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Revell Lysander


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Howdy Folks,

 

I'll give this GB a thrash with a Lysander. R9125 as per the aircraft at Hendon in the BoB hall. I was going to make it OOB but the little bit of research I have done shows that aircraft on the ground often have the flaps down, which thanks to Edgar's good advice in another Lysander build thread, means the inner slats are also lowered. I also took from Edgar's comment that the outer slats are airflow operated so they will have to come off too! Other than that I'll do very little else just so I can finish a model!

 

Apologies about the out-of-focus image, its blurred like my head is, that latter through a really decent dose of the flu! I've already started assembly and will post some more images in the morning after a decent night's sleep and there is better light to take them in the morning.

 

Regards Brent

post-4396-1282895074.jpg

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Right, after a rotten night's sleep I was up at 0650 (It is Saturday here!) and got into it.

 

The wings are together, not sure if I will actually do anything with the flaps and slats now as there is a fair bit of structural work to do and this is supposed to be a simple intro build but I suspect the slats will annoy me if I don't do something with them. Actually Kev, I'm not sure this was such a 'nice' choice for this GB (for me anyway) as the kit really is not much more than a blank canvas as something to start from. There is a lot of work to do to bring the kit up to even a reasonable standard so I'll be doing a little more than I had wished for but then that's all part of the game I guess. Also Kev, after burying my head into the kit, I now understand your comment about being interested in "how various modellers tackle the whole wing/canopy interface thing" - but I have a plan.

 

Martyn's Jun 2007 build: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.ph...=15658&st=0

 

And Dan's Mar 08 build: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.ph...amp;hl=lysander

 

have provided much inspiration and assistance with ideas and solutions.

 

The interesting thing with this kit is the almost total lack of engineering thought that has gone into it from an almost total lack of design to allow any interlocking of key parts to assist with assembly, the lack of definition to most detail parts, the lack of concave and convex shapes of the ailerons, elevators and rudder, and even down to the layout and numbering of the parts on the sprues - I guess it was just a toy really.

 

The attached images illustrates the start of my assembly of the cockpit internal framing. The temporary jigging isn't just to build the frame square, it's to just get it together. While the frame was drying I started assembly of a number of other bits such as the cockpit fuel tank, horizontal stabilizers, ailerons, rudder and undercarriage leg struts (some of these can be seen around the frame in the second image = and again please excuse the image quality, for some reason when loading directly onto my Mac notebook it's minimising the image when saving it - I'll sort this tomorrow.

 

I'll get some more images together tomorrow showing what I've done, I ran out of light today.

 

Rgds Brent

post-4396-1282991304.jpg

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Hi Brent

 

Cool choice for your build!!!

 

I guess one tends more, to think of the fighters/bombers eg Spits/Hurri/109's-Stukas etc for the

actual Battle, but nothing really gets mentioned about the guys who made it possible for

many a downed RAF pilot (I guess rescuing Luftwaffe crew counts too) to be rescued and

rejoin the fight.

 

Think of Scene from movie Battle of Britain where Sqn Ldr Skipper asks Sgt Pilot Andy

Where the Bl**dy H** have you been? -reply getting a belly full of English Channel.

 

All we need now is a 1/32 Walrus to complete the rescue team and that would be cool.

 

Look forward to more of your build

 

Regards

 

Alan

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Good Evening,

 

Thanks for the comments Alan, funny thing about the Walrus, I was mulling over a coffee about 1400 today thinking about a scratch built project on the Walrus, they would be a nice pair - but there are lots and lots of kits to build first... Also good point about what the aircraft actually did, particularly during the BoB. From what I've read to date the Lysanders were primarily used for patrolling the coastline all armed and bombed up looking out for the invading Germans. The Air Sea Rescue Squadrons didn't formally start until late 1940 according to something I have read over the last couple of days. It would be an interesting model to build with dingy packs on the bomb racks and smokes/dye markers hanging on a seperate rack under the rear fuselage just forward of the tail wheel. More reading and reasearch to do here yet and I'm not keen on buying any reference books for this build if I can help it (while I've found some useful info on the Web so far, there certainly isn't that much when compared fo many other aircraft types).

 

So, if I'm to have a BoB Lysander and can't make it a Air, Sea Rescue version then the only other option is to have it in the observation role with winglets and bombs attached. This will require bomb racks to be made and the twin Lewis guns to be mounted which looking at the few images I've found is belt fed so these will be interesting challenges to model in themselves.

 

One other aspect of the Lysander one doesn't read about is the horrific losses the type suffered in France during the early part of the war (I think from memory the numbers are 33 of about 170 Lysanders sent to France at the start of the War returned to after Dunkirke with the loss of about 117 aircrew. The loss rate was apparently almost as bad as that of the Fairy Battle, but there was life after France was occupied for the little Lysander where as the Battle just faded away.

 

Spent a good part of the day on this, mostly researching, measuring and working things out, but the knife, plastic, glue and file/sandpaper all got a working over too.

 

The attached image shows the basic inner fuselage framing assembled, noting the top cross piece (being the main wing spar) is only taped on at this time to lock things place as it will be the one of the last things I glue to ensure the wings have an very slight and even dihedrial. It's taken a wee while to figure out why the wing mount frames that the spar cross brace is sitting on doesn't look quite right on the model. I want to include some of the major bracing missing from the kit that sits above the fuel tank, just behind the pilot, below the wing spars and visilble through that glasshouse glazing, but have been struggling to work out how it all fitted in until I realised the angle of the actual bracing depicted by Matchbox is that of the inner bracing (can tell by the angle its on - but the bracing is the wrong way round at the rear). While it would be possible to correct this as I haven't that much time I'll just work around it (it will be hard to tell once it's all together).

 

Some more pics to follow, Rgds Brent

post-4396-1283079957.jpg

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Here's a view of some of the work I've done today, I've cut out upper deck framing for the pilot's and Observer's cockpits, and there is added bracing around the fuel tank and also across the rear frame behind it.

post-4396-1283080806.jpg

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This is the front of the inner fuselage framing showing the combing around the pilots position, and just visible is the bottom of the forward bulkhead I've made (might have to replace the cross framing it's a little heavy). I'm not using the kit's pilot or Oberserver seats as they are wrong, so I'm remounting the control column and rudder pedal mount hence the two bars across the middle of the pilot's cockpit area - more to come on this. The pilot's seat is going to be a real challenge as it's made of tubular framing - but hey, it's just all in a day's work - yeah right!

post-4396-1283081484.jpg

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Last pic for the night, I said those dam slats would annoy me, so off they came this morning, just need to figure out how to fill the large hole and how to make the slat tracks. As much as I wanted a quick build, I'm actually enjoying this...

 

Until next time...

post-4396-1283081852.jpg

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Thanks Keith, only going to get more pylony... The Spit is looking great too

 

I relented today and went to our local technical bookshop but alas Tim only had the pilot's notes which I bought of course as there is always interesting information in them plus some good images of the front end office - the Warpaint book is another three weeks away yet. What I can't find is an image/picture/diagram of the rear compartment looking aft, ie into the area where the gun would be stowed and the radio sits on the floor. Can anyone direct me to where I might something that can help?

 

Would appreciate any suggestion,

 

Nothing to report tonight, just did some measuring to some bits and pieces and work out exactly where they will go.

 

Thanks Brent

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Hi Dan,

 

Thanks for the plans andencouragement. As I initially indicated I thought this was a bit if a dog of a kit but it does actually provides a really good blank canvas of the aircraft from which to work with. Have worked up a couple of ways of doing the seat, one with brass rod the other with plastic rod, I'll on this tonight start these tonight.

 

Rgds Brent

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A little bit of progress over the last two nights, no pics this time as I'm waiting to head to work, but I've modified the rudder pedals and pilot's footrest crossbar, redone the braces for the front bulkhead manufactured the cable ducts that run along the side of the fuselage, worked out how to modify one of the two spare Matchbox 'control' panels to match the rear right gunner's panel, thinned and profiled the slats, and made the gunner's rear ledge where the guns stow.

 

Better get on here, until tonight keep building out there,

 

Regards Brent

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Hi there Brent

 

great work thus far. I can see that the Tornado Gr1 & F 4E Phantom in 1/32 scale that I sold you via Trade me are in very capable hands!

 

Looking forward to the progress on the Lysander.

 

Cheers

 

Richard. :beer:

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