Southwest 727-291 N406BN GeminiJets vs. Aeroclassics

[Jazajia]

Hello all,

Have had these photos and whatnot ready for a while, but I have been having to take a few trips to adulthood recently, hence the delay... the GJ I think is already sold out at some retailers and all.





I'd be dammed, I got the Aeroclassics one when it got released 15 years ago, and never noticed the port side passenger windows and title placement are quite inaccurate, and I didn't even have to go into full rivet-counter mode to notice it. The rest, I'm confident y'all can see, the colors, the giant GJ nose wheels, yada, yada...


I'm just thinking I probably should have gotten this model in 1:200, the GJ 722 1:200 mold looks really good (I only have one 722 in the larger scale by IF200 and it is extremely underwhelming). I can't see myself using a SW 722 in a diorama, and being 1:400 727s they are too small for anything else. But hey, at least I can play diecast journalist with them

Below is the link to the blog post/article. Nothing you guys don't already know, but at least it has some more pictures.

 

[JJ Skippy]

I’m very pleased with my Gemini release. Great review!

 

[YesterAirlines]

Sadly I don't think either of them are particularly good. I own the Aeroclassics and while it is a better 727 overall (despite the no 2 exhaust) the colours are miles off. The Gemini colours here aren't much closer either, the nosegear is awful and the cockpit printing weid. Their 727s are definitely worse than the ones they made in the early 2000s!

 

[Irish]

Sadly I don't think either of them are particularly good. I own the Aeroclassics and while it is a better 727 overall (despite the no 2 exhaust) the colours are miles off. The Gemini colours here aren't much closer either, the nosegear is awful and the cockpit printing weid. Their 727s are definitely worse than the ones they made in the early 2000s!

Seems like GJ, AC and NG can never get any SWA colors right!

 

[Jazajia]

Sadly I don't think either of them are particularly good.

Indeed they both have obvious drawbacks.

I own the Aeroclassics and while it is a better 727 overall (despite the no 2 exhaust) the colours are miles off. The Gemini colours here aren't much closer either,

I actually think the GJ one is a better 727 overall. They are both pretty close, but I think GJ has the upper hand. I remember reading that you prefer the AC wing seam because at least they had the decency to dissimulate it by shaping it as the actual fairing. To me, the nose is more important, and GJ did capture that Boeing nose very well.

I'm not so sure about the colors being that big of an issue.

This is what I wrote in the article:

"Much has been said about the accuracy of the colors of both models. N406BN was notorious for wearing a slightly greener version of Southwest mustard color that differentiated it from the rest of the 737 fleet. Aeroclassics seems to have exaggerated this a little bit, and they definitely went with crimson for the belly, which in reality was orange. It has been pointed out that GeminiJets went with the standard Southwest Mustard Rocket colors worn by the 737s on their representation of N406BN, and that may be true.

The color issue is not that big of a deal to me, as the real airplane could look like either model in real life depending on the lighting."

This is what I wrote at DAC:

"To me the puke green issue is a wash... AC resembles the model under an overcast, GJ is in bright sunlight."

The following is a statement from G. H., the author of the photos of the real aircraft that I used in the article: "Re the color of the belly on N406BN, I believe that it is red; I’ve looked at another shot of the airplane that I have from August 1979 at HOU, which confirms this. Also, this is consistent with how the 737s were painted at the time."

IMHO the colors are not worth losing sleep over.

the nosegear is awful and the cockpit printing weid. Their 727s are definitely worse than the ones they made in the early 2000s!

Indeed, not sure what is up with those nosewheel tires. In the article, I actually used a pic of a 2000 release to show how much better it was back then. I believe JC recently modified the tail to get rid of the horizontal stab seam but screwed up everything else big time. Such a shame. I know thanks to you that the AC vertical stab doesn't taper properly (something that carried over to AV400), but it is still better than the mess GJ/JC have created.

I also thought there was something wrong with the printing in the nose area with the GJ, but after looking at it for a while I've come to think that it actually looks quite good.

Did you notice the AC one is missing two pax windows on the port side and the placement of the titles is way off?

From the article:

"A bigger issue that I had not noticed until I started comparing the two models is that Aeroclassics omitted the two most forward passenger windows on the port side, and placed the Southwest titles too far back, aligned with the titles on the starboard side. In reality, the Southwest titles were justified with the 1L and 1R doors, which are staggered. GeminiJets got it right.

One last thing on the livery artwork, Aeroclassics depicted a grey access panel below the reg. on the port side, which is not present on the real aircraft."

I think the GJ, while still not their most stellar effort, is objectively (as objectively as it can be) an improvement over the AC one.

My prediction is that the GJ one will become as hard to find as the Aeroclassics (though Waffle posted one today for $30...) in a few years. If I were to be in the shoes of someone looking for one then, I would grab whichever pops up first.

 

[LeoMuse747]

I also much prefer the GJ 727-200 over the AC 727-200. Even if the AC have more accurate details when compared to the real 727, the whole GJ 727 overall shape just looks better to me. That huge #2 engine exhaust and the recent nose-up attitude of the AC 727 don't help either...

Unpopular opinion: I do like the old Southwest colors (the recent 737 MAX in desert gold is amazing) but these 727s don't have an attractive color at all. They both look like something you would find when changing your baby's diaper

 

[YesterAirlines]

I also much prefer the GJ 727-200 over the AC 727-200. Even if the AC have more accurate details when compared to the real 727, the whole GJ 727 overall shape just looks better to me. That huge #2 engine exhaust and the recent nose-up attitude of the AC 727 don't help either...

Put an entirely new tail unit on it, print the cockpit windows properly and fit it with a smaller nosecone and I'd agree with you. Ironically the original GJ 727s had all 3 of those things!

 

[Jazajia]

... fit it with a smaller nosecone and I'd agree with you...

You lost me here.

 

[LeoMuse747]

Nosecone looks OK to me on this GJ version too round on the AC version

 

[JJ Skippy]

Mine’s not horrible either.

 

[LeoMuse747]

Mine’s not horrible either.

View attachment 28458

True, but the frowning cockpit windows here are quite an issue...

 

[JJ Skippy]

True, but the frowning cockpit windows here are quite an issue...

I didn’t even realize they were angled like that. Hmm, interesting.

 

[YesterAirlines]

Put an entirely new tail unit on it, print the cockpit windows properly and fit it with a smaller nosecone and I'd agree with you. Ironically the original GJ 727s had all 3 of those things!

Sorry I meant nosewheel!!!

The cockpit windows are rubbish

 

[Jazajia]

Thoughts for posterity...

So Waffle just posted a small collection sale. There were two 722s that caught my attention, an Eastern (silver) by GJ, and a Pan Am billboard (black nose, white belly) by Aeroclassics. Both for the same price. Got the PanAm, left the Eastern behind. Both subjects fit my "CCS-visitors of the late 80s/early 90s" my main criterion.

Not black and white for me. While I tend to prefer GJ 722s, specially the older ones before JC screwed up the tail and nosewheel tires, a neat Aeroclassics from the better days is a very serious contender. In this case, the Aeroclassics one looked like a much superior model overall, at least based on Waffle stock photos.

Maybe it came down to artwork. Both molds are good. The Aeroclassics looked pristine, whereas the GJ looked old and simple. I don't think the same can be said about the main characters of this thread.

 

[Phantom]

Both molds are good.

The only 727 I've seen in this scale that deserved a "good" was the Dragon Wings - more than two decades ago.

 

[IndyJets]

The only 727 I've seen in this scale that deserved a "good" was the Dragon Wings - more than two decades ago.

I didn't care for the plastic wings and heavily engraved panel lines...

Time for NG to step up.

 

[Phantom]

I didn't care for the plastic wings and heavily engraved panel lines...

Time for NG to step up.

I much rather take the enhanced detail/accuracy of plastic wings over metal - and injection moulded plastic definitely helped in the old days of model making.
Things are different today and I too keep fingers crossed for NG to finally do the 727-100/200 to their standards.
Agree to some extend on the panel lines, but I don't think they look a lot worse than on the other moulds that some call a 727.
Here's two of my DW (JX) - crude by many means but the tails at least looked like 727s
bn727 by Alexander Kern, auf Flickr

 

[Jazajia]

I didn't care for the plastic wings and heavily engraved panel lines...

Time for NG to step up.

Honestly plastic is not an issue so long as it doesn't turn yellow, which DW's plastic didn't. I do agree with the heavy lines on the tail. I prefer the old GJ, but not by much.

 

[TheEpicBirb]

Personally, I only have the Old GJ 727, but I prefer it way more than the AC and New GJ versions (I have seen these 2 in person before). Haven't seen the Dragon one in person yet but they seem sort of like hit or miss models. Some have an odd nose gear and sometimes funky printing but others are really good. I'll definitely pick up a dragon one at some point.

 

[Jazajia]

Here is a mold that is not often seen. Very few models were produced on it. Hogan/Herpa. It is yellowing a bit on the side that is exposed to light