u/dtino

Sharing a new addition to the collection, and a bit of a departure from the United Battleship fleet I’ve been focused on lately: British Airways 777-200 G-ZZZA in full Landor, ARD/InFlight200 ARDBA39.

I’d been looking for the right model to start a small Landor collection, and this one absolutely delivered. Between the InFlight 777 mould, the quality of the finish, and the fact that the 777 only just overlapped with the end of the Landor era, this felt like the right place to start + personal nostalgia here. 772 was type on my first British Airways flight, JFK to LHR.

Short version: this is a top-tier 1:200 model for me and I also think future classic release for anyone’s collection.

The model
First impressions out of the box were excellent. It was exceptionally well packed and arrived without damage. There was one tiny superficial smudge on the fuselage that wiped straight off, particularly welcome after my recent Gemini200 Air France 777-300ER F-GZNH (G2AFR1282) arrived with an actual paint defect on the white fuselage.

The overall execution is fantastic. The model has the substantial weight I’ve come to associate with InFlight releases, especially compared with many of my Gemini and JC Wings models. The paint finish is extremely glossy and consistent. Even under close inspection, there isn’t much of the unevenness in metallic or layered finishes that can sometimes become apparent where different layers overlap.

One of the things that surprised me most is actually the wing detailing. The different metallic and grey areas are beautifully rendered on both the upper and lower surfaces, along with extremely fine stencil and “NO STEP” markings. The printing across the rest of the aircraft is equally sharp. The very thin red pinstripe speedwing running along the fuselage is especially impressive. It is remarkably fine, straight, and consistent.

I’m also very happy with the 777 mould itself. The proportions, nose, cockpit area, wings, and overall stance all look right to me. I really don’t have any mould-specific nits to call out.

I particularly appreciate the treatment of the engines. G-ZZZA was powered by the original-generation GE90-76B, and the model captures the noticeably more restrained proportions of these early GE90s rather than giving them the enormous appearance of the later GE90-115B fitted to the 777-300ER. Put next to my Gemini200 Air France 777-300ER F-GZNH (G2AFR1282), the difference is immediately apparent. They are visually much closer in scale to the Pratt & Whitney installation on my InFlight200 United Battleship 777-200 N786UA (IF772UA1123). The fan, nacelle, pylon, and GE90 markings are all nicely executed.

It comes with the usual full suite of accessories, including the stand, removable landing gear, and gear-up panels. I’m displaying mine gear-up, although the landing gear itself is nicely done and gives the aircraft are the stance and height from the ground when installed, to my eye

My only meaningful criticism is something I’ve noticed on other InFlight 777s as well. The main landing gear bay covers don’t sit completely flush in the gear-up configuration and remain slightly inset into the underside of the wing. It’s noticeable when you look for it, but hardly enough to detract from the model overall.

Beyond that, I’m struggling to find much to criticize.

Why Landor (aka me being a corporate branding nerd)
Part of why I wanted this model goes beyond BA itself. Always been fascinated by this period of airline identity design, from the late 1980s through the 1990s, when several major carriers adopted these incredibly formal, authoritative identities.

Landor is perhaps the quintessential early example of that movement. What interests me is the broader through-line from BA Landor into identities like Northwest’s Bowling Shoe, United’s Battleship, and eventually the dark navy US Airways scheme.

Obviously these were not the same design, nor am I suggesting there was necessarily a direct lineage from one to the next. But they seem to reflect a similar idea of what a major airline was supposed to communicate at that moment: scale, permanence, confidence, and institutional authority at this very fluid post-deregulation moment.

They are the result of significant transformation at the airlines themselves.

For BA, Landor was directly tied to the transformation of British Airways into a privatized global carrier after the earlier creation of BA from BOAC and BEA. United’s Battleship arrived during its transformation into a much larger international airline, following major international expansion including the acquisition of Pan Am’s Pacific routes; US Airways after major consolidation of many medium size carriers the preceding 15 years (Piedmont, etc). Throughline is recurring relationship between major organizational change and airlines using visual identity to reassert who they were and what they represented.

That broader history is probably why Landor resonates so much with me given my existing interest (obsession?)w/ United Battleship.

And it makes the Landor 777 an especially interesting combination.

Unlike United, where Battleship and the 777 arrived almost hand-in-hand in 94/95 and the aircraft became one of the defining types of that identity, BA’s 777 arrived very late in Landor’s life. It is almost surprising that this combination existed at all.

There’s something fascinating about seeing a visual identity conceived in the 1980s applied to an aircraft representing an entirely new generation of long-haul aviation in the 1990s.

What surprised me most once I had the model in front of me is just how completely it works. Despite the age of the design by the time the 777 arrived, Landor looks completely at home on the aircraft. To my eye, it doesn’t look like an old livery awkwardly transferred onto a new airframe at all.

Where the collection goes from here
I’m deliberately not approaching BA the way I’m approaching my United Battleship collection, where the goal is essentially to build out the canonical fleet. This will be a much more selective sub-collection.

Next on the list is the new ARD Models British Airways 747-400 G-BNLN in Landor, ARDBA92. I’m planning to pick that one up once the restock lands (lol get it?) this fall. After that, I’ll probably hunt for the right 767 to give me a small but representative Landor group.

More broadly, that fits where my collection seems to be heading. Rather than collecting airlines or aircraft indiscriminately, I’m increasingly interested in creating something of a portrait of aviation in the late 1990s, right before the turn of the millennium, focusing on the aircraft, liveries, and airline identities that defined that particular moment.

A few photos below, including G-ZZZA alongside my InFlight200 United Battleship 777-200 N786UA (IF772UA1123). Seeing those two together probably explains this particular collecting rabbit hole better than I can. Would love to see any other Landor models people here have, and I’d be particularly interested in impressions of the new G-BNLN 747-400 ARDBA92 from anyone who has managed to get their hands on one.

Morning team! I promised in my UA Battleship 1:200 collection post a few weeks ago that I’d share this one when it finally arrived. I had tracked down an InFlight200 United A319 (IF319UA0523) that took a few weeks to make its way to me, and it showed up over the weekend.

Incredibly happy with it. Including a few photos here, plus a few shots with the rest of the Battleship fleet.

There’s a lot I really appreciate about this release. The engine detailing and fan blades are especially nice, the proportions look right, and it has that great heft/weight that makes a good 1:200 diecast model feel substantial (compared to some of the newer JC/Gemini releases that feel lighter than IF). The Battleship Grey itself looks excellent, and the printing is incredibly sharp: there are some tiny markings and details on this thing that really reward looking at it up close.

And, maybe most importantly for me: removable landing gear. On an aircraft this small, I’m genuinely impressed InFlight managed to execute it. (also why is this never listed by the manufacturers, always trying to validate if a model has/does not have a gear up option)

A couple of things really stood out once I put it next to the rest of the fleet.

First, you can really see the wider fuselage of the A320 family compared with the 757. The real A319 is about 155.5 inches wide externally versus roughly 148 inches for the 757, with a cabin that’s about 6 inches wider internally as well. That works out to almost a full millimeter of extra fuselage width even at 1:200 scale, and it’s surprisingly obvious when they’re sitting side by side. The 757 is dramatically longer, but the A319 has this wider, rounder, almost chunky cross-section by comparison.

Second: the A319 is tiny (shocker lol). Obviously you know intellectually that it’s a short narrowbody, but putting it next to the 767, 777 and especially the 747 really drives home the scale differences within United’s late-90s/early-2000s fleet. It almost looks like a little stubby wide-cabin aircraft sitting among them.

Overall, this one exceeded my expectations. Between the mold, paint, engine detail, printing and removable gear, it’s probably one of the more impressive small narrowbody models in the collection.

And the Battleship fleet continues to grow…

also I do have an ongoing hunt: if anyone has a lead on an InFlight200 United 767-200 Battleship Grey, N602UA / IF762UA1221, please send it my way. That’s the big missing piece I’m still trying to track down, especially interested in any obscure retailers, private sellers, or collections where one might be hiding!

ty all for reading another battleship post from me lol

Been stalking this sub for a long time, so figured it was finally time to share my small (but slowly growing) collection of United Battleship Gray 1:200s.

I grew up in Chicago in the ’90s and early 2000s and spent a lot of time around ORD, so this era of United is basically burned into my memory. There was something about seeing the 747s, 777s, 767s and 757s lined up in Battleship Gray that made United feel enormous and genuinely global.

I also find this period of United fascinating in retrospect. The airline had spent the previous decade transforming itself through the acquisition of Pan Am’s Pacific network and building out a truly global route system, and by the late ’90s United felt like one of the defining international carriers. The Battleship identity is inseparable from that era for me.

I’ve been slowly assembling the fleet in 1:200, which has taken a while since most of these releases are long out of production. I’ve been trying to find brand-new/unopened examples wherever possible, and the hunt has been half the fun.

The newest addition is an InFlight200 A319 that’s still en route. Once it arrives, if people are interested, I may do another post with better lighting and actually take the time to put everyone on their landing gears ha!

For now, here’s the current fleet with slightly better lighting, plus a few photos of how they normally live in my office.

For anyone hunting for the same models now or in the future, here are the specific releases:
• Boeing 747-400: JC Wings XX2744 - N178UA
• Boeing 777-200ER: InFlight200 IF772UA1123 - N786UA
• Boeing 767-300ER: InFlight200 IF763UA0425 -N671UA
• Boeing 757-200 - InFlight200 IF752US0923 -N515UA
• Airbus A319 - InFlight200 IF319UA0523 -N820UA (currently en route!!)

A few thoughts on the models themselves:

The JC Wings 747 is by far my favorite. The mould is incredible, the paint is incredible, and the amount of detail throughout is just on another level. It was also, by far, the most expensive of the group and took the longest to hunt down, but I think it was worth it.

The InFlight 777-200 is probably next. It’s a fantastic model overall, and I think the engines in particular are incredibly well done. The Pratt & Whitney PW4000s are beautifully detailed, and the overall proportions and presence of the original 777 are captured really well. There’s also something especially cool about having the original -200 represented here given United’s history as the 777’s launch customer.

I also really love the InFlight 757/767 duo. Both have great moulds and a ton of detail. My one nitpick is the small stabilizing piece InFlight uses within the engine fan assembly on both models; it’s noticeable up close and makes the fans look a little less realistic than they otherwise would.

From everything I’ve read, though, the InFlight 767-300 and 767-200 are still probably the best 1:200 versions of those aircraft, particularly if you want Battleship United. The InFlight 767-200 is next on my list. Would love to hear if anyone has heard the same or differently!

I’ve also read really good things about the Gemini200 Battleship 757-200, so I’d eventually love to pick one up and compare it directly with the InFlight version.

Still a few holes in the Battleship fleet to fill, but it’s been really satisfying slowly recreating a little bit of the United I remember from O’Hare.

Happy Friday! Thought I’d share a new addition to my desk.
Growing up in Chicago in the ’90s, I spent a ton of time at ORD watching 747s, 777s, and 767s in battleship gray come and go. So it only felt fitting, 30 years later, to finally bring the queen of the skies (in my favorite livery, obvs) to my desk, where I can watch her every day.