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1/144 Boeing 727-200 & 757-200 for RNZAF builds.


stevehnz

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I'm looking to acquire the necessary gubbins to do these in RNZAF colours eventually. As I'm seeing it, for the 727, I can go Minicraft or Airfix & for the 757 its Minicraft or Eastern Express with the Minicraft one being the lesser of the two evils. I'm intentionally ignoring any resin ones, they're too spendy for me from what I can see & I'm not fanatical about a perfect model, but will be happy with a decent representation as I've seen people do on here with these kits. For the 727, Minicraft are hard to find as I'm seeing it but better than the Airfix, I have though seen some builds of the latter which looked OK to my eye & its available & way cheaper. I'm happy to fill in windows, rub back raised detail  & rescribe lost important detail. For the RNZAF 757 I need RR engines, the only Minicraft ones I can find at less than silly money are P&W powered ones but as the Minicraft RR engines are pretty naff by all accounts I'm prepared to lash out for some Braz RB211-535Es.

Anyone see any huge holes with this as a plan or can offer anything I've missed, other than resin kits? :)

Steve.

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For the 727-200 I would definitely try to find the Minicraft kit. The Airfix nose

is off in shape, the wing fence is molded on the trailing edge of the wing instead

of the leading edge where it belongs and the nose gear door is the wrong shape.

And if you don't mind lots of filling and sanding then the open widows are OK I

guess, I spent weeks filling the Revell ER-195 and it was NO fun. I had the Minicraft

757 once and it was warped and twisted too much for me, I ended up binning it.

Is the Eastern Express 757 a worse choice? Why? I have read no reviews so I don't

really know. HTH---John

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I think it was a thread on here that said the EE 757 was a copy of the Minicaft but worse, hence my choice of the Minicraft. For some reason, the EE  757s with a RR option are way more expensive than the P&W engined ones, if my viewing of online sprue shots is correct, so I'd still go with the Braz engines, they do look quite nice I reckon & would give it a lift.

Steve.

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Personally I'd go with the Airfix 727 rather than the Minicraft one. The errors in the Airfix kit are more easily fixable than Minicraft's thick wings and oversized engines. Many years ago Jodie Peeler wrote an excellent article about improving the Airfix kit in the old Airliner Modeller magazine. I can scan you a copy when I get home from holiday at the weekend. Drop me a pm if you're interested.

 

Again speaking personally I wouldn't touch either the Minicraft or the closely related EE 757s. By the time you've bought the kit and the necessary BraZ correction parts (nose, tail cone and fin as well as engines) the cost isn't far off what you'd pay for the PAS resin kit. If you really want to push the boat out the Authentic Airliners kit is superb although not cheap.

 

HTH

 

Dave G

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I had a look at the Welsh models website, afaics, they did a 757-200 kit (P/moulded) which I assume is plastic ?, which was quite spendy (£37.00 plus £15.00 handling plus postage on top :( & would still need replacement engines. They also list a series of replacement fuselages for various kits, I'd guess vac form, but no price quoted & I assume the same handling as a full kit though less post probably. PAS were certainly cheaper than Authentic, which wanted to charge us full VAT, which I jibe at, but I haven't checked out their post yet. Sorry if I sound mean but sometimes post to NZ can make up a large proportion of the price of a kit & makes a huge difference to what is affordable to me or not. 

55 minutes ago, Skodadriver said:

Personally I'd go with the Airfix 727 rather than the Minicraft one. The errors in the Airfix kit are more easily fixable than Minicraft's thick wings and oversized engines. Many years ago Jodie Peeler wrote an excellent article about improving the Airfix kit in the old Airliner Modeller magazine. I can scan you a copy when I get home from holiday at the weekend. Drop me a pm if you're interested.

 

Again speaking personally I wouldn't touch either the Minicraft or the closely related EE 757s. By the time you've bought the kit and the necessary BraZ correction parts (nose, tail cone and fin as well as engines) the cost isn't far off what you'd pay for the PAS resin kit. If you really want to push the boat out the Authentic Airliners kit is superb although not cheap.

 

HTH

 

Dave G

Dave I'd love to  see that article on the Airfix 727 & thanks for the recommendation, that at least makes it affordable. I was going to stop at the Braz engines for the 757, the rest was going to get some reshaping as I've seen in a couple of articles & I was going to be happy with that, I don't aspire to the works of the modeler's art that you produce, more like workmanlike models like hopefully I can produce. PM to follow.

Steve.

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Steve,

 

The RNZAF never used 727-200s - they were 727-100s!  (2 plus 1 spare parts plane)

 

Easiest solution for that is the current offering by Revell (although the wheels are too big - Brengun make replacements)

 

Airfix initially made a -100 kit, but the moulds were permanently changed to make the -200 kit.

 

Germania 727-100 kit

 

Brengun wheels

 

Cheers!

Edited by Scott Garard
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I have both of these in the 'to do' pile Steve

 

:popcorn:

 

Minicraft for the B757 and an Airfix -200 with an OzMods -100 conversion. Decals from Hawkeye Models Aus. for the 757 and OldModels for the B727.

 

Took this at Ohakea back in '87 at the 50th Anniv airshows.

 

36852697546_1d4436e0b8_b.jpg

 

Though I plan to do the later scheme with the light blue

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1 hour ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

I have both of these in the 'to do' pile Steve

 

:popcorn:

 

Minicraft for the B757 and an Airfix -200 with an OzMods -100 conversion. Decals from Hawkeye Models Aus. for the 757 and OldModels for the B727.

 

Yeah, they've been on my "To-Do List" for a while now too. Other decal topics keep getting in the way! :think:

 

36233976773_b1f8bb3a66_b.jpg

 

:whistle:

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OK, Thanks for putting me right on that one Scott, in my defense I was going on this page which now that I look at the overlap of the wingtips to the engines is plainly wrong. The good news is that the Revell model is cheaper than the Airfix & especially the Minicraft ones so that's a win, there were 2 on Trademe, now only one & the Brengun set ordered from Hobbyshop.cz, combined price about what I'd have been paying for the Airfix with post on top. I'm calling that a result. :) I did look at the Ozmodels conversion Ray but nice though it looked, the Revell plus Brengun struck me as slightly simpler, I hope. :wonder:

Now, about that 757, I think I can see a Minicraft one plus Braz engines in my future, unless.....

Steve.

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10 hours ago, Scott Garard said:

they were 727-100s

That's right. They got an ex United -22C (convertible freight) with Cabin Frt door. A common visitor to Brize ,possibly picking up Andover spares among other things and the banter between crews at Colombo after they (and a NZAF Herc) parked next to us. Don't think I saw it in the light blue scheme, just the original Dk Blue.

Good choice for a build combo !

Edited by bzn20
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I think that the -22c designation on these is what has caused some confusion, thinking it means a 200 series. As I understand it, written in full it should be 122c but never appears to be??? I'm still humming & hahhing over the scheme, I like the later bright blue one but the earlier dark scheme is probably more striking. :unsure:

Steve.

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Steve, the 727 (and some 707) model designation confusion lies with Boeing.

 

With the first model, they were designated and certificated by their Customer Build number. e.g. 727-22 for United, 727-23 for American, 727-76 for TAA, 727-77 for Ansett, etc.

 

With the advent of the -200 series, all original models were retrospectively (and informally) referred to as -100 series - but they were never re-certified as such.

 

So, a United 200 series is certified as a 727-222, whereas a United "100 series" is still officially a 727-22 and not a 727-122.  Clear enough? :nuts:

 

The -100 , -200, -300 etc. designations became standard with the 737 onwards.

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Sounds like a good choice, Revell 727-100 is old but accurate in shape and a much

better nose than Airfix, plus the wheels can be fixed by using a stand.....in flight.

You are right on the EE 757, it's as bad as Minicraft and more money! I almost had

the Minicraft beat into submission, if I remember the wings were twisted off so they

weren't parallel to the stabs, was really not that awful hard to fix. I have a Revell

727-100 WIP going on now.---John

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I found your WIP John, looking good, I'll be keen to see the end result. I might jack this one up the build schedule a bit, the GBs I've suscribed to are rapidly going by the board, life is just not allowing time just now & it seems like a GB has become an obligation, I need to do some for fun, no time limits, no pressure.

Steve.

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  • 5 weeks later...

A fair point Graeme, I'll probably buy a Minicraft one anyway as insurance but knowing my rate modelling if there is one forthcoming I won't have begun it & with the Kiwi connection, it'll sell on Trademe OK. (I hope) :)

Steve.

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