Fokker F27 / Fairchild F-27 in 1:400 Scale
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Updated: January 2026
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The Dutch Fokker F27 Friendship was easily the most successful of the direct DC-3 replacement contenders from Europe, thanks partly to its early adoption of the groundbreaking Rolls-Royce Dart Turboprop and also to securing a licensing agreement with Fairchild in the USA, whereby they would build an Americanised version as the Fairchild F-27. The latter made the type the first 'jet' equipment for a host of smaller US local service airlines and a strong competitor to secondhand Convairs being passed down from the trunk airlines. In the USA the F-27 would serve with Allegheny Airlines, Bonanza Air Lines, West Coast, Pacific Air Lines, Ozark Air Lines, Piedmont Airlines and Northern Consolidated / Wien Air Alaska. That led to 128 sales for the Fairchild variant before it was stretched into the US only FH-227 (see separate mould review).
Of course the F27 was still primarily a Fokker product and through a development cycle that lasted for over 30 years, and onto the later Fokker 50, nearly 600 F27s were built covering multiple variants. The original F27 flew for the first time on March 23, 1958. Despite the type ending production in 1987 there were still operational flying examples in service as late as 2025 with the Philippine Air Force.
F27 / F-27 in 1:400 Scale
Surprisingly, there have been two different moulds for the F27 / F-27 and both come from Aeroclassics. Each represents a different variant, however the two moulds have not been used together and the former long-hulled version was not always used accurately to represent the longer variant. Although the later mould represents the shorter original and Fairchild built version it is a shame that the original longer mould has not been seen again for some F27-500s.
The F27 is in the same size class as several other smaller prop types from the period and so is one of the smallest moulds available. Here it is, lower left, with several other DC-3 replacement contenders:
Incidentally the longer and larger US built variant, the Fairchild Hiller FH-227, has had its own separate mould treatment here at the website. For that see:
F27 / F-27 in Real Life
The F27 has a high-mounted wing and long maingear legs. It shares a marked affinity to the HP Herald but the F27 has always had a sleeker look to it, especially after the nose was elongated to fit radar. The original F27 was 23.56m long with a 29m wingspan and could seat 44 passengers. This basic fuselage was used for all variants except for the series 500 (i.e. the Mk 100/200/300/400/600/700). The Fairchild F-27 first flew the year after the F27, on April 10, 1959 and shared the same characteristics as the original F27.
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Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
The F27-500 was a stretched variant with a 1.5m longer fuselage after the wing. It could seat 52 passengers, first flying in November 1967 and selling 123 aircraft. For identification purposes compare where the end of the engine nacelles are in relation to the tail fillet fin.
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Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
MOULD
Aeroclassics Mould One (2004)
The original mould for the F27 is scaled to fit the longer F27-500 variant and appeared in 2004. For unknown reasons it was only used ten times and replaced in 2006 by a shorter mould catering for the more common shorter F27 and F-27 variants. As you can see below none of the models made represented F27-500s, which is curious. It is a real shame that the mould has never reappeared to be used for a series 500 as it remains a perfectly fine example of the longer type. Indeed the later shorter mould has at times been used to incorrectly represent series 500s so presumably this first mould has not been available for use for many years.
Interestingly, several of the above models (Air Tanzania, All Nippon, Hughes, Bonanza and Quebecair) have been re-released on the updated shorter mould, however the others have not.
Aeroclassics Mould Two (2006)
Above: The first and second version of the F27 moulds side by side.
The second F27 mould was basically the same as the first but shortened to represent the bulk of production (especially the Fairchild F-27). The first few releases on this mould appeared in 2006, with a single model in 2008, however it wasn't until 2012 that production really got started. Since then a good number of models have been made. The mould resurfaces every now and then. After a break from 2019 five models appeared in 2021/22 and a further pair in 2024.
Both of these Fokker moulds are good efforts, effectively portraying the look and feel of the Friendship well. The high wing allows for a reverse cradle wing that nicely sits atop the fuselage. There is a small seam at the horizontal stabilisers, but overall this is a better mould than the Viscount due to the more effective seam management here. One criticism of the production is that the cockpit windows are often not tall enough (something that was ironically better on the first mould examples).
As you can see in the production list below most of the releases use the mould correctly, but 9 times a F27-500 has been represented on this shorter mould.
