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Tiddlers: The Smallest Aircraft in 1:400 Scale

Modified: July 2024
I recently reviewed the 2024 Bar Harbor Airlines Saab 340 from Gemini and it got me thinking that it'd be interesting to look at the smallest aircraft available in the scale. 400 Scale is dominated by modern widebody and narrowbody jets, but even an A320 is relatively large as commercial aircraft go. While it is presumably fairly safe to say that larger models tend to outsell smaller ones, there is a particular beauty to be found in the smaller types and a collection where everything is bigger than a 737 is missing a wide range of aircraft types, both modern and classic. Although there has been a lot of new mould production in recent years, often for types you probably never thought would get a mould, the diversity of types smaller than a 737-200 has remained largely static. Fortunately, there are plenty of older moulds knocking about for smaller aircraft types, which are usually really good. They could definitely do with some more publicity, and releases, so I thought I'd take a look at the smaller types that are so often overlooked.
For the purposes of this article I've split the aircraft into groups and haven't tended to include larger variants of the same type. The groups are:
  • 1940s
  • DC-3 Replacements
  • Early Jets
  • 1980s Regional Turboprops
  • Regional Jets

1940s

There aren't that many moulds made for aircraft that flew in the 1940s and despite being piston-propliners some of those that do exist, such as the Douglas C-54/DC-4 and Lockheed L-049 Constellation, really aren't that small anyway. Three that do fall into this category however are the Douglas C-47/DC-3, Curtiss C-46 Commando and Consolidated PBY Catalina. 
As you can see the C-46 is actually quite a chunky aircraft and the wing on the PBY is also sizeable. The C-46 has been made by Aeroclassics, PBY by Herpa and the DC-3 by both Aeroclassics and JC Wings. A Boeing 247 would be a great addition but hasn't been made so far. The wingspan of the DC-3 here is just over 7cm, which is wider than the aircraft is long.

DC-3 Replacements

A lot of short-medium haul aircraft designed in the 1940-60s can really be seen as attempts to replace the huge DC-3 fleets. Even when the aircraft were successful their impact on the DC-3s was often limited! The different design concepts do make an interesting comparison side by side. Two types obviously missing are the Martin 2-0-2 / 4-0-4 and Airspeed Ambassador, neither of which have been made in 400 scale yet. the All are larger than the DC-3 but not always by much. Arguably the Viscount is in a different league but size-wise it fits in nicely here.
Types below are:

BACK L-R:                 Convair CV-240                                        NAMC YS-11                                    Vickers Viscount 700
FRONT L-R:                 Fokker F27                                          Handley Page Herald                      Hawker Siddeley HS-748
Convairs and HS-748s have been made by both Aeroclassics and JC Wings / Gemini Jets. The Viscount, F27 and Herald are Aeroclassics and the NAMC YS-11 is JC Wings / Gemini Jets.
The smallest of these 6 is the HS-748.

Early Jets

The earliest jets were mostly quite large and it wasn't until the mid-60s smaller types started to come onto the market. The Sud Aviation Caravelle here is really a little too big to be in this feature at all but goes so well with the other early jet types I didn't want to leave it out.
Types below are:

BACK L-R:                 BAC One-Eleven                                        Douglas DC-9-10                                    Boeing 737-100
FRONT L-R:                                                 Sud Aviation Caravelle III                      Fokker F28
The short One-Eleven has been made by Aeroclassics and JC Wings/Gemini Jets. The short DC-9 by Aeroclassics and Jet-X. The 737-100 only by SMA and the Caravelle and F28 only by Aeroclassics. Clearly the F28 is the smallest of the 5 and has a wingspan here of around 6cm - so less than the DC-3.

1980s Regional Turboprops

True regional prop types have always been the province of JC Wings (also used by Gemini Jets) and all of these moulds come from that source. Sadly missing are the Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia and Shorts 330, and there's nothing smaller than a Saab (so no Beechcraft 1900, Embraer EMB-110, Swearingen Metro).
Types below are:

BACK L-R:                      ATR-72                                                      ATR-42                                    Fokker 50
FRONT L-R:                 DHC-8-100                                                Saab 340                                  Shorts 360

Regional Jets

Nowadays RJs are getting seriously large but the earlier types fit within the scope of this article, although you could argue none of the backline here are that small.
Types below are:

BACK L-R:             Embraer E170                                                      British Aerospace BAE-146-100                                    Fokker 70
FRONT L-R:                              Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-100                                                Embraer ERJ-145
The E170 has been made by Herpa and JC Wings, the 146-100 by Jet-X, the F70 and CRJ by JC Wings and the ERJ-145 by Tucano Line and JC Wings.

The Smallest Of Them All

Taking all these types into account and the three smallest are probably the Douglas DC-3, Saab 340 and Shorts 360, although it is the Saab that is the smallest of them all. Here you can see the models compared to a £1 coin for scale. The Saab is truly tiny with a wingspan of under 5.5cm and a length of less than 5cm. 
As you'd expect the Saab is dwarfed by the largest aircraft in 400 scale - the Antonov An-225.