Boeing 737-800NG JAL Express and Solaseed Air

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Boeing 737-800NG JAL Express and Solaseed Air

Two 1:200 Injection Moulded kits from Hasegawa.

The Boeing 737 first flew in 1967 and it has gone through various upgrades to give us the current version the Next generation, or the NG that first flew in 1997. The 737-800 is the second longest of the range, and is designed to carry up to 189 passengers.

Hasegawa have produced the 737-800 in 1:200 scale, and I have received 2 different kits that have just been released from Hasegawa. As both kits have the same plastic in-side I have combined the reviews.

JAL Express

JAL Express is a part Japan Air Lines, and JAL Express is mainly a domestic airline, but has a few international routes. JAL Express has a fleet of 28 737-800 airliners currently.

The fuselage is moulded in 2 parts as is expected, with the rudder being done on one side to allow a nice thin edge. There are some nice and fine engraved panel lines across the whole kit. There are some very delicate antenna moulded on the fuselage but these will get knocked off during the build, so I would cut them off and store them away until later on!

There are no clear parts on the kit, all windows can be found on the decal sheet, more of that later in the review!

The remainder of the kit comes over 2 Grey sprues, and again the moulding is first class with no flash and some fine engraved panel lines and detail over the parts.

The wings are split over 3 bits, with a lower belly section with the inner lower wings as one, the rest of the wings are a single part, so this makes them nicely thin and well detailed. There is a pair of winglets and these look to my eye to be a god size and shape compared to the drawing I have. The engines have a very good level of detail for this small scale! The landing gear has also got the same high level of detail, and you have to option of gear down, or in flight using the included stand. My only gripe, but it’s a small one, is the landing gear doors are too thick, as are most kits. There is a bulkhead to glue inside the fuselage, and the hole is for a metal bolt (that is included) as ballast to keep the model on its nose gear.

A clear smoked stand is included in the kit.

The decal sheet is well printed. It includes all the windows for the model as there are no clear parts in the kit. There are a options for a few of the 737-8s in the fleet with lots of different numbers or registrations. There is a lot of good detail on the sheet and as you would expect from Hasegawa it is a high quality sheet.

Solaseed Air

Solaseed air was founded in 2002 with its hub at Miyazaki, Japan and is a regional airline. The name comes from the company motto “Sowing smile seeds from the sky” with Sola form the Japanese word for Sky (Sora) and the English word Seed.

As I said the plastic is the same as in the above kit, you get the 2 fuselage parts, the 2 grey Sprues and the stand.

As above it is a high quality sheet, and is very comprehensive. You have the option of using a decal for the tail and winglets, or you can paint the green areas and decal the logos! You only get the option of one airliner on this sheet, JA801X a 737-800 that was delivered to Solaseed in June 2011.

Conclusion

These are very nice small scale 737NGs. You can do the out of the box with Hasegawas cracking decals, or chop them to a 600, 700, or a 900 version and grab an aftermarket sheet! With the number of 737 NGs in the air you have lots of options!

Review sample courtesy of UK distributors for