British Antarctic Survey Skyvan FINISHED (kinda)!

[Weaver]

Okay, I'm in with this little project, which combines two things I bought at the Bolton Show back in January (with no initial intention to combine them): an Airfix Skyvan and and S&M decal sheet for British Antarctic Survey aircraft.

The Budgie will be getting a re-arranged interior, possibly external tanks and a radar nose, and certainly the skis from the Twin Otter pictured, and will then be getting the decals for the real life BAS Twotter seen at the bottom of the sheet.



The colour is a surprisingly interesting issue: the decal sheet simply describes it as gloss red, and it certainly isn't dayglo orange. However, it's a distinctly orangy red and I'm not sure that any straight-from-the-tin Humbrol shade replicates it. IIRC, the rattle-can dayglo I have is translucent and very affected by the undercoat colour, so my first thought is that dayglo-over-red may do the job. I shall be conducting experiments.....

[Buzzbomb]

Hmm. this appears to be quite a natural for this environment.

[kitnut617]

The shade of red for a Canadian Maritime Patrol aircraft, the CanMilAir Decals instructions say to use ModelMaster Guards Red over a gloss/satin white primer.  It comes out quite a bright colour (wing tips and tail planes).
 

[TallEng]

Looks like Xtracolour Red Arrows Red XO14 (might also be known as signal red) would be a close match, it's more an Orangy red as against
Post office/roundel/cherry red, which is just red if you know what I mean

Regards
Keith

[Weaver]

Okay well after an interesting discussion over on What If Modellers, I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to use Hu.174 Signal Red for this one. Now the discussion about colour shouldn't have prevented me from starting, but in the process I looked at a lot of pics taken inside BAS aircraft and I realised that my interior fit probably wasn't a good idea.

An airliner-configured Skyvan has six rows of seats, each consisting of two seats on the left and one on the right, separated by an aisle. At the back, a three-quarter bulkhead has some basic galley equipment on it's back (can't find a good pic of exactly what). What I was going to do was have three double seats at the front, with a personal gear rack next to them in place of the single seats, then the galley bulkhead turned around 180 degrees, then the cargo compartment. However, two things have struck me about this:

1. BAS aircraft carry a LOT of cargo, and significant proportion of it is fuel drums, which are very heavy and have to be loaded with due regard for the aircraft CofG. In my layout, all the cargo would be in the rear half of the cabin, and that might cause CofG and tipping issues.

2. BAS aircraft have detachable seats and they use that facility regularly and flexibly, fitting just enough seats for the number of passengers and leaving the rest of the cabin free for cargo. They don't seem concerned about galley facilities (the Twotters tend to do short-haul anyway) and nor do they seem bothered about separating the passengers from the cargo in the event of a crash. Those two observations remove my rationale for the bulkhead, which would be much more difficult to make QD than the seats.

So instead, I'm going for a more flexible layout: no bulkhead, all the single seats in place and the space next to them free for cargo. That means that cargo can be positioned freely lengthways.

Some aircraft interior shots from the BAS's own website here: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/living_and_working/aircraft_and_vehicles/index.php

Inside Twotters:





Inside the Dash-7:

Note the lack of separation betwen cargo and passengers (the cargo door is at the front on this aircraft):

[Old Wombat]

Good reference photo's! :)

[Weaver]

Well it's been an eventful first day......

Cleaned up the various parts that make up the interior walls, decided not to embellish them, and sprayed them with white undercoat. Fine. Then this afternoon, I set about building the wings. Just one side trimmed and sanded, reached for the glue......... and knocked over the bottle of Liquid Poly...

It spilled straight over the four wing halves. I ran to the kitchen, filled a pint glass with brush cleaner and dropped them in it, but I think they're still spoilt. I now have a living room full of lovely fumes to boot, and it's cold and raining cats and dogs outside, so having the windows open is not a joy.

The good thing is, I have a spare set of wings because I built one Skyvan kit as a helicopter a few years back, and the wing halves were the ONLY things the glue landed on.

On the whole, don't know whether to call that lucky or unlucky.......


EDIT: I've just had to dismantle my whole modelling set up in the living room because I use a cardboard tray which the glue had soaked into, so it was evaporating too slowly to clear the fumes. The tray is now close to a warm air blower in another room with the windows open and the door closed.

I SO want the proper modelling room I've planned: tomorrow I'm going to go and see about getting the furniture taken away that's blocking me from getting on with it.

[raafif]

need a steam-punk sled to pose alongside it !!

[Weaver]

Cheers for that.

I was actually thinking of a vehicle to go alongside it, but I was thinking of something roughly like this:



http://www.foremost.ca/products/nodwell-110-0

It's a Nodwell 110C. I've got an Academy M977 which would provide the cab and flat bed, and I think you could approximate the running gear using T-34 wheels and 1/48th King Tiger tracks. wouldn't be anything like an exact model, but it would have the same vibe.

[Camthalion]

Looks interesting

[Weaver]

Cheers!

Progress is slow and steady and not worth photographing at the moment. This kit is VERY fiddly, being broken down into lots of tiny parts, and I'm currently trying to get all the little bits built and painted to suite a build sequence that makes the colour scheme easy to mask (you can't see it from the pic I posted, but the top of the BAS Otters' wings and flying surfaces are black).

Also been slightly held up by a request to make some new bits for pre-built Concorde that a mate bought and then dropped........

[Weaver]

Well that's a bugger: got everything lined up for the promised "progress" piccie, then found that the damn camera battery was flat.....

It was underwhelming anyway. Progress on this has bee delayed by two factors:

1. ROSH (Random Other Sh*t Happening),

2. Picking, buying, modding and painting the cargo. Can't build the rest until the cargo's done, and it's going very slowly. Good news is that it's starting to look good.

Another photo attempt tomorrow. Not saying "promise" 'cos that's obviously what flattened my battery today......

[Vuk]

Are those two fit to the idea somehow?

[Weaver]

Oooh, that Lotus is fancy. BMW bike engine I see.

Not doing an Aerosan with this one, but I do have a 1/72nd Scammel Scarab stashed away with the idea to make one, so I might put it with one of the other Antarctic projects. It would be a nice whiffy addition to the Pilatus PC-6, because that actual plane will be real-world.

Thanks for the idea!  :)

[Frank3k]

...but I do have a 1/72nd Scammel Scarab...

Ooooooooooo! Where did you get that?

[Tophe]

Freezing & interesting...

[Weaver]

...but I do have a 1/72nd Scammel Scarab...

Ooooooooooo! Where did you get that?

Dapol: http://dapol.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=177_62_155&product_id=566

They seem to be in most LHS now.

[Kerick]

Not sure how far along you are. If you have closed up the fuselage it may be too late but I noticed in the pics of the cargo loaded on the aircraft it looks like plywood on the floor. You could paint up some really thin sheet plastic and place it where it would be seen through the loading door.

[Weaver]

Not sure how far along you are. If you have closed up the fuselage it may be too late but I noticed in the pics of the cargo loaded on the aircraft it looks like plywood on the floor. You could paint up some really thin sheet plastic and place it where it would be seen through the loading door.

That is a good spot! I have the seats glued in down one side of the cabin, but I could put plywood under the cargo on the other side. I was going to put the four barrels on a pallet, but then I went off the idea since manhandling them would probably be easier.

Thanks for the idea!

[kitnut617]

Freightdog does some decals of wood grain     one sheet is of light coloured wood and the other dark wood.  Got a couple of sheets some time ago so I could do wood props but would work here too.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Harold, what about changing the name to Ptarmigan? :)

[jcf]

Harold, what about changing the name to Ptarmigan? :)

Perhaps not because ptarmigan don't live in the Antarctic? 

I do think though that it needs a Miskatonic University badge. 

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! 

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Harold, what about changing the name to Ptarmigan? :)

Perhaps not because ptarmigan don't live in the Antarctic? 

I do think though that it needs a Miskatonic University badge. 

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! 

It was the only snow bird I could think of and it does live in areas covered in snow.  Plus the ptarmigan is found in northern reaches of the UK, so there is that.  Thpppppt!

[Weaver]

I kind of thought that "Snow Budgie" would start as an insider nickname for it, then evolve into a put-on for newbies, along the lines of the Australian Drop Bear....

Anyway, some progress pics. Not all of this stuff is fully painted yet, some of it needs fixing and none of it's glued in (apart from the seats):





The pilots are white metal and the big crate is full of steel balls, so I'm using the cargo to help keep the nose down (probably crush the nose wheel now....).

[Kerick]

Not sure how far along you are. If you have closed up the fuselage it may be too late but I noticed in the pics of the cargo loaded on the aircraft it looks like plywood on the floor. You could paint up some really thin sheet plastic and place it where it would be seen through the loading door.

I doubt the seats would have plywood under them. Its more for protecting the floor from the cargo. How much of the floor would actually be visible?

That is a good spot! I have the seats glued in down one side of the cabin, but I could put plywood under the cargo on the other side. I was going to put the four barrels on a pallet, but then I went off the idea since manhandling them would probably be easier.

Thanks for the idea!