DT Custom Models - B757sUpdated: May 2023
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In this review I take a closer look at DT Customs Boeing 757s. For more about DT Customs see the header page:
Above: The NG Models 757 release Đặng Tùng has used as his donor model
This trio of 757s spring from seeing a trio of Westjet 757-200s going cheap at MyHobbyHouse. The almost white Westjet scheme lended itself well to easy conversion to other mainly white 757s although as I understand it the process of removing printwork from NG releases is a lot harder than from JC Wings or Phoenix models.
The selections for the trio of models are for 757s from Canada and Russia. Both of these are nations that haven't been well represented so far in 400 scale. 757s were common members of the fleets of Canadian charter airlines during the 1990s. In Russia the 757 became popular in the 2000s as Russian airlines began to replace their Tupolev fleets.
Nationair was a fairly major charter airline during the 1980s and early 90s that began to pickup 757s on lease to gradually replace its stretch DC-8s. G-BPEA was leased from British Airways a couple of times, from December 1990-March 1991 and December 1992-March 1993. It didn't wear the full new Nationair scheme with the grey belly, which made customising it easier.
Michel Gilliand (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons
Transaero was always a pioneer as the first private Russian airline not formed from a former fragment of Aeroflot. It operated a primarily Western fleet even in the 1990s. This included from 1994 a pair of brand new 757-2Y0s leased from GPA Group. A further 3 757s (all -28As) arrived in 1995 on lease from ILFC. All were Irish registered. EI-CJX was the first and named 'Seattle'. The 1998 Russian financial crisis made it difficult for Transaero to afford the leases on the 757s and all 5 were returned that year. Once it recovered Transaero bult its new fleet around the 737NG.
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Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
UTAir remains one of the survivors of the huge turnover in Russian airlines from the past 30 years. It was formed from the Tyumen directorate of Aeroflot initially as Tyumenaviatrans Aviation (TAT) in 1991. It was only in 2002 that the UTAir name was adopted and the airline really began to grow. Nine 757s have served with the airline but only three of them have been Rolls-Royce powered 757-28As. VP-BAS joined the fleet on May 25, 2012. All the 757s migrated to UTAir's charter arm Azur Air in 2014/2015 and following financial difficulties at the parent Azur Air was itself sold off in December 2015.
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Kurush Pawar from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons