Airbus A320 in 1:400 Scale
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Updated: May 2022
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A selection of Aeroclassics A320s
The A320 is the aircraft that really made Airbus a major force in civil airliners and has sold over 4,700 units not including its derivatives (A318, 319, 321) which have sold over 3,000 more. The A320's development goes back as far as the 1970s and when it first flew it was renowned as the first airliner in the world with digital fly by wire systems. The programme was officially launched in March 1984 and by the time it first took off on February 22, 1987 it had a decent orderbook, massively bolstered by Northwest's order for 100. The type has certainly met all of Airbus' hopes and successfully saw off both the 737-300/400 and MD-80/90, whilst still being able to compete against the 737NG series without major changes. Finally due for an update, from 2012 Airbus announced that a series of upgrades would be added to the A320 including large winglets (called Sharklets). With the further development of the airframe into the A320neo the original series has been retrospectively renamed the A320ceo (current engine option). It is certain that A320ceos will be flying alongside their neo brothers for decades yet.
The A320 in 1:400 Scale
A selection of Phoenix A320s
Given that the A320 nowadays makes up around 50% of the mainline narrowbody jet fleet it is unsurprising that it has been a popular aircraft in 1:400 scale with over 850 models produced. What is perhaps more surprising is how few moulds have been released since 2016 and arguably with such a range of operators the number of A320s released has been quite conservative.
The breakdown of models by maker in 1:400 is as follows by April 2017, as you can see there has been a lot of mould switching and sharing/cloning between manufacturers:
The breakdown of models by maker in 1:400 is as follows by April 2017, as you can see there has been a lot of mould switching and sharing/cloning between manufacturers:
A selection of Panda A320neos
Obviously there are multiple variants of the A320. Only Aeroclassics and Panda Models have versions of the wing fence less A320-100 but combined they have only made four models. Nobody has attempted Indian Airlines unique double bogey A320s.
Otherwise all the A320-200 versions have been produced with, when they have them, manufacturers swapping the wing fence wings with Sharklets wings and ceo with neo engines to make the required combination. At least where they can be bothered that is as only Panda Models, and now NG, have a proper CFM Leap engine nacelle available.
Otherwise all the A320-200 versions have been produced with, when they have them, manufacturers swapping the wing fence wings with Sharklets wings and ceo with neo engines to make the required combination. At least where they can be bothered that is as only Panda Models, and now NG, have a proper CFM Leap engine nacelle available.
NOTE: This review doesn't cover the A319 or A321. The A321 has more differences and separate moulds than the A319/A320, which have usually shared mould details.
Airbus A320 in Real Life
Before we begin looking at the moulds here is the real thing. First the A320-200ceo with CFM engines:
Image from Wikipedia by Usuario Barcex
And with the longer nacelled IAE engines:
Image from Wikipedia by Cipher01
Next the A320-200neo with PW1000G engines:
Don-vip, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
and the A320-200neo with CFM Leap engines (not the bulge on the lower left of the nacelle):
Bene Riobó, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
1:400 Moulds (In Release Date Order)
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Dragon Wings (1999-2012)
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Dragon was a 1:400 pioneer and though it nowadays produces very few civil models in 1:400 it was once quite prolific. Their first A320 must have been one of the earlist 1:400s made and looks hopelessly crude in its earliest versions. The early models had very long and simple undercarriage whilst the nose doesn't look much like an A320. There is also a large horizontal stabiliser seam apparent. Note however that even at this early stage there are separate IAE and CFM engine versions of the mould. These early Dragon A320s have almost a play factor toy like feel to them - kind of like early Herpa 500 scale:
Later models seem to be much improved, which isn't hard, and by 2001 they had much better undercarriage (albeit one that seems too small for the fuselage) and a seemingly improved nose shape. Dragon continued to release a few A320s up until 2013 (they seem to have a contract with Airbus which goes to show that the manufacturers of the aircraft themselves don't care about accuracy) however the mould is very out of date compared to later moulds and is impossible to recommend given the simple undercarriage, poor nose, tail seam and wing joint seam. They have done a sharkletted version as recently as 2012 but frankly its still crap. The mould was used for 52 Dragon and 4 old Jet-X releases.
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Gemini Jets v1 (2002-2014)
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Gemini's early A320 is a perfectly decent attempt at the type, albeit one that looks dated compared to modern 400 scale models. The shape is pretty good though the nose isn't quite the right shape. There is also a wing, fuselage seam but its quite discrete. The very earliest examples also had a second seam at the rear but the mould got the Gemini Jets II treatment and that was removed. The undercarriage legs are quite simple but for the year of release more than passable. Gemini used this mould 40 times but transitioned to the JC Wings moulds in 2012 (although oddly an Allegiant example on this mould appeared as late as 2014). Phoenix also used this mould from 2004 for 65 releases before replacing it with their own mould in 2013. A year earlier they had also transitioned to rolling gears on this mould for the last 14 releases. Three models were made as Schucos and a single model was also produced under the SuperBus Models brand. If you have a large collection it is hard to avoid owning a few of these but they are ripe for replacement.
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Herpa (2004-2014)
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Herpa's old A320 is not very impressive. The mould has a large rather ungainly wing/fuselage seam and slightly odd looking nose. The undercarriage legs are simple and appear too short. By 2007 it seems the undercarriage has been much improved as you can see in this Bangkok Airways example. A third modification to the gear happened in 2011 (see this Condor) but I don't think it improved things much. Oddly their most recent two A320ceos have used other company's moulds - one appears to use Witty Wings pretty poor mould and the other JC Wings much superior mould. Hogan have also used this mould a few times but as with most Herpa production in 400 scale it is small and of limited quality.
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Witty Wings / Aviation 400 (2008-2014)
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This mould rates up with the Dragon mould as the worst of the A320s available. It is very poor and in fact could almost pass as some other aircraft type other than an A320. The nose is chunky and the whole mould has an odd tail down profile. The tail looks too small and the rear end too short. It is a shame as they released a Ural Airlines example but on this mould it's a no go. I miss several of Witty's moulds since they packed up shop - but not this one, avoid!
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Aeroclassics (2009 - Still in Use)
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Aeroclassics made a few ripples in 2009 when it entered the modern arena with its first Baby Bus branded A320s especially as the mould was far and away the best A320 made up to that point and even in 2022 it still ranks very highly. The mould is excellent being completely seamless and perfectly proportioned. It is not without some minor issues though. The nosegear wheels were criticised for being too small, which sometimes gave the aircraft a nose down aspect. This was definitely a minor point however and for many years this mould reigned supreme as the king of A320s. Aeroclassics also made very good use of it too so there are many excellent Aeroclassics A320s that have been made, many of which are hard to find.
NOTE: Aeroclassics use only a single engine to represent both the PW1000G and the CFM LEAP on their A320neos, which means all the CFM LEAP versions are inaccurate.
In 2018 an attempt was made to remedy the nose tyre size issue but unfortunately this was done a little clumsily by just replacing the tyre with one that is larger. Unfortunately without a proper gearhub this looks a little weird, although often still superior to competing brands A320s.
Below: The modified mould with the larger nose tyre. Note that Aeroclassics refuses to add aerials to its models.
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JC Wings Mould 1 (2010-2016)
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JC Wings started making A320s on this new casting in 2010 and when Gemini switching their manufacturing to JC factories not long after they also began to use the new mould too. The shape of the mould is good and later versions had antennae and comms humps added. The mould's big failings relate to the wing seam and undercarriage. The seam is very large and obvious, however it at least fits the shape of the fuselage, when it was properly fitted that is. The undercarriage is a decent length but is very simple and not well defined, especially for the nosegear. I know some people had real problems with this mould, but it didn't bother me that much. Regardless JC Wings has created a newer mould in late 2016 and now both JC Wings and Gemini are using that. Somewhat ironically the newer mould was inferior to this one. I still own several models on this mould and they still look good but I'd be open to replacing them I admit.
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Phoenix (2013 - Still In Use)
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Phoenix released its own new A320 mould (and A321) in 2013 and has used the mould widely. Although superior to a lot of the earlier moulds in detail it isn't great. The nose is relatively weak and has always reminded me more of a Tu-204. The mould is seamless but as is often the case with Phoenix moulds this comes at the expense of the correct shape around the wing join where the fairing is way too flat. To be fair it is no trainwreck and I own quite a few, but I'd be more than happy to replace them if I could and it is much inferior to the earlier Aeroclassics mould.
Phoenix have updated the NEO versions with spinning fans and hollow core engines but again the way it has been done is sloppy and comes at the expense of the correct shape of the engine nacelle.
Phoenix have updated the NEO versions with spinning fans and hollow core engines but again the way it has been done is sloppy and comes at the expense of the correct shape of the engine nacelle.
NOTE: Phoenix use only a single engine to represent both the PW1000G and the CFM LEAP, which means all their A320neo CFM LEAP versions are inaccurate.
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Panda Models (2015 - Still In Use)
Clone of the Aeroclassics Mould
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In 2015 Aeroclassics had a huge falling out with one of its suppliers (Kang Kai) after they started releasing GSE marked as Aeroclassics. Kang Kai started releasing models in 2015, in the Chinese market only, under the brand name Panda Models. Much to Aeroclassics rage they cloned the Aeroclassics A319/320 moulds. From those dubious beginnings Panda have released a lot of A320s.
Initially the mould was an exact copy of the Aeroclassics A320 with no aerials and the simple Aeroclassics style landing gear:
Initially the mould was an exact copy of the Aeroclassics A320 with no aerials and the simple Aeroclassics style landing gear:
Panda Models has modified the mould and it is now superior to the Aeoclassics original. Changes have been:
2016: Addition of aerials
2018: New nosegear with correctly sized tyre hubs
2018: NEO versions with both PW1000G and CFM LEAP engines
2016: Addition of aerials
2018: New nosegear with correctly sized tyre hubs
2018: NEO versions with both PW1000G and CFM LEAP engines
The NEO versions were created independently of Aeroclassics and so that means the wing with Sharklets and the NEO engines are Panda's own creation. It also means that Panda is the only manufacturer (aside now from NG Models) to model the shape of the CFM LEAP engines correctly. Until the advent of the NG Models A320 series this mould had little competition and was clearly the best.
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JC Wings / Gemini Jets Mould 2 (2016 - Still In Use)
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JC Wings have commendably been putting a lot of effort into new moulds over the past 5 years and one of the fruits of this was a new mould for their maligned A320. Unfortunately the new mould has not been without its own problems some of which are worse than the mould it replaced.
Fortunately a series of updates to the mould have remedied many of the issues and on recent editions the mould is now superior to the Phoenix version. Even so the CFM56 engines and the NEO engines are still too large. Check out the following page for a discussion of the mould and the changes it has been through:
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NG Models (2022)
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NG Models series of A319s and A320s were announced in May 2022 here on Yesterday's Airlines. For detailed reviews of the mould samples see:
Aviation400 (2022)
The latest A320 series mould samples to break cover are from Aviation400. Check out the blog post covering this here:
