Rob1970 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 (edited) A new year . A new project. And you know what? As a first project of this year we do something simple... BWAHAHAHAHA... sure... For a "Flying Abominations"-GB on another forum I proudly present; The Westland P.12 Lysander Delanne (Wendover)! The whowhatsit!? Well, this... Short (Really short) History Almost everybody knows the Westland Lysander . Famous mainly for the risky missions that the Allies undertook during WW2. Because of his special flight characteristics of the Lysander was very suitable for landings on short improvised airfields to pick up and drop off agents and Resistance fighters in the middle of the night. With the expected invasion of England in mind the Ministry of Defence was looking for a way to defend the beaches. Thus was born the idea of Westlands’s chief designer, Arthur Davenport, for a "beach Strafer " . The Lysander as a basis (which was able to maintain a speed of just over 100 km/h in the air), but better armed to wipe clean the beach. Therefore it was decided to install the 4-gun Nash & Thomson rear turret of a Wellington. The design was made even stranger by adding an extra pair of wings. The Westland P.12 Delanne was equipped with the tandem wing akin to the design of airplane designer Maurice Henri Delanne . And contrary to what you might expect at first sight, the flying characteristics of this monstrosity were remarkably good . So much so that the pilot flying the first test-flight in July 1941 ended it with a loop! The Victim For this build the Matchbox 1/32 Lysander serves as a (willing) donor. Recently picked up on a forum for a pittance, without decals and box. Along with the Revell reboxing from the stash I'm going to see if I can do something with it. Matchbox kit. Trust me, everything is there... Revell kit Sprue shot! I'm not entirely sure if I even need parts of the Revell kit, but the decals are in any case already moved to the box of the original Matchbox kit that still lies waiting in the stash... Reference MaterialSo pitifully little... On the Lysander itself there is material enough to find, but on the Wendover (as the British called him eventually ) there is not much. Some black-and-white pictures and a few three-way views of questionable quality, one more useful than the other. But do not worry; with a little common sense, a bit of calculation and tricks with a drawing program , we can work it out ( I think ...). Anything I can't figure out I will guestimate... More sooooon!Rob Edited January 3, 2016 by Rob1970 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mackem01 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Talk about hitting the ground running! Will watch this with much interest; will you finish it in spurious sqaudron markings or haven't you thought that far ahead yet?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob85 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Good Lord! My eyes MY EYES! I have followed your last builds and they have been stunners! I don't think this will be classed as a that, but I think the modelling will be top notch.... And the subject is certainly, umm, different! I look forward to it Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony C Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Well, this will be interesting so I'm in as well! Any thoughts in how you will build the rear fuselage yet? Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1970 Posted January 3, 2016 Author Share Posted January 3, 2016 Well, this will be interesting so I'm in as well! Any thoughts in how you will build the rear fuselage yet? Tony Weeeeell.... I have got some time to think about that, while I keep myself busy building and detailing the engine. On the one hand I am tempted to do a full build with ribbing, spars and skin, and on the other hand I could do a rough wood and plaster master to vacuform the main bits... Time will tell... Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blogs On Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Ohhhhh! This is going to be interesting! I can remember witnessing a heated discussion at a show where a member of the public insisted that the beautifully executed 1/72 model on the table was an abomination and the work of fiction and never existed! Dispite a being shown a photo to the contrary! For a while, I thought there was going to be a fight! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Interesting choice of subject. As a point of interest, I was looking at the Shuttleworth Lysander yesterday, and discovered the tailplane has variable incidence. I wonder if the Wendover had a similar arrangement? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 What a weird and wonderful machine, this should be interesting ! Cheers Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 I just love the New Year; that's at least the third new build I've seen today that promises to be brilliant to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1970 Posted January 6, 2016 Author Share Posted January 6, 2016 (edited) Righto... research, research and then some more research...As I mentioned before; there isn't all that much on the P.12 out there to find. But all the more on the Lysander itself. So that's a good start. I found a load of pictures showing looooooaaads of details. And details are good. And inspiring...Like inspiring you to build at least one side of the landing gear with the covers off, showing the .303 gun......and maybe with the ammo chute uncovered as well...Open cockpit?Open ALL! THE! PANELS!No! Bad Rob! BAD! Go sit in a corner!Although I might just have ordered some resin .303s and a new engine...More soooon!Rob Edited January 6, 2016 by Rob1970 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 There's an Airliners.net photo in there. Please just link to that as A.net get shirty about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darwinism Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 Terrific! I've always had a fascination with this aircraft - will be following with interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1970 Posted January 6, 2016 Author Share Posted January 6, 2016 (edited) ...Although I might just have ordered some resin .303s and a new engine... GAWD*BLEEEEP!* "... Unfortunately, an extensive search revealed that the Vector Mercury engine is no longer in stock ..." Within a minute my money is back in my Paypal account. But no engine to tinker with. Again; GAWD*BLEEEEP!* So we are "forced" to ordered on the big bad Internet. From a store outside the Netherlands... Where the engine including shipping also proves to be a lot cheaper. Unfortunate for the "poor little Dutch independent Hobby Store". *End Sarcasm Mode* Rob Edited January 6, 2016 by Rob1970 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 Totally barking! I'm in! Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 GAWD*BLEEEEP!* "... Unfortunately, an extensive search revealed that the Vector Mercury engine is no longer in stock ..." Within a minute my money is back in my Paypal account. But no engine to tinker with. Again; GAWD*BLEEEEP!* So we are "forced" to ordered on the big bad Internet. From a store outside the Netherlands... Where the engine including shipping also proves to be a lot cheaper. Unfortunate for the "poor little Dutch independent Hobby Store". *End Sarcasm Mode* Rob Do they have a Bristol Perseus? I ask because it looks as if the original was based on a Mk.II Lysander. You can tell by the lack of rocker arm bumps around the cowling. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1970 Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 Do they have a Bristol Perseus? I ask because it looks as if the original was based on a Mk.II Lysander. You can tell by the lack of rocker arm bumps around the cowling. Chris Well, I did look into getting a Persues, but it seems there are none in 1/32 scale. And I was planning of going slightly down the whif-road (you know the one... the gates have a sign above it saying "Abandon thy rivet-counting, ye who enter here."), by using an FN-20 turret from a Wellington or Lancaster, and using the Mercury engine used in the Mk.! and Mk.III. As we speak a 3D printed FN turret (from the HKM Lancaster concept show model no less) is winging it's way to me to be used as a master for some vac-forming and scratchbuilding goodness. Combined with some nice brass barrels that should look ace. The interior of the rear halve of the fuselage is going to be educated guesswork anyway, since the testbed was build by a coachbuilder and will probably have lacked much in the way of working internals a production aircraft would have had. The pictures of the testbed show no way to get into the rear bit (altho the gunner could have gotten in and out of the turret by turning it fully sideways) so a hatch might be in order. The Lysander had a bunch of removable panels on one side of the fuselage for easy access and maintenance, and I might do the same on the Wendover, because it seems like a logical step. But still mostly in the research-phase of the whole build, scouring the web for reference material. Speaking of which... anyone have any pictures (of know of any) that show the way the ammo moved into the turret? I got a few shots, but mostly curious about the way it went from the ammunition runways to the bit that feeds the .303s themselves. Some sort of movable track/linkage? Rob 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1970 Posted January 9, 2016 Author Share Posted January 9, 2016 What madness is this!? Actual pieces removed from the sprues!? MADNESS!!And before anything else, it's time for putty...Styrene-dissolved-in-TET putty. Works great at obliterating the dreaded Matchbox panel-... ...lines?...ditches?...canals?...canyons?Anyway, they are pretty bad, and in some places I need to redo them. Starting with the spats. With the dissolved styrene I get a nice base to scribe new panel lines, or drill holes.A little masking to avoid too much clean-up...Filled... And now we wait... this stuff needs a long time to harden completely (you can speed it up a bit with a hairdryer...) but the wait is worth it.I waited until the next day before I started clean-up and sanding, but as you see it works quite well. And with the filled-in areas the same hardness as the rest, it is very easy to work with when re-scribing and drilling. The footholds will be drilled out with a scratchbuild hinge and a flap to look more like the real thing.Tomorrow, we start with figuring out where to cut the fuselage...More soooon!Rob 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGA Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Whereabouts in the Netherlands are you from Rob? Your project looks incredibly interesting!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1970 Posted January 9, 2016 Author Share Posted January 9, 2016 Whereabouts in the Netherlands are you from Rob? Your project looks incredibly interesting!! I'm from Oosterwijk, close to Leerdam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 I think I would try opening the panels on one side of the fuselage and leaving them closed on the other. That way you can have the best of both worlds, detail on one side and the "clean" lines of the aircraft on the other. Martin PS: I just have one question. I love the idea behind this build, the wackier the better in my book) but whatever did that lovely Matchbox Lysander kit ever do to you to deserve this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1970 Posted January 10, 2016 Author Share Posted January 10, 2016 PS: I just have one question. I love the idea behind this build, the wackier the better in my book) but whatever did that lovely Matchbox Lysander kit ever do to you to deserve this? Uhm... well... it's biggest sin was "failing to sell", to be honest. I have the original Matchbox kit still sitting in my stash (that's gonna get build too, as a "regular" Lysander) and I hat the Revell rebox, which I was going to sell. Had it up on various forums for a measly 10 quid, and nobody bought it. Then I came upon the picture of the Wendover, and decided to sacrifice the Revell rebox to that project. While planning I came across another Matchbox kit, without instructions, decals and box and threw that into the build too. The Revell kit might still survive tho... don't think I will need any of the parts to do the Wendover... Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 What a deliciously mad project. Great choice of subject Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristol boy Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Thought you might be interested in this if you haven't seen it before. It is extracted from the Lysander Aircraft Profile printed in the '60's, plenty of them on ebay (usually). It suggests the rear turret was a mock up for testing purposes and no 'real' turret was ever carried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1970 Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 Thought you might be interested in this if you haven't seen it before. It is extracted from the Lysander Aircraft Profile printed in the '60's, plenty of them on ebay (usually). It suggests the rear turret was a mock up for testing purposes and no 'real' turret was ever carried. Well, I have a picture of the Wendover with what looks like a full turret... Not that it matters all that much, because I plan to go down the whif-road and create a Wendover as it might have looked if it had gone into production. Using an F.N.20 turret for that. Rob 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1970 Posted January 12, 2016 Author Share Posted January 12, 2016 Righto... Those pesky steps are filled and sanded smooooooth. Still not sure how many steps I'm going to do. All choices are open, with pictures of Lysanders showing one, two or no steps. I'll have to see. My whiffery, my brain to decide... Still waiting for my resin .303s to come in from Hannants, and until the arrive I will leave the spats for now. Next is figuring out the dimensions of that new tail...Tinkering with the scale on my printer and some profiles I found I came across a pretty good one...Pretty spot on, actually...I used that one to scale up the P.12 profiles I had to the right size...These should be a good start to help me figure out where to cut the fuselage and how long I need to build my new internal framing. Especially when my rear turret arrives...More sooooon!!Rob 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now