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MANX AIR Twin Otter


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This is the fairly ancient Revell (ex-Matchbox) 1/72 DHC-6 Twin Otter in the colorful livery of the now-defunct Manx Airlines, which operated this aircraft -- leased from the UK's Loganair -- between 1983 and 1985. It operated from the Isle of Man Airport...formerly RNAS Ronaldsway, which had been home to a number of Barracuda torpedo-bomber training squadrons during the war.

 

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Changes to the kit were relatively minor, adding seat shapes to the completely-blank cabin, reinforcing and adding brake detail to the spindly main landing gear (and a landing light to the nose gear fork), and adding aerials and windscreen-wipers to the exterior. The prop blades were also feathered to the neutral position, a characteristic feature of the 'Twotter' with no engine power supplied. [I keep vowing to myself to one day re-engineer the dodgy windscreen architecture...the kit's most glaring weakness...but with the press of other 'stuff' going on, I decided yet again to take a pass 'this time!' I've got a few more waiting in the stash -- and loads of possible schemes --  so I'll get around to it eventually!]

 

Paints were Tamiya acrylics. Decals were drawn up in MS-Paint and printed on my faithful and long-serving HP inkjet printer.

 

Enjoy!

 

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WOW!  That is really impressive.  That scheme looks super-hard to do, too.  Just lining up the decals must've required hours and hours of work.  Don't mind the windscreen---the overall effect is good.  Hoping to see it in-person sometime.  Let's hope we can show stuff off at Havre-de-Grace next year.

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That looks great. Matchbox did  some great  kits. 

I'm  fond of the Twotter. My friend and a pilot I mentored got to fly Twotters for  Skybus to the  Scillies. He now  flies for Jet2.

 

That's a nice  build.

 

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Lovely bit of work, especially that difficult white!

Used to often see this one in Loganair colours at their Glasgow base, and on approach low over the Campsie Hills to the North.

I'm inspired.....must unearth my kit and get on with a build. Thanks for the tip on the windscreen - hadn't noticed that before. Might have go at 'rearranging the architecture' as you put it, if its not too difficult.

So good to see a Civvie on here amongst all the greens'n'browns 🥰

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1 hour ago, alancmlaird said:

Might have go at 'rearranging the architecture' as you put it, if its not too difficult.

I haven"t done actual measurements...but it's definitely too narrow, since the 'A pillars' (to use an automotive term) seem to have been molded extra-heavy to support the little ledges meant to hold the clear part. I suspect it's also too shallow. The whole cockpit area of the kit has a squarish 'blocky' look to it that seems much sleeker on the real thing.

I haven't searched, but perhaps there's a nice 'how-to' out there somewhere on the interweb, showing exactly what's required.

Cheers

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3 minutes ago, thorfinn said:

I haven"t done actual measurements...but it's definitely too narrow, since the 'A pillars' (to use an automotive term) seem to have been molded extra-heavy to support the little ledges meant to hold the clear part. I suspect it's also too shallow. The whole cockpit area of the kit has a squarish 'blocky' look to it that seems much sleeker on the real thing.

I haven't searched, but perhaps there's a nice 'how-to' out there somewhere on the interweb, showing exactly what's required.

Cheers

For subtle re-arrangement like that, I'd go with careful study of photos rather than line drawings - Loganair still operate a couple of Twin Otters and under other circumstances I'd scoot over to Abbotsinch and try to get a few shots, but we're on 'restrictions' just now - Covid-19 is not to be trifled with. Closer observation will have to wait. I''m sure your description is right, your model does seem a little 'less sleek' than the original. Not noticable until you've pointed it out though!

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13 hours ago, alancmlaird said:

So good to see a Civvie on here amongst all the greens'n'browns

I very much agree - especially when it is as good as this Twin Otter! 

Truly awesome!  :clap::clap:

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