GSE Review Pt3: Aeroclassics Sets 1.0

Considering that, to my knowledge, Aeroclassics has barely released any GSE sets as stand alone items it is perhaps surprising to find that they have actually made the most GSE items of any 1:400 scale manufacturer! In fact Aeroclassics have produced at least 17 different GSE items, in the liveries of multiple airlines, and they are all of high quality and lovely detailing. If only they weren't so rare and hard to find. I think Aeroclassics could make a nice sideline in releasing more of these great sets.

For my other GSE reviews in this series see:

GSE Review: Modern Buses
GSE Review Pt1: Gemini Jets Sets
GSE Review Pt2: Dragon Wings

NOTE: This review talks of only official Aeroclassics GSE and not the Kang Kai produced modern buses or tugs that in 2015 were branded as Aeroclassics and upset Andrew Klein something terrible!

Aeroclassics have released multiple sets of GSE, however these have almost always been individual items with single models or multi-vehicle sets that come with the older style twin boxsets, that they don't seem to make anymore. Only a few times have the multi-GSE sets come with a single model - most recently with the Hangar Club Pan Am DC-8-30. The TWA group above is another example, which came with this late service TWA Connie.

The Aeroclassics GSE sets are really nice with excellently detailed and scaled vehicles usually, but not always, depicting older style equipment, in keeping with the bulk of the companies model releases. The sets are usually decorated in the colours of the airline they are released with and though these colourings are sometimes historically inaccurate (see the BOAC set below) they still make nice additions, especially when they come effectively for free.

In the seconds market the sets often get split from the models they came with originally and as far as I know there is no definitive list of the releases, however I own or have seen sets from the following airlines:

I'm very lucky to own the BOAC, Braniff, Cathay, DHL, Iran Air, National, both Northeast and TWA sets. Below are some shots of some of the sets I don't own I have found via Google image search:

These sets tend to sell for a fortune nowadays and it is still possible to pick them up 'new' from Hong Kong sellers; though you'll be shelling out around $70 USD for them! They're nice but not that nice!!! The majority of them were manufactured in the mid-2000s and there haven't been many in the last 8 years.

In the next few posts I plan to go through the different vehicles that are available in detail and take a closer look to see what they are like, using my owned sets as a guide. If anybody knows of any sets that exist that I haven't mentioned please shout out so I can update the post. Even better if anyone can provide any decent photos of sets I don't own (especially with the aircraft they came with) I'd be happy to create a post to show them off!