First Airliner ?

[RobF]

Hi Guys

I am hoping that you can recommend a first airliner model for me

I am looking for something with window decals - not too large a model for a first try - and in 144 scale please - if its not too expensive then all the better

Any suggestions on what I should get ?

TIA

[madaboutmodels]

For a fist airliner look into the revell 737 or A320, the Lufthansa A320 has windows, there decent kits, revells isnt that accurate though.

[cuprar]

Hi Rob, your best of to start with the Airbuses! The A319 and 320 kits are great little kits and are cheap, you can pick them up for as little as £5 if your lucky on eBay or if not try your local hobby shop £10 or £11 buddy

[Paul J]

Not many airliner kits around thats not an Airbus or Boeing these days.....as in the real world!

Sorry I know I'm not being helpful but other than those, there are propliners available.

Edited September 10, 2012 by Paul J

[cuprar]

All jokes aside the A340 is an easy kit to build

[garryrussell]

If you're not too fussed about accuracy, the Minicraft range is without windows and supplied on the decals.

[Kev1n]

I wouldnt suggest any revell airbus kit - there are issues with the fit of the wings to the fuselage and a multitude of other less obvious problems.

Most people tend to build them 'clean' by which I mean they fill the window holes and the cockpit winodws and use decals.

Filling often leads to simply sanding the entire thing which also means sanding tricky fitting parts so...

and this is only my opinion so dont anybody take offence, none is meant...

what happens is people tend to not think about any fit issues, they just get on with it. Mass filling and sanding does mean you can be as brutal as you want at covering up poor design and fit of parts.

If your new to airliners, the last thing you want is a revell airbus - trust me, you dont.

Minicraft kits also have issues (lots actually) but the best of them for ease of build

and simplicity of parts is the 737-300 or 737-400

And no window apetures....

try one of those to start with.

[Jessica]

The Minicraft MD-80 kit is basic, accurate, fits very well and there is a wealth of aftermarket liveries to go with it. The DC-8 is a little on the large side, but also excellent. Zvezda's Tu-154 is really good, but doesn't come with window decals; you'll want to get them from Draw Decal. The same is true for the Revell Fokker 100 and Avro RJ; they're small, straightforward and fit well but you need aftermarket windows. You can see reviews of all of these and more over on Aeroscale. They're all listed in my profile. Just scroll down to see the reviews.

Edited September 10, 2012 by Jessica

[Dave Swindell]

I wouldnt suggest any revell airbus kit - there are issues with the fit of the wings to the fuselage and a multitude of other less obvious problems.

Don't know what you're doing with them then Kev, I've built a few over the years and have 3 built up awaiting paint, no filler, good joins all round, no problem with the wings. Discounting the extra flap track fairings which are easy to remove, the only really obvious error is the undersize wing tip fences. Don't see how you can slate these and then recommend a Minicraft 737, after a half hearted attempt at one of these I junked it as soon as the Daco ones appeared.

As Rob wants to use decal windows, I'd second Jessica's vote for the Minicraft M80

[living legend]

I'd recommend the Minicraft DC-8 or MD-80, there about as good as airliner kits get. Zvezda 767, 787 and TU-154 kits are top notch as well, but you would need to fill in the windows to use a decal. The ancient Airfix 727 and 737 kits are simple, cheap, have low parts counts and if you add aftermarket engines make nice models with just a tad more work.

[Motley]

This is a great a thread, ive been thinking of making an airliner for awhile now and after seeing the BA Firefly fly over my house today im going to build one, just going to read through all your suggestions in detail noww

[Kev1n]

Don't know what you're doing with them then Kev, I've built a few over the years and have 3 built up awaiting paint, no filler, good joins all round, no problem with the wings. Discounting the extra flap track fairings which are easy to remove, the only really obvious error is the undersize wing tip fences. Don't see how you can slate these and then recommend a Minicraft 737, after a half hearted attempt at one of these I junked it as soon as the Daco ones appeared.

As Rob wants to use decal windows, I'd second Jessica's vote for the Minicraft M80

dave -

I stand by what I said;

"...and this is only my opinion so dont anybody take offence, none is meant...

what happens is people tend to not think about any fit issues, they just get on with it. Mass filling and sanding does mean you can be as brutal as you want at covering up poor design and fit of parts."

I didnt say RV's airbus kits were "bad"...just that they have some hidden problems which you and I dont even think about.

The op's question was about a first airliner, without windows.

For an easy build, Minicraft's 737-300 and -400 fit what RobF asked for; RV's airbuses dont and there ARE some issues with the fit of the wings to fuselage - given the way almost all airliner modellers build them, me being one of the few exceptions, the majority just dont notice they are there.

I'm not criticising the majority, it's up to each person to build how they want, it's your model.

Revell's kits are NOT for the beginner. Sorry they arent.

The MD80 isnt bad either

[richellis]

I cant ever remember having any problems with the wing joints on the A320 family.

I glue the upper wings to the fuselage, then add the lower section sanding to fit, this helps get the correct angle on the wings.

Ill take and show what I mean on my A320 build in the GB.

The main work is to remove the extra flap fairings on the wings, but slice them off with a blade, sand them down and thats it

[living legend]

I'm not trying to hijack or offend anyone but:

[quote name='kev1n' timestamp='1347367568' post='1119446'

The MD80 isnt bad either

If the Minicraft MD-80 isn't a bad kit, I must ask in your opinion is there a great airliner kit in 1/144? Are there even any airliner kits that you do like in 1/144? Again not meaning to hijack or offend anybody, but I'm curious.

Edited September 11, 2012 by living legend

[madaboutmodels]

Abit on the small side and you will need to find windows there is the revell cl604

Abit on the small side and you will need to find windows there is the revell cl604

[Dave Swindell]

Oh we like 'em all (well most of 'em anyway) - what you've got here is a bunch of airliner nuts giving advice to an airliner novice . MD80 isn't a bad kit is quite high praise. Most of the faults above are nit picking, and those that aren't probably would go un-noticed by most modellers who's only experience of airliners was their transport to Ibiza!

[Jessica]

My current favourite kits are from Revell and Zvezda. From Revell the A-380 and AN-124 for their sheer size and masses of detail and Zvezda's 787 for the engines. The Zvezda Tu-154, Sukhoi Superjet and forthcoming Tu-134 are little jewels that almost fall together.

The Revell A-330/340 is nice, but getting a little long in the tooth these days; mould fatigue is setting in and newer releases are not as nice as they were in days of yore.

[madaboutmodels]

I'm afraid I'm going to disagree with you Jess.

I have the an-124 and the A380, I must say I hate the pair of them.

The A380 has melted and warped 3 times now...

The an-124 is in a giant ultra sound machine in a klm uk hanger being shaken apart for attempt 4....

Also the an-124 is just too complicated. The a380s gear is hell as we'll.

There's one thing I hate about the revell airbus wide body's is the body plate underneath, I can never get them right.

The beluga is a good kit, but the Wong joints are a pest. But anything Zvezda is fantastic, anything minicraft other than the md-80 is s.h.i.t..

Also I'd imagine the hasegawa e170s are good

Any thing with the

[Dave Swindell]

The Zvezda 747-800 looks quite good as well

[RobF]

Wow !

Thank you so much for ALL the replies - what a great section of the forum this is.

In my excitement (and before this thread really got going) I bought a Revell 320 from eBay so wish me luck with it :-)

I do like the look of the MD-80 but couldn't see one ( uk based ) on eBay ( I prefer to pay using PayPal )

I would prefer to do my glossing afterwards and not as I go, so what is everyone's favourite gloss and how glossy should I be aiming at anyway ?

Also what do you do about panel lines - darken them with a wash or just leave them alone ( or even fill them ? )

Thanks again

... Rob

Edited September 12, 2012 by RobF

[Jessica]

I like Future (Johnson's Klear in the UK) for my glossing, since it's very forgiving. Real airliners are glossy but not too glossy. They get mucked up as much as any other aircraft simply from flying through dirty air. Making your kit too glossy ends up with it looking like a toy. It's beautiful modelling, but not terribly realistic. Pour over the photos at airliners.net or jetphoto to see what the real thing looks like after a few years of hard service.

[cuprar]

Hi Rob, I use appliance white rattle can from halfords and then ford dove grey for the wings then use halfords gloss laquer and you will get a smooth shine buddy

[madaboutmodels]

use halfords paint, they are the best around, or if you have a wilco use there car paints, they work out twice as cheap and just as good.

Good Luck with that A320, if you want any decals pm, i have a fair few...

[living legend]

Wow !

Thank you so much for ALL the replies - what a great section of the forum this is.

In my excitement (and before this thread really got going) I bought a Revell 320 from eBay so wish me luck with it :-)

I do like the look of the MD-80 but couldn't see one ( uk based ) on eBay ( I prefer to pay using PayPal )

I would prefer to do my glossing afterwards and not as I go, so what is everyone's favourite gloss and how glossy should I be aiming at anyway ?

Also what do you do about panel lines - darken them with a wash or just leave them alone ( or even fill them ? )

Thanks again

... Rob

Just in time for the Airlines II GB.

[JMChladek]

I wouldn't worry about trying to accent panel lines on a 1/144 airliner unless you are trying to represent a dirty one (such as one flown by Air France perhaps since some of those birds got REALLY dirty!). Technically in this scale you shouldn't see any panel lines at all, but I do admit a properly painted airliner with decent recessed crisp panel lines does look nice.