DHC 6 Twin Otter

[cph64]

On the theme of 'small is beautiful'. Earlier this year our youngest son and his wife spent some time in the Maldives as she's always wanted to swim with Manta rays so being the big softie that I am when I saw this recent release by Mark 1 Models I knew I had to get it and give it to them, once completed, as a reminder. I'd already done something similar when our daughter found out she was pregnant the day she watched the Red Arrows in Scarborough.
The kit is the 1/144 scale latest reboxing of the Twin Otter with 'Holiday Season' decals for Nepal, Tahiti and the Maldives. Previous releases cover Civil and Military users. Moulded in blue/grey plastic with options for land or floatplane it comes in an end opening box with the colour options on the rear, these are shown again in more detail in the four page instruction booklet. The decals are clearly printed and a bonus is a card hardstanding which, will not be used as I'm building the floatplane, but will come in handy another time. So far I've just washed the parts and primed them with Halfords white primer.

[chriswil42]

That should be an colourful livery.

[cph64]

Yep, the hard part will be matching the decal colours as all the instructions say are Blue, Green, Yellow etc., no FS or makers numbers!!!

[zak]

The trials of model making! 

[Bigkev]

Looks like the mark one eyeball being used again, together with some witchcraft in paint mixing....
Kevin

[Bob C]

that's tiny, but small is beautiful.

Bob c

[cph64]

The wing and fuselage halves have some large mould knockout points, some of which are on mating surface (see photos). This must be de-rigeur for Mark 1 Models kits as the build of a HS 748 in the latest issue of Scale Aircraft Modelling shows exactly the same problem. Those on the mating surfaces have been removed using a sharp blade and sanding pad and as there are no locating points on the fuselage or floats thin strips of plastic card have been cut and glued in place.

[Bigkev]

Hi Chris,
Sometimes if you want something a bit different you have to accept the product flaws on short run type mouldings.
I'm sure you will overcome them,
Kevin

[cph64]

The fuselage halves have been joined, as were the engine halves, and then the longer nose was sawn off to fit the shorter version seen on the Maldives aircraft. The locating holes for the tailplanes have also been drilled deeper to try to ensure a positive fit.

[chriswil42]

Looking good Chris.

[MSea]

It will look great when you have finished

[Bigkev]

Could this be the start of a new modelling genre for you?
Small, but beautifully formed, and like Msea says should look good when you have finished.
Cheers,
Kevin

[cph64]

I did think about scaling down to 1/144 some years back Kev but there weren't the kits I wanted available then, now there are but my 1/72 stash is too big to part with (the Yorkshireman in me here, lol!!!).
So now it's time to try some painting. I'm doing this as sub-assemblies to ease masking and experimenting as I go along. The nearest blue I have to the decals is Vallejo Deep Sky Blue, it's a tad darker but Sky Blue is too light. You can just make the difference out when I tried them on the tailplanes. The blue has also been used on the engines, masked after for the white, and the upper wing. In my haste I forgot I needed the central panel of the upper wing white so it's ended up being sprayed over as I didn't mask it. The white is Tamiya White from a rattle can which I've never tried before. I pre-warmed the can and I don't know if this caused the problem or not but the paint went on thin and there is some running to rectify, even spraying from a distance. Looks like this is another 'simple' model where I'll be learning from my mistakes!!!!

[Bigkev]

Trials and tribulations of modelling.
Keep at mate, you'll get there in the end.
Cheers,
Kevin

[chriswil42]

Yes, I'm still learning too.