1/72 scale airliners

[gigi]

I am looking for some advice about what I can find in 1/72 scale for my son. I prefer 1/72 because I think 1/144 is too small and other scales are either rare, expensive or both plus if he wants something else in the future, it would be nice to keep it the same scale. I feel it creates a more realistic comparative representation.

 

For the first kit I would prefer something like an airliner he can relate to (we've been on quite a few flights on various planes and often see them landing at the nearby airport) like an A380, a 747 something like that. Or something outlandish but significant like a Concorde, a Tristar, 707, 727. Needless to say I haven't seen any of these and am not sure if they do actually exist in 1/72.

 

Any recommendations?

[Paul J]

You're right. They don't exist.  Can you imagine an A380 or747 in 72nd? They would be enormous not to say expensive.  There is or are kits of the Boeing 737 early versions to 1/72 by BPK but are around 80quid! The more manageable  types that are around are the Airfix DC-3  and Heron. Also Esci/Italeri Fokker F27 but that's about it.

Mind you the A380 and 747 in 1_144 are a reasonable size and fairly available. 

[kev67]

Airfix/Heller do a 1/72 Concorde 

Heller do a 1/72 707

welshmodels vacform do a lot of 1/72 airliners but in mixed media

AIM (aircraft in miniature) do Boeing 747 in 1/72 but is vacform and other airlines 

Mach 2 do 1/72 airliners

if you Google 1/72 airliners or any of these companies you will find loads, but in 1/72 they are large and mainly difficult to build and more for the experienced builder 

 

[Pin]

Most of that you mentioned exist in one form or another.

 

Probably the best and the easiest of all kits of airliners of importance is BPK 737 family

https://bigplaneskits.com/

As you see they also do Bombardier CRJ, Canadair Challenger etc.

 

There is an old Heller 707 kit that is not quite up to modern standards both accuracy and detailing wise but can be made into a nice model.

 

AIM offers 747, 767, A310, DC-8, DC-10, Comet 4, MD-80, BAC 1-11 as multimedia (Vacform / resin) kits

http://www.aim72.co.uk/page7.html

 

Not aware of Tristar or 380 

 

Concorde .... Sad story. Airfix 1/72 Concorde is the worst kit ever produced. Not worth the money, easier to build from scratch.

 

Also known to me 

- II-62 HpH

- Il-86 ModelSvit

- Tu-104 HpH

- Tu-114 AModel

- Tu-134 AModel

- Tu-144 ModelSvit

- Tu-154 HpH

- Super Constellation - Heller

- An-10 AModel

- An-24 AModel

- VC-10 Anigrand

- Viscount Mach 2

- Caravelle Mach 2

- NAMC YS-11 One Man Models

- Hawker Siddeley HS748 One Man Models

- Hawker Siddeley HS780 One Man Models

- A320NEO Nemo 

 

I am not mentioning pre 50-ies airliners here, there are a lot

 

[gigi]

Wow. You mentioned one of my favourites (I had one as a kid), the IL62. That was my very first kit as a kid. Is that a 1/72 kit you list there? What is HpH?

 

Nevermind. Found it.

 

Seems like I will have quite a shopping list next I visit the EU.

 

Thank you, everybody. Now I have something to think about.

 

 

[janneman36]

As you were searching for 727 there is the ever don’t wanna build out of production KMC 727-200 these are sometimes offered on E-bay.

Its is plastic with resin parts.

There is an Lockheed L188 Electra from onemanmodel (to be found on -bay) and that one is ABS printed and he also produces the HS748, YS11, and a few more…

 

cheers, Jan 

[bootneck]

There are a fair few 1:72 airliners at Kingkit at the moment.  These are a mix of new and pre-owned; however, they don't hold large stocks, like a model shop does, and I find it is best to order what I want as soon as I see it,

 

cheers,

 

Mike

[modelldoc]

Airliner in 1:72,

there are not many, but

the HP Dart Herald from FROG, now NOVO or Maquette:

 

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/21603181@N08/7387071596/in/photolist-cfLF2o

 

or some kits from MACH 2, like the Vickers Viscount:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21603181@N08/5326288543/in/photolist-97EC26

 

or the Convair 340:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21603181@N08/50500117653/in/dateposted/

 

Very rar, but easy to build and simple in the construction are the former Aurora kits.

The Boeing B-737-100:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21603181@N08/48816827417/in/dateposted/

 

and the Douglas DC-9-10:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21603181@N08/50330469046/in/dateposted/

 

 

The Douglas DC-4 (here a conversion to the Canadair  C-4) is a very tricky kit, not for beginners:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21603181@N08/31467016917/in/dateposted/

 

At last a small, but nice prop from the Eastern World, an Ilyushin Il-14 from A.Model:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21603181@N08/46773909342/in/dateposted/

 

Beware, most of my kits have new and different markings.

 

modelldoc 

 

Edited February 1, 2022 by modelldoc

[UC880]

There is a new company, based in the U.S.A. manufacturing a range of 1/72 airliners with the A330 and Boeing 777 to begin with, followed by B747s, A380s, L1011 etc as future releases according to their website. Seems to be vacuum formed high intensity plastic fuselage and 3D printed engines, landing gear etc.

 

https://www.titanmodelkits.com/

[gigi]

That looks quite interesting and most importantly they have a Tristar in the works! Thank you for the information. Hopefully they'll release these planes soon enough.

 

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by gigi

[kev67]

They look really interesting, and good luck to the company, but a bit out of my price range

[Alex1978]

Very interesting subjects,but I guess I have to get first some slots at my local airport to have enough parking space once a 72nd kit like the 777 can roll off my production line...😊

[Paul J]

It  seems there are or were more than I was aware of and forgot about. But as for the huge types asked about ,  there are still none about .

[71chally]

For large scale airliners, all be it just slightly smaller than 1:72, there are the classic Nitto/Entex/Doyusha 1:100 range of airliners.  The 747 in particular is a beauty and still builds well and looks good.

Edited February 2, 2022 by 71chally

[Vince1159]

On 2/1/2022 at 9:30 AM, Pin said:

- An-10 AModel

- An-24 AModel

 

 How about a 225 Mriya in 1/72 that would be a sight to behold and a good excuse to build an extention on your house....

[P-3s rule]

As 3 others have mentioned, Mach 2 make quite a few 1/72 airliners, including the dh comet, vc-10, bristol Britannia amongst others. These kits are not really suitable for beginners and are fairly expensive.

 

 

[Pin]

2 hours ago, Vince1159 said:

 How about a 225 Mriya in 1/72 that would be a sight to behold and a good excuse to build an extention on your house....

It is not an airliner

[Vince1159]

17 minutes ago, Pin said:

It is not an airliner

I know but does that really make a difference...

[Pin]

24 minutes ago, Vince1159 said:

I know but does that really make a difference...

Yes. It is offtopic 

[gigi]

Yeah, the Mrya is not an airliner, but a really interesting plane. The funny thing is that there is only one real plane but perhaps thousands of models of it. I think that is proof enough that it is something that made its mark. In size terms, it's not that much bigger than a 474.

[Skymonster]

6 minutes ago, gigi said:

Yeah, the Mrya is not an airliner, but a really interesting plane. The funny thing is that there is only one real plane but perhaps thousands of models of it. I think that is proof enough that it is something that made its mark. In size terms, it's not that much bigger than a 474.

It’s a commercial aircraft, and it’s 20% longer and has 30% greater wingspan than the 747-8

[gigi]

16 hours ago, 71chally said:

For large scale airliners, all be it just slightly smaller than 1:72, there are the classic Nitto/Entex/Doyusha 1:100 range of airliners.  The 747 in particular is a beauty and still builds well and looks good.

I was thinking about that. 1/100 seems like a good compromise. This is the scale am used too as well because as a kid I had the East German kits.

[Bangseat]

Of the kits listed here, I would say very few are suitable for a beginner. For any Mach 2 kit you need to have filler skills, this involves using a range of often quite "grown up" (toxic) products, and resin kits generally involve sanding and working with superglue. Any vacform kit involves cutting out the pieces with a sharp knife and again sanding. If it needs to be an airliner, go for an injection moulded kit. I would suggest the Atlantis rerelease of the Aurora DC9, not very accurate but a simple kit with nice decals. The Heller 707 is much bigger but great value and not particularly complex.

[gigi]

Thank you. I was wondering about these kits, there are so many these days, you don't know what to expect.

 

The kits I am familiar with were quite easy to put together and had reasonable detail, minimal decals and were probably injection moulded. You didn't even need to paint them if you didn't want to. Maybe I can get him one of the kits I put together as a kid, hehehehe! We could then compare outcomes.

 

Good point about the chemicals.

[tempestfan]

As has been said, long-run IM kits in 1/72 are few and far between. As the Heller Connie has been mentioned - they also had a DC-6, and Revell quite recently did a DC-4, if piston props do count. The Aurora/Monogram/Atlantis 737 and DC-9 have been mentioned, the DC-9 was re-released recently, not sure about the 737. Not the most accurate of kits I think but should be easy enough to build by a beginner.

 

As @71chally and yourself have suggested, 1/100 may be a good compromise, though the ex-Nittos may be tough to get and expensive - not sure if and how often Doyusha reruns them. As you mention the Plasticarts (bet that was the source of your Il-62), some of them may be cheap and easy enough to get (like the Trident, Tu-134 and 154), but some are firmly in the silly price segment. Not sure if Dahlmann or anyone else currently produces any of them. Again, likely quite buildable but some of them are woefully inaccurate (I have read ;-)).