Introduction

Manufacturer: JC Wings
Scale: 1/200
Airline: Air Bridge Cargo
Type: B747-8F
Registration: VQ-BGZ
Item No: JC2289
Recommend RRP: £119.99
Release Date: 2020
Supplier: Private Sale

It always amazes me, when I pick up a 1/200 scale widebody box. I find it astonishing how big the box really is and its pretty heavy too it would seem. This model was picked up locally for £80, which is something of a bargain.

I have seen many Air Bridge Cargo B747-8s across the world, I like the blue and white scheme, it suits the 747 very well. ABC Group operate across the world with a fleet of B747-400 and B747-8 freighters, as well as smaller subsidiary companies such as CargoLogic Air. Air Bridge Cargo is part of the wider Volga Dnepr Cargo group.

The majority of the ABC Cargo fleet flies with a Bermuda registration. This model would be no exception, depicting VQ-BGZ a 2012 delivery making this frame just under a decade old.

The Package and First Impressions

The box art is simple and elegant, with an ABC Cargo and Volga Dnepr branding on the sleeve and cartoon impression of the aircraft within. The white box, opens from the top, and the aircraft is securely encased in dense foam, you have parts that can be attached to show the aircraft gear up or gear down and a very interesting stand as well. As I look at the model, it looks pretty accurate with crisp details and colours.

The stand supplied with this model is very unusual, I have never seen one like it. It made from black metal and has a metal suspension arm which is secured into position my tightening a nut. The stand also has a plaque that can be mounted on either side, depending which way the aircraft is facing. This is a nifty feature really as I always think the engraved plaques on stands add a very nice detail, this stand also has a tiny Remove Before Flight tag clipped on one side, this cannot me moved. I am however not sure I trust the stand, the suspension arm, can be adjusted depending on how dramatic you want the aircraft to look. At the bottom of the travel, it looks rather flat and with the travel fully extended it is really rather striking it makes the model look as though she is reaching for the sky. I am going to deduct three points as I fear the moving parts will weaken over time and eventually the stand would be liable to metal fatigue or fracture.

When popping this model in the cabinet, I had drop the stand to about half way down the travel, as it did fit in with the arm fully extended.

22/25

Mould

As I quickly glance over this metal monster, she certainly looks realistic with a nicely shaped fuselage wings and engines. One thing that is impressive is the long wing with the incredible raked wingtips, similar to what we see on the B787.

This mould is supplied with magnetic attachments for the landing gear, she can be displayed either gear up or gear down as you prefer. The landing gear with this model, is perfectly acceptable, with nice jewel style lights for the nose gear. The main gear have all the support struts I would expect, and tyres with deep treads etched into them.

The cargo version of the B747-8 has a smaller hump the B747-8i passenger version, in reality I think that makes the aircraft look too nose heavy.  The nose has always been hard to perfect on B747 models, I do think this looks spot on, when compared to her real world counterpart, the model has all the lines I would expect and the subtle changes in angle below the cockpit windows.

This model has jewel lights for the upper and lower and beacon as well the nose wheel taxi lights and the landing lights in the wing root. It is nice to see more than just the beacon lights as jewels. The aircraft also has the correct number of aerials with three on the top and one on the underside.

The engines are rather scruffy on this mould. The engine rims, do not sit flush with the engine nacelle on 2 of my engines, and the engine pylons have no shape or detail at all. Whilst the shape looks nicely rounded and the fan blades look accurate.. I take 2 points for the poor quality engine rims and 2 points for bland looking pylons.

The wings appears accurate, with nice detail on the flaps, spoilers and aileron tab, some models have a tendency for the scribing to be rather flat, this is not the case here.  The wing tips have been well moulded though and feature a very sharp looking raked edge. On the B747-8 the edge is very straight and that shape has been recreated here.

The B747 tail has not changed much of the years and the iconic design continues faithfully into the new generation, the horizontal stabilisers also life like with a prominent APU outlet finishing the fuselage off nicely.

21/25

 Detail and Paint

On a first glance the colours on this model are bright and vibrant, and there is no noticeable paint bleed which is always nice to see.  I do think the blue used to paint these aircraft in real life is a more pastel shade the colour on this model is too dark, I deduct 2 points.

The wings are nicely painted in a light grey, the paint is very thin and does not take away from the scribing for the control surfaces, this can be a difficult balance sometimes and on this model JC seem to have nailed it. The horizontal and vertical stabiliser are appropriately decorated as well. The engine outlets and exhausts are also rather bland and lifeless, the colours look very clean and shiny, but to me it appears rather sterile, the engine outlets very quickly accumulate a layer of grime and muck in traffic for that reason I deduct 2 points.

The smaller details, such as the titles and logos are in proportion and printed in the correct fonts and styles. When viewing from 4ft away there are not a lot of small details such as maintenance hatches, but at this scale it is hard to see them anyway.

21/25

 

 Conclusion

The more I look at this model, the more I find myself falling in love with it. It is very nicely done by JC Wings.

The mould is very good, with some intricate details and a very nice shape. I like the long wings and raked wingtips we have seen from Boeing in recent years and this model captures that well. It is a shame the engines are not particularly well finished and look rather scruffy. The landing gear is nicely detailed though nothing special or indeed anything bad. The painting of this model is very well applied, with no paint bleed or overlapping, models with strongly contrasting colours often suffer from noticeable bleed so it is nice to see it has been controlled well.

Quirky as it is, I am still not sure I trust the stand. That being said, I do no think this model will disappoint anyone, it is a beautiful rendition of the Queen of the Skies.

Final Score – 65/75