additional lower bracing plate was
made, along with actuating levers.
The biggest challenge with
the guns was forming a realistic
representation of the ammunition
feed chutes. The kit omits these
completely, and even the more
comprehensive photo-etch
set vastly oversimplifies these
components, which feature very
tricky compound curves. In the
end, I sandwiched some thin
plastic strip between two pairs of
etched plate, and progressively
bent them to shape around a
small drill shank. Much trial and
error resulted in an acceptable
shape, further complicated by the
need for the second one being a
perfect mirror image of the first.
The gun assembly was
completed with the addition
of a photo-etch ring and bead
gunsight, and a scratch-built
GJ3 reflector sight mounted on a
stub of brass wire. I sprayed the
guns with Vallejo Black, then
lightly brushed them with Tamiya
Gunmetal powder. The connecting
frame was finished in Vallejo Air
Aluminium, with a MIG dark wash.
The articulated mounting was
fixed to the rear cockpit deck using
Araldite, and the guns secured
on top with a small blob of PVA.
A lead wire power lead was then
routed from the rear bulkhead to
the guns. Once completed, they
looked to be a fair representation
of my reference photographs.
The ammunition boxes for the
rear guns were assembled from
the additional photo-etch set,and, ignoring the instructions
to place them on the rear cockpit
floor, I secured them to the rear
cockpit deck on either side of
the gun mounting, as per my
reference photos. The photo-etch
ammunition belts looked too flat,
and my usual method of adding
blobs of PVA to add depth didn’t
do much for realism in this case.
Eduard once again came to the
rescue with their recently released
#648341 Brassin resin belts, which
looked fine once trimmed to fit
within the boxes and painted.
To complete the aircraft’s
armament and to represent the
0.303 inch Browning muzzles, I
installed some short stubs of brass
tube into the wheel spat gun ports.
I’m not sure if they were fitted
to V9374, but there is a stencil
decal with a dire warning not to
stand in front of the gun ports.
Whatever the accuracy, they do add
a bit more interest in this area.
A photo-etch cowl-mounted
pilot’s bead sight is provided
with the kit, as is a mount for
the corresponding ring sight
above the instrument panel (Part55). Although I couldn’t find
instructions to fit the instrument
panel mount, I assumed it should
be used. In the event I used the
more delicate looking photo-etch
version. For mounting onto this,
I decided to use one of the three
supplied acetate prints to scratch-
build a reflector sight. I dispensed
with the cowl-mounted bead
sight, which I assumed would be
redundant in this configuration.FUSELAGE
The fuselage halves are nicely
moulded, requiring minimal
cleanup before assembly. Using a
Swann-Morton #10 blade, I scrapedrecesses for the two photo-etch tail
balance weight window surrounds
in the rear fuselage and secured
them with cyanoacrylate. Thin
acetate formed the distinctive
inspection portholes.
Dry-fitting the cockpit assembly
to the fuselage revealed some
sanding was required on the edges
of the front and rear decks (Parts
23 and 33), but otherwise the fit
was pretty good. Minimal filler
was required along the main joint
lines, and after a session of minor
flatting, I re-scribed some of the
shallower panel lines that cross
the underside of the fuselage. I
also added some of the other small
photo-etch panels. One of these68 • MAY 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
064-73-FEAT-RAF100-Lysander-0518.indd 68 13/04/2018 14:13