Airfix 1/144 Boeing 737 Ansett

I've liked this model so much that I've had 2! The older box

And the newer box

The Boeing 737 is one of the small airliners with a longer carrer. It was sucessfull from its early 100-200 versions, up to the most recent ones. It is adequate for small runways, and not so long distances. But its early project dictated something which would prove to be a "handycap" agains the newer Airbus series (A318-A321). Tese newer airplanes were built from nothing, having in mind the most recent high bipass turbofan. This, was projected with the best of its time, the low bipass turbofan... Which had a much smaller diameter, and meant that the landing gear could be short. To save weight, the outside wheel would serve as the wheel cover, and would fit tight on its place. With a much bigger diameter of the more effective recent turbines, it was hard to fit them without touching the ground, because changing the landing gear would lead to a complete redesign of the entire airplane, not just small adjustements... Another nice detail is that the fuselage that boeing used was roughly the same on the 707, 727 and on 737. Longer or shorter, it was the same thing. Not because of lazyness, but because this design had already proved its reliability.

About the kit, the newer it is, the worst... More and more extra things to cut... The landing gear needs improvement, on the kit its awfull... but with some cutting and drilling, can be ok!

If we bear in mind that it is an old mould, It has fairly amount of details! The fuselage has raised panel lines, but they don't look that bad.

The decals for Ansett fit nicelly!

And there isn't much more to say... wether you get an old box, or a new box, the kit is traight forward (Air France version).

So, its a nice little classic 737 original! just have to do some drilling and small parts on the gear wells... Appart from that, a nice one! (Ansett version now)