Aviation400: Sept/October Releases

​Aviation400 have been getting a bit of stick recently for the amount of time it is taking them to release models after announcement. I have had multiple people asking me if I know when various A350s will be released. They certainly haven’t been too quick, but at the same time they aren’t JC Wings slow either. Anyway, they have just cleared a big chunk of their backlog so here’s what’s now available.

​Aviation400 do not have a regular release announcement schedule that’s for sure. They seem to announce releases either in chunks or just dribs and drabs at effectively random times. The actual releases also seem to trickle out at effectively random. Sometimes they are almost immediate but often it can take 3-6 months.

My latest AV400 addition

​The last time I wrote about them was back in early July after they’d announced 5 new models. Since they have been very quiet and have only seemingly announced a couple of JAL A350s and an Air France A350. 

​The end of September and early October has seen a lot of their backlog released, which includes a mix of A350s and A330s, plus the first of the new 777-300ERs. It does not include the military A330s, announced in June, the most recent A350s or at least 4 77Ws, but it does include the A350-1000s, which seem to be the most eagerly awaited models.

​These include the pair of Etihads (A6-XWA and XWB), British Airways (G-XWBA) and Virgin Atlantic (G-VPOP). I love the AV400 A350 and there’s no reason to think the A350-1000 mould isn’t great too. They certainly look good, and substantially better than the competing Phoenix offerings:

​Also released were a bunch of Chinese A330s. The special colours are nice and compete well against JC Wings. Presumably there must be demand but do we really need more vanilla China Eastern A330s though? 

I’ll pick-up the Wuliangye Sichuan and the People.cn China Eastern but the Phoenix, Aeroclassics and Panda A330s I own in the standard Sichuan and China Eastern scheme do not need replacing in my opinion. I’ll be sure to review the mould when one arrives.

​Lastly, we have the first pair of 77Ws. They look very good. The printing is superb, which is enough for them to beat the Phoenix 777s of recent, with their odd cockpits. The mould looks good too and doesn’t have the rather conspicuous gap at the wing / fuselage, that the otherwise world-beating JC Wings version has. 

The only minus I’m seeing at the moment is that the fanblades are too thin in the engines. This is an issue the A350s also share. I expect I will get some of the Chinese mainland releases but China Airlines itself is outside my collection criteria so I’ll have to wait to get one in hand.

​By my calculations that is ten releases in the last few weeks from AV400 leaving 10 models still to come. They and NG must be making a dent in the sales of Phoenix at least.