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Denford

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It's not a case of 'somebody listening'. 

The matter has been raised at several Airfix presentations and the response has always been the same.  It's on our list of 'things to do' but just a case of 'getting round to it' with so much else to do.

I hope it's realisation hasn't impacted on their core business of making top quality models.

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Why would an IT chap/lass spending the time to scan and import instructions onto the Airfix website have anything to do with their model development team designing top quality models? 

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Can't say other than that's the answer Airfix gave!

 

Remember Airfix have only some 5 designers, one of whom is concerned with preparing instructions and maybe the decals, box design etc as well.  Can't recall the exact range of their duties, but they would have been the obvious choice for the PDF work too.

That said, whoever did make the PDF's of the instructions would have had to break off from whatever they were doing to do that.  Given Hornby's current situation I imagine Airfix and everybody else in the group are being worked pretty hard and so do not have much 'slack'!

 

Or of course Airfix (and for that matter any other part of the group) may have contracted the work out.

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Assuming Airfix's instruction sheets are designed using InDesign or Illustrator, then creating a PDF from the artwork takes no more than a different export option from one of the pull down menus.  PDFs would be used for most production purposes anyway - from proofing to print to web. It's just the specification of the PDF that alters depending on its intended purpose.

 

A modern scanner will automatically scan & save older instruction sheets to a PDF format anyway - so for legacy instructions - it would not take much extra work to do this.

 

 

Jonners

 

edit: just download the 1/72 P51D sheet - they use Illustrator

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Dick, 

Just open up any kit listing on their website and it should be there. It appears that they are using genetic images of their 1/72 Mustng kit, however a scanned image of the relevant instructions should unload once selected. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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Cheers guys. All has been revealed ....................... I'm a bit of a muppet with technology :doh:

 

Dick:penguin::penguin:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lots of euphemisms that hide or at least try to hide real situation where Airfix is sole healthy part of the group,

not to mention sharp decline in Airfix sales due to previous price hikes , pound devaluation and non understandable

change of trade policies-all that and Brexit still has not been implemented, with EU being single biggest market for Airfix products, future won't be rosy...

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31 minutes ago, Thomas V. said:

Lots of euphemisms that hide or at least try to hide real situation where Airfix is sole healthy part of the group,

not to mention sharp decline in Airfix sales due to previous price hikes , pound devaluation and non understandable

change of trade policies-all that and Brexit still has not been implemented, with EU being single biggest market for Airfix products, future won't be rosy...

 

They're trying to put a brave face on it, but not everyone is playing along. This appeared three days after the above report...

 

https://www.ft.com/content/07bf35be-1ddf-11e7-b7d3-163f5a7f229c

 

 

 

 

Edited by Gary C
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2 hours ago, Gary C said:

 

They're trying to put a brave face on it, but not everyone is playing along. This appeared three days after the above report...

 

https://www.ft.com/content/07bf35be-1ddf-11e7-b7d3-163f5a7f229c

 

 

 

 

Can you summarize the article, please?  The link insists I buy a subscription. 

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2 hours ago, Thomas V. said:

Lots of euphemisms that hide or at least try to hide real situation where Airfix is sole healthy part of the group,

not to mention sharp decline in Airfix sales due to previous price hikes , pound devaluation and non understandable

change of trade policies-all that and Brexit still has not been implemented, with EU being single biggest market for Airfix products, future won't be rosy...

 

Do we know much Airfix sells in Europe? 

Not disagreeing with you, but I hear different things from different people depending on where they live.

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3 hours ago, old thumper said:

 

Do we know much Airfix sells in Europe? 

Not disagreeing with you, but I hear different things from different people depending on where they live.

I do not know exact numbers, but as a retailer I've been told more than once that app.45-50+% ( depending on the item ) is distributed into EU.

 

 

Edited by Thomas V.
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6 hours ago, Gary C said:

 

They're trying to put a brave face on it, but not everyone is playing along. This appeared three days after the above report...

 

https://www.ft.com/content/07bf35be-1ddf-11e7-b7d3-163f5a7f229c

 

 

 

 

I wouldnt worry too much airfix is doing fine, even if the worst came to the worst and hornby collapsed i believe airfix would be quickly snapped up by another group or company , it's nice to see airfix back on ebay at more reasonable prices,the price hike has hurt them, the victor was 44.99 pre-release and 59.99 on release, the 48th stuka was 16.99 pre release but rose to 27.99 and these are not insignificant price rises , their withdrawal from online sales avenues and stopping supplying anything other than bricks and mortar model shops was a baffling decision, airfix and now being wholesaled by creative models for the first time in a long time, hopefully this will help them pick up a bit faster . 

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Looks like Mr. Anton wants to turn Hornby into a toy manufacturer. He obviously cannot see that Airfix is doing a lot more than most of its competitors in attracting the kiddie market. Either way, perhaps he ought to stick with his carpet business.

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4 hours ago, old thumper said:

The big price hikes are off putting. Airfix will probably make a lot less money off me because of this, I will certainly spend much less with them which is ironically a good thing for me.

Inclined to agree with you. Some of the larger kits are fast becoming unaffordable for me so, I now seek cheaper alternatives if I can find them for particular subjects. I bought the Revell 1/72 Heinkel HE-111 & B-17s recently because they are over £10 cheaper. They may not be as good as the Airfix kits but, they do me well enough. A near 30% price hike for the current Whitley V put me off buying that one!! Of course, you can usually pick up a bargain if you shop around. Price is of course a very subjective issue but, the bottom line is, if I don't like the price then I just don't buy or, someone else gets my custom. If I cannot find a cheaper alternative then I just do without! Simples!:lol:.

 

Allan

Edited by Albeback52
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Airfix pricing is going up, nearly bought B17 and support set, priced at £50, I didn't, I have the Revell kit, so I will buy the support set on it's own.

1/72 Victor, £55, big price, I will keep my eye open at shows.

Walrus is my big want, wonder how much this will be, £35 be about right.

2018, much the same as this year, maybe 6 new tools 😊

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