Return of the Blue Box / Jet-X A300

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.

History of the Mould

Above: A 2008 Jet-X A300 release

This mould was originally released in 2006 under the Blue Box brand, but was also used under the Jet-X brand after the two were merged together. For a history of Blue Box and Jet-X see:

A History of Blue Box Models

A History of Jet-X

Their A300 mould was used only for a short period, between 2006 and 2009, and has been generally thought of as pretty awful. In fact, even though it transferred to JC Wings ownership, when that brand appeared and incorporated the old Jet-X, they have never used it.

Another 2008 Jet-X example

Historic issues with the mould included:

• ​A pointy nose and very square cockpit region
• A massive and unsightly seam around the wing region.
• Very short undercarriage providing very poor engine ground clearance

The mould was used only 21 times under the Jet-X brand, with a lot of duplication (4 Qantas, 3 Egyptair, 3 Korean Air). Of those 21 only 3 were series 600s with wingtip fences. Blue Box used the mould 18 times, which included several gold plated fantasy versions and once again a fair bit of duplication (6 Air Hong Kong, 3 UPS, 2 Pan Am, 2 Air France etc).

There aren't that many moulds that I have never owned in 400 scale but due to its overall weakness and rarity, this is one I've avoided.

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GJ Updating Old Moulds

Most older brands have at one time or another updated old versions of some of their moulds for reuse. Sometimes this is a great idea, when the original base mould is solid and reliable. When the original base mould is poor this can be a lot less successful. Typically it is only the add-ons to the mould that can be modified. New landing gear, engines and aerials can be added quite easily, but modifying the wings or fuselage is more tricky and at that point you might as well create a new mould.

This 2017 update of the classic Gemini 737-200 got aerials added

Gemini has gone down this route quite a bit - usually when they want to release a single model but don't care enough about the mould to make multiple releases. It makes sense as it isn't worth investing in a new mould. Their Pan Am releases have been good illustrations of this, as they have used this trick several times.

This 2016 DC-8-33 (GJPAA1337) got aerials and new landing gear on the classic 2000 Gemini DC-8 mould. The result was decidedly inferior to the Aeroclassics DC-8:

Images courtesy of top-gun.jp

Other Gemini moulds dating from the very early 2000s that have been updated more successfully include their 757-200 and 747-100/200.

Gemini has also utilised other moulds from the JC Wings back catalogue in recent years such as the Jet-X BAE-146. This China Eastern example was made in 2018 and turned out ok, although the mould has a rather large wing seam and the nosegear is a little large:

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Emirates A300

Given Gemini's history of reusing old moulds, the shape of the artwork and the fact they didn't advertise it as a new mould the January 2024 announcement of an Emirates A300 strongly pointed to the re-emergence of the old Blue Box A300. The only thing that went against this was just how poor the original mould was.

Thanks to Daniel Richardson, who provided the below images, we can now see what the final product is like. It certainly confirms that the release is reusing the Blue Box mould, but also shows Gemini have attempted to update it, not entirely successfully!

Clearly new tyres have been fitted and aerials added. I'd argue the undercarriage itself is the same and the tyres have just been enlarged to give better ground clearance. Unfortunately the tyres are now too large.

To be fair the print quality looks good and the aerials are ok as well. It is hard however, to avoid the fact the wing seam is so large and gappy. The Aeroclassics A300 has a substantial wingseam as well, but it is far superior to this one. The decent cockpit printing hides some of the shape issues at the nose quite well.

It has also been pointed out that the wingtip fences are way too large for an A300-600 and more properly look like those from an A310. I guess that is just a feature of the original mould, as are the poorly shaped engine pylons.

The end result of this model is that Gemini are able to produce an EK A300 for their important partner Emirates. The model has turned out about as well as can be expected considering the mould it is using. It makes an interesting comparison with the recent Gemini 767-400s, which themselves use a mould that looks like it has been developed cheaply from the original Gemini 767-300. These models are no doubt cost-effective but make a stark contrast to other brands that are producing superbly high-quality all new moulds in 400 scale.