 It has been nearly three years since I last reviewed an NG 747SP here at the site, and that has been partly because the 747SP mould hasn't been getting a huge amount of usage. Pleasingly, that has changed in recent months with a few all new, as opposed to minor livery mod, releases. This has been helped by the NG Wish and Commission Centre and indeed this model is one that has been wished for at that location, although it has been made before it was selected for production there. Go figure! Each review is to split into three key areas:
MOULD  The NG Models 747SP is quite old by NG standards, having had its samples sent to me way back in August 2020. At the time I was very happy with it, and so were the majority of collectors, but it has suffered some criticism since, which we'll look at in a second. For my original sample review go here:  NG has seemingly really struggled with their subsequent 747 moulds, to the extent we still haven't seen the proper versions of the 747-100/200 or 400 yet and quite a few less than impressive NG Lite editions have been made instead. One of the issues has been related to the nose shape and that is something that began with the SP mould itself.  The issue is with the steepness and curve of the underside of the nose, which it has been suggested isn't steep enough. This results in the windowline and cheatlines not meeting the nosecone at the correct place. I agree that the area is not 100% correct on the NG mould, although in my opinion it is still pretty good and looks better than on the NG Lite 747-100.   Although I agree the nose form isn't correct it is still much better than the competing Gemini Jets / JC Wings mould, has never bothered me much and the NG SP is easily still the best 400 scale 747SP ever made by some distance.  Aside from the nose there no real issues of any size. The wingtip aerials are a little thick and the small NACA intakes under the fuselage are not moulded in, but these are both very minor points. This model is one of two and the other release, of N747SP, correctly has the wingtip aerials deleted, but they were present on N40135.  Unfortunately, although they have correctly modified the wingtip aerials where necessary on the prototypes they haven't changed the engine pylons to be the early form type worn by the -100s, early -200s and the SP prototype. That's a shame as they actually do have that pylon available on their NG Lite 747-100. See the below image, made originally by Alex (Phantom II), which illustrates the pylon differences:  There isn't a lot more to say. It sounds like I'm being critical of the mould, but overall it is far and away the best in the scale. When I undertook a detailed SP review it scored nearly twice that of the JC / GJ version (42:25). For that review see here:  Usually I score this mould as a 9, but although I appreciate the wingtip aerial mod the engine pylons here will knock this particular example down to an 8. SCORE - 8 PAINT & LIVERY  Boeing's house colour schemes of the 1960s were not the greatest and in the 70s they moved toward simpler more patriotic red, white and blue versions. It's a quite simple scheme, but still attractive. This version of the SP scheme is subtly different to the one worn by N747SP in that it has a small black nose radome tip, grey tailcone and slanted flag on the tail. Here is a great photo of N40135.  The nose form of the SP means the cheatlines don't quite meet the nosecone at the right place, but I've already detracted a point for that in the mould section. The colours and placement of the cheatlines and tail stripes are all good.  The main titles look good aside from the P of SP, which I'm less convinced about in relation to the curving lower section. SCORE - 9 PRINTING & QUALITY CONTROL  Printwork is up to the usual high NG quality, and I love all the linework on the wing leading edges.  Something I did want to call out in a positive way is the internal look of the engine fans. The engine inners are dark, but each fan is picked out individually. Additionally, the paintwork around the nacelle rims is really tidy.  No issues on the QC front are apparent to me. SCORE - 10 SUMMARY  This version was one of a pair of house colours SPs NG released in January. In classic NG style the other is largely similar, but with minor livery differences and a good example of when that practice succeeds, as I bought both of them. There have now been 39 NG Models 747SP releases, but only around 20 or so completely unique schemes. That means that there are still quite a few great SPs to be made as you can see from the 747SP wihslist I created way back in April 2022. I'm all in for them so hopefully the promising January release set is a sign of things to come in the rest of 2025. FINAL SCORE - 27/30 
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AuthorI'm Richard Stretton an aviation enthusiast and major collector of 400 scale models. On this page I take a detailed look at new releases. This site is free. Please donate to keep it going.
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