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Eastern Express has released the DC-10-30! Wonder of it could be modified using an EE MD-11, sanding and remolding the tail section, to make a DC-10-40?? Anyone willing to try??? 1/144Here are sprue pics.....

As I'm only involved in the Lockheed Group Build over the next two months, I thought that I would try to build my MD-11 alongside the Tristar. It will certainly be finished as one of those in the KLM fleet that I've flown on - probably PH-KCD "Florence Nightingale" but perhaps PH-KCE "Audrey Hepburn" The kit comes with decals for the later (narrow cheatline) livery but I've also got the 26Decals for the delivery scheme with the wide blue & white cheatline - which would be much easier to mask / paint. So far the four sections of the fuselage have been assembled: The two port sections were glued together on a sheet of glass - although this still left a small gap on the outside of the joint. The two starboard parts didn't fit as well, so I added the tail section to the complete port side first and then the forward section. The above photo shows the results of an initial round of filling, sanding, priming and rescribing - not too bad (sorry forgot to take a photo before starting this process) Looking at the side profile some more filler is needed just above the red ball Mike

The first real 737-100 injection molded kit also comes from Eastern Express. Their quality improvement compared to their earlier kits is outstanding,although their kits are usually in short run quality but they are much more accurate and better to build than most of their older models. The 737-100 belongs already to the newer offerings,recessed panellines and fine details are there although still a bit rough in some spots but the overall quality is fine. The build itself is a bit tricky in some parts and filler is needed frequently,but careful preparation can be a great help. I compared the fuselage of the EE kit with an Airfix and its really almost 1cm shorter than the latter,so you end up with a real -100. The only mistake EE did,are the engines.They are too long and clearly belong to the -200. As the Airfix 737 has the shorter engines,I just switched them and smacked the Airfix engines on the EE kit. The EE engines will also fit on the Airfix kit with some slight modifications. Eastern express overdid the detailing on the landing gear with far too many tiny parts,so I decided to use the front gear and al the wheels from a Revell 737-800. With some adjustments these parts fitted quite well. The Singapore Airlines decals are from MACH 1,they seem to be very old but they still worked perfectly. The instructions show where to trim the stripes on the shorter fuselage.They were designed to fit on the Airfix 737 kit,but the instruction has a 1:1 stripe replica wich outlines the spots for the cuts to be made. The windows are from a 707 and 727 detail set,but I will probably replace them with AA realistic windows in some time. All paints are Revell and Testors enamels and the wings are slightly weathered with HUmbrol graphite powder. Hope you like the Baby Boeing

As a TriStar admirer,I was very excited when Eastern Express finally came up with an injection molded kit of the -500 and I bought it right away. At first sight it looks like a cut down version of their "standard" -1011 kit which was obviously ripped and slightly altered from the Otaki kit. But it really turned out to be a little more than that. The greater wingspan of the -500 was added and also the bigger front cargo door is included. The build itself has its ups and downs as its a common thing with short run kits. Most of the parts need a fair amound of filling and sanding but with careful preparation of the parts it goes together quite well. The S-duct of the No.2 engine is also included but its a bit tricky to fit it into the fuselage halves. I built it mostly OOB,I just repaced the landing gear with an Airfix leftover,because the original parts had some serious molding issues and were beyond use.Some adjustments had to be done on them to fit into the EE kit. Painted entirely with Revell and Testors enamels and sligtly weathered with Humbrol graphite powder. Eastern Express offers this kit in different airline liveries,I chose the Air Transat version as this airline is a frequent visitor at our airport during summer. When they started their weekly service back in 1992 from Montreal to Basel (Switzerland),the TriStar was used,later added by a second weekly service done with Boeing 757-200s. So as a reminder of those good old days I wanted a TriStar in Air Transat livery for quite some time. Cheers

Eastern Express is to release 1/144th Britten-Norman BN-2A Mk.III Trislander kits Source: http://www.pas-decals.ru/forum/novosti/1078-novinki-vostochnyj-ekspress?start=540#38272 V.P.

Looking through some old aircraft magazines recently, I came across an article in the May 1977 edition of Aircraft Illustrated about the introduction of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 30 with British Caledonian. The article stated that BCAL had also evaluated the Boeing 747SP, and the proposed long range Lockheed L-1011 500, before eventually settling on the DC-10. The 747SP was ruled of on cost, and the fact that if provided too much capacity for the airline at the time, however the TriStar 500 closely matched BCAL's route requirements and was suitable from both a performance and economic view point. At the time of the evaluation the production of the -500 had not been given the the official go-ahead by Lockheed and as an interim BCAL was offered the TriStar 100, until the new higher performance variant became available, which in turn swung the deal in favour of the DC-10. British Airways became the official launch customer for the TriStar 500 in August 1976, and as they say the rest is history. This got me thinking though - 'what if' BCAL had gone with Lockheed's offering and subsequently became the joint launch customer with B.A.?!? My model depicts what I imagine their second TriStar 'Bravo Mike' might have looked like when delivered to the airline in the spring of 79. Now onto the model - I'll keep this brief. A under engineered, poorly executed, and horrendously over priced excuse of a model. Although I am quite pleased with the end result, it fought me every step of the way. The low point being the unequal lengths of the rear fuselage halves resulting in canyon sized gaps that had to be filled with numerous applications of epoxy resin and much sanding. Try as I might I couldn't completely eliminate the slight step where the tail section meets the main body. The tail and cheatline colours were hand painted with Revell acrylics, with the BCAL titling, golden lions, a/c reg and names taken from the 26decals early BCAL DC-10 scheme sheet.I also used the Nazca decals L-1011 detail sheet , with fuselage and flight deck windows, and some aluminium trim from Authentic decals. I hope you don't mind my little indulgence...now where did I put that Authentic Airliners 747SP?!? halvesvv

Eastern Express catalog 2019 is online here: http://scalemodels.ru/news/13519-EASTERN-EXPRESS-1-144-Catalogue-2019.html Pages with new ref. V.P.

...sorry. Hi, I received this kit just before Christmas and did a quick "comment" on it over in the Rumourmonger section. It's part of an ever expanding range of much neglected airliners being put out by the Russian model making company called Eastern Express (EE). The celebration amongst airliner modellers with each new release is tempered slightly by the high prices being asked and in some (but not all) cases, less than perfect fit. I've bought quite a few of their kits and some range from OK (Fokker F-27) to actually very nice (MD-87 and the McDD T-tail range they have). Hopefully this one will build up to be, if not very nice, then OK. Box art consists of an actual picture of the subject but some of their releases do feature a bit of drawn artwork, but some of it is a little bit suspect... Fuselage halves: Wings: Engines: and all the rest: Overall, the model isn't too badly made but there are a couple of small issues present, and but nothing insurmountable. The kit is available in four versions at the moment and I chose Channel Express, though I was, and still am, tempted by Air UK. I'll be starting it very shortly and it will be squeezed in amongst this lot - F-rsin ATR-72 (Flybe Nordic), Hasegawa YS-11 (Phuket Air), Eastern Express F-27 (yeah, I know - Air UK) and Shorts 360 from the same company (American Eagle). There are others that aren't on the bench at the moment but they may make a background appearance as I progress with this one. Jeff

Eastern Express is to release 1/144th Hawker-Siddeley HS 121 Trident 1/2 & 3 kits - ref. Box art Source: http://www.pas-decals.ru/forum/novosti/1078-novinki-vostochnyj-ekspress?start=432#37108 V.P.

Eastern Express was not known for quality kits not too long ago. But they changed significantly and their Boeing 717 (McDonnell-Douglas MD-95) kit is a superb kit in every aspect. They recently released other Douglas airliners,such as the MD-87,DC-9-30 and MD-80 along with others. The MD-87 is already in my stash and the MD-80 is to follow but the Boeing 717 is now the first one that I have built. It is very detailed,although in my opinion they overdid it with the landing gear.It looks teriffic but there are so tiny parts,its almost impossible to hold them with a tweezer.If they snip off...its a victim for the carpet monster...it happened to the front landing gear which I had to replace with a piece from a AZ-Model DC-9-30... The fit is quite good but its not Revell Airliner standard and all parts need careful cleaning and dryfitting.If one's aware of that,the build is straight forward. The other thing that impresses me with those new Eastern Express kits, is their quality improvement on their decals.They are superb and nice to work with and Eastern Express offers some very interesting paint schemes on each of their airliners,which makes it difficult to make a choice... I really liked the Qantas Link scheme with the Tasmanian Devil I painted the whole fuselage with Revell gloss white,the wings are Testors aircraft grey and the metall areas are Revell metallics. Clear coated with Future. Hope you like her

After the MD-11 (link), Eastern Express is working on a 1/144th McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 kit. Source: http://www.pas-decals.ru/forum/novosti/1078-novinki-vostochnyj-ekspress?start=405#36881 V.P.

After the F-27 (link) Eastern Express is to release 1/144th Fokker F-50 kits Source: http://www.pas-decals.ru/forum/novosti/1078-novinki-vostochnyj-ekspress?start=405#36611 - ref. E144126 - Fokker 50 - ref. E144126-1 - Fokker 50 "Austrian" - ref. E144126-2 - Fokker 50 "Iberia Regional" - ref. E144126-3 - Fokker 50 "Air Baltic" - ref. E144126-4 - Fokker 50 "SAS Eurolink" - ref. E144126-5 - Fokker 50 "Virgin Australia" - ref. E144126-6 - Fokker 50 "Fly VLM" V.P.

Eastern Express is to release a 1/144th Convair 880 kit - ref. 144144 Source: http://www.pas-decals.ru/forum/novosti/1078-novinki-vostochnyj-ekspress?start=378#36281 Box art V.P.

Sources: http://www.pas-decals.ru/forum/novosti/1078-novinki-vostochnyj-ekspress?start=378#36252 https://www.facebook.com/mashtabekb/posts/1822591094429752 3D renders V.P.

Fokker F-27 Friendship EI-AKD Aer Lingus, 1960s 1/144 Eastern Express kit converted to F-27 Series 100 with Classic-Airlines decals I bought this little kit from 26 Decals for £16 (ironically without decals!) (I later discovered that Hannants are selling it for £49.99 with decals – that’s quite an expensive decal sheet). Classic-Airlines.com already had decals designed for the Doyusha kit for £8 – which were adapted by Nick Webb to fit the Eastern Express kit, so I bought an Aer Lingus set. The Eastern Express kit has the long nose of the later version and needed modifying back to a Series 100 which Aer Lingus operated. The markings here are the second iteration on the F-27, the first being the green fuselage top and white cheat line variety used on the original issue Airfix F-27 in 1/72 scale. I had intended a ‘quick build’ of this one, but it never turns out that way, does it? Even though this is a new, modern kit, the fit of everything everywhere needed much fettling and large amounts of Milliput – you know the story I’m sure. But as usual I got there in the end and I’m quite pleased with the result: Chris (By the way, yes, I had noticed the Irish flag colours are the wrong way round on the Starboard side!)

Another potential release according to another forum. http://www.pas-decals.ru/forum/novosti/1078-novinki-vostochnyj-ekspress?start=351 A 500 series would have been more popular with me, but who knows judging by the way they are doing most of the DC-9 family. Dave

Eastern Express has just relased new tooling 1/144th Boeing B-733 kits - ref. 144129-01 - Boeing B-733 "Jet 2" Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/airliner-733-jet-2-eastern-express-144129-01.html - ref. 144129-02 - Boeing B-733 "South West" Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/airliner-733-south-west-eastern-express-144129-02.html - ref. 144129-03 -Boeing B-733 "Varig" Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/airliner-733-varig-eastern-express-144129-03.html - ref. 144129-04 - Boeing B-733 "Frontier" Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/airliner-733-frontier-eastern-express-144129-04.html - ref. 144129-05 - Boeing B-733 "KLM" Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/airliner-733-klm-eastern-express-144129-05.html - ref. 144129-05 - Boeing B-733 "Western Pacific" Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/airliner-733-western-pacific-eastern-express-144129-06.html V.P.

Eastern Express is to release a family of 1/144th Bombardier Q Series (ex-de Havilland DHC-8 Dash 😎 kits. Source: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235033221-eastern-express-catalog-2018-online/ Thanks Sergey. - ref. 144132 - Bombardier Q-200 Dash 8 - ref. 144134 - Bombardier Q-300 Dash 8 - ref. 144135 - Bombardier Q-400 Dash 8 Q-200 sprues V.P.

It's here: http://scalemodels.ru/news/12564-katalog-Eastern-Express-2018.html V.P.

Once upon a time, well, in 2016 anyway, there was the Airliners III group build...... Despite never having built an airliner before, I decided this was going to be my first group build contribution. In a triumph of enthusiasm, naivety and recklessness, I entered late on with an Eastern Express Boeing 737-300. The group build archive documents my attempts to force the warped fuselage and wings into reasonable shapes, but it was inevitable that I would eventually run out of time. For the past year the model and I have had occasional interactions, with long periods of rest and recuperation in between, but finally, having fought me all the way, I've reached the point where I can declare the thing complete. Even the painting, given that its such a simple scheme, took far too long, learning that Humbrol Clear over Halfords Appliance White is a no-no, and that DBI Boeing grey goes on beautifully and simply, but comes off with equal ease. The paint scheme is a bit of an oddity, and represents G-GDFB in the transition livery it wore in 2011 when it became part of the Jet2 fleet having previously served with Aegean Airlines. Decals are from Britmodeller's own RICHW, and gave refreshingly little trouble. Apologies for the makeshift photographic set up, all white models are a bit of a challenge. Would I do another Eastern Express 737? Absolutely.........not. Jon

Eastern Express has just released 1/144th Fokker F-27-200 kits - ref. EE144115-1 - Fokker F-27-200 Balair Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/fokker-27-200-balair-eastern-express-144115-01.html - ref. EE144115-2 - Fokker F-27-200 Air UK Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/fokker-27-200-air-uk-eastern-express-144115-02.html - ref. EE144115-3 - Fokker F-27-200 Finnair Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/fokker-27-200-finnair-eastern-express-144115-03.html - ref. EE144115-4 - Fokker F-27-200 SAS Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/fokker-27-200-sas-eastern-express-144115-04.html - ref. EE144115-5 - Fokker F-27-200 North West Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/fokker-27-200-northwest-eastern-express-144115-05.html - ref. EE144115-6- Fokker F-27-200 All Nippon Airways Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/fokker-27-200-all-nippon-airways-eastern-express-144115-06.html V.P.

Eastern Express has released 1/144th Short SC-7 Skyvan kits - ref. E144117 - Short SC.7 Skyvan civil aircraft "Olympic" Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/short-sc-7-skyvan-civil-aircraft-olympic-eastern-express-144117.html - ref. E144117-01 - Short SC.7 Skyvan "North American set" Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/short-sc-7-skyvan-n-american-set-eastern-express-144117-01.html - ref. E144117-02 - Short SC.7 Skyvan "British set" Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/short-sc-7-skyvan-british-set-eastern-express-144117-02.html V.P.

Eastern Express is reported having has just released a new variant of its 1/144th "May kit - Ilyushin Il-38N - ref. 144123 Source: http://modelsua.com/IL-38N-Ilyushin-Sea-Dragon-May-anti-submarine-warfare-1-144-Eastern-Express-144123.html Box art V.P.

Most of the airliner modellers were thrilled when Mikro-Mir in co-operation with Eastern Express anounced the first injection moulded MD-11 kit in 1/144. First pictures of the sprues looked very promising with great attention to detail and accuracy. I was also looking forward to this release and initially ordered 3 kits with the General electric Engines and placed another order for 3 kits with the Pratt & Whitney engines at my local hobby shop. When I received the call from the hobby-shop that the first batch arrived I was excited...till I saw the price tag Well,I bought them anyway,because the MD-11 is one of my favourite airliners and I started with the first one immediately. I planned to build the first one OOB and also using the kits decals to see how they work,so I could give some feed-back at the model shop for other builders who might be interested in this kit. All the parts looked good at first glance,but I realized that the parts had no locator pins at all.Which is not a big deal but I was surprised. Soon after construction commenced I had to realize that this would not be going to be an easy build as,as good as the parts may look,the fit is not the best and on almost every part filler was needed or some correction work had to be done. The most serious fitting issue is at the wing to fuselage join,were at the top side a quite large gap appears between the wing and fuselage... The construction of this section is actually quite smart by the manufacturer,as they provide a inspar panel (I guess its called that way...?) that will provide a good sit and places the wings at the right angle.But mounting the wings isn't as easy as I thought. I filled the gap with Krystal Klear and painted this section in the respective colours,as I built and painted the parts individually. Another "trap" is the front gear which needs to be installed before glueing the fuselage halves together.That way,as careful as one may be,snipping off the gear leg while handling the model is almost inevitable. I chose to cut off the lower part and put it back on after main assembly was done. I drilled a small hole at both sections and reinforced the leg with a thin wire,then glued the parts back on. After all construction and paintwork was done,it was time for the decals. The decal set looks really impressive and immensely improved compared to earlier Eastern Express sets. It has lots of details and even includes coroguard panels for the wings. The quality of the decals is really superb,but...and thats a real pain...the decals tend to settle almost immediately on the model after sliding them off the backing paper.Decal solutions are not much help,only lots of water can help you placing the decal in the right position. Once the water has been soaked off the decal sticks on the surface. Another issue are the dark blue stripes on the KLM set.They are printed with the front ends looking up.If applied as they are, the stripe will go up to the cockpit window instead of running in a straight line around the nose. I was lucky to have 2 sets, so I cut off the bent part (approx.3cm) and used a straight part to put it around the nose and then cut off the missing stripe from my other set to extend it again to the tail cone. The fit of the decals is otherwise fine and the details and the silver parts are great. For the front edge of the tail fin and the edges of the winglets,I used thin silver decal stripes instead of painting them. The build of this kit is really time,and nerve,consuming but in the end a very nice MD-11 will appear in front of you. But for being a CAD manufactured and very new kit together with the way too high price tag ,its a bit of a disappointment. Bad fit of the parts,and also the arrangement of the parts on the sprues is not very logic.Together with inept construction sheets,one needs to be very careful while building.A few times I used the wrong parts and had to correct the error later by either replacing the whole part with spares form my sparepart box or leave it as is. Those things wont happen on my other 2 kits,thats for sure. I chose to build the MD-11 of KLM who did the final passenger flights and the farewell flights in 2014; PH-KCD "Florence Nightingale. Painted entirely with Revell and Testors enamels using my airbrush. As mentioned before,this kit unfortunately isn't up to the standard in the likes of Zvezda or Revell airliner kits and its also over priced. For this money you may be better off with Kurts (Authentic Airliners) resin kit. Anyway,here she finally is...the Mikro-Mir/Eastern Express MD-11 Cheers,

Eastern Express has just released a 1/144th McDonnel Douglas MD-87 kit - ref. 144110 Source: https://hobbyterra.com/product/civil-airliner-md-87-iberia-airlines-eastern-express-144110.html V.P.