My name is Hector
Lopez and I´m from Mexico. I´m trying to make a collection of the
airplanes that the FAM uses, from the past until now. There are several
problems involved in such attempt, mainly because most of the airplanes have to
be modified in order to be able to fly well in Mexican altitudes and
geography. So most of the models of FAM aircraft, have to be either
modified or scratch built. This is the case with the PC-7, none of the big
or small manufacturers pay attention to this little bird. So if you want a
1/48 PC-7 model, there are two choices, scratch build one or get the very
limited Aeroteck resin kit; This one is available thru a Mexican on-line store,
but there are only a few made. The kit is garage type, made by a local
Mexican modelling group with base in Michoacan. This kit is made in cream
colored resin, and didn´t have attachment points or guides, so construction is
a bit difficult.
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I started
gluing the front intake and the tail end to the two fuselage halves, and after
that was done, I cemented the halves together, this was done to get the correct
width of the fuselage. After that, the cockpit tub was glued in place, and
all flying surfaces was test fitting. To put the one piece wings, vertical
and horizontal stabilizers in correct place I use a very little portion of epoxy
putty, this allowed me to move the pieces to their center yet hold them in
place.
When this was
accomplished, I secured the pieces with super glue. The canopy was sanded
and dipped in Future to improve the transparency and was glued in place with
tiny dots of super glue, to avoid fogging. The scheme I choose is the COIN
scheme that these planes wore for a long time before changing to green drab
overall, I think this one is more interesting; colors used are from Model
Master. Decals came from two sheets of Aztec brand decals, and performed
well. At last I have a good looking 1/48 PC-7 FAM, despite it is a bit
difficult kit to build, it´s well worth the effort and because of the few
number of parts it was put together in only 15 days! I´ll get a couple
more of PC7´s to make the green overall and the yellow trainer.
Hector
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