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Herpa Wings British Airways 777-236ER 1:500
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Wings900 Reviews Commercial Aircraft
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Wednesday, 19 November 2008 |
Description
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A Long awaited model in 1:500 scale, herpa has finally released the BA77E. With 43 examples, British Airways today operates one of the biggest fleets of Boeing’s big twinjets worldwide and was also launching carrier in November 1995 of the once slow-selling airplane. With the change of engines from General Electric GE90s to Rolls-Royce Trent 800 and significantly more powerful –ER variant, the sales figures improved as well. Also the original of this model, a 777-236ER version with the registration G-YMMG and the name “City of Chicago” is one of the modern versions.
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Model Details
| | Manufacturer:
Airline: British Airways
Make: Boeing
Model: 777-236ER
Scale:
1:500
Part Number: 507912
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Model Review
| | Mould and Assembly: Herpa's 777 is one of their best moulds. For this review, I will start from the nose and move to the tail. The shape of the nose very accuratly portrays the 77E. I have a problem with the cockpit windows, but I will get to printing in the next section. The first problem moving back from the nose is the nose landing gear. They should be moved towards the nose just a tiny bit - maybe the length of the width of the door. Additionally, the landing gear could use a bit more detail - the bar on the front shoud be at the top of the gear. However, this is being very, very picky - overall, the nose is done almost perfectly. Moving back, the wings are flawless. The engines pylons, though, are not as great - good, but not great. They represent the general shape of the 777 pretty well, but i think they could be a bit more refined. Again, this is a tiny, very picky detail - overall, wings have been done very well. However, engines need some work. The tail-cone of the engine is too small, middle cone is too long and skinny, and the main engine cowling has too much taper towards the back of it - it should be a bit more level, allowing the middle cone to be shortened and fattened, and allowing the end cone to be enlarged. The wing root is acceptable, but I would like to see herpa completely eliminate this. The 777 is large enough to allow a seamless wingroot. Moving to the tail - it is pretty good, looks metal which is a plus. Only tiny, tiny flaw may be that the corners are a bit rounded - they should be crisp. But that's what you get when you replace plastic with metal. Finally, the biggest flaw in this mould, if you can even call this a flaw. The APU exhaust is very rounded at the end. It should not be so rounded, it should have distinct corners and be a straight line down perpendicular to the floor. Overall, one of herpa's best moulds.
Livery: The livery is overall well represented. All colors are accurate, as is the placement. The only flaw is in the tail - the top ribbon is a tiny bit too thick, as it should become concave up again right before the leading edge of the tail. However, that's a tiny flaw. the biggest gripe I have with this are the highlights. These are the hardest part of the livery, and although herpa has done a decent job, it isn't perfect. the front highlight on the bottom ribbon of the tail should be slightly curved - it is straight. Also, the back highlight in all three tail strips could be smaller, and there could be more gradient in the red color. The speedbird logo at the front of the model looks good though.
Details: The biggest problem in this model are the details. Starting with the cockpit windows - this model is a 777, and herpa is a hit or a miss with the cockpit windows. Sometimes, they look great! But other, like in this case, they suffer from the squint syndrome. The middle cockpit windows are squinted and should be larger. Other details are good. The plugged windows of the real jet are accurately represented. There are the cargo doors, blackened engine inlet, and "Boeing 777" logo at the tail, registration on fusalage and tail, and the logo in front of the registration is correct. Additionally, there is the one world symbol on the doors, which is a plus. However, there aren't that many details. The doors are pretty empty, the nose gear doors are blank, cargo doors are plain, there is not RR symbol on the engines - which are completely blank. Herpa has darkened the engine exhaust - that's always a bonus.
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Pluses
| | Great mould overall
Pretty Accurate livery
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Minuses
| | SQUINT COCKPIT WINDOW SYNDROME
Engine shape
average details - could use more
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Photos
Editor review: Great model overall - too bad it has the squint no
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
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| Overall rating |
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6.0 |
| Mould and Assembly
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9.0 |
| Livery
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5.0 |
| Details
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3.0 |
| Overall Impression |
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7.0 |
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