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Here is my finished Boeing 777-FB5 in 1/144 scale which has been converted from the Revell B777-300ER kit. Presented in the attractive Korean Air livery sporting registration HL8251. This is the 2nd time I have done this conversion, having previously built my British Airways B777-236(ER). It’s a lovely little conversion and the added bonus is that the freighter version of the B777 uses the same engines and extended wing tips as the B777-300(ER). I did do a WIP post before on how to do this conversion when I built my BA B777. The decals are from Draw Decal and the wing markings are from RichW. Paints used were Ford Riveria Blue from Halfords which I found was a good match for the light blue of Korean Air. Halfords Appliance White for the lower fuselage & nacelles and racking grey for the wings and stabilisers. The ‘silver’ stripe through the fuselage was my own mix of Revell Aqua colours 371 and 90. I opted to paint the silver line first and then mask off the areas for the light blue and white sections. The metals are from Revell’s Aqua range. I enjoyed this build as it made a nice change from the Airliner’s I usually build as it’s the first time I’ve built a freighter model. I am currently working on the new Zvezda B757 kit and a B787-8. Thank you for looking and as always all comments and feedback are greatly appreciated. Regards, Alistair

The plan and goal in developing the Boeing 757 was to replace the already ageing Boeing 727. The new plane type made its maiden flight in 1982 and during the next 12 years some 1.050 pieces of Boeing 757 were built in two different versions. In their fleet Finnair operated seven longer fuselage Boeing 757-200's powered by Pratt & Whitney 2000 engines. These planes were mainly used for chartered holiday flights and I also flew a couple of times with them to Madeira and to the Canary islands. The planes’ seating was normally very cramped and the Finnish holidaymakers gave the Boeing 757 the nasty nickname ”the guinea pig cage 🙂 I built the model from an excellent Authentic Airliners resin kit in 1/144 scale. There were no problems in assembling the model; only a bit of sanding and putty here and there was needed but nothing special worth mentioning. I bought decals for the the Finnair livery from Draw Decal and the cockpit window decals from Authentic Airliners. The corogard and stencil decals are from Flying decals. I painted the white areas of the model with Tamiya Fine surface primer coated with Tamiya gloss varnish spray TS-13. The gray areas in the wings and stabs were paint brushed with Xtracolor X150 (Canadian voodoo grey). I also used various Humbol and Vallejo paints for details.

Here I present my Swiss A320 built using the Zvezda kit. The kit is OOB except for the decals being from DrawDecal and the Sharklets from BraZ. This was one of my first builds getting back in to the hobby, so apologies if it’s not the best with detail etc. I am missing the Antennas which I may add now that I have some better tools and patience 😂. The Zvezda A320 kit along with the A321 is a great one, as you get the option for flaps extended or retracted, and it comes with different landing gear options to simulate the lack of suspension applied to them when the Aircraft is on finals. The model is painted using Halfords Appliance White, Greys are a variety of Revell Aqua Colours. Red for the tail was Revell Red. I went for the flap extended option on this model, but want to get more tips/practice with ‘weathering’ for the wings etc, as it’s not something I have done before. Would be good to find out what others do to achieve this effect? The decals fitted the model excellently and would have been complimented by AA decals to give that extra ‘real’ effect. Overall I am quite happy with a ‘simple’ livery build for building up experience etc. Thank you for looking and as always any feedback is greatly appreciated. Alistair

Hi folks, Seems my models are like London buses: you get nothing for ages and then two come along at once. Whilst finishing off my Seafire I was also bringing this to a conclusion. I've always liked the yellow & black checkerboard markings of the 353rd Fighter Group, and have long wanted a Mustang in those markings. But in1/72 scale, decals for Slybird P-51s are very hard to find, particularly with the excellent Barracudacals set now discontinued (or so it seems). Still, I found the website of Draw Decals who provide a set for a warbird two-seater which is painted to resemble The little Witch, which was flown by Lt Don Schoen in early 1945. The kit is the 1/72 Airfix, which is an easy build. I filled in the wing panel lines, modified the fin fillet to the earlier Swayback style, and added cockpit rails. Otherwise it's pretty much out of the box. Paint is Alclad Polished Aluminium for the natural metal areas, and plain Aluminium for the wings. Tamiya olive drab on the nose and black on the rudder. Here are some piccies: Ths spinner is Xtracrylics RAF Trainer Yellow, lightened a touch to match the decals as best as possible, with Tamiya black rings. A bit fiddly but it came out OK. I kept weathering to a minimum: a thin pin-wash, a couple of streaks here and there - nothing major. I was originally thinking of displaying the model wheels-up, with radiator door slightly open and flaps partially deployed. Then I changed my mind, but by then the flaps were stuck on. This presented a dilemma: as Mustangs were parked with flaps either up or fully down, how to display an accurate-ish model with flaps only partially lowered whilst on the ground? So I decided to add the pilot, and display the aircraft as though he's got flaps for take-off, with clamshell doors closed. Pity the propeller isn't spinning... Don't read the data panel: there are some inconsistencies... I also realise that I should have blanked off the flare tube for this particular aircraft. Doh! The nose decals behaved very well with a bit of help from the Microscale solutions, though I did have to cut them a couple of squares-worth to make them conform better. The fuselage codes are slightly incorrect in terms of style for the original Little Witch, as they are spot on for the modern recreation. I chose to chop them up and reassemble the pieces make them look slightly closer to the originals, i.e. a narrower font. Doesn't look too bad. The serials are a mixture of Draw Decal and Kits World. Other stencils are from the kit. Here's the slighly reshaped fin fillet, which was a relativley straightforward job. I also scribed the horn balances on the elevators. Photos of the modern Little Witch can be found at the Website below. https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?90644-Lt-Don-Schoen-(353rd-FG)-to-be-re-united-with-quot-The-Little-Witch-quot Which is where I also found the pictures of the original aircraft: Number four for the year! Hope you like it. Justin

This was completed for the Airliner III GB currently underway. Since some of you don't venture over there and are having airliner withdrawals in RFI I thought I would post this here :D. It is the Revell B767-300 kit from the Gulf Traveller boxing. I built it out of the box and used Australian Airlines markings from the Draw decal sheet. A bit of history on Australian Airlines Australian Airlines was a short lived full-service airline based in Australia, servicing Australian and Asian destinations between 2002 and 2006. It was an all-economy, full-service international leisure carrier, and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas, (although run independently of the mainline carrier). The airline ceased operations under its own livery on 30 June 2006. Qantas decided to discontinue the public use of the Australian Airlines brand in favour of having Jetstar Airways as its leisure, now low-cost, carrier. Qantas and Jetstar began operating services to replace Australian Airlines' routes, with Jetstar International introduced in late 2006 to help expand the Qantas Group's international presence.

Boeing 737-200 South African Airways 1:144 Airfix with modifications The third of my modified Airfix 737-200's. The mods are to cut away the cockpit area and replace it with the clear moulded part from a Daco/Skyline 737 kit, and correcting the engines from the 100 series to the 200 Advanced. This involves lengthening them and fattening the pylons. I also added a bit of cockpit detail and a pair of crew figures from N gauge railway passengers, and opened out the wheel bays to make them 3 dimensional. The Airfix kit is old but basically good, and benefits from these few mods. After all this work some top quality decals are required, so it was straight to Draw Decals website where I found this beautiful scheme. SAA had one the best liveries of all time, and their aircraft were usually kept in sparkling condition. Underside showing the opened out wheel bays Crew at work! With something else. No contest. It has to be my other ZS- registered aircraft, the hilarious 737-800 in Kulula livery, also from Draw Decals. Some info about the modifications. Test fit of the cut out for the Daco clear part Modified engines. Lengthened with a 6mm section of a bomb, covered with Milliput. Pylons widened with plastic sheet. Basic parts for improving the model It was all extra work, but well worth the effort. Thanks for looking, John

Built this more or less OOB, only additions were antenna and fin cap extension. Kit is the MPC boxing of the Airfix DC-9 using USMC decals from Draw Decal.

Douglas DC-4 Transworld Airline (TWA) 1:144 Minicraft with Draw Decals The DC-4 is one of my favourite aircraft, it did sterling work in the post war period and a few are still working today, such as those with Buffalo Airways in Canada. The Minicraft kit is a real beauty, one of their best, although it is getting hard to find now. Decals are from Draw Decals and went on beautifully, as usual. The paintwork is Alclad 'polished aluminium' on the fuselage and cowlings, with the wings & tailplanes in Citadel Runefang steel. And 'with something else'. Well 2 really as I seem to be developing a TWA theme. Rodens DC-3 straight from the box with TWA markings; And Fly's DC-9 with Draw Decals TWA set; Thanks for looking John

Flew on this to Spain a couple of years ago and came back on a 757. Revell kit with corrected engines and winglets, Draw Decal markings for most of the scheme and my own Thomson titles as nobody else does them. Steve

KLM New Colors F-100's 1:144 Draw decal Derived from the F28 Fellowship, the Fokker 100 features a stretched fuselage, new wing and Rolls-Royce Tay engines. First flying in 1986, 283 were built before Fokker went into bankruptcy in 1997. A shorter version was developed by removing 4.7 metres from the fuselage, as the Fokker 70. Both versions have been operated by KLM Cityhopper, although the 100's have now all been retired from the fleet. The Revell kit is the only injection moulded model of the aircraft and is getting hard to find now. Fortunately Bradley on this forum kindly sent me an example. It build easily, but would suggest modifying the wing fit. There are 2 pegs on each wing that fit into holes in the root profile on the fuselage. Unforunately they knock the whole wing incidence down too low, and leave a step on the leading edge underside. I cut the forward pegs off my wings and simply aligned them with the root profile, which solved the problem. Decals are from Draw Decal reviewed here, representing the final scheme worn by the KLM Cityhopper fleet,and fit very nicely. There are options for 2 different window & door layouts, and a variety of registrations. Follow Draw Decals instructions and use the hot towel method of pressing the dcals on to the model, it works very well. One more addition to my airliner fleet; And finally with something else', my Revell Boeing 737-900 conversion, also using a Draw Decals KLM set Thanks for looking, John

KLM New Colors F-100's 1:144 Draw decal Derived from the F28 Fellowship, the Fokker 100 features a stretched fuselage, new wing and Rolls-Royce Tay engines. First flying in 1986, 283 were built before Fokker went into bankruptcy in 1997. A shorter version was developed by removing 4.7 metres from the fuselage, as the Fokker 70. Both versions have been operated by KLM Cityhopper, although the 100's have now all been retired from the fleet. This sheet represents the final color scheme worn by KLM's Fokker 100 fleet from 2002 until withdrawl in 2013. Two window & door arrangements are supplied for the port fuselage side, and a full set of registration numbers to cover the whole fleet. The sheet is printed on constant carrier film, so you need to cut around each individual design.After allowing 10 - 20 minutes for the decal to grip, a cloth dipped in hot water can be pressed over it to blend it in to the surface. I use a sheet of kitchen paper folded over many times, dipped in hot water from the kettle. The decals will the conform to any curvatures, and stick like limpets to the surface.As with all types of decals, a coat of Kleer/Future will seal them in. More info here With the Revell kit all painted and ready to accept the decals; And after application; More in Ready for Inspection Review sample courtesy of

Qantas 737-800's 1:144 Draw Decal One of the most attractive airline liveries of recent years has in my view been that applied to the Qantas fleet. The A380, 747, 767 and 737 all look very clean and uncluttered, with that big red fin flash and 'Roo making them instantly recognisable. Draw decal have released a set for the Revell 737-800 kit in their 'Digital Silk' range, covering most of the 738's that Qantas have used. The printing is, as always, razor sharp and neatly laid out on the sheet, on continuous carrier film. No fewer than 32 different fleet names and registrations are provided. A nice touch is the inclusion of two sets of Roo decals to apply one on top of the other and eliminate any chance of the underlying red paint showing through. The leading edges of the red have a thin gold pinstripe, the two lengths on the sheet being more than enough. Red areas for the winglets are also provided, but as the Revell kit has undersized winglets it is easier to paint them after correction. It is important to follow Draw's instructions. The constant carrier film requires that you need cut around each decal individually. Here is how my sheet looks after all the subjects have been removed with a no. 11 blade. It can then be dipped in water, and applied to the model as normal. After allowing 10 - 20 minutes for the decal to grip, a cloth dipped in hot water can be pressed over it to blend it in to the surface. I used a sheet of kitchen paper folded over many times, dipped in hot water from the kettle, being careful not to burn my fingers! The decals will the conform to any curvatures, and stick like limpets to the surface.As with all types of decals, a coat of Kleer/Future will seal them in. More info here Conclusion. Another lovely sheet from Draw, of a livery I have long wanted to have in my collection. Having now built and applied these to a Revell 737 I can confirm that they go on beautifully and make a lovely little model.(In Ready for Inspection) Review sample courtesy of

Qantas 737-800 1:144 Draw Decal Another Revell 737-800 leaves my workbench, this time in the very attractive Qantas livery, courtesy of Draw Decals.Reviewed here Revell's 737-800 is well known by now, it needs the winglets extended as they are too short, and the engines are too flat on the bottom and require building up with Milliput and reprofiling. The intake rings need to be enlarged to fit this, and the passenger window line is too low, so you need to fill them and use decals. It sounds worse than it is, and this corrective work doesn't take that long. Alternatively there are resin engines & winglets avaialble from the aftermarket. The Qantas livery is one of my favourites, it is simple, clean and classy and thanks to Draw Decals I have been able to add one to my collection. I really enjoyed building this one, I had no problems at all, everything went like a dream, unlike some of my other current builds! Difficult to get a 'with something else' picture here. How about some of my other 737's with Draw Decals on? An 800 in Kalula, and a 900 in KLM; Thanks for looking John

Having built Revell's A321, A320, and A319 Airbus kits I wanted to add the smallest of them all, the A318, to my collection. There are few aftermarket decal options for them. As far as I know Draw Decals are the only manufacturer doing sets for the 318 and Greg from Draw kindly supplied Britmodeller with a review set at this years Telford. No reason to hesitate now! The set is for Frontier Airlines 'Stu the Rabbit', all of Frontiers aircraft feature wildlife designs on the tail fin, and 'Sheldon the sea turtle' is aslo available from Draw for the A318, as well as others for the A319. Only Eastern Express do an injecion moulded A318, and Welsh Models do a mixed media kit. A fuselage is available from Contrails, but I quite like doing my own conversions. The main job with the Revell A319 is to shorten the fuselage and raise the tailfin. Having searched the net I found that the measurement differnces between an A319 and A318 is that 79cm needs to come out ahead of the wing, and 160cm behind it, with a 75cm increase in fin height. These scale down to 5.5mm, 11mm and 5mm respectively. In easier terms this is 1 and a bit windows ahead of the wing and 3 behind. So out with the saw! I made my own mitre box a while ago to help with these sort of conversions. I found some scrap 3cm x 2cm timber in the garage, glued & screwed a 'U' shape together, and made some saw cuts in various places to guide the saw. Now I did all this by hand, so it is possible that my cuts are not perfectly alighned and square down to the last thousands of an inch. It doesn't matter as long as both cuts to remove a section are made in the same slot. The mating faces will then have the same cut in them. So in went the fuselsge halves, and the cuts were made. Note that I staggered the cuts on each side to improve joint strength when it is all fixed together. Then I assembled the half with the alignment sockets in (rather than the pins) on a flat surface, which ensures that the tailfin is nice and square to the fuselege. Once dry, the other centre section is held in place with an elastic band, and the nose section offered up and the mating face sanded if necessary for a neat fit. Ending up with a pair of fuselage halves like the original kit. But leaving a considerable step on the underside which will need sorting out I reinforced the inside with some strips of plasticard, as some serious sanding might take place in this area. Glued together like a normal kit, and with a first fill with Milliput and sanding, it starts to look ok. I also glued some plasticard strips on the inside to cover the windows, as I will be filling them with Milliput as well. The cockpit window I will keep clear. That 'orrible step under the rear fuselage came out ok with some heavy sanding and copious amounts of Milliput, all blended and shaped nicely. Next up was the tailfin, simply done by slicing the tip off and gluing on a roughly shaped plasticard extension. Once dried hard the extension will be sanded to blend it in smoothly. The cokpit window was glued in, and milliput run around its edges. Sanding removed it's clarity but that can be corrected. 10 minutes with some micromesh polishing cloths and it is good as new. The wing has a number of small flap track fairing only appropriate to theh A321, and these were removed and cleaned up. The wing goes on next, I leave it off until the cockpit glass is cleaned and finished, so that if needs be I can get acces to clean the inside of the glass through the hole in the fusealge that the wing covers. No end of dust and stuff can get in, so its as well to have access. Thanks for looking, John

Ever since reading the late Stephen Piercey's 'Skytruck' books I've had a liking for the big ol' piston engine airliners earning their keep in unusual and exotic places. Once jetliners started to enter service, perfectly good large piston engine airliners were not wanted by the big airlines and many hundreds of Lockheed Constellation, Douglas DC-4's, 6's, and 7's were employed on cargo hauling duties. Browsing Draw Decals website I came across a set for one of the aircraft in Stephens book, the Cayman Airways Cargo DC-6. I just had to have it, and here is the result. The aircraft was actually kept quite clean looking, so I have kept the weathering to a minimum. The kit is the 1:144 Minicraft DC-6 minus the spinners as they don't seem to have been fitted.The decals behaved beautifully and went on a treat. I am particularly impressed that the carrier film seems to have completely vanished. A WIP thread can be found here. Enough of the chat, cue the Caribbean background music; Lovely artwork and printing on the tail badge; Now I'd like some more of these, we just need to pesuade Draw to do a 'Fri Reyes' DC-4 or 6 (or even B-17!), 'Lanica' C-46, or a 'Conifair' budworm spraying Constellation amongst many others. Thanks for looking John

I have always liked the big propliners that found work as cargo haulers when the new jets started taking all the prestige work with the major airlines in the 1960's and 70's. There are a few kits for the big Douglas airliners and Lockheed Constellation, mainly from Minicraft, and even fewer aftermarket decal sheets to put on them. Having found Draw Decals sheet to Cayman Airways Cargo DC-6, I just had to have one. Both the kit and decal sheet were obtained at this years Telford and work started as soon as I got home. Decal sheet reviewed Here Minicrafts kits can be a bit hit and miss in terms of accuracy but as a general rule those of Douglas aircraft are very good, whilst the Boeing subjects are less so.The Dc-4, DC-6, MD80's and particularly the DC-8 are excellent. The Boeing 737's are also good, but I feel that the 707, 727, 757, and 777 require a fair bit of work to improve them. Lucky for me then that I'm starting a DC-6! The build is fairly straightforward. I started by scraping and sanding the insides of the wing trailing edges to refine them a bit, not strictly necessary but worth the effort. I also put in a strip of plasticard to act as a lip inside the fuselage where the wing trailing edge will meet. The fuselage fits together nicely and even features a rudimentary flight deck. Most work is on the engine cowlings which come in two halves each with a separate engine. Rather than fit all three together at once as suggested in the instructions, I just fixed the cowl halves together and let them dry. It is then easy to sand the inside lips of the cowls with a bit of wet and dry paper wrapped around a paintbrush handle, and fix the engines in from behind by lightly sanding around the rim and push them in with a cocktail stick through the crankcase. I fixed the cowlings on to the nacelles before fitting the wing, as they need a bit of filler all around and it is far easier to sand them without having the fuselage in the way. I will attempt to keep the cockpit windows clear as I like the look better than using black decal, so the clear part was fitted and a white Milliput applied to fair it in. It is then sanded down to smooth the filler and join, and Micromesh cloths used to polish the windows back to full clarity. At this point the wing can go on, and all is set aside to dry before more Milliput is used to blend the wing/fuselage join. Thanks for looking, John

Frontier 'Stu' Rabbit A318 1:144 Draw Decal Frontier Airlines based in Denver, Colorado currently operates a fleet of Airbus A319 and A320's on services around the USA, Mexico, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic. Aside from the big 'Frontier' billboard logo down the fuselage sides, their main distinguishing feature is the series of wildlife photographs displayed on the tail fins. Each aircraft features a different animal and has its own unique name, and they make quite interesting line ups if you ever get to see them at a US airport. The Airbus A318 is the smallest of the Airbus family and proved to have poor operating economics compared with it's larger brothers, as it simply can't offer the same seat/mile costs. Very few are still in service, and it is said they they are worth more as scrap and spare parts. Frontier operated several A318's for a fairly short period, and as I wanted to add one to my Airbus collection I was really pleased to see that Draw Decal recently added a couple to their range. 'Sheldon' the Sea Turtle and 'Stu' the Rabbit are both now available (as well as others for A319's and Embraer 190's), and whilst a this years Telford I picked up a set for 'Stu'. There are a couple of options for building an A318, either the Eastern Express kit (although I have not seen one, opinions vary on its buildablity), or the Revell kit of the A319 can be converted. I will convert my own kit by shortening the fuselage & raising the fin, but if you don't like doing this there is an A318 fuselage for the Revell kit available from Contrails. Draw Decals are produced by their own 'Digital Silk' process on a sheet of constant decal film, meaning that you need to cut around each decal as you remove it from the sheet. Supplied here are the 'Frontier' billboards including cabin windows, 'Stu' the rabbit for the tail fin, static ports for the nose, 'Stars & Stripes', registration, fleet numbers, engine markings, and cockpit windows. The printing is razor sharp with perfect colour and Stu himself looks like a high quality photograph. The instructions clearly show where everything goes, with profile views for each side, and a some written instructions about the use of Digital Silk decals. Having used several of Draw's sheets I would only point out that these written instructions are good advice and there is nothing difficult or unusual in using them. In fact they give a lovely result and the carrier film all but disappears. I look forward to using these on my A318 conversion, and have already built one of Revell's A319s using Draw Decals set for 'Chloe' the fawn, and can vouch for the lovely result they give. If you are not into sawing up and converting fuselages, then you can use a Revell A319 straight from the box and apply one of several Frontier options Draw offer for it. Their service from the US to here in Europe is top notch, so don't have any doubts about ordering from them, I speak from personal experience and can say they are among the best! Highly Recommended. Review sample courtesy of