Space Shuttle Orbiter & Boeing 747

[Mike]

Space Shuttle Orbiter & Boeing 747

1:200 Hasegawa

When the Space Shuttle blasted off on its first mission 30 years ago it began its career as a reusable space craft that has ended only last week with the final flight of the Shuttle Atlantis. Of the original fleet of five, only three remained to be claimed by museums, Challenger and Columbia both lost in tragic accidents.

There are a number of kits of the Shuttle in various scales, and inclusion of the components of the launch stack varies almost as much, depending on the scale of the kit. The old 1:144 kit of the Enterprise atop a recycled American Airlines Boeing 747 in bare metal is long gone from the shelves, but when this kit dropped out of the box from Amerang, it stirred up some old feelings from my youth.

The kit arrives in a 1:48 fighter sized box, with a photo of a weary-looking shuttle sitting astride the fuselage of a NASA liveried B747. Inside are three sprues of grey and one of white styrene relating to the 747, plus two black & three in white for the Shuttle. Additionally, two smoked clear sprues of parts for stands are included, together with a clear part for the 747's flight deck and a smoked part for the Shuttle's. The package is completed by two flat metal nose-weights, a large decal sheet and instruction booklet.

For someone wanting to build the transport configuration of the Shuttle, 1:200 is actually a very shelf friendly scale, with the 747 coming out around the size of a 1:48 F-16 in length, but a little wider in wingspan. The Shuttle is barely 6" long excluding the exhaust bells.

The part count for each kit is quite low, with only external features represented on the 747, plus a set of multi-wheeled landing gear typical of this big beast. Panel lines are raised throughout the 747, but are very fine, and if the modeller elects to re-scribe, it should be possible to do so without having to remove the raised lines first.

The Shuttle has recessed panel lines, although very fine ones, along the leading edges of the wings and along the border between the black and white tiles, plus a few major access panels. Of course the individual tiles aren't depicted, so the modeller will need to make their own attempt (or not) at reproducing the tiled effect. I understand that there are decal sheets out there that portray a "used" tile system, but have no other information to impart, as I'm a little rusty in building Real Space subjects.

The rear of the Shuttle can be modelled with the aerodynamic "ferry" fairing installed for flight, or with the exhaust bells exposed, but looking at the bells themselves, they appear to be a little "off" to my eyes, and the large reaction thrusters on the "power-eggs" a bit too straight sided. Of course, I'm going by my recollections of the Shuttle's early career, but I don't recall any changes to the designs of these aspects since then.

The decal sheet is large for the scale of the kit, and includes two livery choices for the 747, either N911NA carrying Discovery, or N905NA for the Enterprise landing test scheme. The latter in bare metal with the red/white/blue cheat-lines still applied. The instructions don't show the painted out "American Airlines" logos above the cheat-line that were feint but quite visible on the original. Converting some AA logos to grey outlines and experimenting with printing them yourself could be an option to accomplish this task.

The decal sheet is well printed and in good register, although as usual with Hasegawa, the carrier film is a little "robust" looking. You do get all 6 Shuttle names in small and large typefaces, plus some of the harder parts of the tiling to reproduce - namely around the windscreen, flying surfaces and the black tiled "bridle" on the nose of the active duty Shuttles.

Conclusion

A very shelf-friendly model of the Shuttle in transport mode, that if carefully painted and decaled should result in a handsome replica of this historic space vehicle. The model should be simple to build, but you could have hours of fun (hopefully) painting and weathering it to match your photo references.

Review sample courtesy of

UK distributors for

[richellis]

I want one........

[Obi-Jiff Kenobi]

Me too! Nice write-up, Mike.

[gunpowder17]

Me three! It would be nice after having that ridiculous sized 1/72 version hanging around for so long!

[Iain Ogilvie]

Can't believe I'm typing this given my normal predilections - but that looks ace!!

Iain

[Obi-Jiff Kenobi]

Can't believe I'm typing this given my normal predilections - but that looks ace!!

Iain

Imagine it in 1:32, though.

[Mike]

Can't believe I'm typing this given my normal predilections - but that looks ace!!

I know, I had to put my sensible head on and give it away, even though it was beckoning me with a silicon tiled finger to build it

...after having that ridiculous sized 1/72 version hanging around for so long!

Bagsie!

[chadders]

There's nothing wrong with the 72nd scale one!!! :D

[Peter O]

The decals include markings that aren't shown on the instructions. Here's a poster showing all the SCA Color Schemes that have been used.

There is also an excellent SCA thread Here.

If you build it without the tail cone to represent the final two Approach and Landing Test flights, Enterprise was not fitted with real engine nozzles, so the detail on the SSMEs will need to be filed off for a smooth contour. The ALTs also used a longer nose strut, to give Enterprise a positive AOA when it was released from the 747.

Peter

[John_W]

I remember building the 1/200 shuttle in 1986 when they released it as a full stack with crawler and it was a cracking little kit. Time for a nostalgia build...