1:48 Westland Lysander MkIIIA

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

Some more progress. In order to establish what to do with the wings, I decided to fit the undercarriage (as the wing struts locate onto the spats). Having stolen mercilessly learned from @dnl42's excellent build I knew that the wheel position is too low (i.e. it's in the 'in-flight' position). Here's what I mean:

 

 

 

In order to rectify this I elected to drill a new location hole in each spat. Here's a before & after:

 

 

And a couple of photos showing the relative wheel positions. Before:

 

 

And after:

 

 

Once I'd done this I painted the wheel hubs in Nato Black, added the kit masks, and then added just a drop of Medium Sea Grey to lighten the tyres. After spraying the tyres:

 

 

And masking removed:

 

 

The instructions would have you add the reflectors for the landing lights after joining the spat halves. Dry fitting proved this to be a complete fiction so I added them prior to joining:

 

 

The spats went together with no further issues, so here they are following fitment:

 

 

Once that's all settled down I can start to make head or tail of the wing position...

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

[bigbadbadge]

Lovely engine work Roger,  looks great   very interesting re the strut mounts on the wings, wonder why they were moved ? A bit strange !

Chris

[Dunny]

1 minute ago, bigbadbadge said:

Lovely engine work Roger,  looks great   very interesting re the strut mounts on the wings, wonder why they were moved ? A bit strange !

Chris

Chris,

 

Thanks for the kind words. Yes it is a bit strange. Lots of dry-fitting required to establish the correct dihedral,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[bigbadbadge]

Just now, Dunny said:

Chris,

 

Thanks for the kind words. Yes it is a bit strange. Lots of dry-fitting required to establish the correct dihedral,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

Good luck with this watching with much interest to see how this goes.  The undercarriage looks great too, great work 

Chris

[Dunny]

Last update for the day! Dry-fitting of the wings revealed that the mating slot is not long enough - I therefore opened it up with a needle file. Here's before:

 

 

In order to better support the wing mount (which looks distinctly fragile), I decided to add the side canopy elements. I masked them up:

 

 

I then separated the front ends, as I was planning to have the cockpit open:

 

 

Dry-fitting revealed a not insubstantial gap at the rear end:

 

 

I think I'll shim that once the canopy is firmly attached. Here they are following gluing with Krystal Kleer,

 

 

 

I'll let that all settle down overnight before looking at the wings!

 

Thanks for looking, 

 

Roger

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

Curiosity got the better of me and I couldn't resist dry-fitting the wings to see how they looked. This was the result:

 

 

I compared this with a schematic:

 

 

To my eye that looks pretty close, so I would suggest Eduard HAVE moved the hole position compared to earlier boxings, given the issues faced by other modellers. On to fitting the wings soon, but this is definitely the last post for today!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

Edited September 28, 2020 by Dunny
added 'Eduard'

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

A short update. Once I had masked the glazing I gave it all a shot of interior green:

 

 

 

I also sprayed the mount for the gunsight - very fiddly!

 

 

Here it is part way through fitting - you can just see that the far edge is not yet sitting down properly:

 

 

And here's a shot after the canopy had been fitted - the gunsight was cut from a length of 1.5mm plastic rod as specified, and the clear lens cut from the film supplied in the kit:

 

 

Now the side glazing had completely dried I could shim the considerable gaps at the rear of the glazing with Evergreen square section:

 

 

Finally here's a shot with the top canopy added. There is obviously a misalignment somewhere because I had to remove approximately 1mm from the front end end allow it to locate properly:

 

 

I think I'll let that all dry off before any further work,

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

[AdrianMF]

Looks great. Those cracks on the Maskol look worrying though!

 

I was just wondering if they wouldn't have removed the gunsight and guns for special ops?

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Dunny]

15 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

Looks great. Those cracks on the Maskol look worrying though!

 

I was just wondering if they wouldn't have removed the gunsight and guns for special ops?

 

Regards,

Adrian

Hi Adrian,

 

Yes - I don't think I let it dry enough!

 

You may well be right about the guns - I know they removed the rear guns. Will look into this further - thanks for the steer!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

 

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Roger, looks great especially the with the glazing added.  Wings dihedral doesn't look too bad maybe you are right there and they moved it following complaints.

I haven't forgotten about looking in the manual,  I have worked late last night and was very tired and went to bed.  I will have a look in a minute as finished at normal time today so might get some modelling done too tonight. 

Chris .

 

[Dunny]

5 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Hi Roger, looks great especially the with the glazing added.  Wings dihedral doesn't look too bad maybe you are right there and they moved it following complaints.

I haven't forgotten about looking in the manual,  I have worked late last night and was very tired and went to bed.  I will have a look in a minute as finished at normal time today so might get some modelling done too tonight. 

Chris .

 

Hi Chris,

 

The fact that there are witness marks where the holes used to be is a strong clue. I know that you and others had suggested moving the holes, so maybe Eduard took heed! Sounds like you are working too hard mate!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[bigbadbadge]

14 minutes ago, Dunny said:

Hi Chris,

 

The fact that there are witness marks where the holes used to be is a strong clue. I know that you and others had suggested moving the holes, so maybe Eduard took heed! Sounds like you are working too hard mate!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

Hi Roger

That is good if they listened and changed it. I have had a busy week so far, I am off for the rest of the week now so some decorating to be done and  some bench time will be had, wahoo. 

Chris

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

Some progress today (it's a public holiday in South Australia - yay!). I spent some time masking ready for primer:

 

 

Next I sprayed the cowling ring and exhaust - I went for a light steel tone which I hand mixed:

 

 

Once I had masked up the cowling ring I then applied a coat of primer to the whole lot:

 

 

As I was going to attempt the hairspray technique for the first time I applied a coat of aluminium paint to the areas to be worn and then a gloss coat over the top. Here it is:

 

Once I'd done that I decanted some of the wife's hairspray and airbrushed a coat. After what seemed a decent drying time I then preshaded:

 

 

I then sprayed a coat of Medium Sea Grey, and highlighted with a lightened version (a drop of white added). Here's the result - looks like primer to me 🤣:

 

 

Here's the Dark Green added - again lightened using Mid-Stone. I decided to apply the DG freehand and wasn't displeased with the result:

 

 

After correcting a few oversprays and spatters I then applied the Nato Black - once again freehand. All was going well until this:

 

 

Have to sort that out. After cleaning out the airbrush and spraying I noticed a nasty crazing of the black paint. I clearly hadn't let the hairspray layer dry long enough:

 

 

You can see on the cowling where I poked the bear and saw what the final effect might be (quite poor as it turns out). I think I'll let that all settle down overnight and see what it looks like in the morning. 

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Roger 

Looking great up to the black, what a shame about the crazing.   I have not tried this either yet but I brush paint enamels so not sure if will work.   Do you use acrylics  ? 

Chris

[Dunny]

6 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Hi Roger 

Looking great up to the black, what a shame about the crazing.   I have not tried this either yet but I brush paint enamels so not sure if will work.   Do you use acrylics  ? 

Chris

Chris,

 

Yes - aqueous acrylics. I've never seen this before so it 'must' be the hairspray. Will try another coat today now it's settled down!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger 

[bigbadbadge]

24 minutes ago, Dunny said:

Chris,

 

Yes - aqueous acrylics. I've never seen this before so it 'must' be the hairspray. Will try another coat today now it's settled down!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger 

Good luck fella, I can't get on with acrylics being a brush painter.   I was put off them when I tried brushing Tamiya acrylics and kept dragging off what I had just painted, so never used them again and stuck with enamels.

 

Chris

[Dunny]

7 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

Good luck fella, I can't get on with acrylics being a brush painter.   I was put off them when I tried brushing Tamiya acrylics and kept dragging off what I had just painted, so never used them again and stuck with enamels.

 

Chris

Funny thing - I love spraying Tamiya, but they are more difficult to paint well with a brush! It'd be boring if we were all the same 😉

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

Some good progress today. Here's where we were at the start of play - not pretty 😬

 

 

I did briefly consider stripping back the affected areas, but then just decided to spray over the top and see what it looked like. The answer was 'not too shabby'. I also took the opportunity to introduce some shade variation to the black.  Here's the result after attacking the new paintwork with a moist toothbrush. I'm not unhappy with the overall effect, and it's not a bad representation (to my eye) of the wear on the actual aircraft. The mark on the port wing is just a damp patch :

 

 

Here's a gloss coat applied:

 

 

Although the finish appears quite grainy it's not too bad in real life. Here's the decals, which were lovely and went down with no trouble:

 

 

After a second gloss coat and Flory wash, I applied a matt coat:

 

 

Given where I started the day I'm calling that a good save! 

 

Although there is slight evidence of crazing on the black paint, it's really not that noticeable if you don't look for it .

 

Here she is following de-masking - @AdrianMF I think I dodged a bullet with the liquid masking! There was a little overspray inside the top canopy, but a gentle wipe with a moist cotton bud saw to it...

 

 

After a bit of procrastination and dryfitting I used CA to fix the wings and top strut fixings. After a decent drying period I then used CA again to attach the struts to the spats. Here's the result - looking like a Lizzie!!

 

 

Quick dihedral check - 

 

 

The cowling is currently attached with blu-tac - you can see its currently slightly misaligned. Finally, I couldn't resist popping on the rear glazing - not far off now!!

 

 

 

That's all for today - thanks for looking!

 

Roger

 

 

 

[AdrianMF]

That’s looking very nice indeed. It’s an interesting and different colour scene and the weathering looks spot on. And the canopy and cockpit detail has come out well too.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Dunny]

2 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

That’s looking very nice indeed. It’s an interesting and different colour scene and the weathering looks spot on. And the canopy and cockpit detail has come out well too.

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian - much appreciated. I ended up leaving the gunsight in situ because I didn't want to create another mess - rivet counters be damned!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[bigbadbadge]

Looking absolutely stunning Roger it certainly does look great in that scheme,  well saved and great job.  

Chris

[Dunny]

11 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

Looking absolutely stunning Roger it certainly does look great in that scheme,  well saved and great job.  

Chris

Thanks Chris - not over yet but the opportunities to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory are diminishing!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

On the home straight today! The next thing to address was the tail wheel. This is the kit part:

 

 

For this version the instructions would have you cut away the section in red as below:

 

 

I wasn't entirely sure how this was even achievable so I elected to cut away the whole top section and replace with plastic rod. Here's the result:

 

 

Job done! Next I fitted the exhaust to the cowling - not looking too bad:

 

 

The prop was quite an endeavour in itself - 3 individual blades with no positive location in the hub, and a separate spinner to boot - all very fiddly, and plenty of drying time allowed!!

 

 

The final stages now - here's the ladder fitted:

 

 

And the underslung fuel tank:

 

 

A few fiddly bits later, and I'm calling her done:

 

 

I'll post more photos in RFI,

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

[bigbadbadge]

Oh mate that's gorgeous,  great work.  Crikey that tail wheel expectation in the kit instructions!!! Good idea to replace the pivot/mount. 

Fantastic model , great scheme and weathering. 

Chris

[Dunny]

3 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

Oh mate that's gorgeous,  great work.  Crikey that tail wheel expectation in the kit instructions!!! Good idea to replace the pivot/mount. 

Fantastic model , great scheme and weathering. 

Chris

Chris,

 

Yes, bit of an odd one that! I'm glad to have it over the line - the final stages were a bit of a trial!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger