Introduction

The Airbus A320 has been flying people around the globe for nearly 35 years, during its service with various airlines. A number of aircraft in the A320 family, have come to grief since its introduction. Some being fatal and some not, perhaps the most famous or well known case being flight 1549 of US Airways, which landed in the Hudson River without loss of life. The A320 family fly with many airlines, with Zvezda having chosen to release an Airbus A320 in 1/144th scale in service with Scandinavian Airlines. 

Review

This offering from Zvezda comes in a cardboard tray with flip top lid, inside a card end opening carton. Upon opening the box, you are presented with two bags containing the sprues for the model and a Zip lock bag containing the decals and clear mouldings, also included is a two piece display stand for the model, which I feel has a nice shape to it. The instruction booklet and decal placement guide are loose in the box. An examination of the sprues reveals how far Zvezda has come as regards injection moulded plastic. The parts are cleanly moulded, and well detailed considering the scale.

With this being a1/144th release I am sure that you will not be exactly surprised that you are only presented with a basic cockpit interior, which is quite pleasing considering the scale. To give you an idea as to how long it has been since I built an airliner, I was surprised to find glazing for all the cabin windows present, which have been tackled in four strips for ease of application. There is an area behind the cockpit that has some detail present, and this is due to one of the entry doors being provided with the options of being open or closed.

The fuselage of the model is supplied in two halves, with nicely scaled recessed panel lines. The wings of the model are provided with a one piece lower wing covering both sides of the aircraft to which you add the upper wing surface, flared wing tips and leading edges. This approach by Zvezda means that you do not need to be concerned about wing droop when adding them to the model. If you intend to stand the model on its undercarriage a 10g weight needs to be added to the nose to prevent it being a tail sitter, I always appreciate seeing the needed weight as it takeaway a lot of guess work.

The two engine nacelles and their hanging brackets are particularly nice aspects of this model, as the engine has two nicely replicated compressor fan blade assemblies. Which along with the face to which they attach, makes for a very realistic intake on both engines. The cone at the rear of the engine takes up most of the available space, and so provides you with engines that look particularly good -even in this scale. The flight control surfaces on the vertical tail and both wings are optional in their position, with optional parts provided for realistic positioning. The under carriage due to its small size is fairly simplistic, but I see no other way to avoid the issue in this scale. The Wheels, struts and doors have been provided as separate parts and so I am reasonably happy with what is provided. You have the option, of having the under carriage down or retracted, and for me due to the particularly nice stand that is provided I would go for a retracted under carriage. As I feel that airliners always look better in a flight position.

The decals of the model are a very nicely done feature, which while I am able to feel them on the carrier sheet; I feel that they will look good on the finish model. Zvezda has provided a impressively high degree of stencilling, with some exceptionally fine stencils, well replicated here. To give you some Idea of what I consider is particularly high quality stencilling, you are provided with a window framing decal for the cockpit windows, and the silver aspects of the SAS logo has been especially well done.

Conclusion

Airliners are not a type of model that particularly appeals to me, and they have always seemed to have a niche group of modellers, that get the most from them. The particular airliner offers the modeller a level of detail that means that it even appeals to someone like me. Zvezda continues to impress me with where they are going with their models today.