The paratroopers exit doors were modelled on a piece of thin styrene, cut to the shape of the fuselage
openings. Within the exit doors, the emergency exit hatches were situated along their latching locks and
sealing coaming. The emergency hatches also included the windows, their framing being the same as
the rest of the fuselage windows. The door interior detailing was added and the doors were painted in
Alclad ALC-117 Dull Aluminium. Then, using a small piece of paper as a mask, the outer sides were
painted in the camouflage colours,
...and the doors were finished with the addition of the Plexiglas windows.
As for the crew entrance door, this was modelled
almost exclusively of styrene.
I glued the door to the fuselage along with its
retracting rams (Albion Alloys metal tubes) and the
up-pulling handle (painted white). The door steps
stencils were printed on clear decal film, as it was
done with the rest of the stencilling.The Noratlas was provided with two manually
retractable tail stands to prevent an unwanted tail-
sitting during the loading/unloading procedure. I
modelled these from lengths of brass tubes
soldered together. I avoided the - much easier to
model - styrene rod idea; the fact that they might
be broken every single time I would like to move
the model down the years was an upsetting
thought. I modelled the relevant recesses on the
fuselage which are the shape of the pads; the
pads themselves fit flush into the recesses when
the rods are retracted.Through the holes and under the floor
I initially glued a brass tube (detail ‘A’-
RED) which extended from side to
side in order to get everything
coaxially fitted. I cut in half the ‘Π’-
shape seen in the previous photo and
slid each side to the tube already in
place (detail ‘B’-BLUE). Finally I
inserted a small diameter tube (detail
‘C’- YELLOW). I cemented this
innermost tube (YELLOW) to the
middle ones (the ‘BLUE’ halves –
detail ‘D’) and so I prevented them
from sliding out of position. The
procedure described also left the tail
stands dangling which is much safer
than cementing them.
The last part of the procedure is seen here;
the innermost tube is inserted to the
middle half-tubes. I sparingly applied CA
glue, between the inner and middle tubes
taking care not to touch the large tube.