I’ve always liked aircraft with colourful paint schemes and this subject is no different. While at my local hobby shop one day, I noticed an impressive set of decals in a rather tall stack. It just so happened that this scheme was for a BAe 146-200. With decals in hand, I headed for the model section, and dug out the Revell release for the Avro RJ85 (also known as the BAe 146).

As a side note, this is what I love about my local hobby shop, being able to find an interesting subject, decals and kit in roughly a half an hour. I’d never have thought of doing this subject had I been doing my shopping through a mail order catalog.

Like all other Revell Germany airliner releases I’ve seen; this kit is a real beauty. Molded in white and featuring finely recessed panel lines this kit fits together with no need for corrective putty work. I did need to use some liquid putty along the seam lines (typical for all my models), however this is by no means the fault of the model kit.

Before assembling the fuselage halves, I remembered to first paint the entire interior black and insert a lead weight. I didn’t do anything special with the fuselage windows (like filling them); at least not yet. I filled the necessary panel lines in the aft left-hand fuselage (following the decal instructions).

Before scribing in the cargo door, I applied a vinyl sticker supplied in the decals set. This vinyl sticker replicates the thick doublers applied to the area when converting the airframe, it also represents the both sides and lower edge of the door opening. Now it was time to deal with the windows, because TNT operates its aircraft as freighters, the cabin windows are routinely blanked over (and painted). To replicate these windows, I filled the openings with Kristal-Kleer, and allowed it to dry.

Like the fuselage, the wings and engines only require the modeler to glue the parts together, clean the joints and clean prior to painting. Because of the paint scheme I chose, I decided to leave the wings, horizontal stabilizer and engines off of the fuselage until I finished painting.

Like I mentioned at the start, the reason I built this model, was because of a set of decals I found. It turns out that these decals were from DACO/Skyline in Belgium. I’ve used their decals before and the lessons learned with that previous set were important here.

I first applied a base coat of Flat White with my Polly Scale acrylic paints. Once dry, I masked the forward fuselage, and applied Testor’s Model Master 2 acrylic Chevy Engine Red. When these colours were completely dried, I airbrushed the entire model with Future floorwax. The polished metal surfaces were replicated with Testor’s Model Master Chrome Silver enamel paint.

I started applying the decals, starting with the black stripe. I decided to follow the decal sheet, rather than my photographic references since some aircraft have this stripe and some don’t. The key to applying DACO/Skyline decals is to use lots of decal set solution. Even though they require this, they will suck into the surface detail of the kit.

I decided to do some minor weathering (again, using my references as a guide) at this point. Some minor exhaust stains behind the APU and engines, and some streaking along the belly and the painting was complete.

Here’s where the kit’s great fit comes in handy. Once all the parts were painted and decaled, I glued all the sub-assemblies and small parts together. My model was now finished.

What a great kit; the fine detail, nice fit and interesting colour schemes make this a must build for any airliner fan. It took me a little over ten hours to get my model ready for paint (because of the cargo door) and another three hours to mask and paint. I thoroughly enjoyed this build, and would recommend it to any modeler who’s able to deal with some small parts (even beginners).