Gavia 1/48th Scale Lysander

Reviewed By Scott S. Snow
IPMS # 35905

The actual aircraft's fuselage is comprised of sheet metal up front, and doped fabric from the back of the pilot's compartment to the tail. Gavia's molding technique has captured this look nicely.

The model has no alignment pins so the modeler must carefully butt-join each component. Since the kit molding is very good, aligning parts was not a problem at all. The horizontal stabilizers use tabs for positive alignment but the fit is a little loose. Consequently, the stabilizers must be supported firmly until the glue sets. After my initial examination of the kit, I became concerned that mounting the main wings might prove problematic. The wings are molded as left and right components, and they mount to a tab assembly that must be mated to the delicate internal cockpit framing. I was fearful that the weight of the wing assemblies might prove too much for the framework that was supposed to support the wings. I'll discuss this in more detail later.

I started on the kit by following the steps in the enclosed instructions. This meant that I would begin with the cockpit assembly. Assembling the cockpit consists of joining a series of tubular shaped sub-assemblies. When complete, an internal framework results. The modeler must be careful when joining these parts to ensure that everything is square. The instructions are just a little vague in places, and I had to test fit many of the cockpit parts until I deduced where they should go. I did use photos of the actual cockpit to aid me, but the kit's cockpit is somewhat generic, and therefore the actual photos were of limited help.

After the cockpit framework is assembled, it must be glued into the fuselage. Each corner of the frame has a small pin that is supposed to insert into corresponding holes in the fuselage halves. The pins and holes didn't line up perfectly so I shaved off the pins and just trapped the cockpit framework within the fuselage halves. After some minor adjustment, I got everything to align.

I used very little filler on this kit, and cleaning up the seams was nearly effortless. The only area that needed any putty was the front seam of each wheel spat. Additionally, the landing light inserts that mount inside the front of each spat, were not contoured to match the openings. After a great deal of effort to get them to fit, I gave up and left them open. Later when I attempted to glue the landing light lenses in place, I found that they weren't contoured correctly either.

The engine assembly consists of a gearbox and separate cylinders, and looks great when finished. To ensure that the cylinders line up evenly, I had to use a little extra effort cleaning up the cylinder bases and the gearbox mounting bosses. A separate exhaust manifold mounts to the back of the cylinders and its here where your cylinder alignment gets put to the test. Additionally, I had to sand the top of each cylinder to get the engine to fit inside the cowl.

The engine cowl consists of four individual pieces. There are three cowl panels and a cowl ring. The curved panels are glued to the cowl ring, and you must be extremely careful to ensure that the cowl pieces are referenced properly. The inside of the cowl ring is notched to aid in proper alignment and if you glue the cowl sides to the ring using the notches as a reference, alignment will be correct. Unfortunately the instructions don't mention the notches and they are not depicted in any of the assembly diagrams.

The engine mounts to the fuselage firewall and the completed cowl slips over the engine. The three bladed propeller consists of separate blades and a gearbox. The prop ends fit snugly into the gearbox and the blades are well formed. All the modeler has to do is ensure that the appropriate blade pitch is set. Because the prop shaft is very short and its fit is very tight, the propeller does not spin freely. The prop spinner is unusual on the Lysander, in that it mounts to the front of the propeller gearbox instead of covering it.

The kit's canopies are crystal clear and the forward windscreen fits perfectly to the fuselage. The side canopy panes however don't match the contour of the fuselage-cockpit rails. Additionally, these panes must fit between the fuselage-cockpit rails and the wing spar. I had to scrape a fair amount of plastic away from both the upper and lower edges of the canopy panes to get them to fit properly. If you want model the aircraft with the pilot doors open, you must separate the panels using a knife of razor saw.

As I stated earlier, I was concerned that the framework and wing spar assembly would not support the weight of the wings. This proved to be unfounded but mounting the wings and aligning the wing to gear struts proved very problematic. The underside of each wing has holes that ensure positive placement of the struts. Unfortunately, there are only dimples on the gear legs to indicate where the bottom ends of the wing struts mount. These dimples are not deep enough to accept fully, the mounting pins on the end of the struts and consequently, the strut faces do not fit flush against the leg. To achieve a better fit, I drilled out and enlarged the dimples.

With the struts firmly attached to each wing, I slid the first wing carefully over its respective spar. The first thing I noticed was that I had to swing the wing tip forward to get the strut mount to line up with the leg attachment point. Additionally, with the struts firmly in place, a slight, yet noticeable wing anhedral developed. The actual aircraft definitely exhibited dihedral. The other wing produced the same alignment problem, and unfortunately the only way to correct this is to either lengthen the struts, or move the wing attachment points inboard.

The decals in this kit are exceptional. They are opaque yet very thin. The decals reacted well to Micro-Sol. As an experiment; however, I applied one of the wing roundels without any setting solution. When pressed down carefully with a small sponge, this untreated decal snuggled down just as well as the treated decals. The only caution about these decals is that they set rapidly. You must be certain to get them placed properly as quickly as possible.

Decal options include three aircraft. I chose one of the two camouflaged schemes consisting of midnight black undersides and dark gray and green upper surfaces. The other scheme is an all black aircraft with red fuselage codes.

Overall, I enjoyed building this kit immensely. I did not use any aftermarket details but photo-etched or resin enhancements would help to produce a stunner. My only gripe is the wing anhedral problem. Looking at the kit on my modeling shelf; however, the wing angle really doesn't detract from an otherwise excellent kit. The Gavia Lysander, is not without its minor problems. Consequently, extra effort will be needed if you want to produce a contest subject. In spite of its flaws; however, Gavia's Lysander makes a nice addition to any World War II aircraft collection and I recommend it highly.

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