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Its well known that United had a whole series of livery variations during the late 60s and early 70s. Here I wanted to look at what we've got in 1:400 for each of the main variants focusing mainly on the 727.
Aeroclassics have recently done a fabulous job producing an interesting range of DC-8-50 series United colours highlighting several of these yet astoundingly Aeroclassics and Gemini have both never produced a 727 from this era. Only Aurora (who I think were different to AC though they used their moulds) and Jet-X have done so and I really do not like the Jet-X 727s.
1. Anyway arguably the most iconic scheme for the United 727 is the 1963 delivery colours which were unique to the type and applied to about the first 20 727s delivered. I'd love to see one of these with the shield breaking the titles and the broken gold stripe:
2. Next in about 1965 the livery became more standard. The most obvious change is to the lighter Blue paint and the new 'curve' at the nose. The small United Shield oval has been added to the lower nose and the 'United' titles have been placed further apart.
There were other small changes throughout this period and I highly recommend this Lost Schemes post for more details:
3. In 1966 the shield was removed allowing the titles to be moved forward and the doors outlined in black:
4. Around 1970 the livery was updated. The United oval from the lower front was gone and the lower Gold stripe changed to Red with "new" lower case style thin black titles used on the fuselage and tail:
5 & 6. Then around 1972 the Four Star / Friendship scheme debuted with new blue titles though some aircraft still had the thinner black titles also. The red line was much thicker on this scheme:
7. Finally in 1974 the Saul Bass scheme appeared but it'd be into the 80s before United had a uniform scheme and for most of the 70s schemes 3-7 where worn by different aircraft.
So what do we have in 1:400?
Aurora have done no3 on a 727-100 and no6 on both a 727-100 and 200
Jet-X have done no5 on both a 727-100/200 (but only a few were made and the colours are wrong) whilst they also did a Saul bass twin-set.
So the United 727 is ripe for new models which being of a major US trunkliner would surely sell well? Liveries 1,2,4 and 5 would be new whilst some Saul Bass releases would be extremely welcome.
Aeroclassics have recently done a fabulous job producing an interesting range of DC-8-50 series United colours highlighting several of these yet astoundingly Aeroclassics and Gemini have both never produced a 727 from this era. Only Aurora (who I think were different to AC though they used their moulds) and Jet-X have done so and I really do not like the Jet-X 727s.
1. Anyway arguably the most iconic scheme for the United 727 is the 1963 delivery colours which were unique to the type and applied to about the first 20 727s delivered. I'd love to see one of these with the shield breaking the titles and the broken gold stripe:
2. Next in about 1965 the livery became more standard. The most obvious change is to the lighter Blue paint and the new 'curve' at the nose. The small United Shield oval has been added to the lower nose and the 'United' titles have been placed further apart.
There were other small changes throughout this period and I highly recommend this Lost Schemes post for more details:
3. In 1966 the shield was removed allowing the titles to be moved forward and the doors outlined in black:
4. Around 1970 the livery was updated. The United oval from the lower front was gone and the lower Gold stripe changed to Red with "new" lower case style thin black titles used on the fuselage and tail:
5 & 6. Then around 1972 the Four Star / Friendship scheme debuted with new blue titles though some aircraft still had the thinner black titles also. The red line was much thicker on this scheme:
7. Finally in 1974 the Saul Bass scheme appeared but it'd be into the 80s before United had a uniform scheme and for most of the 70s schemes 3-7 where worn by different aircraft.
So what do we have in 1:400?
Aurora have done no3 on a 727-100 and no6 on both a 727-100 and 200
Jet-X have done no5 on both a 727-100/200 (but only a few were made and the colours are wrong) whilst they also did a Saul bass twin-set.
So the United 727 is ripe for new models which being of a major US trunkliner would surely sell well? Liveries 1,2,4 and 5 would be new whilst some Saul Bass releases would be extremely welcome.
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