October 2018 Aeroclassics / BlueBox Releases

The new Aeroclassics have just been announced alongside some models from Blue Box. The latter include a new 767-200 mould and although Andrew says it isn't by Aeroclassics, almost all the retailers disagree.  I'll not comment any further and let you decide where it comes from, after all it is the models themselves I'm more interested in. Let's see what we've got this month.

All photos are courtesy of Waffle Collectibles - your no 1 place for diecast aircraft.

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Tempting Trijets

The usage of the Aeroclassics 727-200 and DC-10 moulds continues with some more nice additions this month. The trio of DHL schemed 727s appear to have been big sellers last month so it makes sense for a 4th to appear - this time the little known Venezuelan registered YV-236T of Vensecar International.

Next up is a partner for the August's AVENSA DC-9-51 with the same livery applied to the 727. Very nice and good to see excellent cockpit windows on this one. Lastly a Blue Box release shows a Pan Am 727 but actually this is the last incarnation of the airline from the 2000s and not classic Pan Am as the small 'Clipper Connection' titles denote.

In the DC-10 arena there are a pair of United Airlines 'large Saul Bass' titled aircraft to go with the small titles example from August. Unfortunately it does seem that AC has used the same photos for both DC-10s and applied the window line of the series 30 to the series 10 also. This means that on the port side of the series 10 the windows are incorrect. Thanks to TransPac787 for pointing this out. See below for the details from TransPac787:

It is certainly a mistake but not a major one and both look very nice.

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Airbus Quartet

A small batch of A320s and A321NEOs make up all the Airbuses for this month. I'm still not totally sold on the larger nosegear tyres being used but the Mexicana A320 in the 'Saltillo' scheme is a must for me and another aircraft struck off the long list of Mexicana tails I discussed recently. The Qantaslink is a limited production run version of that produced a few months back.

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Maximum MAX

Regardless of your thoughts on the mould Aeroclassics certainly keep on producing a great range of models with it. Sadly I'm not a major fan of it at all and even some of these photos show up some of its faults (wing curve and the nosegear being the worst aspects). Still I doubt anybody else will produce any of these MAXs and the Jet Airways and Ethiopians look pretty good to me.

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The Main Event

It was common knowledge there would be a new mould this month and the 767-200 has been widely requested recently. I admit it wasn't massively high on my list but I am happy enough to see it and there are plenty of possibilities using it, which I'll explore in a future post. This month BlueBox bring us five models featuring airlines that care about their licensing :) .

The TWA is obviously the holy grail of these being one of the most obviously missing models in 1:400 for many years. 

Onto the mould and it is clearly pretty decent and yet not the completely finished article we were hoping for. The nosegear is a concern since it appears to short (similar to old BigBird and Aeroclassics 767-300s) but I have it on good authority that this will be corrected next month. 

Other issues are cosmetic. The Delta's have a glittery belly, when it ought to just be natural metal and all three look like the cockpit windows are printed a little low. Nonetheless this mould has great promise and I look forward to seeing plenty of 767s in the near future.

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Summary

It is another fine bunch of releases we have this month. A second new mould for 2018 is great for everyone, however neither of the new moulds have quite lived up to expectations off the bat so far. Hopefully the 767 will be tweaked slightly. I look forward to seeing what November brings.