DHC6 Twin Otter Scillies Skybus

[rob Lyttle]

I'm feeling quite drawn to tackling this project. Many years I spent living under the flight path of the Newquay departure planes heading over Lands End and out to the Fortunate Isles. 

The look I'm after is illustrated here... 

https://images.app.goo.gl/VRfZGWSZjehVSHSt7. 

 

It's the Revell box.... 

 

I've noticed that 26decals does a sheet that would nearly do the job, but it features a painted tail livery which isn't my first choice. I'm calling that plan B. 

I'm fancying the one in the link, with the "25 years" banner on the tail, but I'll have to see how that goes. 

Some rather clumsy graphics attempts on the chromebook laptop have produced nothing of much use. I can't even find a font for the G-BIHO reg lettering that gives the square style with rounded corners. 

Any way, there's an airframe to build and all I've done is look at the parts and consider my options. 

Looking at the sprues I notice the runners are embossed with the legend PK127. 

Yep, it's a Matchbox from the 80s.

Only one shade of light grey in the plastic though. I bet the original Mbox kit was a festival of different bright colours! 

One thing I have achieved is cutting out the passenger door - its removal is not facilitated by the moulding but I eventually got it out. 

So perhaps some flooring and a back row of seats is called for 🤔

Other than that it all looks straightforward enough 

Edited August 20, 2021 by rob Lyttle
Pic

[rob Lyttle]

But check out the windows on this...! 

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/QCYxzjWB5tDQewuEA

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Welcome aboard Rob

[26Decals]

23 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

I've noticed that 26decals does a sheet that would nearly do the job, but it features a painted tail livery which isn't my first choice. I'm calling that plan B. 

I'm fancying the one in the link, with the "25 years" banner on the tail, but I'll have to see how that goes

Hi Rob.

I have just finished the artwork for the 25 Years livery :

http://www.26decals.com/epages/62035508.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/62035508/Products/72-209

[rob Lyttle]

Absolutely perfect timing, Ray @26Decals.!! And thanks for the functional link..... I'm not very slick with the online clicking 👍

Order placed already, and the brilliant thing is I sold a couple of aeroplane drawings a week ago and had the funds racked up in ppal waiting for something to spend on.... 😎

Don't you just love it when things get synchronised..... ⁉️🧚

I'm on a roll here and I haven't even started gluing things yet.... 😃

[rob Lyttle]

A few minor steps forward.... 

The long nose is in 2 halves so they are now attached to the respective fuselage sides. Also the main attachment fairings for the legs. 

Basics of the cockpit area are assembled and the door through the bulkhead is "open". ie drilled, hacked and filed away. 

So that's a start 

[CliffB]

A lovely choice Rob . 

As I may have mentioned before, I built one of these in Brymon livery back when they were flying to Scilly (from Exeter, IIRC), and Skybus were flying Islanders from St.Just.

 

Cheers

[rob Lyttle]

Picking away at some internals for the DHC-6, without going overboard. 

A floor is made to fit between the front and back bulkheads, and fitted with 3 spare seats  left over from....... A Lockheed L18 Lodestar?? Probably. 

And a little jump seat on the back wall. 

The cockpit needed some adjustments. Instrument panel did not come near the coaming and the seats seemed very low slung. I cut the seats off the pillars on the cockpit floor and fitted taller supports front and back so each seat straddles its pillar. 

And the centre panel on the i.p. got an extension so it comes up under the coaming. 

Masking windows is a chore, isn't it?! 

I hate it and I'm no good at it. What I've tried on the last few builds is mask them before fitting. Stick the window face down onto upturned masking tape and then cut around like the window is its own template. And then fix in the fuselage. It's still tedious though.... 😶

The other 8 are now masked and ready to be fixed in the starboard side. 

And with a bit of nose weight incl. I think I'm ready for the joining ceremony. 

Note my extra little air intake up front on the port side. I think there's another one to match on the other side. 

And I'm pleased to say my decor sheet has arrived already from 26decals... Thanks Ray, and they certainly look good to me 👍

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Looking good Rob, looking forward to seeing this one get finished. You always pick unique and interesting subjects. 

[rob Lyttle]

On 23/08/2021 at 15:57, CliffB said:

and Skybus were flying Islanders from St.Just.

That's right CliffB. I was kind of hoping that Airfix would redo the BN Islander as a Vintage Classic. They are a bit rare these days and can get expensive when they do turn up. 

[rob Lyttle]

There has been progress in a start-stop kind of way. 

A final flourish for the inside, such as it is... 

 

Tried to bring out something for the inside of the door opposite the entrance. 

All closed up now and the joint line sorted. 

I had half a mind to cut the windscreen part down the middle and fit each side into the fuselage half before the joining. But I went this way instead. 

The screen is now fitted but it took some fine adjustments around the edges and always with the hazard of the screen falling inside. 

However, the screen is in and a fairly good fit in general from the Old Matchbox tooling.

The little side windows are a good fit too, with edges bevelled to fix from the inside and giving a flush finish outside. 

The tailplanes have raised outlines for the positions of the additional vertical stabilisers that are fitted for the floatplane version, so they need removing. Raised lines can be a lot easier to get rid of than the engraved type. 

 

Looks pretty impossible to get the elevators separated and deflected which is a shame, but by way of compensation for the lack of any movement on the control surfaces I managed to get an adjustment with the trim tabs. 

The big flat roof area required some considerable honing to get rid of the joint. The kit also suffers from little sink marks on the surfaces opposite any internal lugs etc. So this was a good opportunity to remove these too. 

Wings and nacelles are in the process 

😎

 

 

[rob Lyttle]

This little intake I made on the port side....

..... I was all set to make another one on the starboard side to match, but a bit of searching through images revealed that this is not required. No intake on the other side. 

But there are a couple of hoops high up on the tailfin that I'm having a go at. They look like a pair of handles except that handles there aren't going to be much use, are they? 😇

Probably some kind of aerial arrangement. 

One done and the second is waiting its turn. I tried with wire, but this is sprue stretched over the flat face of a file. 

The grooves in the wings are for the wing fences. They are rather wide. I'm hoping to thin the fence pieces down, but some filling will be required in those joints. 

I'll be inserting pieces of metal tube in the nacelle fronts and mounting the props and spinners on brass or Ali rod shafts which will slide into the tube bearings. 

The pylons for the flaps and ailerons are a simplified version of the real thing, that's for sure. I'll see if any kind of enhancement is possible. There appears to be a pair of landing lights in the leading edge of the wings too. 

[CliffB]

Nice attention to detail Rob and your stretched sprue technique for the 'handles' has worked well.  It's not one I've seen used before.  Do you have to be really quick wrapping the molten stretched sprue round the face of the file?

[rob Lyttle]

14 hours ago, CliffB said:

Do you have to be really quick wrapping the molten stretched sprue round the face of the file?

Well Cliff, you need to work with time as part of the process, but too quick and it's way too thin. 

I get set up with the file - or brush handle or whatever else kind of former- trapped under the mat so I can use 2 hands for the pulling and holding. 

Don't forget it's scrap plastic, so even if it takes 10 tries to get one result, you've lost nothing and gained some practice...! 😇

So all I did was pull the stretch (using time to gauge the thickness) and pull down each side simultaneously over the file and hold till it cools. 

Here's something to bear in mind...... With a round section sprue you get a small round section stretched piece. But if you start with a strip of styrene sheet, say 6mm wide and 1mm thick, then you end up with a small thin flat strip. Can be just the thing for making seat belt harness, blade antennas etc. 

 

Other than that, I have a wing and strut attached. 

I filed some clearance on the inboard end of the flap so it isn't glued to the fuselage side, and I filed a half-round groove in the leading edge that can be filled with pva or crystal clear for a light fitting.💡 

👍

 

[rob Lyttle]

Not much done over the weekend, the main reason being that I attended a Model Show..... 

That's right, an actual Show! With actual real people turning up and walking around!! 

Hosted by the Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset. Plenty of other clubs, and retail opportunities too. Great place for a tank and armour enthusiast of course. Not really me, but plenty of models on the tables to be admired 😊

I picked up a couple of older kits that looked interesting. I was actually searching the stalls for a Britten Norman Islander to join the Twin Otter in the Skybus hanger, but no luck I'm afraid. 

But I found this during my searches.... 

Looks fairly High Wing to me.... 

I also grabbed this one from the same vendor.... 

... and a wee discount on cash for the two. 

Happy days 👍💐💃

I must admit that I get a lot of pleasure from working with older kits, and they are usually great value (until the collectors turn up!) 

Anyway, the little Grumman might get a look in for this GB later, if i can get a move-on with this one. 

[rob Lyttle]

Finally got round to getting the other bits of the airframe assembled and white primer applied to see how things are looking. 

 

It's not too bad all round, there's a couple of items that need to be looked into but the main flat roof area is OK. 

I've been drawing on the surfaces and picking up the details in pencil. 

I had one little mishap, a self-inflicted damage to the starboard gear leg in that as I cut the part from the sprue l snipped off  the stub axle and left it attached to the sprue frame. This was the 2nd one, the first one was done properly...... How do you even explain that...... 😕⁉️

Anyway, a repair is in hand and I think we're OK. 

A little bit of honing to take the wheel when all is well set and it'll be good to go. 

Some tricky masking and painting will be required in around the nacelles and struts.. 

[CliffB]

A good save with the stub axle Rob.  It now looks stronger than the original 

[rob Lyttle]

To move forward with the paint job on this, I masked off the black areas and then 2nd coated the white with primer and applied appliance white gloss. 

On removing the tape, I have this.... 

 

That will need to dry properly and then I guess I need to mask the white and do the black. 

Hmmmmm..... 

I have rattlecan black available, but frankly that seems a bit scary and loads of masking..... I'm particularly concerned about the underwing nacelles and struts etc. 

The alternative is brush painting which to my mind offers considerably more control of the situation. 

I have a while to think about it as the white paint hardens off. 

😎

[CliffB]

It's nice to see some paint on Rob .

Do you get some benefit from masking off the black areas before spraying the white?  My (lazy) instinct would have been to spray the whole aircraft white 

 

Cheers

[rob Lyttle]

I wouldn't want to give the impression that I have the perfect painting strategy worked out here, CliffB. and I know what I'm doing.... 😊

But I thought that painting the black on the glossy white topcoat would be tricky. Putting it on the base white primer would give it a better chance. Especially if I go with brush application. 

Also a bit of practice working out the various shapes required. 

But other than that I'm making it up as I go along 😎

[rob Lyttle]

Well, I thought I'd have a play with another high winger while I worked through a painting sequence on this...... And promptly went right down a rabbit hole 😲

It's the crazy little Grumman Gosling flying boat by Airfix from 1958. Oh-Ho ‼️😶

But the Twin Otter is getting a bit of attention now instead of watching my antics with THAT little box of tricks. 

I'm masking and brush painting the black areas, at the minute I'm undercoating with dark sea blue which is remarkably dark. 

I think it will deliver a decent base for the gloss black. Masking the curved shapes on the sides of the nacelles was the tricky part. Hope things aren't bleeding under tape. 

That's a piece of black Decal in front of the windscreen and I'm not too sure about it. 

[rob Lyttle]

Finally got the masking, painting, glossing done, and the tapes removed, and it's looking OK. There are a couple of details need to be sorted but things could be worse, especially with the corrugated control surfaces. 

 

 

The anti-glare panel strip of Decal was removed and it was masked and painted along with the rest and it matches in better. But one edge suffered during the tape removal, but a touch up repair looks viable. 

I need to get back on the case here and the little Grumman Gosling is fairly well sorted...... No, really....!! 😃

Under - wing pylons to go on, the rest of the undercarriage, and take a look at these decals. 

The window masks need to come off soon and I'm not overly confident about what I'll reveal there. 😶

[CliffB]

Fingers crossed for the removal of the window masks 🤞🏼

 

Cheers

[rob Lyttle]

On 30/09/2021 at 06:43, CliffB said:

Fingers crossed for the removal of the window masks 🤞🏼

It could've gone worse... 😃

The tape is off. I also remembered I had to release the passenger door, and that will need steps and rails added. The nose leg is in place and the landing lights have discs of foil and blobs of Kristal Kleer for the lenses. And I've changed the shape of the antiglare panel and it looks a bit more comfortable there. 

 

 

The port wing now has a set of pylons. Other side still to do. 

[noelh]

I'll be following this. I like the Twotter and a good friend of mine, a young pilot I mentored flew them with Skybus for a while. I like to think my reference swung it for him.

But he made me insanely jealous sending photos of Cornwall and the Scillies during his time there. Plus the fact he was flying Twin Otters.

 

Looks good so far.