Airliners? Advice solicited

[Dave Ward]

Recently, I was showing a couple of my mates a few pictures of my latest builds ( yes, in the pub ), and one asked me if I ever built airliners. I had to say, not recently. Later I realised I couldn't remember the last time I had built an airliner - I can vaguely remember a Caravelle, and an Airfix Vickers Vanguard - but that must have been AT LEAST 30 years ago.
I reckon I must remedy this, so I've been looking round at options. I'm looking at 1/144, so I have few choices - I don't want to make anything vintage ( like the Airfix Comet - 1962!!! & still on sale, or any Concorde ), so it looks like Revell or Zvezda - anyone have any experience of either of these two makers' airliner models? I'm looking at the lower cost end of the market ( naturally :rolling: ), as a toe in the water before I really go overboard. Any comments, observations, and advice welcomed
Dave

[Guest]

I wouldn’t advise a Revell 747. I built one as Iron Maiden’s Ed Force One a few years ago and found it needs quite a lot of work and care to build. I saw at the time that Hasegawa also makes 747s, and probably other airliners, in 1:144, and was thinking that if I had known beforehand I’d probably have advised buying one of those kits and using the Revell decals on it.

This, though, is my only experience building airliners in the last 35 years or so

[Dave Ward]

Jakko,
according to Scalemates, the Hasegawa 1/144 747 IS the Revell model reboxed! ( but at a higher price )
Dave

[Ian M]

according to Scalemates, the Hasegawa 1/144 747 IS the Revell model reboxed! ( but at a higher price )

Reminds me when the New tool Italeri 1/48 Hurricanes hit the shelves. not to long after Tamiya popped them out as well.
People raved about the Tamiya kit and trashed the Italeri one..... Which was exactly the same kit. LOL

[yak face]

Most of the recent revell kits are good dave , same goes for zvezda recent ones , several of which have been reboxed by revell ( boeing 787 , boeing 747-800 to name two) The latest zvezda kits got rave reviews , the only drawback with some is they appear in factory promo schemes , the actual airline colours appearing later as happened with the b747-800 - it first came out as a zvezda kit with boeing promo scheme then appeared later in a revell boxing with lufthansa colours . Cheers tony

[Dave Ward]

Thanks, Tony,
I agree about the company promotional liveries, it should be something in regular service.
I think I've narrowed it down to four - all Revell, Embraer 190 Lufthansa, Embraer 195 195 Air Dolimiti, Airbus A320 Etihad & Boeing 727 Germania. I can get the last cheapest, but the 727 is an old plane. The Lufthansa has a very simple livery, the other two look a bit more colourful.
Now, the fun hunt begins - to find the cheapest package in the UK! - I'm getting wary of purchasing from the EU at the moment, as whilst Brexit may not have any effect on mail, you can't tell who is going to play silly buggers! ( what happens about VAT from EU? etc etc etc )
Dave

[yak face]

Thanks, Tony,
I agree about the company promotional liveries, it should be something in regular service.
I think I've narrowed it down to four - all Revell, Embraer 190 Lufthansa, Embraer 195 195 Air Dolimiti, Airbus A320 Etihad & Boeing 727 Germania. I can get the last cheapest, but the 727 is an old plane. The Lufthansa has a very simple livery, the other two look a bit more colourful.
Now, the fun hunt begins - to find the cheapest package in the UK! - I'm getting wary of purchasing from the EU at the moment, as whilst Brexit may not have any effect on mail, you can't tell who is going to play silly buggers! ( what happens about VAT from EU? etc etc etc )
Dave

I think the 727 is a very old tooling dave so i would think twice about that one . If you fancy doing something a bit more unusual zvezda have a couple of lovely tupolevs , the 134 and 154 and the ilyushin il 62 , all very recent toolings and real airline schemes

[Guest]

according to Scalemates, the Hasegawa 1/144 747 IS the Revell model reboxed! ( but at a higher price )

Oh! Good thing I didn’t even know about that kit back when I had to build the Revell one, then

Reminds me when the New tool Italeri 1/48 Hurricanes hit the shelves. not to long after Tamiya popped them out as well.
People raved about the Tamiya kit and trashed the Italeri one..... Which was exactly the same kit. LOL

It doesn’t just happen with wine, you know.

[Dave Ward]

Tony,
I'll add those onto my list - I was doubtful about the 727 anyway - looking at Scalemates, it seems to date from 1964!
Scalemates is invaluable for times like this, I've been able to download instructions for all on my list - now it's probably down to cost...............
Dave

[Fernando N]

Thanks, Tony,
I agree about the company promotional liveries, it should be something in regular service.
I think I've narrowed it down to four - all Revell, Embraer 190 Lufthansa, Embraer 195 195 Air Dolimiti, Airbus A320 Etihad & Boeing 727 Germania. I can get the last cheapest, but the 727 is an old plane. The Lufthansa has a very simple livery, the other two look a bit more colourful.
Now, the fun hunt begins - to find the cheapest package in the UK! - I'm getting wary of purchasing from the EU at the moment, as whilst Brexit may not have any effect on mail, you can't tell who is going to play silly buggers! ( what happens about VAT from EU? etc etc etc )
Dave

I've happen to have the Revell A320 Etihad in the stash, great quality decals but the sprues have lots of flash.
If you can get it cheap, it might be worth the effort Dave.

[Dave Ward]

At the moment the Revell A320 Etihad seems to be the front runner, at £12.28 delivered, but there are one or two ebay auctions finishing, before deciding............
Dave

[Dave Ward]

Revell A320 Etihad ordered - oddly the model set ( model + glue, paints, brush etc ), was actually cheaper than the model alone - so £12.28 delivered looks like a pretty good package.
I did have my eye on a Revell BAe 146 on ebay, but the prices were too high for my taste!
Dave

[flyjoe180]

Grab yourself a 1/200 Hasegawa Boeing 737, easy construction, nise ballast included, landing gear and display stand. Only downside (possibly) is the decals are usually Japanese companies but there are aftermarket options.

[Dave Ward]

Joe,
I did look at the Hasegawa models, but at 1/200, they look a little small - and they seem pretty expensive, and if you add in some AM decals, not very cost effective!
I'm not sure whether I'll enjoy the airliner genre, so, at first, I'm going to go down the economy seat route..........
Dave

[Mini Me]

Hi Dave, I have a couple 1/200 BAE 146s. Surprisingly, they aren't that small. You might give one a try if you can find it at a decent price. Cheers, Rick H.