DHC-3 Otter Selection
(Part 1 of Antarctic Aviation series)
Product # 4807
Review by Steve Bamford (ARC Staff)
Growing up and living on the west coast of Canada, I've seen endless float planes taking off and landing. The port city I live in has more that a few commuter airlines offering harbour to harbour service in Beaver, Otter and Twin Otter aircraft. Float planes opened up and serviced the tiny remote communities in the vast Canadian wilderness and proved their suitability and excellence at the job many, many times. There is something magical about a plane that can fly above endless wilderness where no roads can be found and finally land at some remote lake. It's no surprise that these Canadian built aircraft were found to be equally adapt in the Antarctic climate.... afterall....if these planes can conquer the Canadian wilderness and climate, then they would be well suited to the harsh climatic conditions of the South Pole region. This just released decal sheet remembers one of the mainstay aircraft types of the Antarctic. Included in this decal sheet are markings for 6 different Otters from 5 different countries.
Decal option #1 is a DHC-3 Otter of the Argentinian Airforce out of Benjamin Matienzo Air Base, Anarctica in 1966. The colour scheme of this Otter is a combination of Bright Red and Dayglo Orange.
Decal option #2 is a DHC-3 Otter of the Belgian Antarctic Expediton in 1960. The colour scheme of this Otter is a combination of Bright Red and White.
Decal option #3 is a DHC-3 Otter of the Royal Norwegian Airforce circa 1968. The colour scheme of this Otter is overall silver with Dayglo Orange trim.
Decal option #4 is a Ex-RNoAF DHC-3 Otter 60-395 used by the British Antarctic Survey as VP-FAM in the 1968/69 season. this plane crashed on 3/3/69. The colour scheme of this Otter is overall Bright Red.
Decal option #5 is a DHC-3 Otter used by the British Antarctic Survey serial number 294 and operated in Antarctica between 1959 to 1964. This plane was allotted the registration VP-FAK but it was never applied. The colour scheme of this Otter is overall Bright Red.
Decal option #6 is a UC-1 Otter operated by VX-6, USN at McMurdo sound, Antarctica from 1956 to 1966 as part of Operation Deep Freeze. The colour scheme of this Otter is International Orange and Silver.
As a side note....these markings and more are also available in 1/72 from Max Decals.
(resolution of decal sheet has been reduced to 75 DPI protect the art work)
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(click on pictures below to bring up full screen pictures)