De Havilland DHC-3 Otter

Here’s my build of the Hobbycraft DHC-3 Otter in 1:48. It was a garage sale kit that a friend sent me. I decided to build it as a Civil bush floatplane.

The DHC-3 was developed by De Havilland Canada in early 1951 as a larger and more powerful follow on to their highly successful DHC-2 Beaver, dubbed the “King Beaver” early on, later named the Otter. It could seat 10 or 11 passengers in the main cabin, or considerably more freight than the Beaver. It was powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1340 geared radial engine and operated on wheels, skis, floats, and amphibious floats. A total of 466 Otters were built and served in the RCAF in the role of search & rescue as well as a light transport and freight hauler. During the Suez Crisis in 1957 the Canadian government sent 4 Otters to the region aboard the Royal Canadian Navy HMCS Magnificent from Halifax to Port Said to provide assistance to the UN Emergency Force. Upon arrival all 4 flew off unassisted while the ship was at anchor. It was the only occasion that RCAF fixed wing aircraft ever operated from a Canadian warship.
The United States Army became the largest operator of the Otter, designated U-1A with a total of 184 units delivered. Other military users were Australia and India.
The Otter also found success as a civilian bush plane and underwent many modifications including installation of PT-6A, Garrett TPE-331, or Walter M602 Turbine engines, and also the PZL ASz -62 radial engine of 1000 hp.

The kit needed some extra work. The instrument panel was kind of boring, so I built a new one. The seats were oversized and clunky, I used seats from my stash that were more in scale. I added spray rails to the floats and added pulleys and cables for water rudder steering and retraction and mooring and handling lines. I also used an aftermarket resin R-1340 that I wired up. I added wingtip strobes, nav lights, rotating beacon, nav and comm antennas, and made some decals for the fictitious “Bear Lake Air Service” and gave it a fictitious Canadian registration. Overall a fun build for a freebie.

8 additional images. Click to enlarge.