Matchbox 1/72nd Westland Lysander MkII

[Heather Kay]

Westland Lysander MkII – L6852 KO•H, 2 (AC) Squadron, Abbeville, France, April 1940.

 

 

 

 

 

I live in hopes of a new tool 1/72nd scale Lizzie in the near future. Special Hobby have one listed, apparently, but no idea when it might make an appearance. In the interim, I dug out the old Matchbox/Revell box I had in my stash and decided to see what I could do with the contents. I found a suitable candidate to replicate, another aircraft that was in France during the Phoney War of 1940.

 

I rather wanted to model the open wheel spats. The winter of 1939/40 was very cold, and airfields everywhere became extremely muddy as the thaw set in. The spat covers were taken off in many cases, I understand, to help keep the wheels and suspension clean. My rendition is pretty basic, but stands up to the "two foot rule". I liked the early markings and camouflage pattern for L6852. Roundels, squadron codes and serial numbers came from generic decal sheets. Despite gloss coating the wing undersides, I still got silvering. Ho hum. 

 

I opened the rear fuselage windows and glazed them with Kristal Klear. The bombs on the spats came from the Bits Box, spares from one of my Blenheim builds. Inevitably, I managed to get one wing and one spat cock-eyed. It looks okay from the angles I've photographed it! 

 

It will do until a better kit comes along. 

Edited July 8, 2018 by Heather Kay

[Beard]

I think it looks rather splendid and agree, although the Matchbox one scrubs up well, there's a need for a new-tool Lysander.

[dogsbody]

I think the cock-eyed is just endemic with the Matchbox Lysander. The one I built decades ago had the same problem.

 

 

Chris

[Hairtrigger]

That is supurb....  It has to be said you are exceptionally good at this modelling lark.

[Martin Ford]

That's a cracker. I love your pictures, it's such an iconic aircraft. 

 

May I ask what you use for the grass, it looks great. I'm currently debating whether to get  the Eduard 1/48 version. Your build has made my mind up.

 

All the best,  Martin 

[Stew Dapple]

Nice job Heather she's a little beauty 

 

Special Hobby's Lysander has been on Hannants 'Future Releases' list for at least four years and to be honest I stopped holding my breath some years ago  

 

Hopefully Airfix will sort us out a new kit in the next couple of years, it;s been a long time coming...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Heather Kay]

5 hours ago, Martin Ford said:

May I ask what you use for the grass, it looks great.

Thanks Martin. It’s the sort of grass mat you find in model railway hobby shops. Companies like Heki and Prieser make it. I find it’s usually a bit too fluorescent green, so I’ve experimented by daubing it with some green and brown emulsion to tone it down. I’ve also attacked it with blades of various kinds to make it less even and Wimbledon Centre Court like.

[Heather Kay]

20 hours ago, Beard said:

 there's a need for a new-tool Lysander.

Definitely, especially at 1/72nd.

6 hours ago, Hairtrigger said:

It has to be said you are exceptionally good at this modelling lark.

You’re very kind, thank you. Looking round BM, there are some modellers that reach heights I can only dream of. Let’s say I model to satisfy myself first, if others like what I do, that’s encouraging. 

1 hour ago, Stew Dapple said:

Special Hobby's Lysander has been on Hannants 'Future Releases' list for at least four years and to be honest I stopped holding my breath some years ago  

I guess that goes for their Battle and Albacore as well. I’ll keep them on my watch list, though. You never know!

[Eric Mc]

A fine rendition.

 

I've built a number of LIzzies over the years - namely the ancient 1950s Airfix and the 1970s remould as well as the Matchbox. Like the Harrier, getting all the bits lined up and "square" is a bit of a challenge.

 

I have a Matchbox and a FROG example in the stash.

[adey m]

The Matchbox Lysander is my favourite of all the ones I built and yours is superb. I built a FROG one when I was 14 and cut away the spats to show the wheels but my effort was nowhere near as convincing as yours. As you say the winter of 1939/1940 in France was severe and the fields that the Lysanders flew from became very muddy and the spats clogged up with mud so they removed the wheel covers to allow the mud to escape and to keep them unclogged.

 

We have a Lysander Hotel here in Scarborough. It stands on the site of allotment gardens where a Lysander crashed during the war killing the crew. The aircraft was locally based at York and the pilot decided to fly low over his parents house in North Scarborough but unfortunately flew into the ground.

 

I really like your ground level views.

 

regards, adey

Edited July 9, 2018 by adey m