Eastern Express 1:144 Airbus A220-100 (CS100) Swiss

[Malair]

My latest finished build is the Eastern Express 1:144 Airbus A220-100 (CS100) Swiss. I usually tend to build more vintage jets and props, but from time to time I build something more modern. And well, you can’t get much more modern then the Airbus A220.

The A220 started life as the Bombardier C-series. Bombardier already had plans for a larger aircraft in the 1990s and was in talks with Fokker about this. Unfortunately, this deal fell through and Bombardier put their plans on hold for the time being. However, due to increasing competition from Embrear, Boeing and Airbus, Bombardier was forced to develop a new aircraft. These eventually became the CS100 and the CS300. The first flight of the CS100 was in 2013. However, due to continued strong competition, program delays and a possible dumping lawsuit filed by Boeing, sales did not go so smoothly. Ultimately, a partnership was made with Airbus (which saw opportunities to use the C-series aircraft to replace the A319 in particular). This proved to be a good move (at least for Airbus) and, until now, around 740 aircraft have been ordered for 15 customers with 208 deliveries. Airbus has even taken over Bombardier's entire production line in 2020 and Bombardier has consequently withdrawn its commercial aviation part of the business.

The kit is from Eastern Express and in all likelihood you have seen this kit and livery before as this is currently the only A220 in 1:144 available. As for the livery there is only a choice between Swiss and Delta, as they were the only airlines to order the -100 variant. The -300 has many more customers and as Eastern Express also has a -300 kit available I would recommend that instead as that will give you more livery options (I already bought the -100 kit before the -300 was released).

The kit is excellent (some fit issues with the WBF and glazed cockpit nose aside) and definitely comes recommend. The cockpit and passenger windows are from Authentic Airliners. I also used some decals from the Nazca detailing set, although on hindsight I would rather have used the Authentic Airliner Decals detailing set. The Nazca details tend to be very obvious, which doesn’t translate well into a “realistic look” IMHO. The walkway lines for the wings for example are too wide and I had to look into my spares box for alternatives.

 

At any rate, the pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My next build will be the F-RSIN 1:144 Dassault Falcon 20 in Pan Am colours, which is part of a French Aviation group build over at the Dutch ModelBrouwers forum. I’m also currently building the Authentic Airliners Lockheed L-1011, but the Falcon will probably be finished quicker.

 

Thanks for reading and see you next time!

 

Martijn.

Edited August 27, 2022 by Malair

[Alex1978]

Superb build of an attractive airliner.

The first I see built of this EE kit.

I have this in my stash as well,so its nice to hear that the kit is of good quality.

 

Thanks for sharing

Alex

[Malair]

Thanks Alex! You will definitely enjoy this kit. One thing to note however is that the vertical stabilizer decal is too small. You can either fix that by airbrushing the red part and use the white cross as a decal (which is also provided) or patch it using spare red decals (the method that I used).

[tMikha]

Excellent model, really CS is very modern-looking aircraft.
I had some ideas about building of CS-300 in AirBaltic colours (I had worked with that company for some time), but always was in doubt about EE kit quality. 
So really glad to hear that kit is good in assembling. 
The only one disappoints that EE doesn’t give us option of transparent passenger windows.

 

Respects, tMikha. 

[Rupert]

Martijn,

Thank you for showing us this model so well executed and displayed. I have both versions to do and appreciated very much your experience of building, painting and decaling.

Vincent

[Skodadriver]

Hi Martijn, thanks for sharing another excellent model. 

 

The Eastern Express A220-100 got a rather poor review on the German site Modellversium when it came out at first so it's good to read your positive comments about it. I'm not a huge fan of EE products but I'm certainly going to have a shot at one of their A220s (most likely the -300) if I can get hold of a kit.

 

Dave G 

[Challenger350Pilot]

How did I miss this one?!?!? Beautifully done, Martijn! I really appreciate your attention detail, particularly on the nose. Very well presented in the photos, too…specifically the base you’ve used. Did you construct those? I’d be interested to know your sources for the bases. 

[Malair]

Thankseveryone for your nice replies!

 

1 hour ago, Challenger350Pilot said:

specifically the base you’ve used. Did you construct those? I’d be interested to know your sources for the bases. 

Haha I get asked this a lot 😊 (I should start selling them 😛). Yes, I made those myself. I bought a couple of nice bird eye view photos from Shutterstock, scaled them in 1:144 in Photoshop and then had them printed on Forex (80 x 60 cm). It’s not cheap (around €80,-), but you can make so much more nice looking (realistic) pictures with a nice base imho. Currently I have made nine different bases.