A camouflaged Twin Otter....

[dhanners]

Yukonjohn offered to repaint Murph’s DHC-6 Twin Otter in the colors of the UAE’s Joint Air Command, so I took him up on it. This particular aircraft, 2270, is used for reconnaissance.

This is my third build of a Murph Twin Otter and, like the other two, I resized it to 1/48th scale (the model comes in 1/41st) and I scratchbuilt and dropped the inboard double-slotted flaps to add a bit of visual excitement. The Twin Otter is a STOL plane, after all. I also did surgery on the elevators and rudder to make them separate pieces, and I repositioned the elevators.

I scratchbuilt the infrared tracker ball and the various antennas and aerials. I cut out the main door on the port side and replaced it with scribed gray cardstock to replicate the roll-up door seen on this aircraft. (In some photos of this aircraft, there’s a machine gun behind the door….)

The Twin Otters flown by the UAE feature “intermediate floatation gear,” or IFG, AKA “tundra tires” so they can operate from rough ground and desert. (It is the UAE, after all.) I scratchbuilt the 36-inch tires by laminating disks from cereal box cardboard, then cutting and sanding to shape. On aircraft equipped with IFG tires, the front landing gear fork is replaced by an enlarged fork to handle the larger tire, so I scratchbuilt that, too.

Lastly, I wanted to do something different with the propellers. First, I scratchbuilt my own spinners to make them more accurate than the kit offerings. I recalled from my styrene modeling days there is a photo-etch product called PropBlur, which is meant to replicate the look of a turning propeller. I always liked their look better than clear disks. I figured if the product was photo-etch, I could replicate it out of paper.

I got a sheet of black cardstock, broke out my compass, a white pencil and my Xacto knife and a little while later, I had paper prop blurs. Don’t know if I’m sold on the look, and I can always go back to the kit’s propellers.

The UAE aircraft are entirely dark gray and the only markings are some red safety warnings and the UAE flag and aircraft number on the tail.

Thanks for the repaint, Yukonjohn!

[yukonjohn]

You are welcome. I think Aaron has given us a solid basis for DHC-6 and your added details have taken that kit to new heights. Great build. File has been sent to Aaron.


Regards,
John

[Texman]

Nice job David!

[MacSongLi]

Great work David (and John). I love the lowered flaps, separate control surfaces for the stabilizers, radar ball, and the blurred props. A lot of very nice detailing.


Gary

[Rangerdog]

Spinning props effect is outstanding!

I've seen it before with a 1/32 scale B-17 plastic model but never thought to try it with paper.

[Butelczynski]

Good looking model.All grey doesn't look so boring here.

Aaron has pretty good Cessna Caravan -it is also used by number of air forces in all grey camo.Some of them are sporting many antennas and electronic surveillance equipment as well with addition to air-ground fireworks packages.

[gregbal]

Really enjoy the work you've put into this.
May I ask...how did you make the sensor ball? It looks perfect.
Cheers

[dhanners]

Originally Posted by gregbal

Really enjoy the work you've put into this.
May I ask...how did you make the sensor ball? It looks perfect.
Cheers

Thanks for the kind words. The IR ball is a small square of toilet paper saturated with glue and then rolled up into a ball. You just keep rolling it between the palms until it is spherical, then set it aside to dry.

Once it is dry, fill in any dents with glue. I then built the housing for it and paint covered all the other imperfections.