1/48 Aeroteck Pilatus PC-7 Turbotrainer

by Hector Lopez

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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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Photos and text © by Hector Lopez