My very first 1:400 model

[Steinar]

Lufthansa B747-430 (1:400) D-ABVF from Dragon Wings 2000.

Delivered to Lufthansa in July 1990. Scrapped in 2014.

This is my very first model bought in Hong Kong Airport 2000 on my way back home. The rest is history.

What was your first model?

Steinar

 

[YesterAirlines]

I started out in 400 scale with a purchase of a few Dragon Wings from TradeMe (NZ's eBay equivalent). I don't have any of them anymore but as I recall they included these 6 (pictures date from 2009). At the time I decided I was only going to collect US airlines so I sold them quite quickly, which in hindsight was annoying as I have had to reacquire the Air Canada 747, NZ 767-200 and SAS DC-10.

 

[Steinar]

I have the DW SAS DC-10 and like it a lot!

Steinar

 

[Jason777]

The jet that brought my then girlfriend, now wife to me in 1998

by JC Photography, on Flickr

 

[nsxr_]

My very first model was a Schuco 1:600 NWA 747-400 in the final livery that my father bought me in 2009(?) when i was 5. Still have it now and I keep it on display on a shelf, albeit with a few scuffs!

In terms of 1:400 my first were a GJ El Al 747-400, JC American 757-200 Pink Ribbon, and JC China Eastern MD-11 which I received for Christmas 2020 and this is where I started collecting regularly.

 

[EQ Planes]

A philippine airlines a330 I got in 2017 at a store in a airport I remember choosing between that or an Airberlin a330

 

[DTcustoms]

This is my first 1:400 model when I started getting into the hobby back in 2015. It's not the best mould ever made, but it was my starting point

 

[CPHL1011]

Lufthansa B747-430 (1:400) D-ABVF from Dragon Wings 2000.

Delivered to Lufthansa in July 1990. Scrapped in 2014.

This is my very first model bought in Hong Kong Airport 2000 on my way back home. The rest is history.

What was your first model?

Steinar
View attachment 1017

Great topic, Steinar!!!
I had to think hard to remember which model was my first in scale 1:400, but this is mine…..Gemini 747 SAS.

 

[redriveraviation]

These are super nice!

 

[LAXaviation]

My first model was a southwest 737-300 this was in 2015. I was seven at the time so that thing was busted up in a month. My first surviving model is the KLM 787-10 in the 100 years livery I got it at the airplane shop a few days before British airways retired the 747-400

 

[OscarBravo992]

My first model was the original NG sample Qantas 787-9 Balarinji, which I bought in 2020. Since then, it's just been a battle against space. (Please excuse the terrible photo, I'm not near my camera right now)

 

[Jazajia]

My first 1:400 model was Viasa's CV-880 YV-C-VIB by Aeroclassics purchased from AirParadigm (known as Waffle today) January 25, 2009 for $23. Long story short, I decided to look for a Viasa DC-10 in 1:500 scale that I had seen in a Herpa catalog about ten years prior, in the late nineties. As soon as googled "Viasa Herpa DC-10" a bunch of results for GeminiJets and Aeroclassics showed up, and that's how I found out about 1:400 scale. YV-C-VIB was the only Viasa model still available at regular retailers, so I bought it. Later I found the reason nobody wanted that particular model was its erroneous hybrid Viasa/KLM livery (-VIC was the only Viasa CV-880 to wear that split livery).



Shortly afterward I went back and got a KLM DC-10 and an Aeromexico 777-200. The 777 must have been from a collection sale or something because it had a lot of wear, but not being familiar with the second-hand market yet, I decided to return it for a full refund. I always wondered how Waffle earned himself the reputation of being the terror of Temecula because that time I gave him every reason to discharge all his fury on me after admittedly being a pain to him, but he didn't, and ended up giving me a full refund. Our relationship has been pretty straightforward ever since then, I give him money, and he sends me airplanes.

 

[AmericanAvgeek]

if yall don't know, my first ever model is an alaska q400 1/200 (2011 release) when my dad "accidentally" bought me that instead of a toy plane. i did collect some herpa 1/500 planes and a very beaten up alaska 737-800 (2015 release). my "actual" first model is an air china 789 (2016 release) because that's when i really started collecting

 

[N399AN]

in 2016 I got my first model an American A330-200 by Gemini from eBay

 

[LiveryCollector]

My first model is this Phoenix Ethiad A340-600. Still one of my favourites.

 

[Redrado]

Qatar A350-900 by JC Wings, from the original release of 2014. This mould was horrible…

 

[Sithan400]

NG Sri Lankan Airlines A330-200...

 

[OscarBravo992]

NG Sri Lankan Airlines A330-200...

That's such a nice model! I hope they one day make the -300 too.

 

[Sithan400]

That's such a nice model! I hope they one day make the -300 too.

I hope so too... Had an accident with this one in the process of building phase one of the Airport... Those NG landing gears roll great and in shifting the shelf the model rolled off. Tragic. I kid, and tell myself it was a terrorist attack by the Tamil Tigers, but doesn't take the pain away....

 

[Adrian]

Well it depends on what you call 'your first model'? My collecting started as a child with a Dinky Toys Viscount and Britannia in the late 1950s. Then I recall my Dad bought me a Teckno SAS DC-7C (approx 1/200 scale?) during a visit to Heathrow in the early 1960s, which I really liked with folding undercarriage and a spare interchageable engine. It was not until the 1980s that I discovered Schabak 1:600 model airliners, which were the only game in town, but they were very crude with poor decals. I did admire the very first Aeroclassics models that Andrew Klein brought to a Heathrow Enthusiasts Fair in the early '90s, but they too were decalled and expensive. Net Models started producing some 1:500 tampo printed diecast models in the mid'90s and the first 'serious' model was a Cathay Pacific Boeing 707. However, once Gemini Jets, Aeroclassics and others got going in the late 1990s, I switched to 1/400 scale