After a long day at the office, there's not much out there nicer than having a nice little package of models to tear into when I get home. Today, I got the first three Seattle Model Aircraft 737-200 releases- the Frontier (old colors), USAir (baremetal red/blue), and Ryanair (Jaguar logojet).
There's been considerable question regarding these newcomers to the 1/400 diecast scene and I felt a guided tour of these incredible releases along with a few shots from The Chickenport were worth everyone's time to see for themselves how the SMA has raised the bar on diecast releases.
But before I drone on incessantly with hard nipples about these releases, I would be remiss not to first refer you to the thread on DAC started by AirDar in which he provides a very good detailed review of these new releases:
http://www.diecastaircraftforum.com/...threadid=20462
The first set of pictures I have here compares the Frontier 737-200 with the GJ Air Florida 737-200. Now there are some details I couldn't quite capture with my digital camera, but I'll walk y'all through 'em as we go along.
Here's a shot of them nose-to-nose. Neither Dragon or Gemini captures the Boeing nose better than these new moulds- Dragon's 737 nose is too plump and bluff and GJ's nose is too pointed and slender. Take a look at the above photo and judge for yourself- notice the nice step where the windshield is located and accuracy of its placement compared to the GJ. The nose cross section forward of the cockpit looks more accurate to me as well.
How 'bout the as* end of these birds? SMA's mould runs away with the money on this one. Notice the lack of a tail seam as well as the better proportioned/shaped tailcone. Sharp-eyed collectors will also note the APU exhaust which forms the characteristic notch at the lower portion of the end of the tailcone. Stabilizer dihedral looks spot-on as well. You can't tell it from these pictures thanks to the ambient lighting, but the rudder detail is better and more crisp on the vertical fin compared to the GJ release.
Here's a head-on comparison shot of the two competitors. The difference in the dihedral of the horizontal tailplane/stablizer is apparent from this angle. It's not as apparent, but the wings and tailplane/fin of the SMA mould are thinner and to me look more to scale than the GJ, which by comparison looks a bit thicker and clunkier by comparison. Main landing gear doors show a nice 90 degree angle in them, unlike the GJ which is more rounded- also note that the nose gear doors are much thinner by comparison and more to scale in appearance. If you look closely, you can see that the SMA mould also has fan blades moulded into the engine face! I couldn't get a good shot of it, but if the aft exhaust of the nacelles shows the exhaust/hot section cone as well! A very nice surprise. The nacelles themselves are more slender and representative of the real deal as you can see from the front angle. Also take note of the better looking cockpit as well as printed windshield wipers.
I cannot stress enough just how thrilled I am to FINALLY see a Frontier 737-200 in these colors. No damn dogs, cats, birds, or fish- yessiree, folks, this is the REAL Frontier Airlines colors and while impressed with the operation that Sam Addoms has been running out of Denver, my memories hearken back to this livery and this airframe as a kid growing up in the Midwest. Of all the liveries famed designer Saul Bass created, this one's in my opinion his masterpiece. You can see a bit better on this shot the nice detail on the rudder/fin as well as the printing at the tailplane-fuselage junction.
Considerable discussion has accompanied the question of the appearance of the silver paint on the USAir 737-200 and as I've pointed out before in a thread on DAC, the appearance of this and it's relative "glitterness" is highly dependent upon the ambient lighting. Sunshine, halogen, or spot lighting will make the metal flake in the paint appear like glitter whereas the effect is significantly muted in more diffuse lighting like I used in these shots.
That said, what a joy to see this livery in 1/400 scale- we now have this livery to cover us between the USAir tripe-red (Aeroclassics BAC 1-11 in both white and baremetal) to the current USAirways livery (GJ 757 and DW A330).
Finally we have the Ryanair Jaguar logojet. The same issues regarding the silver paint as I pointed out above with the USAir release apply here as well. The green is a nice deep hunter green that unfortuantely comes across as black on the monitors. Notice the emergency cut out marks on the fuselage which are barely visible (as they should be) and if you have a magnifying glass, there's a leaping Jaguar logo and titles on the aft pax doors which is crisply printed. Nice touch.
Okay, that said, here's my critiques on these releases and the mould in general and let me tell you I had to nitpick like a rivet-counting madman to really justify some of these:
*I'd like to see a bit more nose-down attitude like the 737-200 had, perhaps either by slightly shortening the nosewheel leg or slightly lengthening the mainwheel legs.
*The silver paint has gotta go. While I can deal with it and find it acceptable, I know there's a better choice out there in just plain baremetal or chrome. That would have taken the USAir and Ryanair Jaguar releases from outstanding to just simply stellar.
*As Dar pointed out, a silver ring around the APU exhaust to bring it out and make it more apparent as well as some sort of print on the engine nacelles to give the illusion of panel differentialtion.
Are you still here? Get off yer duffs and go order these planes, daggnammit! New life continues to breathed into this hobby- first the Caravelles, then the 707s, then the Tu-154s and now these beauties. Holy smokes I just might have to move up to Seattle I'm so much in love. But then there's my whole history with restraining orders and such...
I recently had a conversation with a fellow die-hard collector and we talked at length about the state of the hobby and how what we really needed was the diecast equivalent of a good ol' fashioned tent revival! That's these releases. No lame-o cartoon jets, pricey exclusives, or liveries that only 5% of the diecast collecting world has any interest in.
Rev. Chicken: Do I hear 737-200?
Crowd: Amen! 737-200!!
Rev. Chicken: DO I HEAR 737-200?
Crowd: Halleluiah! 737-200!!
Rev. Chicken: Do I hear the Guppies calling?
Crowd: Amen, Guppies on high!
But I digress.
Anywaste, that's my rant and rave on these bad boy man-toys. Shee-zus, my nipples are hard and I am simply stoked by these releases. In the past we've often noted the limitations of Gemini releases due to the vagaries and limits of using all metal, but the SMA's inaugural release just go to show what really can be accomplished and if that serves to raise the bar for the other manufacturers, then so be it, I'm one tickled collector.
I am stoked. I haven't gotten this excited about the hobby in a long, long, damn time.
Do I hear 737-200?
If there's a such thing as Guppy Love, I've discovered it in a very BIG way!
Here's your apple!
Re: If there's a such thing as Guppy Love, I've discovered it in a very BIG way!
Much Improved..... but...
We'll have none of that new-world hunter green or whatever you want to call it, thank you. My goodness, Mr. Jaguar would be frightfully upset and would probably turn in his grave!!! 
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