Turnin’n bur. . . no wait

thatll be turning and turning – decided to improve the wheels and propellers

I just discovered khee kha’s amazing conversion for the Vazar Turbo Otter, and has entered a dialog with Lars on a set of props for the Twin Otter – but that may take a few days to be a new AM kit, and so attention turns to the turning propellers – that are supposed to stand still. And as mentioned in the CAF build, they have to be feathered when on ground.

To start with, here are all the efforts of the day;

All laid out for comparison

The blades are made from a piece of evergreen, with the major filing and carving done first to the whole set (8 blades as most likely I will need spares)

From the left; original, hub, new blade, and two rough blades.

And then the turning wheels got the center drilled out, a brass tube installed and then some curing time.

The tubing will need trimming, and a plastic inner will be made for the rim.

Finally I added a lot of lead to the nose. It seems a bit heavy, but rather a gram too heavy.

And some more filing on the blades will take place while the glue cures in the nose. . .

Feel free to comment – your input is what makes it worth posting here on this great site!

White!

Testing masks and priming white

Some days ago a letter arrived from Arctic Decals with a few sets of DHC-6 masks. Mika kindly offered to send me some of his masks in Vinyl, and some in Yellow Tape.

And so I set out masking the passenger windows in preparation for primer.

I used two sets of masks, the vinyl on one half, as I added them both inside and outside. (As you may recall I had worked a lot on the windows and will be making some sort of interior as well, and need to paint the inside as well)

Another task was re-visiting the filler, and the earlier parts that had been filled has sunk, and needed more, and also the tires were given a rough layer on the outside.

There is a lot of static-build-up today, and the afternoon will surely end in showers. That also means there are lots of dust, and not really ideal for painting, but as it was “just” primer that need to be sanded anyway, and also because I had purchased a spraycan of Tamiya white primer, I wanted to see how that performed.

I have to say that the aerosol primer performed extremely well, levelling flawlessly and touch-dry almost immediately! Highly recommended for those that do not want to clean the airbrush all the time (or do not have an airbrush)

Back to the workbench – other projects are waiting. As always, feel free to comment on the build

Looking fantastic, @airbum! Such amazing job! Cannot wait to see this rarely built model finished. Had left my 1/48 Vautour unattended for a couple of weeks, shifting my priorities, but not anymore! No Sir! My Vautour will have my attention too.
All the best, my friend; I love your work!

Moving around

Got some hours on the Twotter today, and feddled more or less all over the poor thing

Some days ago I opened up the intakes

That will look a lot better I think.

Having gone mad with lead to ensure it would have the nose on terra firma, it was time to take some out again as the nosecone was incredibly heavy.

Compared with the picture a few posts back it is a lot that was taken out, and now it balances just fine, the tipping point being well forward of the mailwheels as far as I can tell.

The fuselage got another round of filler along seams and at the fin as the rudder has been cut off earlier. The propeller blades got shaped and needs only light finishing.

The legs were prepared so they can be mounted further up to depict a plane on the ground.

With that done I started on a plug to make a windscreen, but no pictures yet as it is just very basic right now and set aside to cure before being shaped.

And with that chaotic round, no one knows whats next – stay tuned folks!

Looks great, Erik. You are getting a lot done, but I have to tell you that I am anxious to see it with paint and decals. In 1/72, I am always worried about the strength of the landing gear versus the weight I put in the nose.

Sanding, filing and filling

The last time I worked on this I put on a lot of filler

And now I finally found time to file and sand most of it off again

The deep groves for the wingfences are OK now – will need some primer and sanding and maybe one more round of primer, then it will be time to make new fences.

I also started a mold for a new windscreen, even though I still haven’t figured out what to do. Perhaps for the prototype I will use the old candle trick – has worked before, but not as good as a true vac-form windscreen.

dunno’ what next – you have to tune in to check!

Replacing complex canopies can be a real problem and has been the reason I abandoned a couple of models in the past. I had the same problem with the CF-100 I just finished. Shattered the canopy. I was able to replace the front windscreen with something from a T-33, but if I couldn't find something similar I would have been out of luck. I have tried vacuforming canopies with varying amounts of success, mostly not very good. It isn't hard to build your own vacuforming machine using a shopvac, if that's the way you want to go. Good luck.

Spiros @fiveten, were the decals on your Shin Meiwa sealed? I have seen decals on a model age and yellow like that if they aren't sealed. Back in the day, I flew a mission in the C-141 into one of the Japanese bases that had the Shin Meiwa. Being in a traffic pattern with these planes was really cool.