First Choice Airbus A321

[madaboutmodels]

Hi All

This rolled off the production line this morning.

Its the 1/144 Revell Airbus A321 built using two six's decals.

Enjoyed the build, like this kit and the plane. Flew on an A321 of Air Berlin about 3 weeks ago to Dusseldorf from Alicante..

The decals were horrific, they broke up again, never had a problem with two six decals before, the tail is a bit crinkled unfortunatley, had to paint on the flower! The winglets were made for me by John (Viking), Thanks :-)

The only mod are the winglets.

What does everyone think :-)

Next to its baby brother the A319

Next to its baby brother the A319

Next to a Monarch 757-200

Next to a Monarch 757-200

Next to the very VERY small Dragon Rapide

I hope you enjoy this, i certainly enjoyed building!

Thanks Bradley

EDIT: Changed the Cockpit window, looks better now and mucked about with the tail and strip decals

Thanks

Edited August 28, 2013 by madaboutmodels

[Viking]

Nice job Bradley, 'First Choice' is a nice scheme. It makes an interesting comparison with the A319, and would look even more interesting against an A318.

Glad the winglets made it on to a model!

Cheers

John

[madaboutmodels]

Thanks John

they were very good :-)

I've replaced through cockpit window. It looks better now.

[Mark]

Nice job! The Monarch B757 also looks great. But the baby brother? Hardly a baby, the A319 is the Hot-Rod of the Airbus single-aisle family!

[madaboutmodels]

Thanks

I meant it was the brother in terms in size

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice job Bradley, shame about the crinkled tail decal. The rest looks great!

[airdaniel]

Nice Bird, Brad!

I often see them as fully crowded winter charters in Austria... :-)

[madaboutmodels]

Nice job Bradley, shame about the crinkled tail decal. The rest looks great!

I've got a replacement sheet on the way from ray, so I will be reading tar tail decal

[patjb]

Nice model, good to see all the placards on the underside. Did they come with the kit decals?

[cuprar]

Well done Bradley, your skills have come a long long way since you first came on here fella, WELL DONE THEY LOOK GREAT

[thomastmcc]

very cool ...

[RNoAF Aerobatic Team]

They look very good, mate!

Really good progress on your skills...

[madaboutmodels]

Nice model, good to see all the placards on the underside. Did they come with the kit decals?

Thanks and yes, they do come with the kit.

Well done Bradley, your skills have come a long long way since you first came on here fella, WELL DONE THEY LOOK GREAT

Thanks Chris, you lot have all helped, lets hope i don't do a Chris and break and re strip my finished ones lol :-P

very cool ...

Thanks

They look very good, mate!

Really good progress on your skills...

Thanks, ive started those 737's now as well :-)

[theplasticsurgeon]

Nice build Bradley - well done. Your models have come on leaps and bounds.

I found myself on a First Choice A321 to Tenerife in 2009. Not my choice but worthy of the story.
Around that time I stopped building airliners - hence not having tried this combo.

Anyway back to 2009, 14YO son and I checked in at BHX for a Thomas Cook flight to Tenerife. Usually a Boeing 757-200.
The flight was reported as about 2 hours late on the departures board. Eventually boarding for centre rows was posted.
Suddenly over the airport tannoy "Would passengers TimM and Tom please report to the customer services desk in the departure lounge. Having suffered a recent bereavement I was apprehensive to say the least.
At the desk they told us that our Thomas Cook plane was suffering technical difficulties, and had been replaced with a smaller aircraft. Could they offer us £250 each to take a Thomson flight later that afternoon from Manchester instead?
I was looking at Tom and he was smiling and nodding - so I asked a few questions.
How do we get to Manchester? We'll take you in an executive coach.
What about luggage, it's checked in? We just need those stickers on your passport to retrieve your cases.
What about my car - it's in an off site car-park? Don't worry, it's just this leg that's affected - not your return.
What about tickets, we've only got boarding-passes now? Tickets will be waiting for you at Manchester.
We need your details to send the cheques, which will be waiting when you get home.
Oh, and we'll give you £8 each food coupons for use at any airport outlet.
Although I accepted the offer - I really think the luggage was already removed and the TC plane had gone by now.
Anyway we were escorted down to the airport entrance, where a trolley brought our luggage for reclaim, and we were put onto the executive coach. We made up a total of around 14 passengers, and chatting I found that all were Flight-Only tickets.

I believe this was the selection criteria - to avoid disrupting any package tour connections.

The executive coach turned out to be the most uncomfortable hi-jacked school-bus they could find, and a journey I thought should take about an hour actually took two . It did go within sight of my first ever school though.
Oh, but they doubled the food vouchers as I got onto the bus .

Anyway tickets were sort of waiting at Manchester - like the customer agent just wrote them out!

We did check in baggage again - then hit the airport Frankie and Benny's with our vouchers.
I did manage one walk along the gates to get this photo of our plane, before we had to board.

The actual flight took 10 minutes longer than from BHX, and the in-flight mag confirmed a seats difference between A321 and B757-200 to be those 14 passengers. No real difference inside, the same 3+3 seat config.

In anticipation of my £250 cheque, I bought a rather nice chronograph watch on the flight.

"Did you order and in-flight meal sir?"

"Well I did - but my ticket was for a different flight and airline. We've been bumped onto this flight" A few minutes later two chicken fricassee dinners were delivered, and a couple of hours later two very stuffed passengers arrived at Tenerife.

Instead of getting to the apartment mid afternoon, then getting something to eat - we got there just after dark, and could only manage an ice-cream.

I reckon that little adventure cost Thomas Cook around £4K - assuming a reciprocal ticket arrangement, with no money actually changing hands.

But Thomas Cook did get some of their money back . On our return, I was charged excess-baggage to the tune of Eu12 , AND we had the same in-flight film both ways - 17 Again .

Very much later that night, back at home, I opened the post , expecting to find two £250 cheques as promised.

No - just a single £500 cheque for me (I did give my son his share ), with a letter about denied-boarding.




Thanks for the memory Bradley

Edited August 30, 2013 by theplasticsurgeon

[madaboutmodels]

Nice build Bradley - well done. Your models have come on leaps and bounds.

I found myself on a First Choice A321 to Tenerife in 2009. Not my choice but worthy of the story.

Around that time I stopped building airliners - hence not having tried this combo.

Anyway back to 2009, 14YO son and I checked in at BHX for a Thomas Cook flight to Tenerife. Usually a Boeing 757-200.

The flight was reported as about 2 hours late on the departures board. Eventually boarding for centre rows was posted.

Suddenly over the airport tannoy "Would passengers TimM and Tom please report to the customer services desk in the departure lounge. Having suffered a recent bereavement I was apprehensive to say the least.

At the desk they told us that our Thomas Cook plane was suffering technical difficulties, and had been replaced with a smaller aircraft. Could they offer us £250 each to take a Thomson flight later that afternoon from Manchester instead?

I was looking at Tom and he was smiling and nodding - so I asked a few questions.

How do we get to Manchester? We'll take you in an executive coach.

What about luggage, it's checked in? We just need those stickers on your passport to retrieve your cases.

What about my car - it's in an off site car-park? Don't worry, it's just this leg that's affected - not your return.

What about tickets, we've only got boarding-passes now? Tickets will be waiting for you at Manchester.

We need your details to send the cheques, which will be waiting when you get home.

Oh, and we'll give you £8 each food coupons for use at any airport outlet.

Although I accepted the offer - I really think the luggage was already removed and the TC plane had gone by now.

Anyway we were escorted down to the airport entrance, where a trolley brought our luggage for reclaim, and we were put onto the executive coach. We made up a total of around 14 passengers, and chatting I found that all were Flight-Only tickets.

I believe this was the selection criteria - to avoid disrupting any package tour connections.

The executive coach turned out to be the most uncomfortable :poo-poo: hi-jacked school-bus they could find, and a journey I thought should take about an hour actually took two . It did go within sight of my first ever school though.

Oh, but they doubled the food vouchers as I got onto the bus .

Anyway tickets were sort of waiting at Manchester - like the customer agent just wrote them out!

We did check in baggage again - then hit the airport Frankie and Benny's with our vouchers.

I did manage one walk along the gates to get this photo of our plane, before we had to board.

The actual flight took 10 minutes longer than from BHX, and the in-flight mag confirmed a seats difference between A321 and B757-200 to be those 14 passengers. No real difference inside, the same 3+3 seat config.

In anticipation of my £250 cheque, I bought a rather nice chronograph watch on the flight.

"Did you order and in-flight meal sir?"

"Well I did - but my ticket was for a different flight and airline. We've been bumped onto this flight" A few minutes later two chicken fricassee dinners were delivered, and a couple of hours later two very stuffed passengers arrived at Tenerife.

Instead of getting to the apartment mid afternoon, then getting something to eat - we got there just after dark, and could only manage an ice-cream.

I reckon that little adventure cost Thomas Cook around £4K - assuming a reciprocal ticket arrangement, with no money actually changing hands.

But Thomas Cook did get some of their money back . On our return, I was charged excess-baggage to the tune of Eu12

Very much later that night, back at home, I opened the post , expecting to find two £250 cheques as promised.

No - just a single £500 cheque for me (I did give my son his share ), with a letter about denied-boarding.

Thanks for the memory Bradley

That sounds like a good deal!

Although id rather fly on a 757 :-)

[rossm]

Even though my partner and I have a stock phrase that goes "First Choice, last choice" that does look good,

Ross

[madaboutmodels]

Even though my partner and I have a stock phrase that goes "First Choice, last choice" that does look good,

Ross

what happened to.make you think that?

[halcyonjet]

Really good work there Bradley, and I totally agree with the others about the excellent progress you've made since the early days. I'm looking forward to seeing your future models (knowing how your stash is growing nicely ).

Dave

[madaboutmodels]

Really good work there Bradley, and I totally agree with the others about the excellent progress you've made since the early days. I'm looking forward to seeing your future models (knowing how your stash is growing nicely ).

Dave

thanks.

The stash is defiantly growing!

Over 200 now lol

[andrewribs]

Good work Bradley, keep it up.

Andrew