DHC-6 in progress

The beginning! I'll be using the Aerocraft update set so first thing will be some chopping! Not done this before... 

First time using craft saw!! Managed to get it about ~1mm wrong at the bottom.. some filling will be required 🙁 

Fuselage is glued together and here's the resin part that will be filling in (lol) for the cockpit section 

Aerocraft models resin parts, here doing a dry fit. Much better than the original canopy, at least so far! I've already managed to get an errant blade mark on the port side windscreen, let's see how much more damage I can do..  

20 grams of weight in the nose according to instructions. Crammed a bunch of liquid gravity mixed with PVA in the nose cone but still only around 15gm will fit, so will need to figure out where else to add weight 

Decided to glue the nose cone to the cockpit section at this point. Good idea? We'll find out.. Can't help using a bit of flory wash on the interior bits even though most will not be seen 

Cockpit bits coming together. Decals are surprisingly good for an old kit.. love the seatbelts! Bit of flory all round for some definition 

Canopy was dipped in Klear and masked.. need to remember to add some liquid mask over the middle of the main panels!! 

Figured out where I could add the extra weight!! More liquid gravity added under the cockpit floor. This one's definitely not going to be a tail sitter!! 

As a result of my bad sawing, we have a pretty severe gap problem going on here. Will need some big fixing 

Perfect Plastic Putty for the first round of sand and fill (there will be many)
Also sanded back the very prominent prop guard panels on each side behind the cockpit doors as these seemed pretty much invisible in reference photos 

I'm not making the float version so these placeholders will need to go 

All is calm for now.. 

After a first coat of Alclad primer & microfiller, the second round of putty.. and sanding.. 

Getting there 

Still big seams, maybe some Mr Surfacer 1000 will help? 

Aerocraft nacelles superglued on and again, more sanding needed 

Second coat of primer. Still work to do, particularly around the cockpit doors 🙁 

Adding some styrene sheets into the massive gaps under the engines.. according to reference pictures these are supposed to be quite thin 

Disaster mitigation! My terrible sawing earlier resulted in a very bad seam on the port side of the cockpit and a hairline crack formed. rather than pull the whole thing apart I decided to drill a hole between the two parts and fill it with a load of superglue! Will fill the hole later and hope it helps structurally.. fingers crossed 

Drilled some holes in the fuselage and filled with superglue & milliput to finish. Hopefully, no more cracks!! 

Trying to cut some masking tape to the exact right width of the prop stripes.. 

Digital calipers very handy for this job 

Time for some brass! Aerorcraft replacement undercarriage. Decided to attach these now rather than later 

masking props 

Perfect Plastic Putty and much sanding to get that transition between the brass and the model right.. more work needed
*edit: only just noticed that the actual aircraft has a noticeable offset on the landing gear, so my smoothing is actually inaccurate 🙁 

 

Priming has begun.. more sanding needed still. Primed in Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 first while getting the cockpit area right, then a couple of coats of Tamiya Fine white. Going to have to find some cheaper solutions though, this stuff is expensive, and I've used nearly a whole can for this model..  

 

Some quick ref to make sure the prop stripes are the right size! Or roughly speaking, at least. Note that the kit instructions have the stripes the wrong way round, it should be red/white/red, not white/red/white 

Clearing out the hole for the brass front landing gear 

Yellow is going on!! 

Preparing to drill a hole for the front landing gear strut 

Nose gear looking ok so far. Primed with Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 and topped with Alclad Aluminium 

Found some cheap leather hole punches online—needed a bit of sanding with a dremel to get them nice and sharp but they make great cutters for circular masks for tyres 😄 

 

Should have waited until after painting to add the flap actuators.. major masking pain. Also, small plastic bag helps if you are a lazy masker!  

Some painted stabilisers 

 

More elaborate masking 

And more... 

Leather hole punches make good corners for masking 

Will it never end?? 

Many small touch ups required but the overall effect is getting there..
* Lost many of the flap actuators (which I should have left for later), these will need to be re-added 

Decals are going on! This may take a while...