Me,myself, and my world: May 2011

As some of you may know, I am a history buff and also enjoy building scale models, especially the aircraft from World War Two. Recently I began to build the Airifix model kit of the Westland Lysander, an aircraft that many in the U.S. are not familiar with .

The Lysander was a unique aircraft used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during WW2, it started out as a reconnaissance aircraft and a light bomber, It was later used to drop off spies and pick them up from occupied France. What made the Lysander unique though was that it was a short take off and landing aircraft that was also able to hover briefly, then resume full speed flight; this was quite advanced technology for a plane built at the end of the 1930's.

The kit was a re-released by Airifix with the spy figure, a pilot and rear gunner. There is a piece of plastic that is supposed to be an instrument panel, there is no decal for this, except for a paper one, that you have to cut from the instruction sheet, and because of the scale there is no detail. There is no joy stick or floor board assembly.

In the rear gunners compartment there is no floorboard, the barrell on the machine gun is shorter than on the actual plane.

There are winglets that attach to the landing gear spars, on the actual aircraft these could carry bombs, supplies, or a life raft to aid in air sea rescue. There are no hard points on the winglets nor weapons or attachments.

Now if you have a spare parts box, you can add bombs from the old Hasegawa 1/72 A6M-5 zero, this kit had 4 small bombs included that will work perfectly for the Lysander.

The hardest part is the wing mount, since this attaches the upper canopy aft the pilot and before the rear gunners compartment, You will need to let this part of the canopy set a good day before attaching the wings, to be sure that this has set properly.

Also note that you will need to pre paint the canopy frame before attaching to the fuselage or attaching the wing assembly, because of the small size and difficulty in getting to the cockpit frames once the wing is on. It is always easier to prepaint clear parts before assembling to the kit, especially in 1/72nd scale.

If you decide to arm the Lysander with bombs, you have two main theatres of conflict you can choose after the fall of France. *

You can paint the aircraft a sand tan with raw Seana on the upper and side surfaces and the standard cloudless blue under surfaces, for use in North Africa. Or you can paint it the raw Seana and old ivy upper and side surfaces along with cloudless blue lower surfaces for aircraft used in the China, Burma and India theatre This was also the color scheme used by the RAF in France and with some of Lysanders assigned to the air sea rescue wing.

Side bar... Some of the Lysander's in the China Burma and India campaign carried the Old Ivy, Pewter Gray and Cloudless Blue scheme. This was the standard RAF colors for Fall and winter aircraft.

The last alternate is included in the kit, the special operations squadron, which was assigned to getting spies into and out of occupied France. This version the side and under surfaces are 20404 Black and the upper surfaces are Old Ivy Green and 2020 Pewter Gray.

If you decide on the last version leave out the machine gun assembly and rear gunner. Since the plane could only carry two people.

With a little work, this can be an excellent addition to any collection of scale models.

All colors are acrylic and are either Apple Barrel or Folk Art brand.

Here are some photos of the aircraft, including a video presentation of combined RAF footage both pre and during the war.

Instrument panel and forward cockpit detail.

Pre war paint scheme 1938.

Paint scheme France 1940, China Burma India 1941-1944

North Africa Paint Scheme 1941-1943

Special Operations Squadron 1943-1944

Lysander's practicing dive bombing.

Armed to the teeth

Part of the Royal Indian Air Force 1941-4

Also you will see my model under construction.

* The Lysander was used in the battle for France as a light/dive bomber and quickly pulled from front line service, because it was too easy a target for the German fighters. In China, Burma and India it was more successful because it was teamed with fighters like the Hawker Hurricane, and was on one occasion part of a joint strike mission with the Flying Tigers in early 1942.

This is a look at the tools of my trade, no not one I make money with. My hobby is scale model building which can be a trade in itself with the investments you make in time, money, research all dd up.

I have two converted tool boxes that house my tools, from paints,spare parts glue masking tape decals pant brushes mixing palliate empty jars for washing my brushes in. You see the most recent model I am working on here, and my last tool is my computer.

Yes my computer is a tool, I never work on any model without doing background research, and the internet is a great place to find photos, actual footage of the aircraft or vehicle in service and of course historic articles and reviews can be located easily. Yes I still have some books, but more often now I use my computer.

So there are the tools of my trade, or more correctly hobby. Hope you enjoy.