pilot’s head rest, flap and slat
operating wires (clearly visible
through the canopy roof), and a
Morse key, which was fitted inside
the starboard front cockpit sill.
After drilling out the embossed
lightening holes in the rear
cockpit seat and rear bulkhead, I
also drilled out the backs of the
instrument panel gauges and
inserted short lengths of brass
tube and lead wire, all of which is
visible on the completed model.
The spaceframe was painted
with Tamiya XF-71 Cockpit
Green, with a MIG dark wash, and
finished with a light brushing of
Tamiya Gunmetal weathering
powder. The rear cockpit floor
was treated to an Uschi van der
Rosten woodgrain decal and
photo-etch hatch surround.
Strangely, the forward cockpit
floor is not provided, so I scratch-
built one from plastic card, detailed
with copper and lead wires and
some guitar string. The stringer
detail of the cockpit sides is
moulded into the fuselage halves,
and this was painted interior
green, before masking the raised
areas and spraying with pre-
shaded Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan.
This gave a decent impression of
fabric over a framework, although
it was almost all obscured once
the fuselage halves were joined.ARMAMENT
The rear deck supplied with the kit
appears to be more representative
of the type used for the twin 0.303”
Brownings, rather than for the
Lewis gun. The references I found
showed a distinctive carousel
arrangement for the Lewis gun’s
spare ammunition cans. This
is a shame, since the Lewis gun
is supplied as a nicely rendered
resin casting. The Browning gun
option appeared to limit me to
two of the five colour schemes
depicted in the instructions; in
the end I chose to model V9374 of
613 squadron, RAF Ringwood.
As with the cockpit itself,
the twin Brownings and their
mounting seemed rather over-
simplified for 1/48 scale, so I
scratch-built several additional
details. Online references showed
an articulated gun mountingakin to the one supplied for the
Lewis gun: a hand wheel system
to adjust height with a gimbal
mounting on top. With this small
photo-etch assembly completed, I
moved on to the guns themselves.
Perforated photo-etch barrels
are provided in the kit, which I
attempted to form into tubes by
annealing them in a candle flame
before rolling them around a micro
drill shank. It was questionable
whether they looked any better
than the plastic versions in the kit,
so I discarded both, and replacedthem with Master Model items
which, once relieved of their flash
cones, looked infinitely better.
A few Top Studio brass rivets
added some detail to the original
plastic breeches, along with thin
wire for the cocking levers. The
breeches were then carefully cross-
drilled and attached to a connecting
frame fabricated from brass wire
and scrap photo-etch. The kit’s
photo-etch handle/trigger beam
was used, with PVA blobbed onto
the oval handles to form three-
dimensional wooden grips. AnWWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • MAY 2018 • 67
1/48
064-73-FEAT-RAF100-Lysander-0518.indd 67 13/04/2018 14:13