Aeroclassics July 2017 Releases

July 7, 2017 Richard Stretton Model News 11

Aeroclassics have been producing some awesome 1/400 scale models in 2017 and July brings another cracking month full of holy grails, replacements for old obsolete models, and newly painted aircraft too. Plus unlike most other manufacturers there’s a great spread, with aircraft from big aviation markets (like the USA, UK and China) and smaller places like Mauritius and Surinam!

I’ll say it again nobody produces a range of models like Aeroclassics and the past few months have seen an exciting bunch of releases, even if the quality has at times taken a worrying dip. This month the DC-8 and 737-200 take a back seat in favour of DC-10s and 727s, but the Airbus gravy train rolls on also. It’s not all A320s though with some nice ‘classic’ A310s and some off the beaten path A340s.

Trijet Heaven Pt1: Ultra Icelandic

The big surprises this month must be the new 727s. The Aeroclassics 727-200 isn’t as perfect as some of their moulds (mainly due to the tail and middle engine exhaust) but is still perfectly acceptable and nobody else is going to make great releases like these.

Icelandair has been criminally ignored for many years in this scale and hopefully this is the start of an avalanche of Icelandic Fokkers, DC-6s, DC-8s and 727s. For this month we have

  • Icelandair B 727-208 TF-FLI

Of classic collectors Holy Grail’s the Braniff Ultra livery must be high on the list. Aeroclassics did make a trio of DC-8s a few years back but got the colours rather incorrect (I got two and they’re still nice). Now they are back but on the 727-200 with a pair of ‘Metallic Blue’ aircraft one of which is in the special Dallas Cowboys scheme. My only reservations with these are the side engines, which have the blue striping obscured by too much beige:

  • Braniff International B 727-227 N462BN Ultra – Blue
  • Braniff International B 727-227 N457BN Ultra – Blue ‘Dallas Cowboys’

Trijet Heaven Pt2: More 40s

Andrew has been holding out on us with his DC-10-40s saving the most obvious releases until last. So this month finally the first Northwest DC-10s are here with 3 releases in the older schemes. How many people will replace the old Dragon/Jet-X DC-10s with these? I personally prefer the Aeroclassics DC-10 but unfortunately whoever is doing typefaces at Aeroclassics continues to be blind as the ‘DC-10’ titles on N143US do not bare any resemblance to the real thing. Looks like I’ll have to keep my old Jet-X version:

  • Northwest Orient DC-10-40 N143US ‘DC-10’ titles
  • Northwest Orient DC-10-40 N150US
  • Northwest Airlines DC-10-40 N154US

New NEOs and CEOs

There is now a steady stream of NEOs finding their way into airline service and the big manufacturers are competing against each other for releases. Fortunately Aeroclassics has easily the best neo mould so if people were rational these releases should be killing the competing JC Wings/Gemini Jets and Phoenix offerings (not that any of the following 3 have been announced by the competition anyway). This month there are:

  • Air India A320-251NWL VT-EXF
  • Citilink Express A320-251NWL PK-GTA
  • WOW Air A320-251NWL TF-NEO

Gemini just announced the Virgin A321neo but they appear to have mucked it up by leaving off the aircraft name ‘Neo kid on the block’, which was added late after first flight. So that ought to leave the way open for Aeroclassics, however have they made the same mistake?

  • Virgin America A321-253NWL N921VA

Lastly not NEOs but there are more members to add to the new colours Air Canada, and JetBlue special colours fleets:

  • Air Canada A319-112 C-GITR New Colours
  • JetBlue Airways A320-232 N531JL NYPD Colours

3Tens & 3Forties

There are plenty of colourful A310s and A340s to be made and July brings a beautiful selection. The A310s give a chance to expand your fleet and continue to replace old Gemini models. Here they are:

  • British Caledonian A310-202 G-BKWU
  • S7 Airlines A310-204 VP-BSZ
  • Austrian Airlines A310-324ET OE-LAA
  • China Northwest Airlines A310-222 B-2301

The A340s visit smaller national airlines and although personally I’d prefer the old Mauritius livery and Surinam DC-8s these are still both lovely models:

  • Air Mauritius A340-313E 3B-NBI
  • Surinam Airways A340-311 PZ-TCP

Limited Market Release

This month there is a single limited market release (i.e. re-release of unsold stock with a new reg) and that is the Ethiopian Convair. As is usual mistakes made on the original (the white tail in this case) have not been remedied as this is just a simple rebadging effort:

  • Ethiopian Airlines CV-240-8 ET-T-20

Roundup

Aeroclassics are causing me serious issues with the number of models I feel I need to buy each month! After the 7 from last month I could easily get 10 this month. It’s a great set of releases only tempered by the continuing lack of prop-liners and continuing failures in the design department. I hope that this is just temporary but for next month I’m almost hoping that I get a break from such fabulous models to save my wallet from emptying. Good work AC.

 

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11 Comments

  1. Nice review, Richard. I enjoy and appreciate your expertise of commercial aviation and model aircraft.

  2. Indeed, a spectacular month of releases from Aeroclassics. Various regions, types and decades all represented, with great classics.

    Northwest Orient was a huge, gaping hole in Aeroclassics’ unmatched lineup of 1970’s-80’s USA trunk-carrier DC-10’s. To see it filled after so many years is gratifying. It is too bad that they bollixed the DC-10 lettering on N143US so badly. But the other two are excellent, and a great credit to Aeroclassics. After everyone else gets a chance, I might order a second N150US if there are any left. Get shopping if you want one, folks. :+)

    I, too, would have preferred Air Mauritius’ old scheme to the new, which has only been done by Dragon, and any AC would be a huge improvement over Dragon’s awful A340 mould. But for AC to do two A340’s of smaller national carriers in one month is terrific. I’m hoping that the lovely Surinam Airways A340 will be joined by a DC-8-63 in that carrier’s splashy 1980’s livery. :+)

    Looks like AC got the message on the WOW Air purple, which on this A320-NEO is excellent, after the too-dark A330-300. :+)

    Jim

  3. Actually, the error of ET-T-22 is actually correct for this reg. ET-T-20, according to Adrian Balch:))

    I’m glad the new releases are so well received. I think the goal of folks buying too many AC models means they’ll buy less from the competition!!

  4. [Quote]Actually, the error of ET-T-22 is actually correct for this reg. ET-T-20, according to Adrian Balch:))[unquote}

    I never said that – it was stated by another forumite, but has yet to be substantiated with any photo evidence!
    Sorry, but I won’t be replacing my Dragon Wings Northwest DC-10s, which have the correct shade of red on their tails (AC appears too dark)and the ‘Northwest’-titled one has a nice polished belly.

    • The red on these new 10s matches my other 747s and 707s. My Dragon’s red is BRIGHT when sitting next to the new 10. I also have a friend that flew for Northwest (now Delta of course) that says the deeper red is more accurate. Doesn’t necessarily make him a color expert but he’s been around the real thing more than a lot of us.

  6. Where do you guys stand on the British Caledonian A310 titles? They should be slightly italicised but on the photos of the model on the ARD website they do not look italicised to me.

    • Yeah you might be correct. I haven’t looked in detail but I may do a review of it at some point or compare it to my old Gemini version

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