Boeing 747-100/200 1:400 Scale Detailed Mould Comparison Review

Boeing 747-100/200 Detailed Mould Comparison

Updated: July 2025

There have been a lot of Boeing 747-100/200 moulds (at least 12), but until late 2023 the newest dated from 2008! That means anyone whose collection consists of aircraft from before 1990 has a collection likely stacked with old 747 castings and if they're lucky, or picky, these are likely to be Aeroclassics / BigBird, Aviation400 / Witty Wings or Dragon Wings examples. The scarcity of these lauded but now largely obsolete old moulds has for years seen high prices charged for classic 747-100/200s.

Unfortunately, the appearance of an NG Models 747-100/200 in late 2023 proved to be a massive false start. Even after some modifications made in early 2024 the updated sample had some major failings and has been relegated to only NG Lite releases since. Any sign of an improved NG Models 747 classic has vanished leaving the field wide open for a newcomer. With JC Wings content to use a version of the old BigBird mould (and giving some low quality castings also to Aeroclassics to use) there seemed little chance of a new 747-100/200 being built.

Fortunately, the rapid ascent of HX Models has seen a brand new Boeing 747-100/200 hit the market. After a slow start it seems they are beginning to hit their stride with more mainstream releases and also beginning to acquire more retailers in Western markets. The recent release of a quintet of Pan Am examples provides the impetus to compare the new HX Models mould (also used by Patriot Models, YY Wings, iWings and others) to a stack of the competing older moulds, several of which are still in circulation today for new releases.

The early Boeing 747-100/200s had several features that were different to later series 200s. Most noticeably these include the SATCOM fairing just aft of the hump and the form of the engine pylons. The earlier configuration is apparent on this Wardair 747-200:

Eduard Marmet, CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons

In this comparison I'll take into account these differences, but will ignore the changes for a small number of late-build series 200s which acquired the 747-400 style wingroot and sometimes lacked the wingtip HF aerials.

The models to be used in this review are as follows:

Note the absence of the 2008 Phoenix mould. I only own a single version of that and it has a different wing as it is a later 747-200 version, but my low opinion of the mould is well known. If you are unaware of my thoughts on it see my page on dreadful Phoenix 747s. I don't see any reason to add it to this review - it would score poorly. The BigBird model chosen is a recent BigBird Mk3 model updated with aerials, which the majority of models released on the mould don't have.

NOTE ON SCORING: The review will take the form of a comparison of various areas of each mould to the real aircraft, with a score out of 5 allotted for each mould for each area. Adding the combined scores together gives you the winner. I generally try and score by knocking a point off for each issue, sometimes two depending on my opinion of seriousness. No mould is perfect but these are 400 scale models, there are limits to how perfect a mass produced model can be.

Obviously this is my opinion, hopefully backed up by evidence. I don't expect you to agree with everything so take the scoring as a guide - maybe try your own along the way and see what result you get?

Scoring

NOSE / NOSEGEAR

NOSE: One of the strongpoints of the older 747s comes at the nose, which is an area of quality on all 4 of the older moulds here. The NG Lite 747 is a clear outlier. The noseform of the NG 747s has been talked about quite a bit here on the site and elsewhere. It matches the NG 747SP but is definitely not the correct profile. The nosecone is too low and the underside curve too shallow. The HX 747 has a much better nose than the NG Lite version on par with the others I'd say.

NOSEGEAR: The nosegear on the Dragon is unsurprisingly simple and the undercarriage as a whole the mould's biggest weakness. Gemini has an updated version of the landing gear that is superior to the example I am showing here. It is a lot more detailed but a little chunky and the gear door is still too large. The BigBird and Witty moulds share ancestry and similar landing gear, which are both good, but don't have rolling gear. The nosegear of the NG Lite is one of its strongpoints, at least in terms of height and fit, although the detailing and position of the nose gear torque links and steering actuators are incorrect. For the new HX mould the nosegear is one of the weaker aspects. The gear leg itself is excellent, but the oversized geardoors help make the whole leg a little too long. Personally I think the impact of this has been overplayed and in fact the model sits no higher than the BigBird does. There is also a small indent in the fuselage where the nosegear doors join, something seen also on the Dragon and NG Lite moulds.

ENGINES & PYLONS

As has been discussed previously when reviewing the NG samples there are two distinct profiles of engine pylons as below:

ENGINE PYLONS: Looking at the older moulds and from what I can see Dragon Wings, Aeroclassics / BigBird and Witty Wings never had the type A pylon, while Gemini never had the type B, which means many of the old releases are inaccurate depending on the aircraft being modelled. NG and HX have both pylons types available (the examples here both have the A type). The join of the wing to the pylons is squared off and rather inaccurate for both the Gemini and BigBird, with the former also having a poor connection to the top of the engine nacelle. The plastic Dragon pylons attach much more nicely, as do the Witty Wings versions. The NG Lite has good pylons, but dreadful engines (see next section) and that does impact the pylon form a little. The pylons on the HX version are the best with no issues and a lot of detailing. For concerns about wing thickness see the section on wings.

ENGINES: The Dragon engines are better modelled than the other old moulds. Both the Gemini and BigBird have side seams along their engines. The Witty has a bit more exhaust detailing but all 3 have quite rounded exhaust shock cones. The NG's engines are very poor by comparison. The fan section is too large and poorly shaped. The exhaust sections look too thin. Once again the HX Models engines show no real issues to me. They are well shaped for all 3 sections plus have hollowcore fans that have been very well delivered. That does mean the inlet ring is a separate piece though.

WING / FUSELAGE JOIN

WING / FUSELAGE JOIN: Two of the moulds are cradle mount and both have a very similar, and quite large, seam, which although broadly following the fairing join is quite obvious. The biggest difference with the Witty mould from the BigBird is that it is a slot in wings mould so avoids this issue. From the side and top the Dragon mould appears seamless, but does have a double seam on the underside (which I'll score for in a later section). The two more recent moulds are both seamless and the NG Lite offering has a much improved wing join than the original 747-200 sample provided to me in September 2023. The fit isn't as tight as on the old Witty mould though.

HF AERIALS & WINGS

The wings of all the moulds bar one are fundamentally sound. The one that isn't is the NG Lite, which is horrendously incorrect in that it has the wrong span and too many leading edge slats because of it. I covered this when I looked at the 747-100 sample here and presumably it is the biggest reason this mould has never graduated to being a full NG Models mould. NG have said they will fix this, but as of mid-2025 nothing has been seen to show they have and the mould has disappeared. The HX Models 747 is the only one to include the fuel dump pipe towards the HF aerial and hinge detailing on the outer flaps. I can understand that missing from the older moulds, but it is poor that it is missing on the NG Lite.

I have seen talk of the thickness of the wings themselves. None of the moulds wings are appreciably thicker than each other and in my opinion expectations that they should be thinner aren't really practical with 400 scale.

The HF aerials have always been problematic and anyone with lots of 747 models will have some with broken aerials! The actual join of the HF aerials to the wing is quite complex, but only the HX Models version tries to show this with the aerials not being a continuance of the wing edge itself. The detailing here is very impressive and the aerials nicely sharp. The aerials on the Dragon are short and rounded. All the others have better sized HF aerials but this later version of the BigBird mould has slightly broomstick style thick rounded aerials.

TAIL & TAILCONE

The vertical stabiliser of the Dragon mould is well shaped, but fits poorly to the roofline and due to its age has no free rudder. The BigBird vertical stabiliser shape has been criticised for many years and is inferior to the Gemini. Again, both are old enough not to have free rudders. The Witty 747 has a better vertical stabiliser than all the earlier moulds and it does have the free rudder. There are no obvious issues with the NG Lite tail and the HX tail is largely good too. Where the HX does have issue is the angle of the leading edge join to the fuselage, which isn't correct. (something you could level at the BigBird too).

The detailing at the tailcone of the HX Models 747 is much better than any of the competition, including the NG Lite. I have included an Aeroclassics Alitalia version here (a very recent release). You can see how lazy and poorly shaped the tailcone is. It seems JC Wings was happy to give Aeroclassics inferior versions of their own mould. Most of the more recent Aeroclassics 747s have been very poorly done, although the mould is a variant of the BigBird.

FUSELAGE DETAILING

The underside of older models is often rather blank and the look isn't helped by the seamlines on the Dragon Wings, BigBird or Gemini moulds. NACA intakes are very lightly moulded in on the four older moulds, especially lightly on the Dragon. The NG Lite has better detailing but looks very simple compared to the HX Models version, which has a lot more moulded in detailing.

As you'd expect maingear detailing is much better on the newer pair of moulds, but the bogies do not move on the NG Lite version and the detailing on the gear legs is definitely superior on the HX as well. Of the older moulds the outer bogies of the Dragon can swivel where as the inner gear can move in its entirety as one on the Gemini, BigBird and Witty.

The NG Lite and older moulds all miss the SATCOM fairing, however recently JC Wings has fitted that to its latest BigBird mould release - see below. The SATCOM fairing can be present on the HX Models releases when needed and fits nicely to the roofline. NG Lite models come without aerials. More recent BigBird, and JC Wings 747s using that mould, feature aerials as does the HX Models release.

JC Wings 747 with SATCOM fairing

FRONT VIEW

Wo st 01 / Wikimedia Commons

Olivier CABARET, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

From ahead several of the issues mentioned already in relation to landing gear complexity, engine fans and wing to pylon join are obvious, but it is the fuselage cross section that I want to draw attention to. The real thing has a decidedly thinner top part of the fuselage and looking at the photos only the NG Lite and HX Models versions get that cross section correct. All the other show a too rounded cross-section. Lastly I'll add that from the front the HX Models 747 looks much better than any of the others - a combination of more detailed maingear, excellent engine nacelles and other small details.

Summary

A mould made in the 2020s should easily beat a mould made before 2010. By that measure the NG Lite is something of a trainwreck, with many of its issues being quite serious. From a scoring perspective it is only matching the older moulds and in my view the issues it has are often in important areas such as the nose, engines and wings that render it almost unbuyable. However, it is only an NG Lite model and not an NG proper release. Hopefully at some point there will be a real NG Models 747-100/200.

It isn't a big surprise that the Dragon Wings, BigBird and Gemini moulds all are basically neck and neck. Despite their age they are all fine castings that have just been overtaken by modern features (slot in wings, aerials, modern landing gear).

The often overlooked, and poorly used, Witty Wings / Aviation400 747 is basically a much upgraded BigBird mould and with a new vertical stabiliser, engine pylons and seamless body easily beats its ancestor and deservedly comes in 2nd place. However, as should an old casting, it is miles behind the HX Models 747. The mould isn't perfect, with issues at the nosegear and vertical stabiliser, however from where I'm sitting it is a very impressive mould.