OTDAEABT Contest - Maly Modelarz Westland Lysander Mk II

[cjwalas]

I got a fever! And the only cure is more cowbell! No wait! I mean more Maly Modelarz! After struggling through the MM Raiden kit;
OTDAEABT Contest - Maly Modelarz Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden 3/96 (incase you were fortunate enough to miss it!)
I decided that I had been unfairly fortunate in the fact that my assigned MM kit was less pain-ridden than many of my fellow contestants. My guilt was insurmountable as I witnessed others' pain. I decided, in my heart, that I had not suffered enough. And after a very fair and sage ruling from the Source of Internal Contest Knowlege (SICK) , I decided to struggle onward beside my compatriots or die a martyr to the cause.
After filtering through my available options, I selected a number of possibilities, all MM models from the 93-98 period. I entrusted my 14 year-old daughter, Dana The Great, with the final selection. She is wise for her age. While I had hoped for the simplest option, the MM Me163 Comet, and feared the most complex, the MM Arado 196, she sagely chose the MM Westland Lysander of 12/97.

A good choice, at the outset at least, definitely a more complex model than the Raiden. The printing leaves something to be desired, but it's workable. The paper "seems" a bit better than the Raiden, but I could be wrong. And it's an aircraft I've always had a soft spot for. One of the unsung heroes of the British effort, IMHO.
I haven't done an overwing plane before, so this should be enlightening.
Chris

[Darwin]

Oooooooo......wheel pants! Such gluttons for punishment. Is anyone else having flashbacks to the Sorcer's Apprentice? Oldtroll, are you sure you're gonna be able to shut this thing off when the deadline cometh?

[OldTroll]

It does seem to be developing a momentum of its own. The next thing we know this forum will be overrun with build threads - we must take action now!

[boosed]

Hooray! A Lizzie Lysander!

The wings and spats look like they will be a challenge, Chris, but I look forward to seeing this one take shape.

Don

[shrike]

Oh pooh. I had ordered this kit late last year, but it got lost in the mail (true!) Part of the love/hate spats thing I guess.

Be very very thankful she didn't choose the Arado. The fuselage and wings are OK, but the float structure is at least 5mm longer than the skins. Not pretty

[Leif Ohlsson]

For the Lysander, a transparent canopy is obligatory! (There is a cockpit interior.) This one is in 1/25 and an early attempt at rescaling and motorization. I remember it took a lot of watercolour paint to cover up my glueing mistakes.

The challenge is to design a realistic - and working - interior structure for supporting the wings. It is very visible and prominent viewed through the glazing. I ended up with welding rods, since they were of the right dimension in 1/25 and pliable enough. Main spars were made of welding rods, too. Worked fine, although it was a pain to hit the holes in the ribs once the wings were covered. In 1/33 you'll probably do fine with wooden grill skewers or similar roundwood for spars, and thick wire for the interior structure.

The problem is that you will first have to build the cockpit interior, then make the glazing with holes for the spars, then glue in the spars, then shove on the wings. If you decide on this procedure, I recommed a card structure in the wings to guide the spars into their right position.

I would very much like to build a detailed and well designed model of the Lysander in 1/16. In that case I would prefer the version used for getting agents in and out of occupied France (see photo & painting). I read the memoirs by the man running this scheme; quite fascinating reading.

There are good drawings of the Lysander if you want to go all the way. The agent-carrying version is the one at bottom right. It also had an enlarged interior fuel tank, in addition to the exterior one below the aircraft. Agents had to squeeze themselves in at the gunner/observer position. It was reportedly quite uncomfortable.

What is really interesting, and challenging for a modeller, are the automatic slats, and the extreme position of the horizontal stab at slow speed setting of the trim wheel. It is really quite unbelievable. For the pilot, the challenge was NOT to apply full throttle if he had to go around after a missed approach; not until he had got the stabilizer back into a reasonable flight position, that is.

For good measure, I'll attach a close-up of the cockpit instrumentation.

Last, but absolutely not least, a link to a gallery report by a guy who really made the most of this model; it is motorized, in 1/33 original scale, and exquisitely well built (see sample photo attached; more in the link): http://www.kartonbau.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=10452

Now, there!

- L.

[OldTroll]

LOL - Chris, you have your work cut out for you! And don't try to use the photos from the kartonbau.de build thread - we are watching you!

[cjwalas]

WOW! Thanks, Leif! A treasure trove of info! And that Kartonbau build is fantastic and beautiful. I know my effort won't even approach that quality. After posting this thread, I had a good hard look at the kit. What have I got myself into!? The kit itself looks fine, but I think I need to learn Polish quickly. There are a number of parts in the kit that do not appear in the drawings anywhere and what I assume are to be some of the reinforced formers are mixed in (randomly, it seems) with the skins. I'll sort it all out, but I'm going to take my time with this one. Especially the wing/canopy structure!
There's no engine parts in the kit, but I think I'd like to suggest something there, so maybe I'll try to fake something somehow.
I'm not a historian at all. Does anyone recognize the markings on this one?
Chris
I wanted to show my sympathy for those with harder kits, but I'm not sure I'm this sympathetic!!!

[dansls1]

Originally Posted by cjwalas

I'm not a historian at all. Does anyone recognize the markings on this one?

From CharlieC, I have this link which shows it is from Squadron 309 (Polish). Not really surprising to see a Polish link, seems to be an overriding theme in card models .
Doing a quick Yahoooo search leads to The History of the 309 Polish Squadron. I scanned the site and didn't see any specifics about this particular plane, although there is a picture of it flying on the site.
Edit - also found this picture gallery showing pictures of the unit and planes.

[cjwalas]

Great links, Dan. Thanks! Interesting to see the double Browning machine guns mounted on one. I hope I don't mess this one up too much!
Chris