Hasegawa

1/200 Boeing 737-700

Kit Number: 10735

Reviewed by  Walt Fink, IPMS# 2447

MSRP: $25.00 Kit Supplied by Dragon Models USA: www.dragonmodelsusa.com Continuing their 1/200 scale airliner series, this is an all-new tooling from Hasegawa and its quality is way ahead of their last issues of the MD- and 737-300 and -400 series kits. The moldings are all crisp and flash-free---the fuselage halves (left and right halves rather than split horizontally like Hasegawa's previously mentioned releases) are white plastic while the rest of the kit is done in light gray. Because of its size, the kit only comprises 45 injection-molded parts (including a two-piece display stand) and one large machine bolt for a nose weight---and no, that probably doesn't qualify this as a multi-media kit..... The kit supplies optional parts if the builder wants to display the model gear up. The bolt is supposed to screw into the cockpit "bulkhead" but on my sample the hole was too big for it to thread into, so I just epoxied the bolt in place; having used this type of ballast in Hasegawa kits before with marginal success, I varied from the instructions by putting the head of the bolt into the cockpit side of the bulkhead rather than the cabin side, just to make sure I could get all the heft up front that I could. I recommend painting the inside of the tail of the fuselage black since the APU exhaust and breather are just holes and looking into them once the model's finished---and seeing white plastic---sorta ruins the effect. Fit of all the parts was excellent. I decided to glue the lower wing center section in place and then fill and sand all the seams, figuring that I could deviate from the assembly sequence and attach the wings after painting the fuselage. The engines build up really nicely but the pylons and exhaust cones are pretty small and fragile, so use care. For ease of handling, I inserted lengths of brass wire into the mating surfaces of the engine pylons. I used Gunze Sangyo H1 Gloss White and H315 Gull Gray for painting the model.

All panel lines are recessed, and those on the wings are excellent, with one depth for panel lines and deeper ones for the trailing edge flaps. The winglets fit nicely and are pretty sturdy once glued up....on my sample, the left winglet was broken on the sprue, so I glued that back together when I first opened the kit which---by the time I got around to installing it on the wing---had given it plenty of time to set. After I'd installed the wings and sanded down their mating surfaces, I masked the model off and sprayed a couple shades of Testors Non-Buffing Aluminum Metalizer on the wing leading edges. I don't know about you, but after I garbage up a model with all my masking, it doesn't bear a lot of resemblance to an airplane. That's OK...messy as I am, it seems to get the job done. The landing gear is well-done and though it's simplified for this scale, it looks fine when installed. For a nicer appearance, I recommend carefully drilling out the solid triangle on the nose gear which represents the scissors. A small but very nice item was the tabs on the nose gear doors which fit into slots in the nose wheel well, giving a good strong joint for what are usually fairly fragile pieces. All the gear doors could use thinning down by careful sanding. Decals have optional registration numbers for two sequential ANA aircraft. Getting decals to conform to compound curves is always a challenge, and this kit's no different. The builder has the option of using the full decal markings, or painting the gold areas and just using the ANA decals on the fin---I chose the decal option. The large gold fuselage spear is the real "heart" of the markings and is where I started the finishing job ... ....it has a notch designed to fit around the base of the vertical fin and its forward lower edge has to rest on the horizontal dividing line between the fuselage's white and gray colors. I ended up slicing the decal in a couple places trying to get it to fit, then using small strips of Cady gold decal film for touch up where the fuselage white peeked through. Like all metallic finishes, the gold decal readily shows imperfections---as well as slices with a hobby knife, so I tried to keep those to a minimum. The window decals' spacing doesn't exactly match the kit. I centered them relative to the over wing exit, and that puts a couple windows right on a fuselage panel line....not prototypical, but I decided I could live with it. I don't particularly care for Hasegawa's gray-blue window color, particularly for the windshield, but that's just personal preference. There's a tiny decal on the sheet which looks like a red feather (or a chili pepper, take your pick) which, according to the instructions, is supposed to go below the cockpit windows...the photo of the real aircraft on the box art doesn't show these, so I omitted them. All decals snuggled down nicely other than on the compound curves of the fuselage and the inboard sides of the winglets. By the way, one feature which makes this aircraft appear different from other Boeing narrow-body jets is the lack of eyebrow windows over the cockpit. When all was finished, I have to say the build was an easy one and the end result is pretty stunning in gold and white with its black accents. It really makes for an interesting comparison when placed next to my Hasegawa 737-200 models. Great little kit. Highly recommended, just be aware of the decal work to be done around the aft fuselage if you choose that option. Thanks to IPMS/USA, Hasegawa, and Dragon Model Imports for the opportunity to review this sweet kit.

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