Fokker F27-MK 400 Friendship

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale of a Dutch Fokker F27 Friendship turboprop airliner introduced in late 50s and produced in upgraded variants till the 80s, a very successful design.

ESCI-Ertl tooled the Fokker F27 kit in 1991, at the time, and nowadays too, the only competition was the old Airfix kit tooled in 1960. The Italian brand had everything at hand to do a great a success, then, what was so wrong with this kit ?.

Specialized press of the time just demolished the kit, considering it less accurate than the old Airfix kit, though of course it’s better detailed and engineered. A lot of problems on size and shape were reported, nose, tail cone, windows, engines nacelles and others, so the old Airfix kit remained as more accurate replica of the real thing till today, as no other brand has tooled the Fokker F27.

Italeri reissued the ESCI kit in 2019, without changes, as Italeri – 1430 – Fokker F27 Friendship (it contains sprue pictures), another release in 2021 was announced by Italeri but finally it didn’t happen. By their side Airfix retooled their kit in 2008 adding a new nose option and propeller blades but has not been released since then, rest of the kit is still from 60s.

Our opinion is that several of the flaws outlined for this kit are just for the very finest modellers and Fokker D27 expertises, the main noticeable ones are about the engines shape and somehow the windows shape. Finest modellers always find the way to correct many of these flaws and for “out of the box” builders, this is an enjoyable kit, with several beautiful markings available, but obviously ESCI lost an opportunity here.

This particular variant included a marking for Air UK. ESCI did another two releases in 1991 and two more in 1992.