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Nordair Twin Otter


Paul J

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Final one for me(maybe...) for this GB.  Matchbox from Revell boxing DHC-6 Twin Otter in Nordair colours.

 

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Kit and parts with proposed decals fro this build.

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Started with the usual. I paired down the control column assembly as the way the arms and pedestal are moulded are way too thick. Here can be seen post pairing down.

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Fast work!!  As it had started to rain I decided to stay put in my shed and carry on seeing I was on a roll so the fuselage got put together with side windows in place. I also added a piece of scrap plastic card to the inner side of th roof are to give more support for when the join got treated to a good rub down.

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Wings next and all pretty staright forward. I did rescribe the fine surface lines to help improve the look of the wings.I may try to do the same to the fuselage before fixing the wings in place.

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The other wing.

I am trying to see how I can reinforce the main landing gear axle to leg parts as this has always been the weakest point of the kit. Also I will probably fit the skis and use some photos sent to me showing the 'rigging ' of these.

 

See you later with more in the week

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A few more tonight as I have made quite some progress today but have only time to post a few pics with the rest tomorrow night. But for now:....

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The props. The kit ones are pretty poor. At least my particular kit . A lot of flash and dodgy moulds. Its from the Special Edition box that Revell did a few years ago and not the box at top of this thread by the way.

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Here, the replacement props I'll be using.

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In order to mount them in place, I worked out a way of doing this was to cut of the blades from the kit props, shorten the boss and give it a bit of a chamfer and cyano it to the back of the white metal ones.

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Above, a couple of progress pics following the propeller work.

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I needed to replace the kit wheels and rummaged through my spares....

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.... and found these. They are same diameter as the kit wheels but differ a bit. The painted ones are from the Hi planes P-47N and the others are Grumman Tracer( from the Mach kit which has strong resemblances to the hasegawa Tracker) But not certain which I'll use yet.

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The nose leg and wheel. Some minor work carried out to the leg by opening up the torque 'V' link. To do this I drilled a hole and then with a poinetd knife blade paired it to the final shape.

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An overall view of Monday afternoons work.

Later more pics, as I said earlier, of the evenings work.

 

 

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Remaining pics from Bank Holiday Monday progress.

 

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Up on its feet. I thought Idid a couple pics of my modded main undercart legs but  didn't... Anyway what I did do  to them was to cut off the axle portions up to the fairings, Then drilled holes in to the fairings and replaced the severed bits with pieces of cut down paper clip and bent to shape to take the wheels. Doing this gives a bit more strength to this area as my builds of previous Twin Otters always ended up with damage to the undercart and are always VERY difficult to fix.

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The tail planes painted up in the hope of matching the blue of the decals. The colour of the tail planes are not certain as they may have been white. When I have checked any photos on line of Nordair Twin Otters I hope to find the right finish for the tailplanes. They are not fixed in place yet as the large decal for the fin has to go on first !!

This saves cutting the decal to go around the tailplanes . It also gives me a chance to repaint them if necessary.

 

In the meantime all the gloss white is done and the light grey lower fuselage but I think i need to revisit the grey ...

More later in the week.

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Just popping back for a moment. I have since foundphotos  that show  the tail planes were/are white.   So I will need to strip back the acrylic blue and re- do the white.

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Small update. Tail planes re painted in white, lower fuselage grey repainted with a better shade of grey and so looking better and decals....

Well.  Started placing decals on last night and my first experience with Thunderbird. Very nice but for one thing, this morning I went to my shed to check on how the large blue fin decal settled.as I had my concerns. I found that part of it dried and most of it curled up!!!  So applied some more MicroSol and it went back down but this time left it to dry during the day in the normal upright position instead of lying the fuselage on its side and will look forward to seeing what happens when I get home later today.  The Wings will be fitted when the fuselage trim is done and satisfactory. But am concerned how the remaining decals will settle. Will try hotter water I think.

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Picture update .... and those awful decals....

 

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Tail planes repainted white. Successfully.

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Unsuccesfully... the decals!  This and next pic show the curled dry decal. The whole lot nearly fell off!!! You can also see that the decal is well oversized but not the issue I am having.

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The trim along the fuselage worked marginally better but after all this time since yesterday they still haven't adhered to the model... and yes,, it is a glossy paint that I applied and so they ought to have taken.  I have tried to trim away. with a new pointed blade,  some of the decal from the windows before doing any thing else earlier, as they were dry, but the stripe just lifted away showing the decal had not adhered to the surface.

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So this evening I have gone for it and applied the other decal for the starboard side of the fin. Yet to see how this will settle. I have tried all my Micro decals system even Humbrol decal cote.. Still not wrinkling as expected. I even brushed on a coat of Johnsons Klear to apply the starboard decal but it still looks like its not taking. The rudder has those ribbed flutes as we know and the decal just wont settle into them.Just before posting the pics I brushed on some clear vinegar on to see what happens Probably because the decal solutions have a bit of ascetic acid and my thought is if I try,  it might work. On the whole though I am VERY disappointed with the decals. Now if I could get some of the same set as originally printed by Whiskey Jack I would be on a winner.

 

PS; I think I may abandon this one and bin the decals as a bad job!!

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Its not going to defeat me!!!  I set about applying the rest of the decals today. The fin decal is still c**p but what I did ws to cyt away very easily, most of the blue area leaving the 'N' and then painting the blue around the N using Humbrol 25 Roundel blue. Its the closest I have to match the decal.  Not perfect but looks OK and under some gloss varnish should bring it more in line with the blue of the decal when I get to that stage.

 

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The windows had to have the decal cut away to expose them. Quite tricky but with a sharp blade worked Ok but some of the edges will need to be touched with blue paint......

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......as you can see here.

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Fuselage company titles being applied. From photos I found on Twin Otter archive( a part of the fabulous dhc-2.com website, of CF-NAN, I noticed more decal errors. This time the size of the titles. On applying them to match the pics I could see they are far out but don't have much choice. Also the kit isn't brilliant around the windscreen area as the side posts are too wide.  But, all these errors I will live with. Incidentally I added white decal stripes(still to be finished) to edge the dark blue with the light grey paint.  

After this I will turn my attention to the exhaust areas on and around the engines as decals are supplied for the sides but there are large areas of black around here for the exhaust staining. This can just be made out in the photos of 'NAN but will use pics of others as I am sure the black are fairly standard on the Twin Otter.

 

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Update pics. This build has become a bit of a saga when it comes to marking it up with the decals, But despite my disappointment with them, I have managed to disguise them a bit. Anyhow, what I have done so far and will be seen in pics below are the deicing boots to wing and tail L Edges with black decal striping, modded up the odd windscreen by blending in the joins especially to the sides, and then overpainting with thin gloss black and giving the correct shape as best I can.  Also the exhaust areas have been done by adding black striping to get sharp edges and in filling with matt black which was aided by the exahuast area decals on the sheet.

 

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Still a little bit to do. Have decided I will use kit wheels but with the raised detail filed off to depict the 'smooth'' hub caps' I can see in a couple of pics on line. May still add the skis but will also add the antennas soon just before putting this one to bed.

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Latest progress report. Almost there. Just a bit of  tittivating and the adding of antennae and maybe the skis.

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Notice that I have 'twisted' the prop blades to a feathered position... as per real ones when parked up. I did the twising with care being as the white metal is quite soft.

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In this pic, you can see the addition of the small scoop that is missing from the kit. I made this from a piece of scrap.

Final pic of final work to come and then of to the gallery!

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Final pics of the build .........

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Added the aerials...

 

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One pic before aerials were done but the crew step which I had to reverse the way it faces... that is with the step facing aft. I should have improved the pitot heads too as they are a bit dodgy.

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This pic I am attempting to illustarte the balc exahust protection area around the engine nacells In the photo printed of wI have indicated teith black pen where I believe the black area actually covers more thabn I have depicted in the model. It seems to start r end just beind the vent or  whatever it is on top of the engin area.  If it is how I suspect then I will correct this on my model by quite simply adding more balck paint.

 

All pics now over in gallery....

 

PS: I tried to improve the shape an look of the windshield by filling the join along the top and sides, filed/ sanded the filler carefully avoing messing up the paint work too much and painted the windows with thinned gloss black. The centre fram is white decal stripe. It looks better though my work is so so I suppose. But it is better than the way the kit  has you fitting it which just does not look right with the side frames being too wide and fat!.

 

Cheers

 

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  • 3 years later...

Just very recently sold this  among 60 other builds to a buyer. Needed to clear a lot of my models for space. A lot of my other Canadian model builds among them too.

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11 hours ago, busnproplinerfan said:

Canadian stuff you built?

Yes . A lot of my model builds in recent years are in various civil and military Canadian schemes. Only thinned down multiples of same types though in most cases.  Just have too many to store and so some have had to go along with some others.  

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5 hours ago, Paul J said:

Yes . A lot of my model builds in recent years are in various civil and military Canadian schemes. Only thinned down multiples of same types though in most cases.  Just have too many to store and so some have had to go along with some others.  

So neat, looking for a few unbuilt Hobbycraft Tutors.

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