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Bombardier Q400 - 1/144 Eastern Express 'Flybe' decals by Nazca I had wanted to add a Flybe Q400 to my airliner collection for quite a while, as one of those in the subset of 'aircraft I have flown on' I was working in Compiegne north of Paris in 2010-11 and regularly flew from Manchester to Paris CDG on these. I always liked Flybe, the cabin crew were always very pleasant, and the flights always ran on time. It was a shame when they went bust in 2020, although they are now starting up again. I managed to get this kit from the brother of Jeff 'Pinky coffeeboat' who sadly passed away two years ago in April. I never met Jeff but we shared an interest in airliner modelling and often commented on each other builds in this very forum. It came with the markings for the purple scheme, but I really wanted to do the earlier white and pale blue scheme. Fortunately Nazca do a laser printed sheet, which I duly ordered. If you are looking down on us Jeff, I hope you approve of what I did with your kit. I painted up some 'N' gauge railway figures as aircrew, and fitted them in the cockpit. It beats even photo realistic window decals! Thanks for looking, I'll dedicate this thread to the memory of Jeff 'Pinky coffeeboat'. Blue skies matey! Cheers John

Flybe operate the world’s largest fleet of Q400s and their aircraft are a familiar sight at UK airports. I had wanted to add a Q400 to my collection for a while and the discovery that high quality screen printed decals for Flybe’s purple livery are available from RJS Decals gave me the necessary excuse. I’m not a great fan of resin kits but if you want a 1/144 Q400 it’s resin or nothing. I used the Eurolot kit by Welsh Models. There was also a good kit by Nazca although I believe it’s out of production. The Welsh Models airframe consists of only six parts - fuselage, nose cone, fin, wings with integral engines, and tailplane. Apart from having to bore out the nose to take weight (you really need a Dremel or similar tool) the parts assembled quickly and easily with only a little filling required. The propellers are supplied as separate blades and hubs. They were a bit of a fiddle but the blades are stronger than they look and the end result isn’t too bad. I wasn't greatly impressed with the undercarriage and it really needs complete reworking but I was in a hurry to finish the model for the Glasgow show so I used it as it came. I may revisit it at some point. The only outline accuracy issues I picked up were the nose which was slightly too blunt, easily fixed with Milliput, and a minor adjustment to the top of the fin to correct the sit of the tailplane. The instructions provide templates for the fuselage strakes but these are printed the same size as the side drawing which is quite a bit smaller than 1/144 so I had to guesstimate the dimensions from photographs. In hindsight I might have made them a little too big but they’re staying the way they are. Purple is a custom aerosol matched to Pantone 266 and white is Halfords. I’ve got so much purple paint left over I’ll probably end up building a Flybe E195 to use it up. As already mentioned, livery decals are from RJS, excellently printed by BOA. I smartened up the windscreen a little by overlaying sections cut from spare Authentic Airliners decals. I must learn to make my own decals one of these days - Werner Lehmann’s wonderful products have really put me off plain black/grey windscreens and there are still plenty of gaps in the “photo real” ranges, particularly classic propliners. Thanks for looking and as always constructive criticism is welcome. Dave G

I'm looking at making a Dash 8-400, known just as Q400s in 1/72. Biggest hang up is the six blade props. Are the blades the same as the E2D Hawkeye eight blade prop? if so, can I get just the props without buying a Hawkeye? I can't find info on the Hawkeye's eight blade prop diameter. If I have to, I will make them.

Bombardier DHC8-Q400. F.toys 1:300th scale. The Q400 was developed from the De Havilland Canada Dash 8 twin turboprop STOL airliner. (DHC is now Bombardier Aerospace). Starting with the 100 series, the Dash 8 has progressively stretched fuselages through the 200, 300, and 400 models, although only the 400 remains in production. Widely used, Q400's can be seen at airports around the world, in a wide variety of liveries. There is no 1:144 scale injection moulded kit of this aircraft, so I was pleased to recently stumble across this little 1:300 model on my travels. Effectively it is half the size that it would be in 1:144 scale. It is click together and pre-painted, with just a few decals to apply, but the detail is very fine and I think it is a cracking little model. It seems like a bit of a cheat, as I have hardly had to do much to build it and nothing to paint it, but it is unusual so I hope you like it. And for an idea of how small it is; And the generic box it came in. The CRJ's look nice! Thanks for looking, John