500 Stubbies: A Short Tristar Wishlist

There have been few moulds as requested by 1:400 scale collectors as the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar. Although there have been various moulds made for the standard type most are either obsolete or awful and the best ones have been chronically under-used. The Tristar 500 is even worse off so what should any new mould of the type wear?

The Tristar 500 is significantly different to the standard length Tristar and yet of the 5 existing moulds for the type only 1 (Dragon Wings) has recognised more than half the differences meaning there are almost no correct Tristar 500s available. Sadly Gemini's new 2018 Tristar 500 mould is little better than their 1999 offering for accuracy. Fortunately ​2019 looks like it’ll bring two much better new Tristar 500s so what should be made on them?

Even before Gemini turned up with a new series 500 mould the majority of possible Tristar 500s had already been made – 59 in fact (mostly Blue Box). So, this list is going to be full of remakes, but remakes that will be widely sought out. Even after Gemini’s painful United and Pan Am examples I expect further examples will still sell well.

Here's a list of 34 Tristar 500s that could see the light in 2019/2020:

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The Majors

British Airways
BA was in dire financial straits at the time so its own Tristar 500s didn't last long before sale to the RAF. Even so they later leased some Air Lanka examples so the Tristar 500 wore 3 different liveries in BA service plus also served briefly with British Airtours as well for 4 possibles:

Michel Gilliand [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Tim Rees [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

​Pan Am / United / Delta

Pan Am's Tristar 500s also didn't last long as the Pacific routes they served (and the Tristars themselves) were sold to United, with whom likewise their careers were short. Delta at least appreciated the L-1011 and its series 500s had long careers.

Perry Hoppe [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Pan Am / United hybrid

FotoNoir [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Air Canada
Ac also didn't get full use of its 500s and they were sold on to Delta relatively quickly.

Steve Fitzgerald [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

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Smaller Nationals

The Tristar 500 better suited small national carriers and several got good use from their Tristar 500s.

BWIA
BWIA's L-1011s wore three variants of two main schemes. Note the different titles on the older colours:

Ken Fielding/https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Felix Goetting [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Ken Fielding/https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

ALIA - Royal Jordanian
RJ was one of the Tristar 500s best customers and early in their service the type wore several scheme variants.

Felix Goetting [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Ralf Manteufel [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Eduard Marmet [CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL 1.2, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

​TAP Air Portugal
TAP's Tristars also had a good service history.

Felix Goetting [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Air Lanka

RuthAS [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

TAAG Angola

Michel Gilliand [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

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Charter Mainstays

Charter airlines looking for widebody capacity (or the flexibility of having smaller L1011s than their existing standard Tristars) were major users of the L-1011-500.

LTU

Interim scheme after purchase from United - Konstantin von Wedelstaedt [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

JetPix [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

​American Trans Air

Kambui [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Sunil Gupta [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Air Transat

Ken Fielding/https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Yes Portugal

Pedro Aragão [CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Novair Sweden

Ken Fielding/https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

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Niche Players

Of course there have also been plenty of unusual Tristar 500 operators who have used the type on lease or for brief periods - including some larger airlines.

Air India

AlainDurand [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Euro Atlantic

Juergen Lehle [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

LAM

Pedro Aragão [CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Sudan Airways

Hewa Bora Airways

Rich International

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

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Royals

Saudia

The Saudis operated a Tristar 500 as part of the Royal flight

JetPix [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons