The first new kits, out later this year, will be the DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver and the Pilatus PC-6 Porter. They will be laser cut, with traditional Guillow's construction, but with a few changes to make them lighter and some keying to make them easier to assemble properly. And, they do fly! They are 1/24 scale giving the Beaver a 24 inch span and the Porter a 26 inch span. The prop you see in the pictures is the same seven inch prop that comes with the 200 series kits. I can't give you an availability date yet, there is a lot of work to be done yet to get them into kit, but the target is first half of the year.
This is an early Beaver prototype. The cowl is planked up over formers, but is plastic on production kits.
This Beaver has scale elevator size and dihedral. Scale and oversized for flying elevator parts will be included in the kits. Two sets of wing struts, scale dihedral and flying dihedral, will also be included. The Beaver may have plans, but not the parts, for a set of floats. I'll let you know what decision they reach on that issue.
This Beaver has the flying elevator and dihedral.
By the way, the only paint on that Beaver is on the tail wheel and the inside of the cowl ring. All other markings and color on the model is colored tissue. Without the rubber it weighs 44 grams. The target design weight was 45 undecorated.
The Porter has similar construction.
Yes, the landing gear does actually move to absorb landing shock, but it's easier to assemble than you might think.
If anyone was wondering how I got this information, I designed the models under contract.
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