Eastern Express kits any good?

[Rb277170]

Just browsing eBay and came across Eastern Express kits , which prompted a bit further research . I see they do kits for a Handley Page Herald and Boeing 757-200 . Are these worth a look? The Herald kit seems fairly expensive .

[Graham Boak]

The Herald has been discussed on this forum - I don't know about the Boeing or their other modern airliners.

[John Masters]

I have always liked them.  They usually offer a variety of aircraft that no one else does, especially WW1.  The kits themselves can be very basic and simple, i.e. very little detail, but they usually build up to good models especially if you want to scratch build cockpits, etc...

 

I cannot speak to the accuracy of the moulds.  

[bentwaters81tfw]

The Herald is the old FROG kit with modern decals. I have built the SeaVenom, and had no problem. I used old FROG decals, and only some off the EE decal sheet, just in case, but they were fine.

EE seem to re-box other kitmakers items. I have an An-22 in the stash. It's a nice kit, but I understand it takes a little patience.

[26Decals]

29 minutes ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

The Herald is the old FROG kit with modern decals.

That is incorrect, it is a new 1/144 scale kit which I have been selling re-boxed versions of with a choice of 8 different liveries

Edited March 31, 2019 by 26Decals
spelling

[Skodadriver]

The Boeing 757 is a load of  like a significant number of Eastern Express airliner kits. It's basically a rip off of the Minicraft kit with all its many inaccuracies and with a few more issues (like poor moulding quality) thrown in for good measure. I don't know what price is being asked for EE on eBay but Hannants have the Minicraft kit at £24.99 and while it's pretty inaccurate at least it's a decent moulding.

 

EE have produced some truly awful kits such as the A318. Bentwaters81tfw is being charitable when he talks about them "re-boxing" other kitmakers items. To a point that is true of the Tristar which is largely the ex-Otaki kit and one of the few decent things they produce but many of their older kits are blatantly pirated in whole or in part from other makers such as Revell and Minicraft. I've had too many bad experiences with EE ever to buy another of their products but modellers whose views I respect say that some of the more recent kits aren't too bad. In particular the IL-18 gets a good press and the MD-11 can be built into an impressive model if you have the skill and patience to deal with its major fit problems. The recent DC-9/MD-80 family have been well received in terms of accuracy but they are very expensive for what you get although it's sometimes possible to keep the price down by ordering from Poland or Ukraine.

 

Dave G

[bentwaters81tfw]

1 minute ago, 26Decals said:

That is incorrect, it is a new 1/144 scale kit which I have been selling re-boxed versions of with a choice of 8 different liveries

I stand corrected.

[Doom3r]

My rule for EE is that buy it only if I have to have the model...like REALLY have to have. Usually it is overpriced (at least in US, in Russia it is a cheapest one) and is of a lowest quality of the short runs. My recent buy was MD-11 (an impulsive buy: I love the aircraft, loved the Finnair decal) and it is way better than anything I've seen from them before, however quality looks way worse that Zvezda airliner kits (which isn't the best one as well, I wish Hasegawa was doing their Loveliners in 144 -- some of their recent models have a better detail than anyone in 144 scale).

Boeing 737 Original -- seems to be a rip off of the Airfix with the only difference that instead of raised panel lines it has engraved by big rusty needle, after building one I picked up 2 Airfix and rescribed them myself.

Boeing 737 Classic -- looks like rip off of the Minicraft kit with panel lines made by the same needle, lot of people complain that fuselage halves are bent but I guess I was the lucky one (honestly I bought it only for the S7 decal that I used on Daco kit). It's current price is almost the same price as Daco kit which is ridiculous.

Eggplant (Il-96) -- people say it is one of the worst kits ever produced and I agree with them, however this is the only game in town

Tu-134 -- russian forums full of the swear words about the quality of that kit and as soon as Zvezda manufactured it's own kit I haven't seen it anywhere (except Tu-134UBL which is I am thinking about buying for the past 3 years).

Boeing 757 -- people say it is a rip off of the Minicraft and by looking at sprue shots it's definitely look like that, however it has -300 which Minicraft didn't had and maybe some day I am going to buy into it but not for now.

[Rb277170]

Thanks for all the answers guy . Sounds like buyer beware . I might buy a Herald if I can get one at a decent price, but I’m not buying one at $50+ .quite fancied one in BIA Orange, continuing my airliners seen at Glasgow theme  .  I’ve got the Minicraft 757 thanks Dave . I’ll stick with that . The Eastern Express one was $19.95

 

Edit : just realised 26 decals do a kit of Herald . Too tempting BIA and BUA on order

Edited April 1, 2019 by Rb277170
Update

[Skodadriver]

As Ray himself mentioned, the 26 Herald is a re-box (or re-bag) of the EE kit.  Ray has a long history of selling re-boxed kits with his own decals often for less than the retail price of the original kit. It's always worth keeping an eye on the 26 website.

[cmatthewbacon]

To be fair, Eastern Express did also issue the Frog 1/72 Herald, which has also been available in Novo and Maquette boxes...

best,

M.

[Gimme Shelter]

you have a fair set of very honest answers here. I have built both EE's 757, 777 and MD-11.

 

If you are just an assembler, stay away from them as they don't just fall together like a new Airfix or Tamiya type kit. The kits I have built took a very long time to perfect and fit together properly.

 

If you are a in it for fun and are not OCD about the finish - then why not.

 

Hold on there I hear you say. OCD??? Who ever heard of anyone having this who builds models...….😧

[Eric Mc]

I picked up their new 1/144 Herald kit at Southern Expo a couple of weekends ago. It looks pretty nice on the sprues and I am sure it will be a lot easier to build than the Welsh Models vacform I completed a few months ago.

 

[Gimme Shelter]

ooh - thanks a nice build Eric

[Rb277170]

Yes the Herald models have now arrived , one in BUA and the other in BIA liveries . Look good 

[Eric Mc]

My 737-100 arrived yesterday. Looks good in the box. The decals depict D-ABEP carrying special but discreet "Munchen 1972" Olympic markings

[Skodadriver]

1 hour ago, Eric Mc said:

My 737-100 arrived yesterday. Looks good in the box. The decals depict D-ABEP carrying special but discreet "Munchen 1972" Olympic markings

 

Hope you have a spare set of Airfix engines handy. The kit engines are an approximate version of the engines fitted to the Advanced 200 but they don't resemble anything ever fitted to the -100, a point picked up by Alex1978 in his very nice Singapore Airlines model. There is also something strange about the wing trailing edges. It looks like EE have moulded them as if the flaps are starting to deploy.

[Eric Mc]

What is the precise problem with the -100 engines in the kit?

 

Can the problems be rectified by cutting and/or sanding?

 

Do they feature the prominent blow-in doors? I couldn't see as the bits are still in the bag and I don't want to open the bag until I'm ready to start working on it.

 

To be honest, I am not going to get too hung up on engine shape issues - life's too short to be honest. But the blow-in doors are a very prominent feature of the 100s and earlier 200s.

 

In fact, the very first 737 had VERY short engines but they were retrofitted with the extended thrust reversers that were a marked feature of the 100 and 200.

[Skodadriver]

The problem with the engines is that they represent the type fitted to the -200/Adv which are significantly different in appearance from the early type fitted to the -100 and early -200s. The Adv engines are physically quite a bit larger and one of the most visible differences is in the pylon which is much "fatter" than the earlier version. As far as I remember EE make no attempt to represent the blow-in doors which kind of makes sense since they were obviously looking at the wrong engines when they were designing the kit. These two photos show the -100 and the -200/Adv from roughly the same angle and you can see the differences.

 

I wouldn't presume to tell you how to build your own model and if you want to use the EE engines as they come you're fully entitled to do so. However the Airfix engines are correct for the -100 apart from the very early ones before the thrust reversers were changed. Alex1978 has shown that they can be made to fit the EE kit and you could probably use the EE engines with the rest of the Airfix kit to make a 200/Adv. 

[Eric Mc]

Thanks for the detailed response. I can see what you mean. The main areas that I would like to tackle would be blow in doors and the pylon fairing. I do have a couple of Airfix 737s in the stash so perhaps a raid on one of those might be in the offing.

[Ben Brown]

I’m not familiar with EE’s 737 engines but I think the Airfix engines’ length is correct for the early version fitted with the 727-style cascade reverses and are ~4 mm too short for the later style of reverser. Forum member Viking showed how to fix them by adding a plug just forward of the reverser, but I think his photos died in The Great Photobucket Fiasco. Once fixed, the Airfix engines are pretty good representations of the early engines with the narrow pylons and blow-in doors. The best Advancd engines are from Authentic Airliners. Braz’s are much too short and too fat and can’t be easily fixed. I’ve tried.

 

Back to the original question, I can say that building EE’s Short 330 and 360 has had me wondering if I would have been better off wrestling with the Welsh kits. 🤬

 

Ben

[Viking]

On 18/04/2019 at 15:00, Ben Brown said:

Forum member Viking showed how to fix them by adding a plug just forward of the reverser, but I think his photos died in The Great Photobucket Fiasco. s. 🤬

Ben

Ben. it is Here

Also I did a 737-130 with the original short engines with 727 thrust reversers in last years group build starting here  finished model Here, maybe need to scroll down.

 

As for Eastern Express kits, they are limited run and need 'building'.  I have not done a 737 as it has had poor reviews, instead I prefer the Airfix and Daco 737's. The main issue with them and others such as the Tristar and F-27's is cost, they are very expensive. However Ray at 26 decals sometimes issues them at very good prices with his own decals. It is always worth checking His website. You have to get them when they are available, as he only does one batch of each subject.

 

HTH

 

John

[Ben Brown]

Hi John,

 

Thanks for the links! I’m glad your in-progress photos for the Airfix -200 are back. I completely missed your -100 build and the 737 group build. I was actually building two -200s at the time!

 

Ben

Edited April 19, 2019 by Ben Brown