The Best Moulds in 1/400 Scale Pt3: Airbus & Europe

The spectacular growth of Airbus means that nowadays it is effectively a two horse race between it and Boeing for large jets, and this is obviously replicated in terms of releases in 1/400 scale. This is also the area of the scale with the most mould competition, with all three of the major mould makers active. The older European types and regionals also do get a look in still but the numbers made are much smaller and competition much less.

China Eastern A300, A320, A321, A330 & A340

Airbus

There are some excellent moulds available for the Airbus products and where it has a mould Aeroclassics tends to rule the roost. The A300 is superb, the new A310 also looks impressive and even though the wheels are too small the A320 series is better than the competition.

Aeroclassics also has an excellent A330 mould, but personally I prefer the Phoenix mould and I think the nose point and cockpit area are better on the latter. It is very close though and the Aeroclassics versions are often excellent.

China Southern A320, A321, A330 & A380

For the larger Airbuses Phoenix has superb A340-500/600 and A380 moulds, but JC Wings / Gemini has produced a magnificent A350 to put in 1st place for at least one type. All the other Gemini / JC Wings moulds have issues, from poor gear and seams on the A320 to uptilted wings on the new A330 (the A380 isn't bad though). Plus Gemini/JC have recently been blighted by serious QC issues of the sort that afflicted Phoenix in 2015. Aeroclassics aren't immune either but of the 4 they are the least likely to send you a model in pieces or with fingerprints and smudges on.

Cathay A330, A340s & A350

Air China A319, A320, A321, A330, A340

Other European

The rest of Europe's output consists mainly of classic British types and more modern EU regionals. In the former category Aeroclassics almost reigns supreme but as you'd expect competition is quite limited much of the time. Gemini has produced some very nice older moulds in the past like the standard VC10 and even where they don't beat AC (like with the Trident 1/2) their moulds are very good. Incidentally if Aeroclassics can't get the number of tyres on their new Tridents right then they may lose their mantle on that one!

JC Wings also popped out some good classic moulds and their Britannia 100 and One-Eleven 500 are exemplary.

For other relatively obscure types especially regionals JC Wings really made a name for itself, though it seems to have largely stopped innovating recently. Their ATRs, Saabs, Shorts and Fokkers are awesome and Gemini has been able to piggyback of that to release some nice models too. Gemini in its own right has a lovely, albeit tail heavy, BAE 146.

Herpa gets a mention only for their exquisite Concorde.

Herpa's lovely SST