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

[Scotaidh]

Well done you, Mr. Chronic, of finishing that turkey of a kit.  I've had problems with parts fit with older, as in "from my childhood days" Airfix kits.  Kudos to you for sticking it out and getting it done!

Y'know, I always thought that aircraft was longer - at least as long as its wings, but your photos show differently. 

I once asked my dad about the Lysander - he said they'd had a couple on 'his' carrier (HMS Implacable) for liaison, and that with the right amount of headwind they could take-off vertically. 

[kitnut617]

Well done Brad, love it 

Makes me want to dig out the old Airfix kit I have --- 

[PR19_Kit]

When my Dad was on 4 Sqdn. just before WWII they had Lysanders, and they went over to France with the BEF and effectively ceased to exist.

Luckily for me, Dad was posted to the PRDU before the rest left and stayed in the UK for a while. He thought the Lysander was a HUGE aeroplane after the Audaxes they had previously.

[Leading Observer]

Yeah buddy. You pretty much left your kit in a solar oven.     

Similarly but on a more "focused" scale;  lots of people might not realize that the neat glass/crystal ornament they placed in the window could burn their house down and I've even seen those water retaining globe things people put in their gardens scorch lawns. Water bottles full of water can light things on fire.... one time I had one sitting on the counter and I was sitting there doing something and the damn thing was burning my arm just like a magnifying glass in the sun. VERY HOT. People don't recognize it because the danger may only exist for a few minutes every day when the sun is aligned with it. Kind of like those buildings with the shiney facades that melt plastic portions of automobiles parked below. Certain time of day = certain type of death ray. 

Mum had a corked green glass bottle filled with water on a windowsill that exploded one summer afternoon - it did a proper job, shards of glass and water everywhere.

[Rheged]

This is a well-constructed item!!    Anyone fancy progressing from this to a DeLanne Lysander  ?  https://travelforaircraft.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/delanne-write/

On the Solar Oven subject, didn't one of the new buildings in London focus the sun's rays and melting bits of parked cars?   Found it!!  Read the Solar Glare paragraph!!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street

[Captain Canada]

Oh man that looks so right ! Just love the colour scheme, fits her so well. Thanks for the great and entertaining trials and tribulations of the average Joe modeler thread as well !

Cheers !

[TheChronicOne]

Well done you, Mr. Chronic, of finishing that turkey of a kit.  I've had problems with parts fit with older, as in "from my childhood days" Airfix kits.  Kudos to you for sticking it out and getting it done!

Y'know, I always thought that aircraft was longer - at least as long as its wings, but your photos show differently. 

I once asked my dad about the Lysander - he said they'd had a couple on 'his' carrier (HMS Implacable) for liaison, and that with the right amount of headwind they could take-off vertically. 

Thanks and wow that's neat!!! I say some of the coolest planes are the ones with the lowest stall speeds. I'd love to go for a flight over my city about 50 MPH.  Some of the fun of flying is looking at the ground and it's hard to do that when you're blazing past and having to keep your face in the instruments.

[TheChronicOne]

Yeah buddy. You pretty much left your kit in a solar oven.     

Similarly but on a more "focused" scale;  lots of people might not realize that the neat glass/crystal ornament they placed in the window could burn their house down and I've even seen those water retaining globe things people put in their gardens scorch lawns. Water bottles full of water can light things on fire.... one time I had one sitting on the counter and I was sitting there doing something and the damn thing was burning my arm just like a magnifying glass in the sun. VERY HOT. People don't recognize it because the danger may only exist for a few minutes every day when the sun is aligned with it. Kind of like those buildings with the shiney facades that melt plastic portions of automobiles parked below. Certain time of day = certain type of death ray. 

Mum had a corked green glass bottle filled with water on a windowsill that exploded one summer afternoon - it did a proper job, shards of glass and water everywhere.

See there!! I shudder to think the possible repercussions had she been around. That would be right at face/eye level if were something like a kitchen or warsh room window.

[TheChronicOne]

This is a well-constructed item!!    Anyone fancy progressing from this to a DeLanne Lysander  ?  https://travelforaircraft.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/delanne-write/

On the Solar Oven subject, didn't one of the new buildings in London focus the sun's rays and melting bits of parked cars?   Found it!!  Read the Solar Glare paragraph!!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street

Cheers!!  I'd love to build one of them weird little things and put USN colors on it circa 1943.      

Yeah there you go!!! DeathRayScapers torching things below.    Nutty stuff.  The Greeks weaponized it (SO THEY Say.... .. . . .. ..     )

[TheChronicOne]

Thank you, everyone!!   

Future Isreali builds:

Gotta make a Mustang.....have to . 

I also want to make what's his name's black Spitfire. Eichman?? Something... been awhile since I read up on it. Probably confusing the name for someone else in one of the documentaries I've seen on the forming of their air force.

Maybe I could also make some type of nutty stuff some day for the what if side like an IAF B-52 or some other wildly implausible idea.

[PR19_Kit]

That'll have been Ezer Weizmann, at one time Commander of the IAF, and then President of Israel.

But he took inspiration from an RAF station Commander during the immediate post war period who flew a black Spitfire at his station in the Canal Zone.

I was there at the time, but I didn't see it.

I was only three though. 

[TheChronicOne]

Cheers!!  But..... I bet them things were HOT.    Ground crews cursing like mad. "How can I service it, I can't even touch it!" 

[Rick Lowe]

All came out very well, Brad - and as you say, satisfying when you can turn a potential piece of junk into something you're very happy with.

I like the way you used the flat part of the canopy between the wings to paint the spars onto - I hadn't thought of that, but it's easier than scratching the spar itself.


The Lysander Delanne vacform conversion is available from AirModel... just saying...

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/airmodel-am-218-westland-tandem-wing-lysander--208407



On the subject of Solar Death Rays:
There was an instance here where a plastic water bottle focused the sun and burned a hole in a Jeep's rear seat - thankfully didn't set it afire.
Coke (makers of the product) wouldn't reimburse for damage, as 'the product functioned as designed' - holding water, that is.
Funnily enough, a very short time after, they redesigned said bottle so there was a design moulded into the offending part, so the sun would be diffracted sufficiently to avoid a repeat...

I've also heard about something hanging in a window - crystal, cut glass diamond, something like that - that focused the sun and burned a curving line into a varnished wooden sewing machine table...
again, thankfully not causing a fire.

[TheChronicOne]

Rick!!!!   Hahahah!! Yeah, it turned out great. I love it!  Those spars... I was just going to throw it all together but I was like.... "no way, man.... if someone looks in there, I want them to see it!  I even painted both sides of the clear plastic to give it dimension. This was a challenge....  it was testing my skillset when it came time to do the whole wings to fuselage bit.... I mean... how often do you glue wings onto clear canopy pieces? I know I've never done it before and not a whole hell of a lot of aircraft are designed that way... it was so weird... I knew I glued the canopy stuff on with Elmer's school glue so I was trying not to bust any of it loose while the spars were being attaches and glued on then about that point it became really difficult to fit my fingers and tools into the areas while also trying to keep the wing from falling off, etc.....   I needed a third arm and hand at that point..... so awkward but I eventually was able to use things of paint to help hold them up and voila.... here we are! 

DEATHRAYS.  Bingo!!!  Everyone should take a stroll around their domicile and take note of the cutesy trinkets on the window sills and remove any suspect pieces. I honestly wonder if any consideration has ever been given to things like this in all the decades of fire investigations. A lot cases they don't really find any true cause of a fire (or they basically guess at it; there's been studies on this) but I bet they might not have ever imagined that what burned the place down was the glass dream catcher ornament in the window igniting the couch.

[TheChronicOne]

Final pictures: