I have talked about the 757 quite a bit in other reviews so shall say little more about it here. I can say that currently there is only one injected plastic kit of the 757 on the market in 1/144, and that is by Minicraft. I have not built this kit so cannot say how it builds. I can only hope that it is much better than the B.377 I am currently struggling to finish.

North American Airlines is a new one to me. I know nothing about it at all, despite being a reader of Airlines magazine. That means that little has been printed on it or that I just don't pay attention to what I read! Anyway, it has a very striking livery of white and dark blue. On a side note, it appears that airlines are getting away from the 'white body' look and starting to put some very dark colors in their new liveries. Why this is, I'm not sure, but it does bring some interest back into airliner modeling.

I have reviewed the Area 53 range of military subjects from Apollodcal, but this is the first of their airliner sheets that I have seen. They appear to be very thoroughly researched, as one would expect from the folks producing them. A very nice touch is that each sheet not only has a color image of the subject in question, but that there are also a couple of color chips (these are actual color chips and not just printed on the sheet) of the major colors involved in the color scheme. This, to me, is a great addition to the sheet. Like many of you, I have tried just general matching for colors and having these color chips is really a great help. Now I KNOW what shade Boeing 707 grey is and the color I have been using for it is too dark!.

The decals themselves look superb and the white appears to be opaque enough to deal with the very dark blue background on which it will be places. Same with the yellow fuselage striping. There are registrations for all three 757 aircraft that have been in the NA Airlines fleet. The instruction sheet is very clear and precise as to what goes where. There is even information on where to get or how to mix the specific colors for the aircraft. On the back page is a front view (very helpful) as well as pylon and wing color detail.

In all, it looks like a superb sheet and one that I will definitely be using. I have a Minicraft 757 just awaiting the opportunity to be built. Stay tuned.

Please note that I deliberately degraded the image of the decals to prevent unauthorized duplication. The sheet was also darkened somewhat so that the white will appear against the background.

Review copy courtesy Apollodcal 

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