Unboxing and Review

Transcript*

Skit

Hello all, this is David from Sunward Hobbies, and this is for your eyes only. In today’s video, we are going to be unboxing Airfix’s 1/48 scale Westland Lysander Mk1/3.

Intro

And we are going to do this as covert and unassuming as possible. What’s up, guys? We finally got it only several months after its initial release. But hey, if we had sold it when everyone else did, then that’s what our enemies would have been expecting, wouldn’t it?

So, Airfix’s 1/48 scale Westland Lysander, brand new tooling based off of the Royal Air Force liaison plane from World War II, used mainly to drop off and pick up spies from enemy territory. Uh, this was highly anticipated. So, let’s not waste any more time, as if we haven’t already wasted enough, and take a look inside. So, off the bat, uh, looks like we’ve got, uh, one clear sprue, two, three, four, and five gray plastic sprues. It is uh not that big of a plane, so you shouldn’t have expected too many sprues. Anyway,uh we’ve got our instructions, which we will take a look at near the end.

Clear Sprues

So, first off, let’s take a look at the clear sprue. Uh since the Lysander had a a very open cockpit, uh there’s a lot of clear parts here and most of which are for the canopy. And it looks like depending on which mark you decide to build, there are slightly different variations of the canopy. And uh molding looks pretty good. The framing is raised, so that makes masking a little easier.

Sprue A – Fuselage

Sprue A. We’ve got the fuselage halves. Detail is pretty nice. Uh the Lysander was a fabric covered plane uh for most of it at least. So there aren’t too many rivets. You’ve also got the elevators on this sprue as well as some slats.

Sprue B – Wings

Sprue B is the wings. Lysander had kind of an oddly shaped wing. Uh that makes it distinctive from other aircraft. as well as the ailerons.

Sprue C – Cockpit

Next, we have sprue C, which is mainly interior and cockpit parts, including the tubular frame of the fuselage. Uh, you always got to be careful when snipping these off as they are very fragile. And they’ve already got some parts molded into the frame like the throttle. This would be the bracing struts that connect the fuselage to the wings. Looks like you’ve got uh bulkheads and uh a fuel tank in there as well.

Sprue D – Pilots, Propellers & Bombs

Sprue D has the pilots, which it’s it’s always nice when you get pilots. It doesn’t happen that often. You’ve got the seats. for the front and back instrument panel. Uh pretty nice raised detail on there. Uh this kit also comes with some bombs as uh aside from dropping off spies, it would occasionally drop off bombs as well. Uh you’ve got spare magazines for the machine gun in the rear. Your three bladed propeller and again all looks very nicely molded.

Sprue E – Radio Engine & Cowlings

And at last, sprue E, which has your radial engine cowlings. And uh being an older aircraft of the Second World War, it had fixed landing gear with wheel coverings in an attempt to make it more streamlined. And you’ve got your wheel hubs and the wheels themselves. And that is all the parts that come with the kit. And as always, last thing we look at is the instructions.

Decal Sheet & Marking Options

So on the very first page in a separate booklet, they give you the marking options and the decals are tucked away in here as well. Usual RAF markings. Uh the mark one option I believe gives you only the night variation of the roundels. And a nice little touch, they give you these maps here. Uh, one of Scotland and the other looks like Poland. And as for your marking options, the one on the front is for the Mk III, uh, based in Glasgow, Scotland in 1940. uh the usual early temperate steam of uh dark earth, dark green, and sky green on the bottom.

And this variation does carry bombs. And then your second option for a Mk 1 based in Wiltshire, England. Uh this one had that uh very strange early war scheme where on the bottom one way is black and the other is white and then underneath here is silver and then the brown and green camouflage covers the entire fuse lodge even the belly. Not a big fan of this scheme. So those are your two options. Uh maybe in the future they will make ray boxes of this with the all black nighttime variations, but we’ll see.

Instruction Read-Through

And now the instructions. Looks like it starts in the cockpit with the fuel tank that goes on the floor of the cockpit. Then you attach the uh rear gunner’s seat and you start attaching some details to the tubular frames on each side. Then it all starts coming together. The spare magazines fit in there. the pilot seat. Uh, and you have the option of either putting the pilot in or just putting seat belt decals on. Oh, I’m sorry, that’s not a decal. That’s molded in.

A seat goes in the cockpit. And then you just add some more uh interior structure. Uh, fuselage halves. Looks like just the front portion is in the usual RAF cockpit green and the rear. Uh I think that’s silver. Uh I I’m not that privy to the Humbrol paints and they don’t include references in their instructions. So feel free to let me know what color that is exactly. So the fuselage halves go together then the elevators the uh rudder. This is all about uh assembling the wheel uh coverings and then attaching the wheels into said coverings.

Uh, this is a pretty detailed description of how to paint the pilot. Again, all in Humbrol. And the same thing for the rear gunner. And you can even position him as if he is firing the rear gun. Uh this next part is all about those many pieces needed to assemble the canopy. So they show you how exactly the Mk 1 canopy goes together as well as the Mk III. Again, very subtle differences.

And then you’re attaching some more clear parts like the windows in the rear. uh this little light on the belly and then the wing halves go together and you attach the ailerons and the slats then the uh support struts. So it is recommending that you put it on the wing not on the fuselage first then the wings go on. Now you have engine construction and the uh pieces of the cowling go on one by one.

I believe if you wanted to display this with the engine open, you could. Then the engine goes onto the fuselage. And depending on your preference, you can add the bombs. Uh they’re only the really light bombs, like I’d say they’re no more than 250, maybe 500 lb. And the last step here is just attaching some of the last few details. Last thing to mention here is you have the option of one machine gun or a twin machine gun. And again, I believe that depends on which mark you are building.

David’s Conclusion

In conclusion, a decent offering from Airfix. Uh good interior detail, nice molding. And despite having somewhat bland marking options, like I mentioned earlier, they’re very likely going to rebox this kit and include more marking options in that. or you can just get some aftermarket deck rolls and make a different steam. In short, this kit was worth the unnecessarily long wait. So, if you hadn’t already ordered this, feel free to pick one up for yourself at Sunward Hobbies in store or online.

Thank you very much for watching this video. Remember to like, comment, subscribe, follow us on our socials, and until the next one, adios.

About the Author:

David Peckam has built scale models since he was 12, specializing largely on military aircraft. He is a makeup artist and background actor for films and TV. He enjoys watching hockey and of course, movies. He has an excellent knowledge of hobby products and if you have questions concerning scale model airplanes.

*Video by David Peckham
Video Edited by Daniela Castellano
Transcript generated by youtube
Edited by Angelo Castellano