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Even if vintage airliners are my real cup of tea I occasionally like to model newer planes when I find a colourful and stylish livery. Well, this is what happened with Revell's 1/144 scale Airbus A320 in the smart scheme of the Swiss charter airline Edelweiss. The company was established in 1995 and it's currently a joint operation of Swiss International Airlines and Lufthansa. The emblem of the airline is the edelweiss or the alpine star. At present the company have a fleet of ten Airbus A320's plus eight larger Airbus types and three MD-80's. The quality of the Revell kit was quite two-fold. The decals were excellent but the molding of the parts surprisingly mediocre. There were a lot of flash and ejector marks but despite those problems the details and the accuracy of the kit were quite ok. Building the model was straightforward but quite time consuming. There were a lot of decals and aftermarket details (a set from Daco) to be attached. The cockpit window decals I ordered from Authentic Airlines. Moreover, the open holes of the cabin and cockpit windows had to be filled and sanded. I first primed the model with Mr. Surfacer 1000 and then spayed the white areas with Tamiya Fine Surface primer coated with Tamiya gloss varnish. The red areas of the fuselage and the rudder were sprayed with Tamiya TS-8 Italian red. For the colleagues who want to build this kit there's a piece of advice. The white alpine star decals are quite thin and transparent and the colour underneath shines easily through. So, before I painted the red areas I masked the spots where the decals were to be attached. As to the wings and stabs I painted them with Xtracolor X150 (Awacs/Canadian Voodoo grey). For the minor details I used Vallejo acrylics. In the end I coated the model and the decals with Humbrol clear gloss varnish.

Has anyone had experience of fitting the winglets to the Daco Skyline 737? I am planning a winglet-fitted B733 in Air Baltic livery and having cut the wings at the obvious point (the line immediately inboard of the wingtips) I can't see how to fit the winglets without a significant bit of packing and bodging. Also, to my eyes the Daco winglets are too tall. (They are around 2mm taller than the winglets on a Zvezda 737-700). Does anybody know how the Daco parts compare to the real dimensions? Thanks in anticipation Dave G

Allow me to present one of a pair of 737-300 models in 1/144 scale, built for the recent 737 Single Type Group Build on here. The other one in WestPac Colorado Springs livery is elsewhere in RFI. I normally build military aircraft or race cars but I do find the schemes on airliners interesting and this one was a long term ambition of mine after seeing the kit/decal sheet combo built somewhere. I tried for many years to get a copy of the decal sheet and finally I saw it re-printed and I caught the release before it sold out. For those unfamiliar with it, Daco is a brand owned and run by Danny Coreman of Belgium, maybe best known for F-16 and F-104 decals, upgrades and reference materials. He does however have a pretty sharp line in 737 kits and it is one of these I have built here. The kit is very detailed, seems pretty accurate and is offered with a generic decal sheet absolutely ram-packed full of stencils, windows and doors, and wing Coroguard and NMF leading edges etc. You need to source your own livery decals and here again Daco steps forward with an extensive range of sheets. Western Pacific (now sadly defunct) operated out of Colorado for barely 3 years but in that time brought some serious colour to the skies by turning their aircraft into flying bill-boards; with this one they were sponsored by Fox who lent the Simpsons characters to the livery. The decals were designed for Daco's own kit and I have to say these were probably the best fitting decal sheets I have ever used. The kit went together a treat though some fun was had with the wing/fuselage joint - easily solved with a bit of careful sanding and scraping. The Simpson's sheet also came with a small etched fret for the various aerials and sensor heads that adorn a 737. The kit includes a separate clear cockpit area which requires a bit of cutting but this is simplified by thinned areas on the inside surface. I took the opportunity to use this and scratch-build some cockpit detail - seeing the end result I am not so sure it was a smart move as nothing can be seen of the interior! Oh well, live and learn! Sorry if I got carried away here but, as you can probably tell, I was pretty impressed with this litte kit. Since my last experience of a 1/144 airliner was from the 70s with one of Airfix's Skyking range I was amazed by the detail and refinement - airliner kits have come a long way since then! For painting I used Daco's own Simpson's Yellow and WestPac Blue (produced by Xtracolor) and for the wings/tailplanes I took the advice of the regulars in the STGB and used Halfords Racking Grey as a good match for Boeing Grey Anyway, enough waffle, here are the pics - hope you enjoy looking as much as I enjoyed building. Comment and criticism welcome as always. Thanks for looking ATB Rick

Hi Let me show you my other 737 STGB build. Similar to the Simpson's jet elsewhere in this RFI this is one of the exquisite little Daco kits - as I mentioned, the kit only includes a generic sheet with a huge range of stencils, windows, door outlines etc so one needs to provide the livery from another source and I chose another of Daco's own sheets for a WestPac aircraft. WestPac operated for only 3 years in the late 1990s and decorated their aircraft with huge logo-style liveries. They were based in Colorado and the jet I chose here was liveried up to promote Colorado Springs with a striking representation of the local scenery across the rear fuselage and tail. Unlike the Simpsons sheet, this one was an absolute pig that fought me every inch of the way (maybe it was an older generation sheet?). Yes, it is superbly engineered to fit the kit (14 individual items go together to create that scenery down back!) but the decals, albeit thin, are incredibly stiff and unyielding. Much use of various setting solutions (inc Daco Medium and Strong solutions) and repeated application of the hairdryer finally saw the decals settle down and, being thin, actually settled quite nicely into the fine engraved surface detail. The painting is undemanding with a simple white fuselage, for which I used Zero Paints Brilliant White and Pre-mix Lacquer. For the flying surfaces I used Halfords Racking Grey rattle can which the airliner regulars in the STGB recommended as an excellent match for Boeing Grey. Everything else is decal, including all windows. Really enjoyed the build and I can see a couple more of these in my future before the WestPac 737 itch is finally scratched! Anyway, here she is - hope you enjoy looking as much as I enjoyed building (except those darned decals!). C+C welcome in equal measure. Thanks for looking and also to the STGB for the support and advice. ATB Rick