History

Boeing's 777-300ER has become the aircraft of choice for long range operations the world over. Carrying only marginally fewer passengers than the 747-400 on much less fuel it has become the true successor to Boeing's venerable queen of the Skies.

First impressions

The moulding is Hasegawa's traditional crisp and clean. There is no flash to speak of, and no sink marks. The fine scribed lines are out of scale for 1/200 but will still look good under a coat of paint. They match up very nicely.

Fuselage

The fuselage is two halves from nose to tail. The cabin windows are open, with no clear parts provided for them. Either fill them or Krystal clear/Clearfix them; decal film just won't do it. No interior detail is provided, and the small windows would render any interior redundant anyway. The cockpit windows are the old-fashioned Airfix style strip, which makes getting them to fit properly without either breaking or falling into the fuselage something of a challenge. The panel lines are nicely engraved and match up well. The APU exhaust is a shallow indentation which is adequate for the scale. It may be opened up and detailed with a small blocked off piece of tube to prevent the see-through effect if desired. If the windows are left open, the interior should be painted black to prevent the model from looking toy-like. Hasegawa provides a novel nose weight in the form of a screw which must be inserted into a pair of bulkheads which fit behind the cockpit area. The 777's characteristic “sloping forehead” fuselage shape is captured convincingly for the first time in any injection-moulded kit. The kit instructions advise that the fuselage should be painted and decalled before the wings and tailplanes are attached. Separate Satcom antennae fairings are provided, some of which are not used for the kit markings, a hint that other releases will surely follow.

Wings

Each wing is in two halves with separate tips. Each upper half is much larger than the lower. The fit is good, but still some care should be taken to avoid a step in the undersurface. The 777's raked wingtips are provided on a separate sprue. They have a small tab, but care should be taken not to knock them off during painting.

Empennage

The tailplanes are one piece mouldings that fit very well but still need glue. Leave them off until final assembly to facilitate decalling.

Engines

The 777-300ER is powered by GE 90-115 engines, which are neatly represented by two cowl/strut halves, a solid intake ring, fan and exhaust/hot section. A small strake mounted on the fan cowl completes the engine. The strake mounting location is engraved on both sides of the cowling to allow for one moulding to suffice for both engines. The instructions note that the redundant location should be filled and sanded to remove it.

Landing gear

The landing gear struts and wheels are somewhat overscale, something of a trademark of Hasegawa's 1/200 kits. While they'll look the part, they're definitely not as finessed as similar mouldings in 1/144 can be. The gear doors and wells are devoid of interior detail, but little can be seen in this scale. The main gear wells have no side walls. It would be possible even at this scale to box them in.

Accuracy

I don't compare models to drawings or published measurements. When assembled it looks like a 777-300.

Decals and markings

The decal sheet is very complete, with a good variety of stencils and complete markings for one of 3 different All Nippon Airways 777s. There are also sufficient numbers to do any other aircraft of the ANA fleet by mixing and matching. A full set of window decals is provided for those modellers who like to use them. If the window decals are not used, the cheatline must be punched out after the decal has dried, risking tearing or other damage.

Alternative markings are available from the usual aftermarket sources.

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