Boeing 747-400 1:400 Scale Mould Sample Review

Boeing 747-400 1:400 Scale New Mould Sample

Modified: September 2023

The classic 747s are surely the most anticipated moulds from NG to date and have been on the horizon ever since NG made the 747SP mould. The high demand for classic 747s really stems from three factors: the lack of recent releases with modern features, the only mould being regularly used (by Phoenix) being so poor and the often insane prices of BigBird / Aeroclassics 747s on the seconds market. For the AMS fair NG sent along a pair of samples representing, in theory at least, the 747-200 with General Electric CF6 engines and the 747-400 with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines. In this review I'll focus on the series 400 partly because, as has already been noted, the series 200 mould has some significant issues and partly because discussing them both together is rather unwieldy. The series 200 will get coverage in a later review.

The Real Thing

Ignoring the engines there are four major visual differences between a 747-400 and a 747-200 (at least most of the time). These are:

Extended dorsal hump - as fitted also to the 747-300 and retrofitted to some KLM 747-200s
Wingtip extensions - increasing the span by 5.2m and adding a 6th leading edge slat
Winglets - 1.8m tall and canted at 22 degrees
A redesigned wingroot - aerodynamically improved with a curving leading edge rather than a straight edge (this was fitted to a small number of later series 200s and 300s too).

There was a large number of additional structural improvements, primarily aimed at saving weight, but these don't alter the look of the aircraft.

ENGINES

The series 400 came with a variety of engine options. In this review I was just going to focus on the engines the sample is supposed to be fitted with - Pratt & Whitney PW4000s. This engine option was chosen by operators such as Air Canada, Air China, Air India, China Airlines, Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines.

After inspection it now looks like the sample is actually fitted with General Electric CF6-80s. This engine option was chosen by operators such as Air France, All Nippon, Canadian, Japan Air Lines, KLM, Lufthansa and Thai Airways Int.

But that doesn't mean we don't have the PW4000 engines too - read on!

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Competing 747-400 Moulds in 400 Scale

There has been a lot of 747-400 moulds in 400 scale, so many in fact that I have never attempted a full mould review of them. There are just so many oddball moulds that I haven't got to finding the time to make a full list, however the most important 747-400 moulds are fairly well known. They are:

Dragon Wings 1999 Mould - Also used by Jet-X
Gemini Jets 1999 Mould - Also used by JC Wings and updated with new gear and aerials
Big Bird 2003 Mould - Also used by Aeroclassics, Witty Wings / Apollo and Big Bird Mk3
Phoenix 2007 Mould - updated in the 2010s
JC Wings 2020 Mould

I covered all 5 in some detail back in mid-2021 with a detailed scoring comparison at the site here:

Boeing 747-400 Detailed Mould Comparison

Predictably the newest mould, by JC Wings, won but only by a small margin from the Big Bird / Aeroclassics mould. The classic Dragon Wings and updated Gemini moulds did surprisingly well. In fact, if the Dragon had new undercarriage fitted it would have done as well as the JC Wings version! Unsurprisingly in last position was the awful Phoenix 747-400, which mustered 11 fewer points than the winner (and the scoring was only out of 35).

The Phoenix 747-400, which I don't rate at all

Despite its victory the JC Wings 747-400 suffers from annoying undercarriage issues, as can be seen below with this recent United release. The landing gear is much too short, especially at the nose. It should be a simple fix but JC aren't that responsive.

Arguably the moulds to beat, not just for overall look and feel but also due to the number of releases, remain the Big Bird mould (Canadian below) and Dragon Wings (Northwest below):

747-400 Mould Sample

Below: United 747-400 with PW4000 engines

Anna Zvereva, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Below: Sample mould with CF6 engines

Below: KLM 747-400 with CF6 engines

Eric Salard, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Forward Fuselage & Nosegear

Receiving samples without printed windows makes it challenging to see whether the nose form is good or not. Comparing next to the Boeing 747-8 samples unsurprisingly the shape seems similar. I didn't have massive issues with the 747-8 samples in this area and having seen the completed first models I'm still not sure whether they made any modifications or not. The new 747-8s look amazing so I haven't got a lot of reason to think this 400 won't too when printed.

This KLM scheme is a good indicator as the position that the dark blue line should cross the nosecone is a decent suggestion of nosecone shape. I used the picture to the left and superimposed some elements on the shot below to try and determine whether the mould has the issues the SP does.

I'm certainly no graphic artist and given the difference in photo angles perhaps this is nonsense, but it does seem to suggest to me that although the nose looks pretty decent it does still have a slightly undercurving lower portion as the blue stripe is a little high. If you follow the blue line across the wingtops it now seems too high as well, but again that could just be the angle of the original photo. I'm sure others can do a much better job than this so if you think you can please give it a go and see what you come up with! My feeling is that the noseform has the issues the SP does but that it isn't a big enough problem to particularly bother me.

The nosegear looks great and pleasingly the gear doors aren't as recessed as they were on the 747-8 samples. It is certainly a much better gear height than on the JC Wings mould.

Wingroot & Maingear

The sample shows the modified series 400 wingroot well and the NACA intakes are moulded in unlike on the 747SP mould.

As on the 747-8 samples the maingear roll but there is no pivoting of the gear trucks.

Engines & Pylons

This 747-400 sample model was supposed to have the Pratt & Whitney 4000 series fitted to it but clearly there has been a cockup at the factory as the engines on the series 400 are too long both at the nacelle and the exhaust portion to be PW4000s. Instead checking the 747-200 sample it looks to me like they've accidentally put the PW4000s on the 747-200!

Below: The PW4000s mounted on the 747-200 mould!!

Indeed I would go so far as to say that the engines on this 747-400 are actually General Electric CF6-80s - compare to this KLM 747-400:

Below: The engines on the 747-400 much more closely resemble CF6-80s

This isn't the first time that NG have made a mistake putting their samples together. I recall they did something similar with the Sharklet equipped wing on the A318 sample and the wrong engines on the 777-300 non-ER. I guess it's an easy error to make in the rush to get these samples out for the fair.

With that said assuming these are CF6-80s and PW4000s both sets of engines look pretty decent.

Solid core engine fans are the order of the day and I'm liking the look of the wing dihedral as well.

Wings

The wingspan matches that of the JC Wings mould. There is full control surface detailing on the model but the paint on the wings rather obscures it. I can confirm that the six outer leading edge slats are present and correct.

Comparing it to the JC Wings mould and the outer flaps lack the hinge detailing the JC mould has on the underside. Another thing missing, that is present on the JC Wings 747-400, is the fuel dump pipe. This should be outboard of the outer flaps. You can see it in use in this Youtube video:

B767avia has also done some work looking at the flaps configuration and has produced this detailing changes he'd like to see made, which look good to me:

Stabilisers & Tailcone

NG Models Boeing 747-400 Sample with CF6-80 Engines

Summary

Overall this looks to me like a fine 747-400. It is a shame that the same can't be said for the 747-200 sample - but more of that later. NG haven't shown a lot of interest in modifying the underside nose form of their 747s to date so if improvements to this 747-400 mould are to be made then for me they only relate to:

Checking flap detailing on the wings (see b767avia's image above and add hinges) and making sure it isn't too heavily overpainted
Adding the fuel dump pipe to the wing trailing edge.
Making sure they put the right engines on :)