Arriving in a convenient 30cm x 14cm x 5.2cm top opening box, the limited edition kit is attractively packaged. Box art is a clear photograph of an Air Do Co. Ltd. (previously Hokkaido Int. Airlines) 737-700 on take-off with ocean and cityscape in the background.
This is a new tool kit as of 2013. There are a total of six different sprue harboring 47 crisply molded parts, including a smoked clear display stand and a bolt to be used as forward ballast. There is also pamphlet style instructions and a very nice decal sheet included. Sadly, that lovely decal sheet is not protected in its own plastic bag.
The various parts and pieces on sprue in the kit look small compared to the larger scales I'm accustomed to. None-the-less, it is a very nice looking kit in 1/200th scale.
Fuselage
The fuselage halves are cleanly molded in white plastic. I'm impressed with the level of finely recessed panel line detail, which is by no means trench-like and overdone. There are no open passenger windows molded down the length of fuselage, so the builder is committed to employ the provided window decals. Most modelers will likely break off one or all of the delicate fuselage antennae molded onto the starboard fuselage half during construction. Then again, most modellers will likely remove those delicate annoyances deliberately so as to aid seam clean-up, and replace them with plastic card.
Wings
The port and starboard main wings are presented as one piece units molded in grey plastic. These will attach to a separate lower mid fuselage section which should ensure proper dihedral, at least according to Hasegawa. The wings also have adequate and finely recessed panel line detail.
Test fitting the wings to the fuselage mid section proves the fit slightly imperfect, so there will be some clean-up required around the engine mount. The purist will also want to repair a difficult injection release point exposed inside the tiny wheel bay.
The winglets come as separately molded parts. In this example, one winglet was broken in half on the sprue, with the other stress bent. This is only an easily repaired annoyance. Hopefully, it is one off with this example.
Tailplane
Already molded directly onto the fuselage halves, the fin and rudder offer no challenges. The one piece stabilizers are clean and test fit tight to the fuselage halves. These all have more than adequate and very fine recessed panel line detail.
Engines
Each engine and cowling consists of six parts, with these being quite well detailed for the scale. The recessed panel lines on the engine cowls are perhaps too fine. They are most certainly going to disappear under paint coats.
I do note there is a flattened area on the front cowl bottoms, which is characteristic of the CFM56 engined 737's. Also, some of the engine parts are very small to work with, however, they are not especially delicate.
Landing Gear
The kit supplies alternate parts allowing the modeler to choose between gear-up flying attitude, or gear-down. This is a very welcome feature, where wheel-up gear is actually molded to fit in the raised position. Wheels for gear-up are molded right into the part. Very nice separate wheels are supplied for gear-down, albeit very tiny wheels.
Decals and Paint Scheme's
The included instruction sheet is formatted in typical Hasegawa pamphlet style, with the paint color call outs referring to Gunze Sangyo Hobby Color and Mr Color. Sadly, I have not seen these paints readily available in North America for quite some time, so alternate referencing may be necessary depending on where you live.
The included decal sheet is a work of art, and I hope they perform as good as they look. A really nice feature is that they allow painting on the Air Do colors, should you prefer that. There are enough fuselage windows and Air Do logos to allow you to do so. Or, the colors are provided in decal form, with the Air Do logo included.
The decals offer markings to do one of two aircraft, however, the 4-view instruction only shows a single aircraft. So references should be consulted if you're not modeling the 737 shown on the box top.
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SUMMARY
Highs: A crisply molded, small model with outstanding detail. Accuracy true to a 737 appears to be high. The full decal sheet looks absolutely great, offering a colorful choice in livery.Lows: Injection release points in the wheel bays with gear down. Wing and engine attachment technique means some filler will be necessary in difficult spots. Paint call outs reference a hard to get product. Verdict: This looks like a fun little model to build. It has a very small footprint, but, is obviously a highly detailed and modern molding.
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I live in Alberta, the West Central region close to the Rocky Mountains. It get's so cold here in the winter, that staying inside and building model aircraft seemed like a really good idea. I enjoy the hobby very much.
The aircraft are my favorite, but, I do dabble with the odd bit of armor, aut...
Nice kit-just wish it was in 1/72nd! I also wish it was done so you could build it with or without the winglets - I believe the 700 model did not originally have winglets. Also hoping to see a 72nd 757 and stretch DC-8 - that's an especially beautiful bird that would look awesome in 72nd!
Thank you for the kind comments, gentlemen.
1/72 would put the fuselage length at about 17". I wish I had the room for display. Sadly, I'm already struggling with what little space I have.
Luckily, I've got plenty of room. I was just thinking how neat it would be to have the new P-8 Poseidon in 72nd - I would bet we"ll see that one eventually!
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