Lysander IIIA SD, 161 Squadron

[Lawzer]

coming along very nicely! 👍

[Hewy]

Looks good dn, I'd have opted for a return to the kit rudder too,(  no doubt testament to your accurate cutting with the razor saw) sometimes the after market stuff doesn't improve enough on the kit parts, 

[dnl42]

@Lawzer, thanks!

@Hewy, thanks! The AM is indeed not always the best choice. This isn't the first bit of the CMK set I've decided to forego. The other rejected CMK parts were the outboard slats. While they were OK, I much preferred the look of my bespoke inboard slats, so I replaced the outboard slats as well. The Eduard PE has also suffered some rejections, so I'm not playing favorites! 

Edited August 28, 2019 by dnl42

[dnl42]

Work continues with the Bristol Mercury engine. I have three sets of bits. Here are the Gavia/Eduard IP and resin bits. If you look carefully at the plastic cylinders in the upper-left, you can see poor alignment between the cylinder fin area and the bottom ring that attaches to the locating stubs on the crankcase. 

 

On the right are the bits CMK included in their Lysander detail set--I'm not going to use them. On the left is a Bristol Mercury kit from Vector. That Vector engine is quite nice, but it needs exhaust stubs (blanking plates are modeled) and the cylinder tops won't fit within the overly thick cowling.

I first wanted to get the Eduard/Gavia engine assembled. The exhausts are split between the exhaust collector ring and the engine cylinders, which would have made alignment and assembly sketchy. After some thought, I came up with the idea of a cardboard jig. By carefully pressing the exhaust collector ring into the cardboard, I was able to accurately mark to location of the exhausts on the cardboard. I then drilled holes so the ring could be mounted onto the cardboard jig. I also cut a central hole for the crankcase.

 

Finally, I used my calipers to ensure each cylinder was the same length. With all this, I was able to mount the cylinders and crankcase on the jig

 

To aid marrying the resin cylinders to the plastic crankcase, I glued 10 mil plastic discs to the bottom of each cylinder using CA. This allowed me to use Tamiya Thin to glue the cylinders to the crankcase. Et voilà! I have an engine with exhaust stubs correctly aligned to the exhaust collector ring!

 

Next up is to try that Vector engine.

Edited September 5, 2019 by dnl42

[Lawzer]

any more progress on this superb build?

[dnl42]

@Lawzer, indeed there is progress! I opted to forego the Vector part for this model and continue with the Gavia/Eduard engine.

 

Here's the exhaust ring, exhaust pipe, and partially completed the cowling. The exhaust ring is just sitting atop the cowling at this point. The exhaust pipe is from the CMK set. It was most consistent with the photos, with its down-turned tip. As to be expected, there are no locators on any of these parts, so care was needed to get the proper alignment of the exhaust ring to the cowling and then the pipe to the ring. Once the exhaust pipe was attached to the exhaust ring, filling and filing were needed to fair the front of the exhaust pipe to the ring. Also shown in the photo is Edward's bottom-of-cowling air inlet only. Sadly, my subject, JR-P used a different inlet shape, so that is now removed. To Eduard's credit, many period photos and extant Lysanders do show the air inlet they provided in PE form.

 

Eduard claimed the exhaust ring was to be painted with Mr Color MC219, metallic brass. That's not right! I used Alclad Paile Burnt Metal as a base color--it does have a brassy sheen--and then toned it down with Alclad Exhaust Manifold. It doesn't show well in the photos, but I'm happy with the uneveness of the cowl ring coloring.

 

I drilled out the Ediard resin air inlets a little more and trimmed the rear to correctly align them. I finally added various details using plastic rod and sheet, lead wire, and brass rod.

 

The kit provided 5 parts for the prop, the front hub, rear hub, and blades. A template from some light cardboard ensured blade alignment.

 

Remaining construction includes finishing the cowling, building the landing gear, and the external fuel tank mounts.

[Hewy]

Looks a great front end in the making

[Robert Stuart]

As Glynn says, a very good front end.  That bronze is especially fine.

[dnl42]

@Hewy and @Robert Stuart, thanks! I'm quite happy with the color. I had used Alclad Exhaust Manifold for a model of the PZL P.11c, which mounted the same engine, but it seemed quite dark. Judging by various photos, particularly a contemporaneous photo of my specific subject, I think I got the right shade.

 

I finished the spats. The first thing I noticed when looking at photos, and especially the Wylam plans, was the Gavia/Eduard kit positioned the wheel in the in-flight position, not with the strut compressed. Here are the relevant details from the Wylam plan. Elsewhere, the plan indicates the strut compression is 5 in.

 

Both the Gavia plastic wheels and Eduard resin wheels use the same mounting method, a stub axle attached to the wheel fitting into a hole in the outer spat half. A 0.0325in stud was epoxied in place above the kit position.

 

A vee slot in the top of the wheel allows the wheel to be painted off-model and attached during final assembly. The original position is on the left while the modified position is on the right. I used Gavia's plastic wheel to test the mounting.

 

The fit of the spats halves was very crude. Careful filing got them more or less aligned. The landing light reflectors were the next problem. Eduard oddly suggested the light reflectors were to be installed from the outside. Odd, because that is entirely inconsistent with the part shapes. I ended up chiseling the spat interior to get a reasonable placement from the inside. I also used Evergreen 0.035in plastic rod to fill in the muzzle hole from the spat-mounted MG, Quite a lot of filling and filing finished the spats off. I'm happy with the revised wheel position..

Edit: those dimples at the top of the spats are for the struts. Good thing I didn't fill them in...

Edited September 16, 2019 by dnl42

[dnl42]

I've built a new cowl scoop, well, three new cowl scoops. From left to right are the Gavia scoop along with the three scoops I built. The first one I built was a solid stack of Evergreen strip stock in the approximate profile of the scoop. I then shaped the outside and routed the cavity using a router bit in a Dremel tool. I wasn't really happy with the routing exercise, so I built another scoop using 0.01 in sheet for the top and bottom of the cavity with a "U" shape to form the cavity sides and back. I shaped the outside as before and use a round chisel to shape the cavity sides. While I was happy with this new method, I lost my head and made it the same size as the Gavia part, which is actually under-size per the Wylam drawings. The final version was built the same way, but sized per the drawing.

 

And here's that right-most scoop mounted on the cowling.

 

And the cowling and engine

 

On to the external fuel tank mounts! 

Edited September 19, 2019 by dnl42

[dnl42]

The tank is done! The kit provides butt-joined plastic struts. I made up metal struts from Albion 1.0 mm tubing and 0.5 mm rod. The tubing formed the main struts while the rod formed pins let into holes I drilled into the tank and fuselage and the sway braces. I was able to drill holes into the side of the forward tubing for the sway braces.

 

I'll be better able to attach this during final assembly. Contemporaneous photos show the nose is glossy while the rest is matt/satin.

 

Next task is to attach and fair the landing gear struts to the fuselage.

[Lawzer]

Now that’s craftsmanship! 👍

[dnl42]

Thanks @Lawzer, but I'm a journeyman.

 

With some careful clean-up and dry fitting, the landing gear legs joined reasonably well. I created a jig to ensure the spats were properly aligned and spaced. I then blocked the fuselage and landing gear while the glue set.

I see the wing mounting tabs are a little askew, I'll have to pay attention to that when I mount the wings.

 

A little Tamiya putty filled in the small gaps.

 

Next up are the flaps and slats. Per the Haynes book, the slats are actuated via a slightly curved I-beam section, which is indeed visible in some images.

[dnl42]

Figured out the flaps. Looks like the Lysander has slotted flaps since the flap hinge point is below the wings. This extract of a photo of the Hendon aircraft shows this fairly well.

 

To show the flaps deployed, I drilled holes into the flap leading edge and wing trailing edge and will use 0.5mm brass rod to set the gap and angle. I positioned the pins at the hinge locations per the Wylam plan.

 

This looks about right. I should use the 6 mil Al sheet to form the hinges, but I may also use 0.01in plastic sheet.

[Hewy]

Great work, its coming along really well

[dnl42]

@Hewy, thanks!

[dnl42]

Here are the slats. The arms are equal length, which is consistent with the torsion-tube actuators. Unfortunately, the tapered slat causes the leading-edge to slat distance to look tapered, which it isn't. 

 

At this point, I believe I'm ready to prime. I might yet make the 29th!

[Robert Stuart]

On 24/09/2019 at 08:35, dnl42 said:

At this point, I believe I'm ready to prime. I might yet make the 29th!

I'm relieved, this is a beautiful build, and I hope it does make it into the gallery.

[Lawzer]

23 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

I'm relieved, this is a beautiful build, and I hope it does make it into the gallery.

I’ll second that! 👍

[dnl42]

Well, @Robert Stuart and @Lawzer, looks like I didn't make it. Here's she is Friday night, primed and ready for color!

 

And here she is now at Sun Sep 29 19:41:55 PDT 2019. I used Mr Color Cowling Color C125. for "Night" per suggestions here on BM. It's apparently a mix of black and blue; the key is it's a wee bit different than the flat black in the recognition stripes.

 

 

Painted, but still discombobulated.  There's one bit of overspray to fix. I also need to get the cockpit glazings masked and painted. Then final assembly, decals, and flat coat. I do need to gloss-coat the nose of the external fuel tank before I attach it. I hope to finish this week. I'll then post in RFI.

 

This was a fabulous GB. My sincere thanks to the moderators and everybody else who stopped by! 

 

Edited September 30, 2019 by dnl42

[Hewy]

2 hours ago, dnl42 said:

Painted, but still discombobulated.

And still looks great,

[Robert Stuart]

I agree with Hewy, your Lysander is a great build.

While I'm sorry it din't make the gallery here, it would have been a pity to rush her through after all the work you put in - hope to see it in RFI soon.

 

 

[Lawzer]

That is looking rather tasty!  Look forward to seeing it finished! 👍

[dnl42]

Finished all the touch-ups and final painting.

 

Time to face a problem. See the taper between the upper and lower wing surfaces? When I first noticed this, I feared I had butchered the surgery. But, the upper and lower wing surface detail look quite intact and even.

 

Turns out it really is the molds themselves. Further proof. We'll see if this matters when I marry wings to fuselage...

 

Back to that taper. When the upper wing gap is even.

 

The bottom is not.

 

At top is the Eduard PE hinge that I cut apart so I could use it for the lowered flaps. It's oriented as it would appear on the wing's bottom surface. Below is my "mangled" hinge.

 

The mangling was to make sure the hinge spanned the excessive gap. I temporarily glued this using ZAP Canopy Glue, which remains flexible and can be safely peeled off. This property makes it easy to try stuff out.

." 

I need to sleep on this. Regardless, this may be a case of "don't turn it over." 

Edited October 3, 2019 by dnl42

[Hewy]

You do  set a high bar for yourself ,close up of the camo looks impressive ,blue or white  tack worms for that soft edge?