History

First rolled out in November of 2002, the Boeing 777-300ER (Extended Range) is one of the newest members of Boeing's highly successful 777 family of aircraft.

With a length of 73.9m and a wingspan of 64.8m, this aircraft can only be described as huge. It can transport more than 450 individual souls to distances greater than 14,000km at a cruising speed of 895km/hr. Packing massive General Electric GE90 engines, the aircraft still maintains proven fuel conservation 20% more efficient than Boeing's 747-400. At the present time, this is the largest twin-engine jet airliner in existence.

First Impressions

The kit arrived to me in an attractive 38cm x 19cm top opening box, the top cover artwork being an actual photograph of a Japan Airlines 777-300ER. This just happens to be the very first 1/200th kit I’ve ever handled, and when I opened the box, I was surprised to see the workings of a rather large model. Truly, I was expecting something small.

Inside I found the fuselage sealed in one plastic bag and all the other parts on sprue sealed in another. The box also contains a b/w folding pamphlet style set of instructions and an outstanding decal sheet that was not protected in a sealed bag. Just my opinion, but, I feel all decal sheets should be shipped protected.

Fuselage

First impressions of the fuselage were that it was crisply molded, flash free, and offers sufficient and very nice recessed panel line detail. There is a bolt included in the box, meant to screw through a pair of bulkheads and act as forward ballast in the fuselage.

Personally, I don’t care for molded in open fuselage windows, and these lengthy fuselage halves offer lots of them. My plans are to fill those in and instead use the excellent decals Hasegawa has provided.

Closer inspection of the fuselage proves that there are obvious tooling marks at points roughly 1/3rd from the nose tip, and 1/3rd from the tail cone. It appears the tools (I’m no expert) would have been joined in three sections allowing Hasegawa to effectively mold other models of the Triple 7. There are also a few slight sink marks at those locations, where the tools were joined. Certainly, all of this is easily fixable, and may not be serious enough to worry most modellers.

I do like the fact that a nice display stand is included in the packaging. This comes as a pair of smoked clear plastic pieces, joined by slots to form an X, more or less.

Wings

The wing moldings are definitely nice. There is sufficient recessed panel detail and no warping in my example. The main wings are molded in top and bottom parts with heavy duty attachment slots on the bottom wing for engine and accessory attachment.

Empennage

The rudder and fin are molded onto the fuselage halves, straight and offering no issues. The stabilizers and elevators are already nicely molded as one piece units, again with sufficient recessed panel line detail. You need only attach then to their respective fuselage locations.

Engines

I’m impressed with the engine cowls and engines. The forward fans are a wonderful disk molding and the rear engine cone is very well presented. I can clearly see, the engine construction will be simple and the detail more than sufficient for the scale. Even in 1/200th, these engines will be obviously massive, and that nice detail will be required as your eyes will certainly direct toward them on a completed model.

Landing gear

Believe me, I’m no airliner engineer. To me, though, the supplied landing gear struts look a little heavy and overdone. Perhaps, that is required in a large, small scale model. I don’t know. At least, they may not be readily visible on the finished model. There will be six wheel and tire mounted on each main gear leg along with associated wheel bay covers.

Accuracy

I don’t get into rivet-counting accuracy. This model certainly looks like it will properly represent a Boeing 777-300ER.

Decals and Markings

The marking and painting guidelines (the scheme) are printed in black and white reduced scale on the instructions folder. It is easy to follow, and suggests marking for a single aircraft. Colours are defined in the usual Hasegawa method of a number in a box referencing Hobby Colour paints.

As far as the decals are concerned; wonderful! There are a lot of decals on that 5-1/2x7” sheet; the reds look red and the blacks look black. The sheet holds enough quality decals to do the example suggested on the box-top, and there are enough extra numbers and a letter included to do any 777-300ER in Japan Airlines fleet. Well done, Hasegawa.

conclusion

This is a very nice Hasegawa model kit. In my opinion, all around, it is very well detailed and looks to be fairly accurate. In my view there are only a few small issues, notably in the fuselage, windows and landing gear. I strongly recommend it for all who have interest in small scale airliners. It will be a fun build.

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