Hey guys and gals,
I just came back with a Minicraft 737-400 from my hobby shop. It put me back 15$ but I figured I should get away from the warbirds for a while and build a true warrior. The one I have is an Aloha scheme, but I"m debating changing the livery. Was wondering if anyone has built a 1/144 737. It looks much different than a 1/48 tomcat, but you know I’m up for the challenge. So If anyone has any tips, I’d love to hear, so let me know, I’ll post some pics later.
God Bless
Mate,
I’ve built about a half dozen of the Minicraft 737-400s for contract builds…they’re GREAT little kits…really easy to assemble, excellent fit, the landing gear is very well detailed (for a 1/144 kit) and the overall shape is actually pretty good. The panel scribing is very fine, but there are no panel lines on the fuselage other than the doors.
There are lots of decals for them…Skyline models makes some fantastic decals for them which inludes a full set of stencils (about 200 of the darned things), windows, cockpit windows…really, their decals are fantastic.
See: http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/?CATEGORY=&DIVISION=&MANUFACTURER=Skyline&CODE=&TYPE=&SCALE=&KEYWORD=&NUMPERPAGE=25&order[]=code+asc
You’l love the little kit - I’ve got another 3 in my stash waiting to be built - with the Skyline decals to go on them.
I don’t have all that many tips or hints…because the thing goes together so well. Remember to add weight in the nose - you can do that after you close the fuselage but before you add the cockpit window insert. You can paint and attach the wings separately (they’ll fit really well) and just slot them in after you paint and decal the fiselage because of the nesting prongs that are on the wings…
You might need to add a tiny bit of filler to the underside of the fuselage ahead of the wheel well openings…and there are sometimes a couple of small-ish sink marks on top of the fuselage - but in truth, those are really about the only bad bits of the kit…and if THOSE are the worst things, then it’s a good kit to build.
Good luck - and enjoy!
WOW thanks alot! Sounds like it will be a great build, I’m going to start tomorrow, Awesome site too! I particularly like the simpsons one. Should I have any probems as far as the difference of the 400-300? And if you happened to know of where to get any us air or even better american airlines, I’d love to know. Hope to fly one of those someday so looking for something to motivate the hard work. Thanks for all the advice though, I’ll post pics.
If you need help with decal placement or ideas for a different livery, try airliners.net. You can do a photo search of the 737 and get a good idea of the options. I have the same 737 kit and I change the livery to Alaska air. For decals joydecals.com has a wide selection and fast turn around time.