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Revell TWIN OTTER Adventure


thorfinn

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I decided to combine a current 'civil aircraft' streak with taking a kick back at bleak winter, by doing Revell's (ex-Matchbox) lovely little 1/72 DHC6 Twin Otter, with bright tropical markings suggestive of sunshine, balmy breezes, steel drums...and perhaps a few rum-laced libations. :drink:

 

I have never built the kit before, but multiple online reviews uniformly laud it as one of Matchbox's very best late efforts, with much more subtle surface detail than their generally-well-earned reputation for 'trench'-style panel lines would suggest. I have what I believe is the most current boxing from Revell Germany, with markings for the Swiss Topographic Office:

 

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The kit still comes with its original options of long or short nose, and floats and skis for the landing gear. All of those will go into the spares box except the long nose.


I began by sanding off the molded-in raised panels---what I presume are wind deflectors of some sort---adjacent to the forward cabin window on each side, since the photo I'm working from shows these locations as flush panels.


The kit has a reasonably well-appointed cockpit...but nothing at all for the cabin between the cockpit and aft fuselage bulkhead. The clear cabin windows are fairly thick and non-optical...but there are a lot of them...so I opted to rough out a very basic interior, consisting of a simple floor and seats made up mainly from scrap left over from my last project. The seats will be painted a dark color, so no real detail was needed: I just wanted 'seat shapes' to be visible through the plentiful cabin windows.

 

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As to these windows...they started the project off with a truly delightful surprise. As I said, they're rather thick...but the fit to the fuselage is better, bar none, than any similar kit I've built in my 5+ decades in the hobby. The windows are molded individually, so there's no 'mounting strip' to obstruct the fit (as they typically seem to do); and best of all, they are cleanly beveled to match the fuselage openings. All I had to do was lay each piece in its little cut-out, and hit the corner with the slightest touch of Tamiya Extra-Thin; the cement wicked cleanly and perfectly around each rim, leaving no worry about water-based clear adhesives weakening and windows possibly popping loose in mid-project, or while trying to mask.


That's it for the present. Thanks for looking in.

 

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2 hours ago, _frequentflyer_ said:

Air Seychelles Twin Otter is coming here as well! I'll follow your WiP with pleasure!

 

Alex

Thank you, Alex.

 

I must confess, Air Seychelles was my near also-ran for a livery choice---they've got some truly stunning tropical flowers and seabirds schemes---but I decided to go with something a bit simpler out of the gate: VQ-TCG from InterCaribbean Airways. Lovely great photo here, on their website.

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21 minutes ago, WildeSau75 said:

How you cannot want to build the Swiss topo machine?! Ok, being Swiss I might be a bit biased ;-)

 

Looking forward to your build.

 

Cheers,

Michael

Thanks, Michael!

Believe me, if I had the time and resources, I'd build them all! (I just started this project, and I've already found a half-dozen more schemes I really want to do....)

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2 hours ago, thorfinn said:

Thanks, Michael!

Believe me, if I had the time and resources, I'd build them all! (I just started this project, and I've already found a half-dozen more schemes I really want to do....)

Fully understand mate - too many projects, too many options, not enough time...

 

Cheers,

Michael

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It's not a bad kit, although the wheels could be better. I have built a Nature Air of Costa Rica one, which have a different window arrangement that came on the decal sheet I used. 

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Hello thorfinn!

 

Nice to see someone building one of these:) I have a soft spot for Twin-Otter as I used to fly one. My Matchbox project stalled years ago because I wasn't happy with the fuselage shape around cockpit area (the windows are too high up and therefore the cockpit roof is too flat). Not to mention the engines and propellers. But maybe I'll start all over again...

 

Those raised panels you sanded smooth are cover plates protecting the fuselage surface from ice flying from the propeller when prop de-ice is used. Quite a rumbling...

 

Kind Regards,

Antti

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Thanks for your reply, Antti.

2 hours ago, Antti_K said:

Nice to see someone building one of these:) I have a soft spot for Twin-Otter as I used to fly one. My Matchbox project stalled years ago because I wasn't happy with the fuselage shape around cockpit area (the windows are too high up and therefore the cockpit roof is too flat). Not to mention the engines and propellers. But maybe I'll start all over again...


Your comments on the shape were very timely; I had noticed the kit's 'snoot' end was rather more slab-sided and sharp-cornered than photos seemed to show. (And the roof of my kit wasn't just flat...it was actually concave!)
I decided to settle for puttying the roof, adding a fillet ahead of the windscreen to fill in the noticeable gap at the bottom of the clear part, and 'rounding off' the square-ish  corners a bit. Here she is with first layers of putty applied, awaiting first sanding:

 

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Always looks extra-scary at this stage, but I expect it will 'shape up' nicely.

 

And here are my home-made decals. The color-blocks were originally intended for the tail flash, but I've acquired correct-color paints that will probably do a better job.

 

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2 hours ago, Antti_K said:

Those raised panels you sanded smooth are cover plates protecting the fuselage surface from ice flying from the propeller when prop de-ice is used. Quite a rumbling...


I guess that would explain why they're absent from my Caribbean-based a/c.! :D


Thanks again for taking time to reply.

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