The Little World

On January 23rd, 1940. Not sure what time of day.

The image that served as pattern for this model was taken at the Rockcliffe station near Ottawa on a snowy day. The tarmac is all white, though I note no skis were fitted to the Lysanders lined up for RCAF trainee pilots.

Interestingly, while there are buzz numbers, frame codes and small old-pattern roundels, no tail flash is painted on any of the aircraft. At this time a lot of RCAF had very large tri-colour panels on the rudder.

Note the finish is aluminium dope and natural metal – not trainer yellow.

As a model, this one was both difficult and easy to build – everything went together well, but so much was both complex and highly visible that the thought of the end result was making me nervous. Because of the large greenhouse, a lot of the final assembly was done with PVA rather than stiffer adhesives. There was enough surface area distributed between wing root and strut to hold it together, but I am not going to shake it like a maracca.

For the enthusiasts, there is a wonderful YouTube video if a Canadian pilot taking a restored Lysander up and around for an instrument check – he goes through the complex starting procedures and the operation of the automatic wing slats and flaps – they seem to make it harder to fly than one would imagine. Apparently it is a beast to wrestle down to the ground – it always wants to take off again.