Draw Decal's 1/200 Northwest 747-400 "Bowling Shoe" Livery

The excellent Hasegawa 747 kits cry out for colorful decals, and the Northwest Bowling Shoe livery definitely lives up to that name. Very likely the last red-top scheme to be worn by Northwest aircraft, this livery features an attractive four-color fuselage going from red on top, then gray, with a blue cheat increasing in size towards the rear separating the gray from the white belly.

This decal from Draw Decal allows you to finish your Hasegawa 747 in this vivid livery. The decal sheet includes a complete set of window decals, including door outlines. The Northwest scheme is made up mainly of white decals for the fuselage titles and tail logo, with the blue cheat made up of several pieces. Additionally, Draw Decal includes decals for the various names worn by their 747-400s, including "City of Detroit", "The Alliance Spirit", "Spirit of the Northwest People", and "City of Tokyo".

Interestingly, Hasegawa recently released their 747-400 kit with these same markings, so I did a quick comparison between the two decal sheets. The first thing I noticed was that the Hasegawa decals had a yellow tint to their white, especially when compared to the Draw Decal sheet. The Hasegawa sheet also includes the gray section with their blue cheat line. Next, there is a size difference between the tail logos, with the Draw Decal example being larger than that in the Hasegawa kit. Finally, the last difference I could see between the sheets was with the fuselage titles, with both being the same height but the Hasegawa example being a bit longer. A comparison to photos at airliners.net has me leaning to the Draw Decal sheet being the better here, even more so considering that it comes with the extra names.

If you want to build a Northwest 747, this is a sheet well worth the price.