from the same plans. he gave me several photo's of his build (his build was done as his father flew defiant' s in the second world war. One comment that might be useful was the he thought the retract oled's were too long on the Anderson plans to make the aircraft "Look right" so he shortened them down to 51/2" . I think he was right , the plane seems to sit "more scale" with the slightly shorter legs.
I didn't take a lot of photo's through the build (I know I should have) but the ones from Dennis are good and I'll post them here in the next few days for you.
cheers
Clark

MrRover75

Hi Clark,

I guess the speed of my project might match yours pretty well. I think it will take a few years I appreciate your info and photos. Will come handy when I reach the different "decision gates" during the build

Rgds
Einar

Superman2

Hi Einar
I have tried to add some photo's here but they don't appear in the thread.

I get a message about a URL not working till I have more that 10 posts, not sure what this means but I will check with the administrator and try again.
cheers
Clark

MrRover75

Clark,

You need to post at least 10 posts to this forum before you are allowed to post pictures. A bit inconvenient but find a thread and post some random posts. Your post count is 4, so you just need 6 more

Just add a few posts to this thread: Need to post 9 posts..

roydefiant

This is mine

MrRover75

Impressed

Superman2

Hi Roydefiant
Yes I had heard of one in the states in night fighter colours but never seen a photo of it.
Great looking model.

Do you still have it and do you still fly it???

cheers

Clark