Model Review - House Colours 747-121 HX Models

[Phantom]

Yeah, in reality this is a great mould it is just @Phantom , as much as I love him, is an incredible nitpicker - in the best way from an analytical perspective but it does mean his rankings of good are not close to most peoples.

Yeah, I know my rankings suck, hence I don't do any and leave all those quality reviews and rankings to the experts who really know what they are talking about.

 

[YesterAirlines]

Yeah, I know my rankings suck, hence I don't do any and leave all those quality reviews and rankings to the experts who really know what they are talking about.

Meeoww

You know I like your musings a lot, but you also know I think your standards are way too high for 400 scale and you are the only one to notice some of this stuff. This mould is certainly 'good' but easily arguably 'very good'.

It probably doesn't matter that much because I doubt it'll get the use it warrants anyway!

 

[Barison82]

Concerning the aft fuselage taper @phantom, how well has this area been captured on the other toolings we have in 1:400? As I wouldn’t have thought getting this correct is unobtainable, nor unreasonable to expect, especially in 2024 - it’s an essential area of the fuselage shape.

What seems to be more difficult for any manufacturer is to get ALL the basic elements of the 747 correct. I would hazard a guess that DW still comes closest in ticking all the boxes in that regard - a tooling which is well over 20 years old.

 

[Phantom]

Concerning the aft fuselage taper @phantom, how well has this area been captured on the other toolings we have in 1:400? As I wouldn’t have thought getting this correct is unobtainable, nor unreasonable to expect, especially in 2024 - it’s an essential area of the fuselage shape.

What seems to be more difficult for any manufacturer is to get ALL the basic elements of the 747 correct. I would hazard a guess that DW still comes closest in ticking all the boxes in that regard - a tooling which is well over 20 years old.

Even though the castings, gears, builts and prints are crude by all means on the old DWs, I agree that they are still among the closest to the overall shapes of a 747.

The aft fuselage taper around the stabs never bothered me on any of those that I looked at - they are all very subtle. There are a few aft fuselages I don't really like, but more because of their belly taper. JC's 744's comes to mind or the AC/BB 747.
Could be HX just massively overdid on shaping the transition from the fuselage radii to the flat stab trim area (which is there to assure stab to fuselage "sealing" in any possible pitch trim) and so ended up with those massive bumps/cheeks just front of the stabs. I'd even blame it on the "gimmicky" way of doing things that we recently see by some makers. Aside of those "hollow core" engines the wingtips/HF antennae would be another example. Plenty of detail there but at the expense of scale/shape accuracy.

 

[Barison82]

Even though the castings, gears, builts and prints are crude by all means on the old DWs, I agree that they are still among the closest to the overall shapes of a 747.

The aft fuselage taper around the stabs never bothered me on any of those that I looked at - they are all very subtle. There are a few aft fuselages I don't really like, but more because of their belly taper. JC's 744's comes to mind or the AC/BB 747.
Could be HX just massively overdid on shaping the transition from the fuselage radii to the flat stab trim area (which is there to assure stab to fuselage "sealing" in any possible pitch trim) and so ended up with those massive bumps/cheeks just front of the stabs. I'd even blame it on the "gimmicky" way of doing things that we recently see by some makers. Aside of those "hollow core" engines the wingtips/HF antennae would be another example. Plenty of detail there but at the expense of scale/shape accuracy.

Your thoughts indeed confirm my own and that’s it - the aft taper on the DW/GJ/BB400 B.741/2’s I have are all much more subtle by comparison to this new HX version, where it definitely looks too pronounced.

If it really is the case that basic scale/shape accuracy is being impaired at the expense of “gimmicky” details then that is a shame, and would be a step-back in my view. However all those elements were successful on the NG L-1011 series, it had both a superbly executed tooling with all the right shapes and subtleties, plus the finer details and micro-printing which is expected these days. It’s a pity this definitive output hasn’t been repeated for the B.747 thus far.