DHC-2 Beaver

Dave Flitton
Hmmmmm... I want to watch this

Gordon Sørensen
Cool airplane. This is another kit I wish Airfix would re-release!

Kelly Wellington
Not only that, I also wish somebody would take on creating decent 1:72 kits of the DHC-6 and DHC-7. I've got the DHC-2 in the Hobbycraft, too....a clear fuselage. Now with Viking, out of BC, has all the licenses, you'd think they'd do some encouragement. Classic rigs, most of them.

Gordon Sørensen
I read that Revell is planning to re-release the Matchbox Twin Otter later this year! I will definitely be picking up a couple of those, one of my favorite airplanes and my first real flying job. I thinks Cariboo has been produced (resin in 144 if IIRC) but a Buffalo and Dash 7 would be great too!

Kelly Wellington
Oh, yeah....a new production of the Twin Otter! Most excellent. I suspect that means that Viking has signed off on it...which, in turn, means that they might well sign off on other DHC craft. (I hope, I hope, I hope....) I have the Caribou in 1:72; a Hobby Craft production. Same with the Dash 8.

Kelly Wellington
I think you and I are the germ of the scalemates' DHC fan club, Gordon. One of the items on my bucket list is to get back up to Victoria and arrange a flight out of the Inner Harbour on one of the Twin Otters that frequent it.

Gordon Sørensen
The Official DHC Appreciation Club! Wonder if the new Revell release of the Twin Otter will be for the -400? I had read somewhere the Modelcraft Dash 8 models were not that accurate. I want a Q400 in 1/72 - it's what I am flying presently. I went down to Victoria Harbour a couple years ago to watch the seaplanes there. And there is the floatplane base in Vancouver, another great airplane spotters site.

Glenn
Gordon the Hobbycraft 1/72 Dash-8 Looks pretty good built up. There's one modded to a stretched Qantas bird in my Model Expo album. I'd say the Hobbycraft Caribou has more of a problem with the gull wing it just don't look right built straight from the box. it needs to be cut and "bent up" after the engines i've built the Aircraft in Miniature Vac-Form and that looks pretty good in the RAAF desert red-sand camo scheme i did mine in.

Kelly Wellington
I've got two Dash 8 kits and I'm intent upon doing one of them in Canadian Environmental Patrol....all red. It's nice to know it goes together decently.

Kelly Wellington
So...This Beaver was going so swimmingly that I'd put several coats of paint on it and it was looking decent. Then, I got to the attach the pontoons part. There are no accommodating guide holes for the float struts on the fuselage. It looks to me like I'm going to have to drill. I checked to see that I hadn't blown through some warning to open holes before joining the fuselage halves....but, no. I have a bona fide stumbling block. From fun little quick project to second pita in a row now stacked up on the workbench in one easy step. Time to finish the Mariner to get it out of the way. The Blenheim still needs props. The Arado Ar-196 is next in the queue; it will now have to wait.

Dave Flitton
Nooooooo....must finish!

Dave Flitton
It's looking good! Such inspiration for my own build.

Gordon Sørensen
Looks good, like the contrast between the green and red-orange. Drilling shouldn't be a problem! I have a little pin vice I use for situations exactly like this.

Kelly Wellington
Yeah...I found the fluorescent orange/olive drab combo in a photo of a US Army Beaver and liked it so much I appropriated it. I couldn't see the horizontal stabilizers in the photo and the vertical stablizer has a block of orange that I didn't emulate. And, of course, the serial numbers will not match, but, hey...I do like the combo and I will be interested to see the result when I Dulcote it.

It looks like I'll have to drill for the stirrup style footsteps under the rear doors, too. I might need a smaller bit for those....*sigh* Does Airfix do this often? It's just so....Airfix....A perfectly fine kit with something inexpilcably wrong. The kit needs to be reworked, particularly with better instructions. The bones are there, but the delivery needs work. If they did that, they'd have an absolutely stellar novice starter kit.

Kelly Wellington
Obviously, I opted for the US Army version. I figure that the Army made the Beaver. They committed to so many rigs just as it was coming on line that it launched DHC's continuing STOL program. And the Army come back for subsequent products they liked the Beaver so much.

Kelly Wellington
Wait...wait...I'm hoping for decent productions of the Buffalo (DHC-5) and the Dash 7 (DHC-7). I have three kits of the Matchbox DHC-6 Twin Otter (I tend to place the Twin Otter at DHC-4, but the two big rigs are between the Otter and its Twin), it could be better, but hey, it exists and it is not a complete headache.

Glenn
I hear your Kelly! I'd love to see a new 1/72 DHC-5 Buffalo and a Dash 7!!! Any Model company's out there hearing this??? 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Looking good.

Kelly Wellington
Okay...I've survived the whole float strut thing....I think. I hope.

It's sitting under a notepad weight to keep the struts 'sprung' so that they are even close to the holes reputedly there for them. The glue is drying. A little paint touch up after it drys and I can move on to the decals and Dulcote.

Gordon Sørensen
Looks like a strong mount for the floats to be able to hold up that weight!

Kelly Wellington
The mounts were 'sprung' such that I needed the weight to push the struts down and hold them to the hole in the floats to glue them in place.

Kelly Wellington
Sucko decals. That top one tore, too. I consider myself lucky getting out with just some silvering on the upper wing US ARMY decal.

Clifford Keesler
It still looks nice to me.

Kelly Wellington
Actually....considering my skill level and the problems presented by the kit, I'm pleased with the result.