MOULD SUFFIX: 904
YEARS: 1982-2006
AIRLINES: 33
MODEL VARIANTS: 96
The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is one of the cornerstone moulds of the Schabak production line, appearing right at the dawn of the brand and continuing in use until 1999 when it was replaced with a modified version that bizarrely was an MD-90 but used as an MD-80! The type represents both some of the delight of Schabak and much of the weakness also since the mould itself is quite nice and definitely has the MD-80 feel, but especially with MD-80s decal application was often dreadful – especially at the cockpit.
Below: A lineage of Finnair MD-80s showing 4 different versions all with different combinations of decal, wheel type or mould
MOULD VARIANTS
TYPE 1: 1982-1999
The original MD-80 had the small metal wheels, fitted to Schabak’s smaller moulds, and captured the shape of the Douglas product rather well. However right from the start the decal fit around the cockpit was a problem, as was the attachment of the vertical stabiliser, which was a separate mould component.
As you can see below the original mould was updated in line with other Schabak products and gained the small black wheels in the early 90s. Decals were typically updated with silver windows and more detail. This Edelweiss release was from 1997:
TYPE 2: 1999-2006
Schabak went to the trouble of making a modified mould, seemingly to represent the MD-90 BUT in typical Schabak fashion never released any models as MD-90s and instead just applied MD-80 decals from 1999-2006 to the new mould for all the surviving MD-80 models in production. This led to a line of, often hard to find, fantasy models
You can see below with this Edelweiss version that compared to the version 1 mould the version 2 has new larger engines, a screwdriver tail and a modified vertical stabiliser. This is a classic case of Schabak doing something good and then not caring enough to do it properly!
PRODUCTION
Schabak made an impressive line of different MD-80s during the mould’s long history representing over 30 airlines. Of course as usual Schabak continuously modified the decals and wheels of the releases so there are around 96 separate releases in total. This number is increased quite a bit by the use of the type 2 mould from 1999 which represented a wave of fantasy MD-90s (still called MD-80s by Schabak).
For a complete list of MD-80 production by Schabak see the database at MADb that has been updated with photos and accurate records for the type:
Aside from models sold in a blister pack all MD-80s came in this small rectangular box, which was really too small for the model and often caused decal rubbing damage because of the tight fit. Only the latest released MD-80s came in a larger more suitably sized box.
A SELECTION OF NOTABLE RELEASES
This SAT release, dating from 1985, is a particularly odd and colourful model since SAT never operated the type and the triangular windows suggest Schabak was trying to represent a Caravelle using its MD-80 (they didn’t have a Caravelle at the time):
When Schabak could get the decal application correct the results often looked great – such as this Northwest version. Too often however they could not and you ended up with the cockpit windows sliding down the nose like on, this otherwise lovely (and again fantasy), SAS Viking scheme.
Another colourful fantasy release was this Surinam version. Surinam never operated a standard MD-80 (although they did have an MD-87) and never flew in this livery either!
This Tradewinds example (they were the forerunner of Silk Air of Singapore) was supposed to also represent an MD-87 and even said so on the box, but just used the standard MD-80 mould.
One of the rarest standard production Schabaks ever made was this green ATI edition, made only in 1997 I believe. It had replaced the purple version that had been made for a decade:
When Schabak moved to using the Type 2 mould they sometimes accidentally produced a real MD-90 (as in the case of these Delta and SAS versions), but the models were never marketed or sold as anything but MD-80s.
Usually the MD-90 style mould was applied to airlines that never flew the type. In this case below KLM never even operated the MD-80 either, however for some reason this KLM MD-80 remained in the production cycle for 30 years so got a mould 2 version release as well. Note once again the dreadful cockpit positioning.
Another annoying quirk of Schabaks is that many of the later releases have aged far worse than those from the 1980s and 90s. I’ve noticed that decals on later releases such as this 2003 Delta example have yellowed very badly. Note also the late type shadowed windows:
