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Eduard 1/48 Lysander Mk.III In Ilmavoimat Service

By Steve Ringlein

History of the Lysander Mk.III

During the 1930s the British Air Ministry looked to Westland to create an aircraft with STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) capabilities and low speed handling. The aircraft they received was the internally designated P.8, a high wing design with leading edge slats, slotted flaps and adjustable tail plane for low-speed pitch and trim. Power came from an air-cooled 800 horsepower engine that could climb at over 1400 feet per minute and could carry 1800 pounds for over 600 miles.

The Kit

The Eduard kit breaks down to a simple model. This kit started out life from another company called Gavia, but with Eduard's model you get a nice resin engine and photoetch which is a nice touch.

As usual with most aircraft this kit starts out with the cockpit. The kit parts are not too bad but with the PE set that comes with the kit this will really make your model stand out. The one thing I really do like is that seat is photo etch with perforated holes, I can only imagine that this was not the most comfortable for the pilot. Along with the rest of the cockpit you get the internal structure for the aircraft. To finish out the cockpit the radio gear and instrument panel is finished in color PE.

If you're following the instructions they call on building the Engine. In the model the engine is laid out in about 13 parts. They break down with the crankcase and nine cylinders, with the ignition and exhaust stack. The cowling looks really nice which is in 4 pieces. Eduard also provides photoetch for the cowling, what I believe to be for the intake.

After the engine you will start on building the airframe. In the model the main pieces for the plane are molded to represent fabric. There is the ribbing to represent this but there is no engraving for the fabric but in this

scale it would really be hard to see. I believe when painting your model if you bleach your paint a little bit in this area you might get the results that you will want. After assembling the airframe Eduard has you instal the engine cowling and clear pieces. If you take a few minutes and run all the clear parts through some Future floor wax, this will make the parts stick out . The one really nice thing in this kit Eduard does is they provide a mask for the greenhouse. It will make things a lot easier and a time saver.

The next step in the instructions is adding the wings; these are attached to some of the substructure of the cockpit with the wing struts that go to the landing gear. In the model Eduard gives you an option if you want to have your plane with wheels or snow skids. I haven't seen too many models that had this before but then again I mostly build navy aircraft.

The next step in the build would be adding some of the small pieces for antennas and wing hinges that are represented in photoetch. After this would be installing the decals, which are the normal standard that you would find in any Eduard kit; they are clean, they look really thin, and I am sure they will go on very well.

Thank you to Eduard for providing this review kit.