 It may seem like almost every new release is Chinese nowadays, but outside the Big 3 Chinese airlines a lot of other Chinese carriers aren't very well represented. That has begun to change this year with Aero Polaris and now Kylin Models joining the fray. Kylin is a new manufacturer, with its own moulds, that has huge potential to become a player in the scale. They have just released 6 A319/320s and today's review takes a look at one of them featuring Spring Airlines. Spring is a major airline, with 134 aircraft in its fleet, but this is only the 2nd release for them since 2018 and the first in their current colours. Each review is to split into three key areas:
This review is sponsored by Northeast Diecast. Check out their store for an excellent range of hard to find 200 and 400 scale collection sale models and get 15% off!  MOULD  A320 moulds are ten a penny nowadays, although the A321 is even more popular, with examples available from Aeroclassics, Aviation400, JC Wings / Gemini Jets, NG Models, Panda Models and Phoenix. HX Models also have a new mould nearing readiness. That makes the Kylin mould the 8th.  That's a lot of competition for Kylin, but of the available moulds the 2013 Phoenix and 2016 JC Wings are very ordinary, while the 2009 Aeroclassics mould has not progressed and is arguably inferior to when it came out - courtesy of some undercarriage changes. Aviation400 haven't used their own A320 since the first four arrived at the end of 2023. For a closer look at these moulds see the detailed scoring review for the A320.  That leaves the Panda mould (currently being replaced by Panda I hear) and the NG Models mould as the gold standards to be judged against. It is worth bearing in mind that Kylin are an all new brand and manufacturer so expectations need to be tempered somewhat, however their efforts hey already show a lot of promise.   From the front I'm liking what I'm seeing. The nose and cockpit works well. The landing gear holds the aircraft fractionally higher than the NG version, but that's not a bad thing. The nosegear structure itself is good, nicely detailed and correctly angled slightly forwards. The nosegear doors are slightly too small, but the overall package at the forward end is on par with the best moulds and much better than the JC, Phoenix and Aeroclassics.  The fuselage barrel continues aft with good shaping and no concerns. The wingjoin is tight. All of these areas show no real major differences from the competition. The wing itself is fine as well. It doesn't have the same depth of etching of control surfaces as on the NG, but that mould is very much an outlier when it comes to this.  One area of the mould that does need modification, and Kylin are aware of, are the sharklets. The height is good, but they are too heavily angled backwards.   The engines are solid core with good fan detailing and well shaped nacelles. The engine pylons are fine, but not quite as angular as they might be under the wing or refined where they join to the top of the nacelle.   The vertical stabiliser is another area that I'd like to see modified. It seems slightly too small at the rudder side, which means a little bit too much tailcone is showing aft of it. The fix seems quite simple - to extend the rudder portion back by a small amount. The leading edge and height are both fine to my eye.   This is a promising start for the Kylin A320. Modify the sharklet angle and enlarge the vertical stab and it has no major failings. Obviously, the version with wingtip fences doesn't have the sharklet issue either.  This mould fits nicely just underneath the Panda and NG moulds, alongside the rarely used Aviation400 mould. It is certainly a significant upgrade on the widely used JC Wings / Gemini, Aeroclassics and Phoenix moulds. With that in mind there is a lot of potential for its use with more Western friendly subject matter. SCORE - 8 PAINT & LIVERY  Spring Airlines (or Spring-Autumn Airlines in Chinese) is a major low cost airline based at Shanghai that has been flying since 2004. Their signature logo is the 3S, which adorns the tail and stands for 'Safety, Smile and Sincerity'. Spring had always had a rather simple dark green livery with large website titles and a eurowhite fuselage. The third Spring scheme introduced in 2021 improved the livery quite a lot, but this is the first time it has appeared in 400 scale.  This is the blurb from the airline about it: 'The tail section has changed from a single green to a seven-layered yellow-green gradient that extends to the fuselage, complemented by Spring Airlines' gold 3S logo, making it more vibrant and lively. On the fuselage, the four characters for "Spring Airlines" are in bold, giving a more substantial and powerful visual effect, while the 8-degree rightward tilt adds a sense of speed. The English name, SPRINGAIRLINES, matches the tail color perfectly. Compared to traditional liveries, Spring Airlines' new livery adopts a simplified design, removing the ch.com domain name, resulting in a cleaner, more sophisticated, and more dynamic and modern appearance'.  The printing and positioning of the livery on the model looks strong (here's a comparison shot). I can't fault that. The 3S logo is correctly placed low on the inside and outside of the sharklets and engine nacelles. The darker greens are well realised too, but the lighter colours, including the 3S tail logo, are rather washed out and not as vibrant as I'd like. SCORE - 9 PRINTING & QUALITY CONTROL  When a new manufacturer comes onto the scene as well as the moulds their ability to print comes under scrutiny. Once again I'll compare to an equivalent NG Models example I own. I can't see a real difference between the two myself. The printwork on the wingtops and under the fuselage are equal in terms of amount and quality.  On the underside the printing fidelity is excellent, with some lines finer than others. It is impressive for a company new to 400 scale. Likewise the engine rims and fan detailing looks good. I have heard some minor grumbles about lack of print on the engine nacelles, but these aren't NEO engines and there's as much print as on the NG example I own.  Quality control is also excellent. All components are attached properly, plus the model comes with a nice collector's card as standard. SCORE - 10  CONCLUSION  You might think that we just don't need another A320 in 400 scale, however given the weakness of at least half the moulds and lack of use of two of the others recently an A320 is more useful than I first thought, especially if Kylin decide to pair with other brands to produce model exclusives. The quality of this initial offering certainly bodes well for their upcoming Boeing 757-200/300s, which judging from the drawings publicised to date, look like they will also be good. I know Kylin are working on other moulds as well, so if they can continue in this vein I think they have a good opportunity to compete effectively in the scale. FINAL SCORE - 27/30 
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AuthorI'm Richard Stretton an aviation enthusiast and major collector of 400 scale models. On this page I take a detailed look at new releases. This site is free. Please donate to keep it going.
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