 The Super 70 was a successful programme to re-engine the DC-8-60s and give them a new lease of life in the era of the big turbofan. 110 aircraft were updated and they generally saw long careers with secondary operators after Delta, Flying Tigers and United sold their aircraft on. There's plenty of scope for more DC-8-71/73s in 400 scale and there hasn't been a release since 2012!
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 The NAMC YS-11 is a type easy to ignore by Western collectors but that shoul;dn't be the case as it served widely and for some major and colourful non-Japanese airlies. Although there are 3 available moulds and there have been over 25 releases there is still plenty of potential for this rather forgotten type, especially for US airlines.
JC Wings has a huge mould back catalogue thanks to it being formed from the brands Blue Box and Jet-X, plus making a lot of new moulds over the past 16 or so years, plus acquiring the BigBird / Witty Wings / Apollo mould catalogue as well. Some of these old moulds are excellent and some are a lot less so. One that definitely falls into the latter category is the Airbus A300, but that hasn't stopped Gemini Jets from finding the old casting, dusting it off, upgrading it a little and releasing a new Emirates version on it.
This year has marked the twentieth anniversary of 1:400 scale and several manufacturers (notably Gemini Jets and Aeroclassics) have been celebrating their 20th year in business. Meanwhile relative newcomer NG Models has been slowly getting its Tristar production into gear, which gives an opportunity to compare some models from the dawn of the scale with some from recent month's.
Lockheed Tristars are coming thick and fast in 1:400 scale in 2019 with two new and active standard length moulds now in the market since mid-2018 and a third on the way soon. The present pair are made by JC Wings / Gemini Jets and, most recently, Lockness Models (note it isn't Lochness Models - that defeats the purpose of the pun). Considering these two are both active now it pays to compare them to each other and that is what I'll do here.
 You'd have to have been asleep for most of the year by now to have avoided the discussion that has been started by NG Models. They have been more proactive and friendly than any other 1:400 scale manufacturer and have firmly backed up their words with deeds. The effect on the 757 in this scale has been impressive. Not only have they created an excellent mould for the type but they have stimulated JC Wings/Gemini Jets to update their old mould and at the same time shared the NG 757 with Aeroclassics.
 In part 1 I began to look at the 4 extant 787-9 moulds and gradually work through the features of each assigning scores. At the halfway point the JC Wings mould was out in front by a small margin. After concentrating on the nose, landing gear and engines in part 1 in this part we turn to the wings, and rest of the fuselage.
 As of November 2018 there have been 142 Boeing 787-9s made in 1:400 scale by 5 manufacturers and given the popularity of the type, the publicity around Dreamliners in general and the selection of popular special schemes being used on the type it is surely one of the most hotly contested aircraft types in this scale. Of course the spur for this post is the arrival of a new 787-9 mould from NG Models. How does that alter the equation?
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I'm Richard Stretton, an aviation enthusiast and major collector of 400 scale model aircraft. This blog discusses ongoing events in the world of 400 scale. This site is free. Please donate to keep it going.
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