Hawkeye Decal’s 1/144 TAA Central Australian 1980 727-276 By Chris Banyai-Riepl

The Boeing 727 was an innovative aircraft that helped usher in the era of jet transportation and over the decades it has worn many, many liveries.  One of the more attractive schemes is that of TAA Central Australian from 1980.  A total of three aircraft were painted up in this scheme and it features a painting of a sunset over Ayers Rock (as it was known then), with a couple of people walking on the sand, covering the entire vertical fin and stretching down onto the fuselage.  Forward of the engines the rest of the livery is very straightforward, with just a cheatline and the TAA Central Australian titles.

This decal sheet is printed by a method I’m not familiar with and it does an outstanding job of capturing the delicate features of the tail painting.  Everything is printed on solid film so you’ll want to trim closely, and these decals are very thin so you’ll want to be very careful with them.  The instructions are very clear and include a four-view drawing of the plane.  With the soon to be released Minicraft 727 this is one livery that will be quite popular.

My thanks to Sandle Hobbies for the review sample.  Check out their website for even more great airliner decals.