Israeli Westland Lysander, Suez Crisis ***FINISHED***

TheChronicOne · December 29, 2019, 03:41:41 PM

OK... I am not good at backstories, but I try.

SO.... the story on this one is that the Israelis captured a slighty damaged Lysander from the Egyptians in the "War of Independence" in the late 40s. It sat for a few years sort of as a war trophy but the bored mechanics at the (mumble mumble) aerodrome in (mumblemumble) decided to seek out new parts and fabricate others to get a flying aircraft again. Eventually it was fixed up and used for training and liason and eventually used as a forward observation aircraft in the Suez Crisis of 1956.

I plan to attempt to incorporate a little bit of the Egyptian paint scheme somehow, as if this where painted a bit in haste for the Suez kerfluffle or perhaps they were under constraints concerning paint or something but the top and sides will be the two color brown and blue stuff with bumble bee stripes and 6 pointed stars. I'd like, instead of the grey the IAF used, to keep the bottom and undersides whatever color the Egyptians had.

This kit came with very warped wings and props and missing 1/4 of the tailplanes. I've used a spare prop that went to a Spitfire (upon comparison, they are virtually identical!). Rick has donated some spare wings. And I took spare tail planes from an XP-55 kit where they are unusued. I'll have to cut them down some, but they'll work great!

The kit is pretty neat... comes with some lil Jew-Dudes. I especially like the guy with the briefcase!

In fact, I've already started on this... I just waited to get everything sorted out before I made a separate thread for it. I now have all I need aside from a name....

Most of the cockpit stuff is glued in and a few parts have been primed already for paint. I'm preparing to start painting the figures, interior, and get the canopy and frame work dipped in future so I can paint them as well. The gear have been primed. Lots of other little odds and ends cleaned up of sprue gate remnants, etc. I'm off to a good start, in other words.

I even have some decals to use. They came from an AT-6 of same era so they will work as a direct swap.

So I guess that's it for now. More to come soon! I want to get my figures and canopies painted before I proceed with the rest of construction. Gotta get that pesky stuff out of the way to get on with the fun.

Rick Lowe · December 29, 2019, 03:52:45 PM

(insert Popcorn Emoticon here.)

TheChronicOne · January 01, 2020, 12:40:54 PM

Alright!! Getting more things together on this. I think I now have the paint job sorted. Since this was captured from Egypt, I need the latest Egyptian scheme. Paging Dr. Clave:

So.... when it came time for the Suez thing, let's just say the IAF left all the sky blue lowers and simply painted over the brown sections to turn them blue which puts it in step with other IAF paint schemes of the time.

So, if I'm going to do this, I need to find a few more pictures of the Egyptian Lysanders so I can get the camo pattern right.

With that in mind, I found this.... a series of photos of a 1/48 Egyptian Lysander model! Bingo!

https://imgur.com/gallery/vidvp

Anyway... I'm working on it a little bit today, too. I found a replacement piece of rod and have repaired the broken ladder. Speaking of stuff like that... I'm thinking about posing this thing as if they were just about to leave. I want the cockpit canopies open and the feller in back had his gun out and covering the feller with the briefcase as he goes up the stairs. This will be different for me because I never have my canopies open but I think it will be very cool on this one.

This leads to the next issue. I need to get the figures and interior painted so I can get back to construction so on that note I need to figure out how IAF dudes were dressed in 1956 so I can paint them.

Sheesh... sometimes the research work is more than the psychical work!

loupgarou · January 01, 2020, 02:44:40 PM

I don't think egyptian or other Lysander had that ladder.
It was used only in the Lysanders used between UK and occupied France to move agents and resistance persons, together with informations collected by the resistance. Idem, the fellow with the suitcase represents an agent or some resistance leader.
Traffic was quite heavy, RAF had a special squadron for this.
There is a very interesting book about it:
Verity Hugh We landed by moonlight Crécy 2005

BUT all this has nothing to do with the aircraft you're modelling.

TheChronicOne · January 01, 2020, 03:59:27 PM

OK! Thank you. Well, I'm going for a somewhat plausible build here so I'll delete the ladder. If the Egyptians never had them, neither will we.

On this note, I was wondering about another aspect of this... The little winglets that go on the spats. I was going to use them if they're appropriate but I have no clue if the Egyptians ever had them or not.

So... a little more advice on this matter would be appreciated!

loupgarou · January 02, 2020, 12:16:21 AM

Quote from: TheChronicOne on January 01, 2020, 03:59:27 PM
OK! Thank you. Well, I'm going for a somewhat plausible build here so I'll delete the ladder. If the Egyptians never had them, neither will we.

On this note, I was wondering about another aspect of this... The little winglets that go on the spats. I was going to use them if they're appropriate but I have no clue if the Egyptians ever had them or not. So... a little more advice on this matter would be appreciated!

The winglets were used to hang SMALL bombs from there, in the early days of WW2, as in the original Airfix issue (late fifties).
I didn't know Airfix had retained both winglets and ladder in the "modern" kit, those are alternate, not both, and I think winglets had been removed anyway quite early, as useless.

Rheged · January 02, 2020, 02:25:21 AM

Can I at this point draw attention to Arkell's Landing by Moonlight bottled ale, with a moonlit Lysander on the label. It was brewed as a memorial to one of the Arkell family, who flew Lysanders into occupied France 1941 to 1944. It's a pleasant if undemanding pint.

NARSES2 · January 02, 2020, 06:48:37 AM

Quote from: loupgarou on January 02, 2020, 12:16:21 AM

The winglets were used to hang SMALL bombs from there, in the early days of WW2, as in the original Airfix issue (late fifties).
I didn't know Airfix had retained both winglets and ladder in the "modern" kit, those are alternate, not both, and I think winglets had been removed anyway quite early, as useless.

Yup, 6 small bomblets in the Army Co-operation role. They also had a 0.303" m.g. in each spat.

Martin H · January 02, 2020, 08:30:25 AM

Quote from: TheChronicOne on January 01, 2020, 03:59:27 PM
OK! Thank you. Well, I'm going for a somewhat plausible build here so I'll delete the ladder. If the Egyptians never had them, neither will we.

On this note, I was wondering about another aspect of this... The little winglets that go on the spats. I was going to use them if they're appropriate but I have no clue if the Egyptians ever had them or not. So... a little more advice on this matter would be appreciated!

I had a quick look at a few lysander references I have, and the Egyptian examples were fully fitted out for the winglets. They just didn't use them that often.

ysi_maniac · January 02, 2020, 09:01:36 AM

Quote from: TheChronicOne on December 29, 2019, 03:41:41 PM
... I especially like the guy with the briefcase! ...

Me too!!!

TheChronicOne · January 02, 2020, 01:41:55 PM

Hell, who needs a model; let's just drink this beer!

Wee bits more work. Getting the gear and the FatSpats together. Painting the engine with black sharpie and molotov chrome pens. Figured I'd just get rid of all the pilots and stuff.

I was going to use the winglets to hang cameras from so I might keep those since the Egyptians had 'em. Maybe they were stowed in the back or something when the thing was captured.

Getting the glass cleaned up and dipped in future... I guess I'll do a wee bit more tomorrow.

NARSES2 · January 03, 2020, 06:14:55 AM

That Arkell's Moonlight is a nice drop

TheChronicOne · January 03, 2020, 12:27:49 PM

Maybe you & Rheged can smuggle me some. I doubt we'll ever see any over here!

SO, what would a rudimentary outboard camera set up look like in 1956? I want to make 2, one for each little winglet. I'm imagining just some sort of simple box or clear half dome. I'm going to go through all my little spare parts and see what I can come up with. Perhaps something like this already exists, though.... I know most cameras are usually inside somewhere but if one were to have them mounted externally is if any other thing that would go on a pylon to make a loadout, what would one available to the IAF look like? Perhaps they had to build their own or something? Any ideas or is this just stupid all together?

Once again, I need advice from you all.

PR19_Kit · January 03, 2020, 12:34:49 PM

Someone, Pavla I think, does some resin cameras to go inside PR Spitfires. Quite why you'd want them I'm not sure as there's precious little visible once they're in there, but.......

Needless to say I have some of them somewhere.

Anyway, it could be possible the IAF grafted one or two onto hefty brackets mounted on the spats, eh?

NARSES2 · January 04, 2020, 02:20:34 AM

Depends how rudimentary the fitting was, but at it's simplest it could be a standard camera operated by a cable running from the cockpit to the spat and operated by the observer. Even simpler would be to give the observer the camera.

Look up pictures of WWI photo equipment for just how simple the set up can be. A Lysander could very easily be adapted for that type of gear, indeed I think I've seen photo's of WWII ones equipped just so.