When using a mesh's subnode, parent nodes' transformations are discarded. In the use-case where the sub-node should be animated relative to it's previous position, seemingly random transformations need to be manually applied to put it back where it came from, and there is no easy way to determine these transformations once a subnode has been plucked off the scene graph.

For example, with the lander model subnodes must be rotated 90 degrees around the x-axis to be positioned correctly. Attached qml & screenshot shows result of rendering subnodes (red) without manually fixing position & orientation (left), and manipulated into their correct position (right).