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Airfix New Style Instruction Booklets


richierichbloke

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As per another 'postee', having PDFs of instructions on the Airfix website within a support section really would be helpful. Most manufacturers in other sectors do that (especially in consumer electronics & durables) and I must admit nowadays I tend to try the internet before I wade through the files. That said, I can normally eventually find what I want in the file boxes if I look closely enough! I've even looked at the downloaded instructions when I'm deciding whether to buy a model (e.g. Eduard) to see how well it'll go together & what paint I might need.

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Hi Rich,

I've only seen the new instruction style on the Hurricane so far, but I thought it was useful to highlight the relevant parts in the construction sequence - thanks for spilling the beans on the bespectacled pilot in the instructions too, I had noticed that the pilot figure provided is clearly not wearing glasses!

In some strange way I will always miss the written instructions and exploded diagrams of the first kits I ever made though...

Cheers,

Stew

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Hello Rick, sounds like you are going to very busy with some fantastic Airfix kits, yes sorry to say these are all the old black and white line illustrations, best of luck with these and I'll find something to upload on here tomorrow, soon as I understand this photobucket thing, Firefox quits for me everytime I open it at home here. have a fun afternoon

cheers rich

Hi Rich,

All of the kits I mentioned except for the Vostok rockets are completed builds. I am working on the rockets when I get some spare time.

Cheers,

Rick

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Firstly THANK YOU for asking what we thought of the new instructions. ONLY AIRFIX WOULD EVER HAVE DONE THIS, but then they do lead the field.

New style instructions (Hurricane) leave me a little bit cold: can't see a huge advantage in highlighting what has just been installed. Likewise the highly detailed wheel area (which must have involved considerable drafting): how does that assist construction?

More importantly (and how could I ever have otherwise put this in writing)is something I mention at every Airfix stand I encounter, and every time I'm told 'what a good idea, I'll pass it on', and at the 2012 Nat's even gave a marked up set of instructions...

Many instructions, Hurricane included, have a blank sheet, sometimes called 'Modellers Notes'! What a waste of Instruction space.

Many aircraft have canted or angles undercarriage legs, some instructions even giving the relevant angle. Given that Airfix kits are supposed to be for all ages, how is 'Little Johnny' supposed, for instance, to set those for the Spitfire XlX at 70 degrees? As a retired career engineer I couldn't do so easily!

There's a simple answer: use the blank page for 'footprints' of the wheels! Childsplay in the truest sense.

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Hello Denford, did we meet each other at Telford, I do remember having the same conversation with a very nice gentleman at the show about including footprints in the instructions for helping set the angles, I haven't forgotten and will do my best to include this in the future. I do end up with a blank page sometimes unfortunately and should use this to include something like this or anything else useful to the modeller.

when it comes to highlighting what has just been installed, in each step, I try and show this only if its really needed and helps to show the parts fitted location, on small tricky parts, but I do get carried away sometimes.

I'll have to have a look at the highly detailed wheel area on the Hurricane I did and see what I did in the morning, I must of thought it was a help at the time.

good to hear from you and have a nice evening

best wishes Rich


thanks for your message Stew, I love exploded diagrams too

cheers rich


thanks Stew, good to hear from you, I really like exploded drawings too,

cheers Rich

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Hello Beardylong, thank you for sending me your reply, this is something we really should be doing by now and as I mentioned above it will be talked about in this weeks Airfix meeting, I'l let you all know the out come.

best wishes

Rich

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Hello Black Knight, goodness !! why didn't I think about this, something we will need to think of with the new Typhoon as I have had

to use a couple of colours in the part numbers that describe the build options, I'll mention this when I'm back at work, thank you for bringing it to my attention.

best wishes

Rich

Hi Rich,

I had a thought about this; could you use shaped 'boxes' along with each colour you need to use; I mean, where you use red for an option put a triangle by it [the part number] too, for another option where you use green, use a hexagon, the shapes being in black outline.

Let me give an example on on how this helps; not too long ago I was driving in an area with road works; the diversion signs said 'follow the red arrows for town A, and the blue arrows for town B'. At driving distance both arrows looked black. However, on most roadworks diversions here they use shapes; 'follow [a square] for town A, follow [a triangle] for town B' - so much easier to differentiate.

F

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Hi Rich great post and thanks for giving us the opportunity of giving some feedback. Having purchased quite few of the 'new generation' Aifrix kits from the Lynx and Merlin to the Spitfire Mk1/IIA and now the Harrier GR1. I have to say I like the exploded diagrams/illustrations of all of these kit. Obviously the Spitfire is the least complicated and I think it should serve the younger kit builder adequately and also have enough to interest the more mature builder. Obviously the Lynx and Merlin being more complicated kits they needed more detailed/intricate illustrations and I think they achieved that. The Harrier as it is the newest and again I like the layout, I also like the colour profiles and separate stencil layout drawings, which make for a less cluttered layout.

Having been an industrial modelmaker for over twenty-five years and used to working from 2D and isometric drawings I like to look at them as art work too. I completed part one and two of the City and Guilds Tech Illustrators corse, so I can understand the amount of effort that goes into generating such illustrations and the thin line between offering enough information for the kit builder to be succesfull in building his/her model but not too much to be cluttered.

Having watched the evolution of the instruction illustrations from the early sixties to date, I think you are doing a splendid job. Thanks to everyone at Airfix and keep up the good work.

Colin

PS. Any chance of a series of 48th scale Westland Whirlwinds, the helicopter veriety?

Lynx-GB-banner_zps53c18225.jpg

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Hello Colin, very nice post from you thank you and I'm so pleased you like our instructions, yes there was quite a lot of detail in some you have mentioned, especially the Lynx, but enjoyed doing them. Great to hear you have some back ground with technical illustrating, its been a while since I have used my pens and ellipse guides now I use a computer. sorry I can't say at the moment if we have plans for a Westland Whirlwinds, be very nice though. Thanks again for your very kind post

best wishes

Rich

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Hi Rich, it's great that you're asking for feedback and suggestions, how about this one. On some of the smaller 1/72 scale kits with camouflage schemes, could the painting diagram be printed at 1/72 scale so that the modeller could copy several sheets and make their own paint masks.

Nigel

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Hi Rich, it's great that you're asking for feedback and suggestions, how about this one. On some of the smaller 1/72 scale kits with camouflage schemes, could the painting diagram be printed at 1/72 scale so that the modeller could copy several sheets and make their own paint masks.

Nigel

Or at least an indication of what the level of reduction in size is, so that it can be easily magnified to the correct size on a photocopier.

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I accept you say it is red; to my eye its a sort of brown, but it still stands out as different. In the image above, in the middle left, the box with no number, the colour of the part to me looks orange, but again it stands out as different. I had to study box16 before I noticed that two parts are different, their colour is totally lost to me.

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Good morning Black Knight,

this really is a problem for anyone who is colour blind, we were talking about this yesterday afternoon and wondering how common it is, I may have to re think the idea used in the box you have just mentioned, that part that looks orange to you is infact a tint of light blue to represent the colour No.56 Aluminium. so may have to go back to showing any area's being painted highlighted like this, with a tint of black. thanks very much for mentioning it,

speak soon Rich

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Hi Rich

I like the new style rendered drawings and am currently building the new Hurricane. As a design engineer I am used to working with engineering drawings but have found that some folk do have problem seeing isometric line drawings in context. By shading and rendering I have found that people unfamiliar with engineering drawings 'get' what they are looking at a lot easier. So a big thumbs up for the new style from me :thumbsup:

I would like to see the actual colours called out on the instructions rather than the paint code; I've just built the FW190 and had to look up the code for the oleos as the colour wasn't listed on the painting instructions on the back of the box.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers

Jon

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Morning Rich,

The colour bind "problem" is a pain with this type of drawing. There is no real answer to it. ( I taught Technical Drawing at a school in Ramsgate for 30 odd years) The only thing I can suggest is to play around with colours and see which is the "best fit".

I for what it's worth do like the new style format, and good on you and the team for asking about this. It speakes volumes about Hornbys attitude to our hobby.

Cheers

Dick

Forgot to mention the offer of our club nights goes to the rest of the gang at Hornby as well.

Edited by jenko
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Good morning Black Knight,

this really is a problem for anyone who is colour blind, we were talking about this yesterday afternoon and wondering how common it is, I may have to re think the idea used in the box you have just mentioned, that part that looks orange to you is infact a tint of light blue to represent the colour No.56 Aluminium. so may have to go back to showing any area's being painted highlighted like this, with a tint of black. thanks very much for mentioning it,

speak soon Rich

My orange is blue?! Well, I'm not really surprised, I've got used to getting colours wrong.

Many years ago a specialist told me 95% of men have some amount of colourblindness whilst 95% of women have no colourblindness at all.

I am severe at about 9 out of 10 rating [10 being only grey vision] so I'm in a very minor minority.

Fred

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My orange is blue?! Well, I'm not really surprised, I've got used to getting colours wrong.

Many years ago a specialist told me 95% of men have some amount of colourblindness whilst 95% of women have no colourblindness at all.

I am severe at about 9 out of 10 rating [10 being only grey vision] so I'm in a very minor minority.

Fred

Just a thought Fred.

If people like yourself can tell there is a difference of colour texture on the drawings to my mind we are half way there. If there was some explanation and illustration at the beginning of the instructions would this make life easier? The sort of thing I am thinking of is ...if you see something that they say will be in the instructions and it is illustrated you will know that the colour you will see is red (for example) and the shade that you see should be consistent through out.

Hope that makes sense.

Dick

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