Bae146/ Avro RJ Northwest and AirUK decals

[richellis]

Bae146/ Avro RJ Northwest and AirUK decals.

1:144 decals from LPS Hobby.

The BAe146 is one of my favourite airliners; with the latter versions (Avro RJ) being the last British built airliners. Conceived in 1973 by Hawker Siddeley, but the design was shelved until 1978 when it was pulled off the shelf by British Aerospace and first took to the air 3 years later.

The BAe146 was an unusual but successful design with its high set wings and 4 smaller engines in pods beneath them. This made the 146 a quiet airliner, for both the passengers and the airports neighbours! This quietness allowed the BAe 146 to get in and out of city airports.

AirUK

AirUK was formed in 1980 following the merger of 4 UK regional airlines, with its HQ initially in Surrey then moving to West Sussex.

AirUK had a mixed fleet of jets and props including a number of BAe146s in 100, 200 and 300srs fuselage lengths.

The airliner on this decal will allow you to build G-CHSR, a 200srs (straight from the Revell kit) that was delivered to AirUK in early 1988, and left in 1994.

The decals come over s single sheet, in a zip-lock bag with an A4 colour instruction street. The decals are nicely printed and the colours look good, and the size looks good against a part built I have on the bench. Some of the finer details are not as fine as some sheets, but I would use a later Revell kit with its better sheet for the airframe stencils and details for the build.

Northwest

The second sheet is I have received is for the US airline, Northwest with its unusual, but nice, red, grey and white livery.

In October 1996 BAe announced an order for $300 million had been placed for 12 BAe146s, and options for a further 24. This order came from Northwest airlines biased in Minneapolis. The total Northwest fleet went on to reach 36, making it the biggest BAe146 operator.

This sheet allows you to model N503XJ that joined the Northwest fleet in 1997, and is a later Avro RJ85 and again can be done straight from the Revell kit

This sheet also comes on a single sheet in a zip lock bag with a colour instruction sheet. The decal is nicely done and the printing looks very nice, but again Id use a later Revell kit for the model, using stencils and the small detail from the kit sheet

Conclusion

These are 2 very nice decal sheets from LPS Hobby. The main livery details are very well printed, but I would recommend getting some of the stencils and finer airframe decals of the later Revell kit decal sheet.

Both of these sheets can be used on un-modified Revell kits.

Review sample courtesy of