Boeing 737-300 in 1/144 Scale
This article compares two 737-300 kits, firstly the Minicraft
737-300
first released in 1998 and the newer Skyline model (by Daco) released
in 2006.
Minicraft 737-300
When this kit first appeared on the market, I for one was very
excited
about it. Up to then there had been no mass produced injected moulded
1/144 scale Boeing 737 old generation. The model I'm going to review is
my second Minicraft 737 build.
The kit comes in 35 parts so is not an extensive build. There are no
windows moulded into the fuselage which makes it easier to use after
market decals which I prefer. The door outlines are engraved and the
cockpit canopy comes in one clear piece which includes a section of the
fuselage.
The instructions tell you that you need .5 oz ( 28.5 grams) of nose
weight to stop it being a tail sitter. The fit of the fuselage halves
is good and there are some minor sink marks by the location pins top
and bottom that need filling. You will now realise that there is no
main gear undercarriage bay. I therefore scratched built a box section
out of plastic card using lengths of sprue as mounting points. The APU
exhaust in the tail has no hole, bit that is easily drilled out. The
cockpit section fits well, but needs some filling and sanding in order
to remove the join lines. I also filled all the recessed door and hold
lines for decals later.
I very much like Minicraft's wings and the way they slide in
together
in the fuselage which creates the same dihedral on each side. There are
no lights on the end of the wings so I made these myself using perspex.




The engines go together nicely though the forward locating pins for
each side of the engine need to be removed or they will be seen in
front of the fan disc. The join line between the two engine halves
needs to be filled and sanded on the inside in front of the fan disc.
This is a somewhat awkward filling and sanding exercise. Each engine
lacks a nacelle strake on the outside facing the fuselage, but it can
be easily made from plastic card. The spinner cones are too pointy, so
I sanded them down until they were more rounded which later provided a
surface on which the spinner decals could be placed.




On my first build I attached the engines to the pylons and then
glued
both to the wing. I found this left me with some remedial filling and
sanding. With this build I put the engines on last and also squared off
the top off the pylon where it meets the wing using filler, parts 22
& 23. Minicraft have a curved end where these parts sit on the wing
and that is wrong.
I replaced the front undercarriage doors with ones made from plastic
card. The main gear doors need cutting into 3 sections as per the
instructions which are very good. The ends of each of the 3 pieces need
a little sanding down to make them fit better. I also sanded all the
doors pieces so they were much thinner.
The main gear support struts, parts 14 & 15 seem to be the wrong
way round on the instructions. I changed them round and found they
fitted better.

Painting and Decalling
I chose to do another Western Pacific Logojet and having been painting
too much white recently, decided on the all gold fuselage of one of the
Sam's Town logojets. I used an old Humbrol gold colour which sprayed on
nicely, but seemed to pick up stains easily when I started decalling. I
used Xtra Colour Canadian Voodoo Grey for the wings and tailplane. The
leading edges were painted with Humbrol 27002 Polished Aluminium.
The decals came from the Skyline range, sheet SKY 144-38 "Sam's Town2".
The sheet as per all decals from Skyline is a very comprehensive sheet
including loads of stencil markings. There are two different 'Cow Girls', one on each side of the tail and
large 'Sam's Town' billboard writing on each side of the fuselage.
I started by applying the girl decals to the tail as they would be a
good reference point for other decals to come. There was a blank white
decal of the outline of the girls which I applied first. I believe that
this is probably to avoid colour bleeding through the picture decal.
For all decals I used Micro Set and Sol.
Once I had applied the tail decals, especially the starboard girl, it
gave me a starting reference point for the remainder of the decals. I
applied the starboard rear door, then with a pair of dividers measured
the length of a group of 4 windows on the decal sheet. This gave me a
rough idea of where to apply the large "Sam's Town' decal on the same
side. The rearmost window is situated under the girls's boot on the
tail decal and four windows forward from that lies on the "S" of "Sam's
Town".


I applied the large "Sam's Town' decal first and while it was still wet
applied the "Las Vegas Kansas City Tunica" below. I found that the
later decal was too low, the letters of "City" disappearing into the
wing root. Therefore I raised both sets of decals higher. I could now
place the rest of the decals on the starboard side. The fit of the
windows, which comes in one strip, in relation to the "Sam's Town' logo
is generally very good with some slight misalignment on some letters.
You have to look pretty hard to spot the ones that don't align exactly.
Having done the starboard side, it was easier to apply decals to the
port side, using photographic references in conjunction with the very
clear colour instructions that go with the decal sheet.
For the coroguard on the wings I used Liveries Unlimited sheet A4-G02.
I had to trim the coroguard around the top of the engine pylon where it
meets the wing.


Finally I highlighted the wing flaps and tailplane by using thinned oil
paints or pastel powder.
Overall I am pleased with the finished plane which really is an eye
catcher when put on display. Under the fuselage are some stains from
where I believe the Micro Set and Sol collected and they won't come off
despite some rubbing and buffing.
Skyline Daco 737-300
I was happy with the Minicraft 737s, but when Daco's classic 737
series of kits were brought out they really impressed me. The level of detail completely surpasses the
Minicraft kit in all areas. The kit comes in 56 parts including a small
sprue for the cockpit and light transparencies. The fuselage is moulded
with the cabin windows closed, but the plastic here is thin and it is
possible to cut them open. The cockpit area can be cut away and
replaced with a one piece transparent part which I guess would then
have to be puttied and sanded like the similar part in the Minicraft
kit to make it fit. As an extra bonus, the kit comes with a decal sheet
containing windows, stencils and coroguard for the wings. Other extras
on the sprue include a tail skid for the 400 series and winglets which
have been retrofitted to some classic 737s There is also a
comprehensive array of antennae.

When you start the build the instructions don't tell you how much
weight is needed to stop the plane being a tail sitter. Once you've
added some weight glue in the undercarriage bays in place and stick the
fuselage together. Some of the differences between this kit and the
Minicraft are now obvious. The rudder is a separate part. There is an
APU vent on the starboard side behind the rear door. The back of the
fuselage is thinner around the tail, the Minicraft kit is bigger and
much more rounded. Also the shape of the nose resembles more a 737 than
the Minicraft kit.


All doors are engraved on the fuselage. I filled them in as well as the
cockpit windows which are recessed and need to be smooth for the later
application of the window decal.The wings are moulded in two halves
and the bottom part already has the engine pylon moulded on. The fit of
the bottom part on to the top wing section is done in such a way that
the leading and trailing edges of the wing are already on the top wing
section and are not formed by the fusion of the two wing halves.
This leaves a very nice thin trailing edge.The wings have tail &logo& lights
on the end of each wing as well as an area for navigation strobe
lights. There is a clear part for the strobe lights which I didn't use,
choosing instead to use my own piece of perspex. Warning, the &logo&
lights are very fragile and can easily be broken off.

The engines are one of the highlights in this kit. The detail on the
cowlings is superb and the necessary strakes are also included. The
build of the engines is much better than the Minicraft 737. The engine
and fan disc are glued together and then glued in between the two
cowling halves. Then the front of the engine intake is glued on and
covers up any join lines in front of the fan disc. However I found the
fit of one of the engine intakes to be not especially good.The detail
on the engine is much better than Mincraft's including engraved access
panels and an engraved line highlighting where the thrust reverse
section of the cowling starts. The end of the exhaust tailcone can be
drilled out us a very thin drill piece to make it look more realistic.



One of the disappointing features is the poor instructions on how to
fit the main gear doors which doesn't tell you that the door must be
cut into sections that overlap each other. This is clearly described in
the Minicraft kit instructions, however when I came to build this model
I had forgotten how the doors fitted. Subsequently I sanded down too
much of the doors to make them fit.
During the final assembly I found that the wings didn't fit as tight to
the fuselage as I hoped, leaving a noticeable gap.
I used the kits antennae and aerials, though it is possible to use an
etched brass set which comes with some of the decals Daco offers for
the 737.
Painting and Decalling
I chose to do this plane in the colours of Go Fly, a low cost
carrier that was flying in and out of Bristol. I used to photograph these
planes and their different colours and logos, so I always wanted to
build one.
For the white I used a can of Halfords car paint. This colour stays
white, but the pressure leaves a poor finish. I sanded down it down
using different grades of Micromesh sandpaper until I had a smooth
finish. The purple colour was an old tin of Humbrol purple, 68 which
sprayed on nicely. I used Xtracolour Boeing grey for the wings and
tailplane.

The Go decals come from the FCM sheet number 144-14 which give you a
choice of 11 different Go 737s to build, each with a different belly
colour and fuselage logos. They are slightly thick, however with plenty
of decal solution they settle well, especially the Go logo on the tail
which needed to be trimmed to shape. The serial number under the wing
is much too big, but I used it anyway. The remainder of the decals,
windows, coroguard etc are supplied with the kit. The model was painted
all over with a layer of Johnson Klear floor polish which sealed the
decals and gave a uniform shine.



Finally the model was weathered with thinned oil paint and pastels.
In conclusion, the Daco kit is certainly my preferred choice, however
the Mincraft kit builds into an acceptable replica of a 737 and is much
cheaper.
Andy White
IPMS AVON
by
Andy White
Member Comments :
comment by: Cabforward posted on 08-29-2011, comment #13463
Nice review. Of note is the "newer" DACO/Skyline Sam's Town decals do not have the blank white outline decals of the girls.