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West Coast Air Twin Otter


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With a few hours to go before the starting gun, time to start my thread. 

 

This is Revell's retread of the Matchbox Twin Otter kit, of 1983 vintage. Box art:

resized_521cb838-fbcb-4ae5-bbbb-af071b51

 

That rather attractive scheme is not going to be the subject, what with those odd round things hanging off the bottom. The kit's second decal option is for a West Coast Air Twotter in blue and white, an example of which one can see on Airliners.net:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ycp7deeq

 

From what I can see, West Coast kept their aircraft very clean.

 

Sprue shots; Revell haven't gone for the lurid Matchbox colours, so it's all in glossy grey.

resized_4e195064-734f-471d-9fbd-116ea282

 

 

Revell provide a most bizarre double-ended paintbrush. One end is splayed to oblivion, the other appears to have been dipped in varnish before being sent out.

 

 

Waiting for tomorrow to kick off!

 

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That Otter looks good, with a very smart scheme.

 

1 hour ago, amblypygid said:

Revell provide a most bizarre double-ended paintbrush. One end is splayed to oblivion, the other appears to have been dipped in varnish before being sent out.

I don't know what Revell are doing, but good quality artists' brushes are often shipped with their hairs glued together.  This should be washed out with water, and, maybe a little soap.  'course, those usually have only one end.

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Happy Twotting with this Chris.:thumbsup2:

 

It might amuse you to know that autocorrect on the tablet currently insists that I refer to you as Christ.

 

Bless this thread and all in it...

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On 9/2/2017 at 9:57 PM, TheBaron said:

Bless this thread and all in it

 

Divine assistance may be needed, certainly helpful, unlikely to be acknowledged as such!

 

 

On 9/2/2017 at 11:20 PM, Rob G said:

Another one to watch. I'll be taking notes and learning.

 

I hope it's of use, Rob!

 

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OK, kit started in the trad fashion. Being Matchbox, the interior is sparse, though I recall reading somewhere that Revell went crazy and enhanced the IP with raised dials and a decal. It's barely visible even before the cockpit goes in.

 

resized_ff87d984-592a-42ea-ba02-629118c1

 

 

Two seats (with memory foam cushions), a double yoke, an IP and a bulkhead. That's the interior detail (oh, wait, there's a floor as well).

 

Here's the fuselage:

resized_8be956b9-7728-4eae-924f-acd85b15

 

Moving on to the glasswork...

Those windows are just a bit too wide to do with Micro Krystal Klear,  but all fifteen kit windows went in well enough.

resized_f2aa4048-9b58-468b-947a-b34c1ffb

 

The windscreen doesn't quite fit, and can't be put in properly until the fuselage is sealed up. That is irritating, as it renders it vulnerable to being pushed in.

 

The nose also doesn't quite match the fuselage lines, so some filler will be needed there. The gaps in the fuselage are pretty small, but I'll need to do some smoothing on the join. I've packed the nose with fishing weights; I doubt that it gets to the 20g that the instructions suggest, but there's only so much space. Perhaps some more in the front of the floats...

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33 minutes ago, amblypygid said:

I hope it's of use, Rob!

 

 

I'm sure it will be.

 

As for the IP - when I get home from work in 10 days or so, I'll check my Matchbox version and see if there's a difference.

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Well, my inexperience with civil aircraft has shown. Those windows are not at all secure; apart from a couple, they can all be pushed in on one side (so they're hinging inwards). So far none have fallen into the fuselage, but I wouldn't be surprised if one did.

 

My plan is to try to add more glue to the frames; since some are well glued, I conclude that I was too sparing with the original application. I'll then try to use some masking tape to pull them back into place. Does this sound viable or am I overestimating the effectiveness of Krystal Klear?

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Finally got to this about 10pm yesterday. I was able to secure all but one of the windows easily; the Micro Krystal Klear effectively pulled them back into place, presumably through the power of surface tension. Then I remembered that I meant to mask them before they went in; they're an inconvenient shape and I don't really want to try trimming the masking tape on the model, as a sharp blade will go through the Krystal Klear. So most are going to be re-masked with too much, and I'll have to touch up around the windows by hand. That could be interesting in the confined space beneath the wing...

 

Last thing last night was to attach the port wing. The wing struts go into a sort of curved lump that also supports the floats; these parts are interestingly shaped, have some gigantic ejector pin columns that have to be removed to get them to go anywhere near the fuselage, and even then don't fit at all well. Plans of the Twotter tell me that the float version has no dihedral on the wings (not that the other versions have much), so that makes attaching the wings a little easier.

 

Here's the topside; filler will be needed at the wing roots and on the engine nacelles.

 

resized_8c5896dd-8c55-47ff-a01e-b5542354

 

 

The filler beneath needs some tidying; I thought I'd done a reasonable job with a damp fingertip, but it looks rather messier in the light of day. The central fuselage also needs some filler; I keep forgetting that.

 

cea6504f-fcbc-4afa-9fdc-507e1e118f78.JPG

 

 

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Looks like an aircraft already :) I know how infuriating seam filling can be... That's one of the tasks in modelling I like the least.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

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It's getting there; one good things about Matchbox is that they kept things simple; each wing is just two pieces, no faffing about with separate control surfaces.

 

I wouldn't mind filling & sanding so much if I were better at it. Most of the time I either feel I've made no difference, or I've made the situation worse.

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6 minutes ago, amblypygid said:

I wouldn't mind filling & sanding so much if I were better at it. Most of the time I either feel I've made no difference, or I've made the situation worse.

I feel much the same... The process seems very hit or miss. I've tried Squadron's white putty and now am using Perfect Plastic Putty but the ejection marks and seams always seem to reappear.

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6 hours ago, amblypygid said:

It's getting there; one good things about Matchbox is that they kept things simple; each wing is just two pieces, no faffing about with separate control surfaces.

There's a very particular 'no-nonense' aesthetic to Matchbox mouldings that makes them unmistakable isn't there Chris? 

 

That's coming along most engagingly - what a pleasant aircraft that is to look at. Really looking forwards to seeing what it looks like with the canoes on...

:thumbsup2:

Tony

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Looking nice already, Chris :).

 

Regarding masking the winows, have you considered using a liquid masking agent - e.g., Humbrol's Maskol (Gunze do one too, off the top of my head) - that can be applied with a paint brush (altough not, I suspect, the kit-supplied one ;)). Any over-painting can be wiped off with a suitable wiper before the masking fluid dries. I'm quite surprised that BMers don't seem to use the ver much, which leaves me scratching my head somewhat.

 

No doubt someone will chime in immediately as to why one should never, never use a liquid mask...

 

Cheers,

Alex.

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 That's a shame. My previous bottle of Maskol met a similar fate, only more so: a congealed blob o' purple rubber. It was such a nice bottle, however, that I extracted The Thing1 with a pair of sturdy pliers and I now use said bottle to hold a small amount of xylene :yikes: for various solvent purposes.

 

Maybe next time, Chris - if you ever get a new batch...

 

Cheers,

Alex.

 

1 Possibly from the Planet Zog

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