Finished model 2025-VI

I’m not sure if Tintin et le lac au requins is considered canon, it is not an Hergé script, but the final comic book was produced by Studios Hergé and it is close enough to the spirit of the original Tintin books. And, there are quite a few aircraft in the film, and it just so happens that the first finished subject in my project to build all aircraft shown in Tintin books became the Aero Commander in which Tintin, captain Haddock and the Thompson twins crash in the Syldavian mountains.

Aero Commander, yes… The closest fit is an Aero Commander 680, but the animators have taken considerable liberties with the layout. While the cabin is not exactly cramped, it is not the airliner cabin with room to stand up and a lavatory at the back depicted:

Aero Commanders have their doors on the port side, but in the film there is a prominent door on the starboard side, so that the plane can move towards the right (forwards, according to Western image conventions) while the pilot makes a dramatic exit with the parachute he’s suddenly wearing:

Aero Commanders normally don’t have wheel well covers either (though some have had them added as rebuilds).

There was only a single seat for the pilot (as opposed to the double-command of the real aircraft), so apparently captain Haddock is kneeling on the floor next to Tintin when the latter takes over the command:

The livery of the aircraft, as well as the inside colour, is inconsistent between different shots, compare the front view above with a distance shot:

I decided to go for the bare-metal underside, as that fits with the general airlinerness of the subject.

Up until recently, there was only one choice if you wanted to build an Aero Commander, Aurora’s venerable offering in 1:81 scale. There is now a resin kit of an Aero Commander 560 from Croco Models which perhaps could be converted into a 680. But, I ended up with the Aurora. The kit is considerably older than I am and rather simplified. It does not have an extended undercarriage option, so it has to be mounted on a stand. Worst of all, it has the affectation of many models at the time that the outlines of the decals have been engraved in the surface (who came up with that idea, and why!?). On reasonably flat surfaces this is just a matter of puttying, but with the corrugated tail of the Aero Commander it was just about hopeless to get a decent surface. I spent considerable time creating an interior approximating the one in the film aircraft, scratch-building seats and modifying a set of random scale figures I had purchased from a noname Chinese company for a couple of crowns to look like our heroes (I found a nice pilot in airline uniform in my spares box). I even managed to replicate Snowy in Tintin’s lap. Needless to say, none of this is visible through the windows.

I also scratchbuilt the wheel wells for the undercarriage, including the engine exhausts that are routed through here in rather prominent ducts, but had to cut off large parts of the laboriously constructed parts as they wouldn’t fit in the very narrow wheel wells of the model. At least I did manage to create some rather neat landing lights with little-lenses and Kristal Klear, and navigation lights from the HOBBY + PLUS offering.

Finally, I decided that the aircraft had to have registration codes, as that is legally required. From other albums, we know that Syldavian aircraft have a SY prefix followed by three letters, so generating a random registration I came up with SY-UJU in a suitable typeface.

The less said about the painting with my nemesis white, the better.