Wings900 - Herpa Wings OK Airways Boeing B737-900 1:500

From Herpa: In 2004, Okay Airways was founded as China’s first solely private airline with its base at Tianjin, in the northeast of the country. It began flight operations on 11 March 2005 on the route Tianjin – Changsha with a 737-900 leased from Korean Air Lines. The airplane with the registration B-5110 will be released in the 1/500 scale and is limited to 1,500 models. So here we go, another 737 to have a look at... let's see where this model goes right... and where it goes wrong.

Model Details

Manufacturer: Herpa

Airline: OK Airways
Make: Boeing
Model: 737-900
Scale: 1:500
Part Number: 501477

Model Review

Mould and Assembly: Well, this 737 is one of the problem children of the Herpa lineup. Although over the NG years, we have seen some minor updates to these moulds, it is time for Herpa to take a look at redoing their entire lineup. This mould has some pretty serious issues.

First and formost is the nose section. Albeit much better than the classic "sharpened-pencil" 737 nose, this nose goes almost too far in creating a visible nose. It is way too pronounced and is way too high. It is also too fat and round. Moving on down, the front gear door are way too thick and do not look good at all. Even if they are the right size, their thickness really are more of a negative.

Even though I can live with it, the plastic flange on the front gear is not acceptable. I know it cannot be prevented, but it simply looks bad.

The wing/body joint is nicely done and the wing looks good!!; The engines have wonderful details and no problems there. The tail of the plane is a little bit too fat, but Herpa has given us a detailed APU. But right above it is a transparent tail than leads us too the next review criteria.

Livery: The livery here is nicely done. The livery lines up nicely and the colors are correct. The livery lines up very nicely on the tail section and it really is great. However, there are two major issues with this livery. The plastic tail is transparent and the off white color of the plastic does not match up correctly with the color of the fuselage; And the other is the plastic engines - they have the same color as the tail - and therefore do not match up with the livery.

Details: The details on this model are standard 1:500 scale details. We could expect more as we have seen Herpa come out with some super-detailed 1:500 models before.

The engine details are nice, the doors are good - even if they are standard - the APU is a nice touch.

Pluses

Nice airline

Minuses

Mould issues
Off color plastic tail and engines
Standard level of details

Photos

Editor review: OK airways is not really OK

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful


Overall rating		4.8
Mould and Assembly		4.0
Livery		5.0
Details		5.0
Overall Impression		5.0

With a mould that has some major issues, this model should be approached with caution for collectors who are looking for 100% realism. When this is also paired with mis colored plastic tail and engines, there are some issues with this plane that should make you think twice. A nice livery and an original airline do help balance out the shortcomings. But they are really too many and too obvious.... too bad.

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