Airfix 1/144 Airbus A300b Lufthansa

The very first Airbus. It was with this one that everything started...

Airbus was born as a consorcium of several companies. They gathered to see if it was possible to do a twinjet reliable and more cost effective than the aging three engine wide body airplanes. For that, they would need find a way to transport all the parts in between production lines. And there is where a strange airplane gets in: the super guppy, a modified Boeing 377 stratocruiser... Hence the origin of the "Every Airbus is born on the wings of a Boeing" catchphrase... (pic from http://aviadejavu.ru/Site/Arts/Art3389.htm)

Fly by wire, not needing a flight engineer, modern, using composite materials... All of it actually made it a great airplane for its time. But as it was being produced, companies were afraid of investing on something they wouldn't knew if it was that good, to the point that there were some "white tail" airplanes ready to fly, but without owner... Only in 1977, 6 years after its maiden flight, Eastern Air Lines leased 4 of them to try. Only after seing that it was 30% less expensive than the ones they've had, that the orders started to come in.

This is an old Airfix mould, but its not that bad. Right now its uncommon to find. It allows to leave the doors open, but it has no info nor templates on how to do the interior...
The Landing gear is afordably detailed, nothing that will shock you if you look at it.

I've done one mistake in the painting... The light grey should be up to the blue line... But this was meant to have the original Air France painting... Because I've already had 1, which i gave away, that was with the more actual livery... (who is sneaking up in the middle?!)

 However, the decals did not survive, and I had to use the ones from Lufthansa...

Now that I've mentioned the decals, they are actually pretty basic... Could have some for the small plugs, for the cargo doors, but it has none of them, like it has no detail on the fuselage. Just a smooth "cigar"...

The engines are pretty basic, but better than the ones on the Boeing E4...

In comparison, the Revell A310, its smaller brother, is a little better in terms of details, but its a much more recent kit... And its hard to expand it to get an A300... More than that, there are other small differences in between them...
Bottom line is: Not a perfect kit, but can be a nice model to have: the very first Airbus.