Civil Airliners

Civil aircraft are definitely not as popular as warplanes, but there are quite a few models around. Minicraft has a nice selection of airliners. If you watch the monthly Squadron flyers, sometimes they have imported kits of the smaller Cessnas, Pipers, etc. The kits are there, they're just a little harder to find, but isn't the search half the fun?

It's true that Minicraft has some fair airline models, but some of them are way of form, like their 707( copick area) ,or their 757 (engine pylons), their DC-3 is a beauty. Also were can you find decals for 1: 144 scale?

The market has considerably improved in 10 years believe me. Nowadays, it's a piece of cake to find additional decals, resin bits to change this or that, and even PE sets to detail kits... Of course, the old dogs are still around and periodically re-marketed (VEB, Airfix, Heller,...) but 10 years ago there were only a handful of decent airliners, by Hasegawa in 1/200. Now, we have Academy and Revell in particular releasing a decent amount of stuff. And in terms of details, the 1/144 range from Revell is simply amazing!

If you care for more esoteric stuff (but then who would have dreamed of Revell releasing the Beluga for instance??!), try Welsh Models, multimedia kits that are quite nice. Or Daco, or Braz Models, or Pals Flight, or...

I'd like to see some of the smaller, short haul airliners in 1/72 rather than traditional 1/144.

I'd like to see Revell-Germany update their 1/72 Dornier 228 and the old Matchbox Dornier 28 Skyservant (assuming they have the molds for it) and re release them in civilian variants.

I'd also love to see Esci's 1/72 Fokker 27 make a comeback, its one of the few Esci kits I can trully say I enjoyed building.

Hobbycraft has a 1/72 DeHavilland Canada Dash 8 which is worthy of reissue.

I once saw a 1/72 Boeing 737 at an antique and collectibles show, but I didn't have the money for it. If I recall correctly, it was put out by Nikko.

A 1/72 BAe 146 would be really great in my opinion.

In the way of general aviation, yes the subjects are out there, its just more of a search. I'd like to see AMTech reissue AMT's 1/48 Beech 17 and Stinson Reliant kits with the same attention to detail as they have to the military subjects they've covered so far.

Here's a place to get your supplies from:

http://www.airline-hobby.com/