Project A320

[hrtpaul]

Mostly Hawkeye decals with a couple from from Oldmodels to make up the set. These are some of the best decals so far from Hawkeye.

A quick question Leigh. How did you find the Oldmodel decals? Oz rb fan had no end of issues with a set of his and I'm worried about a Dash 8 set i have. Plus on the sheet, the decals are very thick. I'd be interested in your comments. Cheers

[RayS]

Not having a crack at you Ray at all. You can only do what you can. Maybe Pete needs to pull his finger out because he's losing sales because of the lack of updates. For instance I know Scott has finished the artwork for the QF 737 freighters but I have no idea if they're available or not. And that's not the only example. Anyways sorry for the thread hijack Leigh

I understand, The 737s are not ready yet. Pete has to gather funds to get the whites printed which has not happened yet (they are out sourced to a screen printing guy). I will bug him about this and get the website updated as soon as the new sheets are available.

[F-27pax]

I too find the Hawkeye website infuriating but it's Peter's business so he can run it as he likes. I gather that at the moment covid means he is being swamped by orders but, hopefully, when things calm down he will be able to do something. Though personally I'd prefer the QantasLink A.320 decals to an updated website at this very moment.

In my humble opinion the Hawkeye decals for the Jetstar A.320s live right up to the very high standard of the recent batch of Hawkeye decals. In other words, some of the best decals being produced in the world. The only reason I didn't use the kit corogard decals is because I wanted to stick to the same decal set I've used for all my other A.320s. I should mention that these decals have been designed to fit the Revell kit but the orange underside decals don't quite fit the Zvezda kit. This is not a great problem and, with a couple of minutes masking and some MRP-232 International Orange hand painted, you'd only notice the difference if I pointed it out.

On the Oldmodels decals. I've found the Oldmodels sets a mixed blessing with quite mixed quality. Thickness is a real problem and I've got an Air New Zealand All Black A.320 sitting on the shelf of doom because the Oldmodels decal that goes around the tail is so thick that it cracks when you try to apply it. I've also had some trouble because I think some of the decals are a bit over scale. I've only used the Oldmodels A.320 Jetstar decal sheet to supply the two liveries that Hawkeye doesn't supply and I'm pretty sure that they are a little over scale, judging by some photos. On the other hand, there were no problems with thickness with this set. The two Hawkeye Jetstar sets provide decals for both the main liveries and you'd only want to use the Oldmodels set as well if you are a pedant like me.

I didn't think to take a photo of the small gaps around the underside orange on these Zvezda kits but here's one showing what they look like after some masking and hand painting. There's just a hint of extra redness in the MPR paint and it you know how to take care of that I think you would get a perfect match.

[RayS]

Interesting about the Old Model Jetstar decals, I have 1/72 set for a Dash-8. I will have to see how thick they are.

Your A320s are looking great Leigh

[Graeme H]

Nice Jetstar A320's by the way
I have a set of Old Model decals for a TEAL DC8, which I'm still getting up the courage to put on, the fuselage cheat line is one Teal coloured stripe, then you add the windows, then you add the upper and lower pinstripes either side of that while keeping the stripes parallel (oh the humanity), telling me they are thick is just making it so much harder to stick with the TEAL scheme, might have to go the Hawkeye Air New Zealand ones.

[F-27pax]

In the end I didn't use the Oldmodels DC-8 decal set which looked too hard for my humble skills. Instead I used the Vintage Flyer decals that were much easier to use but did not fit perfectly. It might be best to wait the the Hawkeye set (so long as they come after the QantasLink A.320 set).

[F-27pax]

Here, finally, are the four completed Jetstar A.320s. When I say they are completed, that is apart from the wingtip fins that are so fragile in the Zvezda kits that they will break off it you look at them too much. I’m sick or repairing them and I’m postponing more repairs until when I feel a bit more dedicated to the task than exasperated with them, which is how I feel at the moment. The Zvezda A.320 is a much better kit than the old Revell one although it is more complex to put together and the option of flaps in three positions and the undercarriage legs with or without load on them could confuse some modellers, they almost did me. Getting the choice of both engine types in every box is a bonus too. So if you have to chose between the Revell and Zvezda kits, chose the latter, even if it costs a bit more.

Here are four Jetstar A.320s in the standard livery which works nicely using Tamiya rattle can Mica Silver. Most of the decals used are from the two Hawkeye Jetstar A.320 kits.

First is VH-JQL in the initial JetStar livery, circa 2006.





Next is VH-VGR in the current JetStar livery, circa 2017.





Next is VH-VFF in what appears to be a trial livery flown on only a couple of A.320s, circa 2012. The main logos come from the Oldmodels decal set.





Finally VH-JQL in what appears to be another trial livery flown on only a few A.320s, circa 2016. The main logos come from the Oldmodels decal set.

[hrtpaul]

Very nice work there mate

[Ansett A330]

Amazing work.

The Zvezda A.320 is a much better kit than the old Revell one although it is more complex to put together and the option of flaps in three positions and the undercarriage legs with or without load on them could confuse some modellers, they almost did me. Getting the choice of both engine types in every box is a bonus too. So if you have to chose between the Revell and Zvezda kits, chose the latter, even if it costs a bit more.

Technically you’d have to say “than both old Revell kits” as remember Revell has had two goes at moulding the A320.

I’ve never bought the Zvezda kit for two reasons : firstly I have more of both of the Revell (and even the first moulding reboxed by “Hasegawa Monogram”!) than I’ll ever have the chance to build in this Lifetime as unlike Methusla I’m not going to live to a gazzillion; and secondly I’ve always baulked at the cost of the Zvezda kit (especially when they were the same price as the 767s and 787s etc). But after what you’ve written I might keep an eye out for a reasonably priced one or two Zvezda kits (and of course only after following the Law of Static Stash Size by bailing some Revell A320s out of the Stash!).

[F-27pax]

You're not wrong about the cost of Zvezda kits but I picked up a lot for around USD$15 each from somewhere in Eastern Europe with cheap postage. I might have stuck with the Revell kits if all of them had had the IAE engines, but a lot of Revell kits don't and most A320s with VH- and ZK- registrations have that engine, so I had no other alternative.