Harbour Air DHC-3T Vazar Otter (Single)

[hendie]

Progress! Progress has been made at last. Well, I know it's all progress (of a sort) but this time around we actually got as far as sticking bits together... after taking some other bits off first though.

I wasn't happy with my homemade vents and even less happy with the vent scab panels, so they were all removed and I 3D printed some instead. AT least those vent panels are uniform now.

Anyways, after they were all replaced it was time for more white primer - lots of it to get a decent coverage. I think there's a good 5 or 6 coats on this now and I think that's as far as I'm going to take it.

After the white came the gloss coat - which doesn't show up well in the photos at all. That was left to cure for two days os so due to life getting in the way. That was probably a good thing though as I have a tendency to rush things at this stage and handling a less than fully cured gloss coat would no doubt have led to some sort of disaster or other.

I had been waiting for this point as there was no way I could fit the windows until the gloss coat was on.

Windows fitted port side.

 

 

Which was quickly followed by fitting the windows to the starboard side.  The windows are all push fit so they were phenargled into position, making them all as even as I could get, then once happy with the position a generous bead of superglue was applied to the rear faces. For once I was able to keep it all where it was supposed to go.

 

 

My original plan was to protect the windows by taping some kitchen roll over them but I wisely, or unwisely decided to move forward without any protection as I had a feeling that with them all covered I would forget and inadvertently squeeze the fuselage at some point and push one (or more) inside.  I like living dangerously. No I don't.

 

Next up was to fit the rear bulkhead.

 

 

Again, thinking ahead I did a dry fit of the two fuselage sides and discovered that the bottom edge on the starboard side was interfering with closing up the fuselage so a few swipes with a file soon sorted that.

Next came the forward bulkhead and that proved to have the same issue. Call the file into action once again and all is sweet.

 

 

Seats next. It took me a little while to figure this one out as I couldn't find a seating plan of the 3T Otter anywhere online and I hadn't taken any photos of the interior when I was in there. Eventually I found mention on the Harbour Air website that their DHC-3T seats up to 14 passengers, and I found a shot online which just catches 4 single seats. Even my mathematically challenged grey matter can figure out (4 x 1) + (5 x 2) equals 14. ANother exterior shot gave me a good idea of the seat spacing.

So, 4 single seats port side, and tough thingies if you're the guy that gets the last single seat at the back.

 

 

another shot of the same just because I took one.

 

 

Then the double seats were added. Yes, there's still a double seat to be added to make up the 14, but I needed to see where it was located in relation to the doorway on the starboard side.

 

 

Then forgot to take a shot once it was fitted.

 

All that's left now is to close up the fuselage and fit all the outside bits. Easy huh?

Well no, of course it isn't.

I had spotted way back in early test fitting that both sides of the fuselage don't really like each other, and especially don't like touching each other. The location pins are all but useless and one side (possibly both) have a warp. This means that the fuselage sort of touches at the front, sort of touches at the rear, and has a huge gap all the way in-between. To add to the fun, if you close up the top side the bottom side opens up and vice versa, and there are some areas where if you try and squeeze it together it actually widens the gap. 

I know this is going to be a nightmare but I also know I just have to deal with it somehow or other. Therefore, stage 1 of my approach is to glue the tail end together with plastic cement and bodge it as I go along.

 

 

All the nice sloping surfaces make it all but impossible to attach a clamp without it trying to slip off and cause some damage somewhere else. Ain't this modeling malarkey a real good fun time?

All that aside I believe I have reached a milestone (or a millstone?) now that the seats are in and it's started going together, of a sort.

 

I haven't really thought past this stage so not entirely sure what is next on the agenda. I guess it would make sense to get the cockpit finished off - I still need to add a new cockpit floor in order to check the height of the instrument panel, and the kit seats aren't really up to much so I may print those as well.

Overall, I think the going will be slow until I have this fuselage buttoned up. There are going to be seams, and nasty ones at that.

 

 

 

at least the windows are in. At least for now!

 

 

 

 

[perdu]

Love 'em Alan

[MrB17]

This is destined to be the most accurate 1/48 turbine Otter on the planet!
When it’s finished you should send some pics to Harbour Air, I’m sure they would appreciate it.
Every day these are buzzing overhead, I can remember the days when reciprocating Otters were roaring overhead as well. Before bylaws were in place, the Victoria inner harbour was much noisier than today, sometimes it sounded like a Pearl Harbour movie! All 2 bladed propellers were changed to 3 bladed ones and the noise level dropped dramatically. The only reciprocating engine aircraft left are the Beavers and that may change soon with the electric Beaver and I can only imagine the jokes that will go along with it 😂 

 

I’ve really been enjoying this build, it makes me want to build one of my VP vacuform kits.

 

There is definitely a place for a more accurate Otter with different power plants, in 1/72 and 1/48, hopefully someone is watching this and getting the bug in their ear.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[CedB]

Getting there hendie but oh, that gap! Rats.

 

Sending calming, filling mojo…  

[giemme]

What a progress report!  

 

14 hours ago, hendie said:

All the nice sloping surfaces make it all but impossible to attach a clamp without it trying to slip off and cause some damage somewhere else. Ain't this modeling malarkey a real good fun time?

I use blue tack in these cases: put a blob on the fuselage where your clamp needs to grasp, it will hold reasonably steady. HTH

Ciao

[81-er]

That's quite an update, Alan! All of the bits in the interior are looking great, especially with the windows. I second Giorgio's suggestion of Blu Tack to hold the clamps in place, it makes quite a difference.

 

James

[mark.au]

This is next-level modelling. I feel like what I do is akin to hack and slash whenever I look at your stuff.

[hendie]

On 5/28/2025 at 7:28 AM, mark.au said:

This is next-level modelling. I feel like what I do is akin to hack and slash whenever I look at your stuff.

 

Mark, I think that is what we all feel when we look at other modelers work. I know I do. I think it's because we are aware of every little micro flaw and blemish in our own work - you'll see what I mean later.

 

First though, let's beat this beast into submission. After much clamping, sweating and swearing we got to something almost closed up. I had to use a mixture of superglue, styrene cement, TET, styrene sheets, Tamiya tape, styrene gloop and plain old brute strength.  That was a great tip about using blue-tac with the clamps. Unfortunately it didn't work in this instance as the only places I could affix clamps tended to open up other gaps.

I present to thee, the underbelly of the beast.

 

 

See that strake on the left?

It's the wrong shape, as is the strange bump thing further to the left and out of shot.

 

They've been removed. I think there's still a bit of patching up to do there, folks. 

 

 

Topside isn't much better. Despite my best hamfisted efforts, there's still a huge step almost all the way along the spine. That's now being worked on and I'll address the sink marks once I've got a bit more fettling done.

 

 

Yet one more thing wrong with the kit are the floats. I can't really blame the manufacturer for this one as they may well be correct for a standard Otter. Sadly, this is not a standard Otter. The Turbo Otter has had its floats stretched. Now, I could have taken the easy way out here and simply did a cut and shut with an insert for the kit parts, but we all know how stubborn I can be at times.

Hence, a few hours were spent in SolidWorks to produce my own version based on a drawing provided in another thread. Unfortunately it only provides a side view with length and beam dimensions. As there was no section views or top views I went ahead and made some assumptions.

 

 

That was printed out and I cut it in half to save on printing time. The reason for jumping so far ahead at this time was that I need to start thinking about how to attach the floats and also, how to determine their correct position on the turbo version.

 

 

As can be seen here, The stretch is quite significant. Parallax is playing silly buffoons here - both floats are aligned on the right hand edge, but you can still see there is a marked difference in length.

 

 

That was my first iteration. Since I couldn't really do anything on the fuselage while the gloop was setting, I went back to SolidWorks and added some more detail. Rivets. Lots of rivets. Lots and LOTS of rivets.

Which of course you cannot see in this photo.

 

 

Okay then, here's a close up of the nose end. As I mentioned... LOTS of rivets. Each one is 0.20 millimeters in diameter. The upside of all this is that I learned a few new commands in SW which will save me time in future so it was time well spent. Sort of.

 

 

I did remember to take a photo of pretty much all you can see on the inside of the cabin. In fact, it will be even less as there's a door to get fitted over one half of that opening.

 

 

Lastly for this episode, and I'm almost embarrassed to show this - here's my attempt at detail painting the instrument panel 'n stuff.  See what I mean Mark?  My detail painting skills are rubbish. I am in envy of those who can master a paintbrush and small details.

Shaky hands and poor brushes don't really help much. I can now see in this photo that I've missed half a gauge on one of the panels.  I console myself in remembering that this panel is only about 20mm wide.

 

 

I will go back and see if I can touch these up to make them a little better, but my hopes are not high. Luckily it will be tucked away where you will hardly be able to see anything. Hopefully I will actually be able to fit the thing inside once the fuselage is closed up - test fitting shows that it is a very tight fit to get in there, and I still have to fit the cockpit floor which is going to make the available space even smaller.

 

 

 

 

[MrB17]

Those floats are really good Hendie, you’re too hard on yourself and I am in awe of this build in every way. It looks like most of the floats I’ve dealt with, especially the rivets, hatches etc. Bear in mind there are different float manufacturers and there are some differences between them, but I think you’ve done some excellent work with your 3D program. Someday I would like to learn how to do that.

One thing about floats is that they need to be constantly pumped out, and there’s usually a pump stowed inside one of the access panels on the top. Each cell has a tapered hole with a plug jammed in (quite often just a rubber ball). I learned this as a 12 year old boy when I had to fly to a remote fishing camp in northwest Ontario to visit my grandfather who worked there as the camp mechanic. When I went down to the float dock to catch the plane (Norseman) the pilot handed me the pump and said you keep pumping until no more water comes out. He must have been laughing as I pumped and pumped. I was the only passenger and I was extremely nervous on the long take off, wondering if I pumped enough water out.

Years later when I was painting float planes, same pump, same rubber balls. Most of the floats were just sprayed with aluminium lacquer because they tend to get beat up, other than that, just some black anti-slip paint on the tops, and red propeller warning stripes. Aircraft with amphibious floats were the only ones that got the same fancy paint as the aircraft.

I am absolutely loving this build, it’s exquisite.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[mark.au]

59 minutes ago, hendie said:

See what I mean Mark?

Yes, absolute garbage. I feel much better now. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

🤭

 

 

 

Edited May 30 by mark.au

[Terry1954]

Love the way you are forcing that fuselage into submission Alan, the only way!

 

Floats and rivets ............... bring 'em on! I do hope that apostrophe meets the @Fritag grammar school bar .......... did you all see what I did there 

 

I'll go now.

 

T/

[heloman1]

Neat work with het floats Alan, I do like the rivet detail. New good quality brushes and then, your next instrument panels will be better! Ha! I blame the paint most times...

 

Colin

[perdu]

10 hours ago, MrB17 said:

Those floats are really good Hendie, you’re too hard on yourself and I am in awe of this build in every way. It looks like most of the floats I’ve dealt with, especially the rivets, hatches etc. Bear in mind there are different float manufacturers and there are some differences between them, but I think you’ve done some excellent work with your 3D program. Someday I would like to learn how to do that.

One thing about floats is that they need to be constantly pumped out, and there’s usually a pump stowed inside one of the access panels on the top. Each cell has a tapered hole with a plug jammed in (quite often just a rubber ball). I learned this as a 12 year old boy when I had to fly to a remote fishing camp in northwest Ontario to visit my grandfather who worked there as the camp mechanic. When I went down to the float dock to catch the plane (Norseman) the pilot handed me the pump and said you keep pumping until no more water comes out. He must have been laughing as I pumped and pumped. I was the only passenger and I was extremely nervous on the long take off, wondering if I pumped enough water out.

Years later when I was painting float planes, same pump, same rubber balls. Most of the floats were just sprayed with aluminium lacquer because they tend to get beat up, other than that, just some black anti-slip paint on the tops, and red propeller warning stripes. Aircraft with amphibious floats were the only ones that got the same fancy paint as the aircraft.

I am absolutely loving this build, it’s exquisite.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

What a brilliant observation Jeff, thank you for helping my understanding.

 

I do need to understand this for use in my own build. That's why the electroBeaver has aluminium coloured floats, got it.

 

Alan I am trying not to drop into a world of fawning platitudes mate but boy, you do make that so difficult don't you?

 

Lovely floats. 

 

That instrument cluster, column and rudder pedals are almost identical to the Beaver.

 

Don't examine mine this closely, OK?

 

The lumps and bumps under the fuselage are essential for the aircraft aquatic stability, they have cable guides for the float rudders etc, best make sure you reinstate them.

[giemme]

Beating the beast (read:  fuselage) into submission! Sorry the blue tack trick didn't work out, but I'm glad you got there, with some persuasion 

 

The floats look ridiculously good  Of course, if you insist in taking picture of things against a white background, we won't be able to appreciate all the details you put in them...  

 

And the IPs look very neat to me

 

Ciao

[silverfox63]

12 hours ago, hendie said:

Now, I could have taken the easy way out here and simply did a cut and shut with an insert for the kit parts, but we all know how stubborn I can be at times.

Nope, not sayin' nuffin, not a thing.

 

Oh, I will say, great job Hendie, keep going.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Robin-42]

Those are the best representation of floats I have ever seen in any scale. You’ve captured the overlapping sheet metal construction perfectly. If only B17 kit makers could get that right. 

[81-er]

I see absolutely nothing to be ashamed of with those IP's, Alan, they're beautiful. Especially at only 20mm wide. The floats are superb as well, really, really nice work.

 

James

[Ragtag]

That is some truly impressive detail on those floats! Personally I wish I could get that level of finesse on my instrument panels so I'll respectfully disagree on your 'rubbish painting skills'!

 

I hesitate to bring this up now given that you've already glued the fuselage together, but the seating layout is available from Harbour Air's website and is a little different to the above:

3

 

Here's an internal shot I grabbed quickly whilst deplaning that shows where those two single seats at the rear are positioned relative to the doors:

[hendie]

Just the teensiest of updats to finish off the weekend, gents. 

 

Lots of time spent sanding and micromeshing today. I think this is as good as I'm going to get the topside. It will need a coat of primer for me to really tell if I managed to beat that seam into submission, but I'm quietly hopeful. 

I also joined up the front end of the nose - just visible in this photo, because it kept flexing and the constant flexing broke the joint between the fuselage and the port side rain channel at the front end - you can just see it sticking out from the fuselage in this shot.

 

 

 

I also spent a bit of time rubbing her bottom with sanding sticks and micromesh and other rough things. I don't have to be quite as concerned with the finish on the bottom seam as there's going to be a strake fitted on there so any defective seam will be hidden by that. I've still to tidy up the seam at the front end, but since there's going to be some filling and a lot more sanding to be done up there when I add the turbo nose I thought I'd hold on for the time being. No point in doing the same job twice.

 

 

Talking of doing jobs twice... I just reprinted the instrument panels, because... the new cockpit floor was made up and primed, then fitted. Then I tried a test fit of the instrument panel and it was a really, really tight fit.

I could probably have made it work, but it seemed more appropriate just to go back to the drawing board and make some slight modifications to the panel, such as removing a millimeter on width (btw, it was just under 30mm, not 20mm as I thought yesterday). That's now printed and I've started painting it all over again.

 

 

I prettied up some doors too - this is the rear door which will be in the open position if I can ever figure out how I'm going to attach it.

 

 

Then the front doors. They were sprayed aluminum though it looks more like they've been sprayed with crud in this photo. Then door seals were added from some Ø0.5mm wire.  The starboard side will be closed but I'm planning on having the port side door in the open position - again - if I can figure out how to attach it.

You may, or may not notice that I've recessed the window area and left a small flange there. It's about 0.3mm if I remember correctly. The plan is to cut some clear styrene sheet and pop it in there for the windows. Thankfully I don't have to vacuum form these ones - just need to be able to cut flat sheet accurately.

 

 

Now then. Seating. 

 

17 hours ago, Ragtag said:

I hesitate to bring this up now given that you've already glued the fuselage together, but the seating layout is available from Harbour Air's website and is a little different to the above:

 

That's not a problem at all Ragtag - I'd much rather someone bring something up at any time than not mention it at all, and potentially leave me with egg on my face in front of the whole internet . 

This time however, I think the egg just missed me.  I believe that is just a generic seating arrangement and Harbour Air have several different configurations.

One of the shots I did take of the interior clearly shows that the forwardmost starboard side seat is a double, and not a single seat as shown in the seating chart.

 

 

I also clearly remember looking rearwards as I entered and noted the big cargo net. There were definitely no seats, single or otherwise in front of the net as your photo shows. I don't know why I remember that so clearly, but I do.  Thanks for bringing it up though - I appreciate it,

 

Doing things twice seems to be a theme around here.  This time it was the turn of the rudder.   

I was working on the strake/fin/thing on the underside as the kit part bears no resemblance to the real one at all when I noticed something about the rudder.

 

 

You know those occasions when you're so focussed on something that you don't see what's directly in front of you? Well, this was one of those times.

I think I had been so focussed on making the kit rudder more accurate in terms of those flutes and overall shape that I for whatever reason completely failed to notice something. Two things actually.

One - I missed the navigation light sticking out the back of the rudder, and

Two, the shape at the bottom of the rudder is different as it meets the strake. The kit strake does not extend any further than the end of the fuselage whereas on the turbo version it extends significantly beyond the end of the fuselage and meets up with the rudder.

On the left we have my last version of the rudder and on the right, the newly remodeled version. I have added the navigation light but I have also modified the angle at the bottom of the rudder to meet up with the strake as seen in the photo above.

 

 

See? I told ya!

 

 

I'm a lot happier with that now. I've no idea why I didn't notice that much earlier.  

 

Of course, while looking at that and actually looking at it, I noticed something else. Another problem. I believe the kit tailplane is in the wrong position and it's too high on the vertical stabilizer. After staring a multiple photos I now believe a more accurate position would be to move it down by about 3 or 4 millimeters. That then presents another problem around the panel lines. I need to mull on this for a while and see if I'm stupid enough to go ahead and move the position. 

 

All in a days work, eh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ragtag]

1 hour ago, hendie said:

Now then. Seating. 

 

That's not a problem at all Ragtag - I'd much rather someone bring something up at any time than not mention it at all, and potentially leave me with egg on my face in front of the whole internet . 

This time however, I think the egg just missed me.  I believe that is just a generic seating arrangement and Harbour Air have several different configurations.

One of the shots I did take of the interior clearly shows that the forwardmost starboard side seat is a double, and not a single seat as shown in the seating chart.

 

 

I also clearly remember looking rearwards as I entered and noted the big cargo net. There were definitely no seats, single or otherwise in front of the net as your photo shows. I don't know why I remember that so clearly, but I do. 

 

The single seat is the co-pilot's (you can see the dashed line representing the aircraft door) with the greyed out square being the pilot - the diagram just doesnt show the bulkhead. Interesting theory about different seating layouts - all their Otters I've flown on were as I posted. I wonder how many variations there are - 303 and 306 are definitely as per my post (my photo is from C-FIUZ / 306).

[The Spadgent]

Brilliant!  I absolutely love those floats. The detail you’re adding is out of this world. 👌

 

Johnny

 

ps.  The ip paintwork looked fine to me. 🙌

[MrB17]

This is getting more amazing by the minute Hendie. And as I write this, one of them just flew over my house! I think I might sachet down to the float dock next week and take some photos, it’s getting to be the busy season, so there should be plenty of them.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[hairystick]

Wow! Just catching up on this build, another magnificent Hendie modification one.

Love those seats inside, they look superb.

 

On 4/18/2025 at 10:12 AM, hendie said:

One of the biggest issues I am facing with this modification is the usual lack of drawings. I have searched every corner of the internet and been unable to find any decent vector drawings of the Turbo conversion. None. Whatsoever. 

 

I'm suspecting that the "T" is in relation to Turbine, as this looks very much like one.

 

 

On 4/11/2025 at 1:55 AM, Brandy said:

Electric Beaver though? What if it short circuits????

I'm still undecided about the "electric" modifications to aircraft. With a "normal" aeroplane you take off, fly around burning off fuel load, then land.

 

With electric planes, every nook and cranny is reportedly jammed with batteries, meaning that your take off and landing weights are the same...

 

[perdu]

Wonderful stuff again Alan your attention to trivial items is as bad as mine.

 

Which means of course  that you have already begun cutting or marking out to bring the tailplane down in line with the top of the rudder trim tab.

 

Panel trivia notwithstanding...

 

I hope you guys have begun an archive detailing all the interior variations of seating HA used on the Otters, both your own pictures and any Ragtag can add to it, with hoped for additions from Jeff, we all need such archival materials.

[81-er]

Wonderful work again, Alan. I'd agree with you (and Bill) that the tailplane is in the wrong place on the model. I'm sure a man of your skills won't have any problems if you do decide to reposition it.

  

11 hours ago, hendie said:

Looking at the junction between the strake and the fuselage there, are those weld beads attaching it to the underside?

  

11 hours ago, hendie said:

I also spent a bit of time rubbing her bottom

You've clearly been talking to Ced too much  

 

James