Westland Lysander Mk 1 by AJohnson - Airfix - 1:48 - PLASTIC

[AJohnson]

After enjoying a quick Non-Ship build with the Airfix 1/48 Bolton Paul Defiant, I have decided to have ago at one of Airfix's new releases of another equally "Quirky" aircraft, the Westland Lysander! 

 

Initially designed as an Army "Spotter" or co-operation/liaison aircraft, it actually found fame later as a very successful Special operations aircraft, dropping and retrieving agents and downed airmen from France up until D-Day.

 

This is a brand new mould from Airfix, released this year.  171# parts (a good few optional parts that hint at further releases one day) in 1/48 scale.  The plastic is of the "new" (to Airfix) 'harder' darker grey plastic and loads on clear canopy parts (oh, I am going to love 'fogging' some of those! 😆)

 

Here are a few pictures of the contents; sprue bags removed.  I'm drawn to making the Mk.1 of No.16 Squadron based at Old Sarum, Wiltshire, 1938-39, it had wrap around camouflage, low visibility markings, but then the White/Black under wing markings!? (last picture.)

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 10:03 PM by AJohnson

[realworkingsailor]

Count me in!

 

Have you got an Anson to go with it?

[yvesvidal]

That looks very promising. I like the inside framing and tubing....

 

Yves

[AJohnson]

31 minutes ago, realworkingsailor said:

Count me in!

 

Have you got an Anson to go with it?

Stop it Andy!  The Airfix 1/48 “Annie” is very tempting to go with this “Lizzie”. But I must resist!  🤣

[realworkingsailor]

1 hour ago, AJohnson said:

Stop it Andy!  The Airfix 1/48 “Annie” is very tempting to go with this “Lizzie”. But I must resist!  🤣

Ahem…. Resistance is futile! 😂

 

Now…. About that Beaufort….. 🤔

[king derelict]

Looking forward to seeing you build this one. It looks like a great kit

alan

[realworkingsailor]

Incidentally, John Dell has a great treatise on the origins and purpose of the black and white underwing colour scheme:

 

https://dingeraviation.net/articles/blackandwhite.htm

 

Andy

[DocRob]

I will take a seat here Andrew, I always liked the quirky Lysander a lot and also found the stories around this airframe very interesting. In my youth, I butchered a Matchbox 1/32 Lysander and always wished for a decent large scale release.
You can reduce the risk of fogging up the clear parts with dipping them in Future / Pledge. It also enhances the general transparency of the parts. I have a jar of Pledge for this task, where I dip the clear parts in and let them dry properly, clipped to a small holder, so that the excess Pledge samples on the lowest corner. There I touch the edge with a toothpick, to get rid of the excess Pledge. This has to be done maybe thrice over the first half Hour of drying and then you are fine.

Cheers Rob

[Canute]

I'm in too. My reads of clandestine ops into France mage me curious about this a/c.

[Danstream]

Hi Andrew, this will be a great build to follow. I love the this plane which I surely build sooner or later.  The new Airfix rendition must be great and I believe you will do justice to it.

Best regards,

Dan

[AJohnson]

On 3/7/2025 at 3:08 PM, realworkingsailor said:

Incidentally, John Dell has a great treatise on the origins and purpose of the black and white underwing colour scheme:

 

https://dingeraviation.net/articles/blackandwhite.htm

 

Andy

That is a really interesting link Andy, thanks for posting.  The issue with the "Frise" ailerons was very interesting and the fact a coat of paint could knock them out of balance is fascinating, always wondered why some aircraft still had silver painted control surfaces. 

I've also been looking into the red interior doping of the linen "skin."  On larger bombers like the Wellington there was a specified eight coats of red dope which completely soaked into the linen turning it red, then two coats of silver for UV protection, then the camouflage colours on top of that, with sanding apparently between each coat!  Smaller aircraft were prone to warping of airframes if too much red dope was applied and accordingly they had less coats, but still the two coats of silver protection before the camouflage, so the linen could still look patchy on these.  I have tried to replicate that in my build, pictures to follow, using reference picture of an unrestored Finnish Hurricane as my inspiration.

[AJohnson]

On 3/7/2025 at 3:50 PM, DocRob said:

You can reduce the risk of fogging up the clear parts with dipping them in Future / Pledge. It also enhances the general transparency of the parts. I have a jar of Pledge for this task, where I dip the clear parts in and let them dry properly, clipped to a small holder, so that the excess Pledge samples on the lowest corner. There I touch the edge with a toothpick, to get rid of the excess Pledge. This has to be done maybe thrice over the first half Hour of drying and then you are fine.

Cheers Rob

Thanks Rob, I will need to take care with this "Glasshouse" it will spoil the model I don't get the canopies right, I have bought pre-cut masks and will try out the protection you mentioned, thanks.

[AJohnson]

Thank you all for your interest so far in the build.

 

It has gone together very well so far and I thought a few pictures of progress so far were needed before I forget to take any pictures!  One of the things I wanted to try and replicate was the linen/red dope interior look.  As discussed in post#11 above, on smaller aircraft this could be patchy, I did a base coat in a pale yellow for the linen and then a patch application of dull red for the dope.  My source for this look being an unrestored Hurricane that looks this way.  It looks a bit bright to me, but once mostly hidden by the fuselage framing and then closed up, not much will be seen anyway.

 

The tubular framing was all pre-airbrushed before assembly, as it is quite a complicated structure.  Used a little dry brush and washes to bring out some details, a handful of microscopic decals also applied, but you can hardly see them!

 

Thanks for looking in and the comments and "likes".

Edited Monday at 09:05 PM by AJohnson

[Dave_E]

I’m in! 🥤🍿