I've been looking to get either a Drukair A319 or ATR 42-500 model, but since Drukair is such a little known company, buried in the depths of the Himalayas, there are very few options for a Drukair model. I looked around, and found that HerpaWings makes a Drukair A319 in 1:500 scale. I was reading on Airliners.net that people liked the HerpaWings aircraft, but when I looked at pictures of the HerpaWings A319, the nose didn't look right compared to its real life counterpart.

 

I used to own a Dragon Wings B777-200LR in the Air India livery, and it was a fantastic and accurate model. Does anyone own a HerpaWings aircraft, and if so... are they high quality and accurate? Also, how do they compare to Dragon Wings models?

 

My regards,

Nathan3219

The Herpa 1:500 line is pretty well regarded.  I don't know it - I do a little collecting, but only in 1:400.  Your best source for information: diecastaircraftforum.com.  No shortage of opinion there, either.  Good hunting! 

The Herpa 1:500 line is pretty well regarded.  I don't know it - I do a little collecting, but only in 1:400.  Your best source for information: diecastaircraftforum.com.  No shortage of opinion there, either.  Good hunting! 

 

Thanks for the help Alan. I looked at the website you linked, and it seems people aren't too happy with Herpawings' quality in their models. I guess I'll just have to hold off for now.

I have the Herpa A319 in the Northwest Livery, and it actually isnt too bad of a model. The nose looks a bit weird from the side, but from any other angle it looks good. At such a small scale you dont notice imperfections as much. 

The negative opinions about Herpa came as a surprise to me.  Sorry if I misstated their quality.  As noted above, I don't collect 1:500 - maybe I should, since space is always at a premium, but 1:400 isn't that much bigger and there's huge variety to be had in that scale.

Not really a big fan of the Herpa Wings models, although the one that I have is a scale 1:400 model. It lacks details on the wings, the one that I have.

I have around 150 1:400 models, many 1:200 and a few 1:500 models of all different manufacturers. Herpa models are actually not bad IMO in the 1:500 scale, especially with models as small as the A319. However, in the larger scales like 1:400 and 1:200, Herpa models do lack the details of models from manufacturers like GeminiJets and Aeroclassics. To the OP, I suggest buying the DrukAir model, but something that you may want to consider is buying any 1:400 scale A319 (I suggest an Aeroclassics one) or a 1:200 A319 and seeing if you can find someone over at diecastaircraftforum to re-paint it as DrukAir (or do it yourself if you wish).