NAMC YS-11 1:400 Scale Mould Review (2025)

Updated: September 2024

With the cancellation of the Mitsubishi Regional jet the NAMC YS-11 stands proudly as the only commercial airliner ever to be built by the Japanese, although at the time the programme was controversial. Although it was not a financial success, the programme produced a rugged, reliable machine that sold surprisingly well. The 182 aircraft built was a decent production run for its day and impressively 75 were sold outside Japan including to several US airlines - most noticeably Piedmont.

The YS-11 featured in three blog entries here at the site in 2017 so if you want to know more about the type see:

Production in 400 Scale

Somewhat surprisingly the NAMC YS-11 has seen quite good coverage in 400 scale, which perhaps illustrates the power of the Japanese market. There have now been three mould dedicated to the type and 29 releases overall.

YS-11 in Real Life

Gemini's YS-11 debuted early, back in 2004, and has been used for a good range of models with one glaring omission. Overall the mould stands up well in 2024. The shape of the fuselage barrel and nosecone are fine as is the vertical stabiliser. The engines are nicely detailed and have excellent props and spinners. The weakness of the mould, at least in older releases, is the chunky nosegear leg and nosegear door, and also often the poor cockpit printing. Wing dihedral is also a little lacking making the wings rather flat.

Later versions such as the Hawaiian Airlines version (made for Hawaiian themselves) have a much superior nosegear setup with smaller nosegear door.

Hogan Wings (2007)

I don't know a lot about Hogan's mould, which has been used for at least 3 twinsets featuring aircraft from the JASDF, JCAB Flight Inspection service and All Nippon AIrways. From the images I have seen the mould looks at least as good as the Gemini jets version and possibly superior. Certainly the nosegear size and form, plus cockpit window print is excellent. The landing gear may be slightly too short - hard to say from these images. The unusually shaped standhole is diagnostic. Hogan have also made both 1:200 and 1:500 examples.

DeAgostini / Jet Hut (2020)

It was inevitable that the YS-11 would make an appearance in the DeAgostini JAL Collection magazine series. The moulds for this series appear to have been produced by Jet Hut and the YS-11 is certainly one of the better ones. Arguably, it is broadly comparable to the Gemini mould and indeed the wing dihedral is superior. The nosegear is a little large and the engines aren't as well sculpted, but it displays fine within the expected limitations. The YS-11s appeared in 4 twinpacks (one of which was paired with a DHC-8) for 7 models overall. I took a look at one of the releases back in late 2021:

PHOTO COMPARISON: GEMINI JETS vs JET HUT

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