New arrival: BA 777-200 G-ZZZA in Landor | ARD/InFlight200 ARDBA39
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.