Viking Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 The A318 is the smallest of the Airbus family of airliners, although it has not sold as well as its bigger brothers and several have had comparitively short service lives. I guess that the operating costs are very similar to the A319 and A320, and yet the passenger carrying capacity is somewhat reduced, making it less profitable to run on a variety of routes.It is an attractive little aeroplane, and I wanted one in my collection to go with the A319's, A320's, and A321's that I already have.The options are to use an injection moulded kit from Eastern Express which has had unflattering reviews, or a Welsh Models mixed media kit, or a fuselage from Contrails to use with the Revell kit. A fourth option, and the one I chose, is to take a Revell A319 kit and a razor saw to do your own conversion, the main points of which are to shorten the fuselage fore and aft of the wing, and raise the height of the tail fin.Details hereDraw Decals do a number of interesting options for Frontier airlines, who feature various examples of American wildlife on their tailfins, a set of which was obtained from Greg at Draw during last years Telford show. The decals go on very well, and reproduce this scheme to perfection. If you dont fancy chopping up a kit, Draw also do other Frontier schemes for the A319 'straight from the box'. It's quite good fun to do your own conversion and make something a little more unusual, I certainly had fun doing this and special thanks are due to Jonathan (member XV571) for helping out with information that I would otherwise have missed! Time for the photos; With an A319, also using Draw Decals 'Chloe' the fawn; The A318/9/20/21 family, all basically the same aircraft with longer and longer fuselages. All from Revell kits; A318 (Draw Decals) A319 (Draw Decals) A320 (Bangkok Air, Boa Decals) A321 (First Choice, Twosix Decals) Thanks for looking, John 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Strasser Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 BEAUTIFUL!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stringbag Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Cracking collection of work John. You must be running short of Airbus kits now . Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XV571 Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Another little masterpiece John - glad my pointers were useful. The A318 has suffered from being too much aircraft for its size, just like the 737-600. I think both Boeing and Airbus hoped that fleet commonality would outweigh operating costs but they can't really compete economically with purpose designed 100 seat aircraft like the Embraer 190/195. The aircraft has found a niche as a business jet though and I think BA quite like it for the premium service LCY-JFK route. Looking forward to your next project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Nice work John, great to see you you have the whole set now It was nice to follow the build as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolwe82 Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 wow thats absolutely lovely, charming, beautiful, .. and i could sit here looking for words for some time yet.. Thats realy like a live, love it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Semyon Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Nice work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habu12 Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Dude! What a nice lineup! Especially the 318. I've never seen one done until this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeewee Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Great line up! Great job on all of those busses. Jw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchem Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Stunning stuff although your production rate is embarrassing me. mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Lovely John, enjoyed watching the build, some great tips. That A321 looks great too, not seen the First Choice scheme built before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil AS Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Brilliant. I keep away from airliners as I just cannot do them justice.a credit to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zigarten Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 (edited) John, nevermind I found the WIP! As a newbie, can you give me a little direction on how you made the multi texture look Thanks! Gord Edited January 27, 2014 by Zigarten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Beautifully done - I was taking notes during your WIP too. I have the Welsh Models A318 but was have also been thinking about a cut and shut like this. Your hard work has certainly paid off. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike DeTorrice Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Nice ! A fine series of Airbus replicas shown here. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timo Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Hi John, excellent build thread and superbly finished model. Sadly your build came too late to rescue me as I'd already started on an Eastern Express A318 kit. The EE kit is such a poor moulding and fit that it took a huge effort to get it to look anything decent. Having seen your build it would have been far simpler to convert a Revell kit. Thanks for sharing it with us. Cheers Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMK Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Impeccable finish and an excellent collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arie Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Love it! Frontier are always fun--the baby penguins are the wife's fav...I'll probably have to have a go if Draw come out with that one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted January 27, 2014 Author Share Posted January 27, 2014 Thank you for all the feedback, hopefully the WIP shows that these conversions aren't too scary, especially as I picked up the kit half price in a Modelzone sale. Sadly your build came too late to rescue me as I'd already started on an Eastern Express A318 kit. The EE kit is such a poor moulding and fit that it took a huge effort to get it to look anything decent. Thats what I heard Tim, it seemed like a better bet to cut & shut a Revell A319. Once you can do it, it opens the door to making all sorts of other variants of airliners like 737 NG's, DC-8's, DC-9's etc. Cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Really enjoyed following this build, and a magnificent result. It takes guts to rip a perfectly good fuselage in half. Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 John, Now how AWESOME Is that. It's very lovely to see BEAUTIFULLY finished Airliners.. GORGEOUS... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kagemusha Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Too cute for words, really enjoyed the build thread too, cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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