1/144 Minicraft Boeing 737-400

by Max Tollens Jr.

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This is my first completed airliner kit; I built it OOB.  I used to work for US Airways and wanted to build one of their planes.  It is painted with Testors' Model Master acrylics Insignia Blue for the top color and Testors' Canadian Voodoo Grey for the rest of the fuselage.  The leading edges of the wings, horizontal stabs, tail and around the engines was done with Alclad aluminum.  I applied Future wax in preparation for the decals and finished with Testors' dullcote as a final finish.  You can't really tell in the pictures, but I weathered the wings and horizontal stabs using watercolor paints to bring out panel lines and show some weathering from flight.

The decals don't fit well; they don't meet at the ends and don't line up with the engraved doors and escape window outlines.  You're better off filling them in and eyeballing the decals.  I touched up the ends with my toothpick paintbrush. I didn't apply the tail decals for the red/white stripes, I painted them on; first the white then masking and applying Insignia Red to the top.  There are no cockpit window decals; I used sharpie markers to do the cockpit windows in black, then outlining in silver.

This was a fun project and turned out fairly well, I look forward to finishing the 1/144 Minicraft MD-80 using my experience with their 737.  Airliners.net was a great source of photographic information on the 737 as well as US Airways planes. 

Max 

Click on images below to see larger images

  

Photos and text © by Max Tollens Jr.