Scratch built Westland Lysander Mk 1 1:30 Scale

[fozzy]

Hi everyone - thanks for all your positive comments. I suppose I picked the 1/30 scale because I recently built a Sopwith Camel in this scale and liked the results and also the Lysander is such a fat chunky aeroplane - that having it just that bit larger - shows up its chunkiness - any bigger and it would not have fitted in my workshop display cabinet!!! I have got my son coming to visit me tomorrow in sunny Bulgaria so I will probably be banned from my workshop for the next week! Will continue with this project asap.

Cheers

Fozzy

[Ole]

any bigger and it would not have fitted in my workshop display cabinet!!!

 

Errrrm.... 1/32 would actually have been a bit smaller.

[fozzy]

Errrrm.... 1/32 would actually have been a bit smaller.

 

Hi Ole

Just to confirm that I'm not going mad.............1:30 scale is as large as my cabinet will take for a Lysander,and I wanted it big!!...so I chose the biggest I could do...1:30!...but your right ...............1:32 would have been smaller!!!!...

[RobF]

Hi Martin

 

Is it finished yet ?

[fozzy]

Hi Martin

 

Is it finished yet ?

Hi Rob!!

Afraid not old chap!More blessed family hear from the UK but as soon as they have taken off ...then its back to the drawing board!!

What are you up to in your mancave?

Fozzy

[fozzy]

For those of you who are still interested!!!!.............

Hi guys

I was going to continue to scratch build the cockpit interior but I thought I would first have a go at the awkward undercarriage. I have been putting it off because looking at the real aircraft the shape of the wheel spats are going to be difficult to shape!!.I decided the easiest way to shape the wheel spats was to use Balsa wood and the leg fairings have to be strong to take the weight of the model so I used hard wood.

This first photo shows all the materials used to scratch build the undercarriage.............Plastic card,Balsa wood,hard wood,plastic cocktail stick,sticky back chrome silver paper and a piece of food packaging clear plastic!!

[fozzy]

So this is how I put it all together........................

 

1. With the use of the plan I first cut a block of Balsa wood and shaped with sand paper the wheel spats as usual constantly checking the shape of each spat with the plan.A bit of patience is required here as the shape is awkward!!

 

2.I measured the length of each undercarriage leg and by laminating pieces of hard wood together to just over the thickness required, I then

started to sand the shape of the leg fairings.

 

3.Now the leg fairings had to have a notch cut out of the top and bottom so that it could be glued into a slot on the fuselage and wheel spats at a later stage.

see photo 2.......

[fozzy]

4. The fairings were then glued to the wheel spats with wood glue by placing the leg fairing notch into a prepared slot on the spats

(Try saying that when you have had one too many .........Any gaps at the join were then dealt with using filler and sanded down when dry.The whole assembly was then given the treatment of PVC glue diluted with water and Johnsons Klear.

See photo's

[fozzy]

 

 

[fozzy]

5. Panel lines were then dealt with. I found that gluing the panels into position rather than scribing them was easier because marking balsa wood is difficult and it looks untidy. The panels were made of thin plastic card.

 

6. To make the landing lights located at the front of the spats I first drilled a hole of the required size, sanded the hole smooth and then painted inside the hole matt black. A piece of sticky-back chrome silver paper was then placed at the back of the hole. The head of a plastic cocktail stick was then cut off and glued onto the chrome paper. With the black background the chrome paper shines through the clear plastic of the cocktail stick making it look like a real lamp. The last job is to simply cut out a circular lens glass out of the clear packaging and glue it over the hole with a rim of plastic card on the outer edge.....

And that's the landing lights done! See photo.

[fozzy]

7. The next photo shows the materials used to make the wheels and tyres.

The wheels and tyres were made like so.... The wheel hub was cut out of balsa wood with a plastic card cut to shape showing the hub detail and glued in place. The tyre was replicated out of electrical cable. Note that in the photos I have only done the part of the wheel that will show out of the spats. See photos.

[fozzy]

8. Finally a hole had to be cut out of the bottom of each spat, deep enough to take the wheels. See photos.

 

[fozzy]

The undercarriage probably took me about three days to complete and here are some photos of the undercarriage in a dry run fit to the fuselage.

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Amazing work Fozzy! You have an ingenious approach to problem-solving.

 

Kev

[fozzy]