Westland Lysander Mk. III

by Larry Cherniak

Gavia's (Eduard's) 1/48 scale Lysander is available online from Squadron.com

According to a posting on the Finnish Air Force discussion board (there's a board for everything!), the Finnish government ordered 17 Westland Lysanders from England in August of 1940. In the event, 12 arrived, a combination of Lysander Mk. I and early Mk. III's. They were given codes LY-114 through LY-125 and used for reconnaissance, photography, leaflet dropping, and nuisance bombing.

They served initially in their delivery colors of Dark Earth/Dark Green over aluminum but were later camouflaged in the Finnish standard black/olive green (FS34096)/ DN blue (this was "Dornier blue", or RLM 65, after Dornier bombers sold to Finland) with yellow east front ID bands. In the period of the "Mid Peace" they served with LeLv 12,14,16, and 30. During the "Continuation War" they were used mainly by LeLv16/second flight based in Rautavaara, east Finland. Skis of local design were often retrofitted.

My model represents an early Lysander Mk. III of LeLv16.

It was built from the recent Gavia 1/48th size kit using kit decals but with my own code number.

This particular one did later have skis but I chose to depict it with wheels, but with the wheel covers removed as was often seen in Lysanders serving in muddy conditions.

Part brand photoetched sets were used for the details and the canopy (The bombracks alone use around 40 pieces of brass!). The gunsight, landing lights, and wheel wells were scratchbuilt or highly modified, with some PE additions. I also Vac-U-Formed the lights and the top parts of the canopy.

This mark was supposed to have a single Vickers/Lewis machine gun but got the twin Brownings and inaccurate rear deck of the kit- call it a retrofit. I moved a couple of triangles of glass from the rear sliding part to the center part. Modelmaster enamels were used throughout.

I was generally pleased with the kit and am happy with the way this one came out but am also very glad it is over!

If you'd like to see the full story of the build, please visit the review section at Rollmodels.com.

 

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Text, Images and Model Copyright © 2001 by Larry Cherniak
Page Created 05 September, 2002
Last Updated 04 June, 2007

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