1/72 Aeroclub Pilatus PC-7

1st FTS RMAF

by Brian Param a.k.a Mr B

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  Malaysia National Day 2004 

 

The Pilatus PC-7 was the replacement for the S.A Bulldog as the basic trainer aircraft of the RMAF. They arrived in Malaysia in the early 1984 and were posted to 1 FTS. A small selection wore tactical camo and flew with 3 FTS in coin attack role. A total of 44 aircraft were purchased by the Malaysian government. Today the Malaysian PC-7s are supplemented by the PC-7mk II.

Click on images below to see larger images

The kit is the Aeroclub offering. It is a very basic rendition of the PC-7. Building the kit takes a lot of patience and time and lots of putty and sanding to get the wings, stabilizers and the fin to sit decently. Other points to note is that the engine intake, gear mounting holes and the nose gear well needs to be cut out from the plastic. Plastic card is needed to build the nose gear doors. I also added the various antennas present on Malaysian PC-7s.All in all this is a testing kit, which requires a lot of time and patients to get right.

I chose to model my PC-7 following the standard colours of the RMAF training school at Alor Setar in the mid 80tees to the early 90tees. The original scheme was the red/orange with white. Due to the extreme acrobatics and demanding flying training, the Pratt and Whitney engines on the PC-7 use to develop a lot a residue making the orange/red finish very dirty indeed. It was then painted with a black strip to overcome this problem. In fact it made the aircraft more nicer looking to me. Today the PC-7s of the RMAF use a very different scheme with white and orange/red again.

Paints used were gunze and revell :
Red  H 23 (Gunze) 70%
Orange H 14 (Gunze) 30% ratio
White Revell 04

 Brian 

Photos and text © by Brian Param a.k.a Mr B