Airfix Spares 1/76 Churchill

[TheVoidDragon]

I have a 1/76 Churchill that is missing the suspension spring. I part built it and because of that, i'm unable to finish it - I know i should check kits before starting but i'd had this for a while (around 10 years but never opened it until recently), so not sure what happened to that part, really. A while back i sent an email to Airfix after finding out they had a way to request replacement parts, and had read numerous posts from others about these parts being free. They replied quickly, and then asked me to tell them which kit it was...which i had already done. Then they said they wanted £3 for the part, and when i told them that it was ridiculous to ask for £3 for a very small piece of a £6 kit, they said they really meant £2. I decided it wasn't worth that. On the other hand, a while back I'd made a mistake with a Revell Jadgpanther and glued the wheels on backwards (no idea how) - i asked Revell for a replacement for the entire lower half of the chasis, obviously not really expecting it but figured it was worth a try...a short while later half the kit showed up, for free, from Germany, with no postage costs from me needed.  I was a bit surprised that Revell would do that, even though i'd told them it was my fault it was like that, while Airfix wouldn't help without money.

 

Did i just get unlucky or is that how their customer service usually is? It seems they don't even have the Churchill on their site anymore so i'm not sure if i could try again, so i'm just curious if other people have had similar experiences. I'd read a lot of posts about people being sent replacement parts for free so was a bit disappointed, really. I still have a 1/76 Airfix Churchill that i can't complete and i have no idea what to do about it. Has anyone got any suggestions?

 

 

[PLC1966]

In my experience Airfix always asked for £2.00 or £3.00 for spares which to be honest I have never begrudged because I only had good dealings their Customer Service although according to a number on this site that may have changed.  Eduard on the other hand sent me a complete Spitfire Clear sprue to replace a sprue I had trashed by accident for free.

 

You pays your monies and take your choice I guess.  Me, if just to finish the kit, I would have coughed up or asked on here if any kind souls had the spare part.  

[TheVoidDragon]

29 minutes ago, PLC1966 said:

In my experience Airfix always asked for £2.00 or £3.00 for spares which to be honest I have never begrudged because I only had good dealings their Customer Service although according to a number on this site that may have changed.  Eduard on the other hand sent me a complete Spitfire Clear sprue to replace a sprue I had trashed by accident for free.

 

You pays your monies and take your choice I guess.  Me, if just to finish the kit, I would have coughed up or asked on here if any kind souls had the spare part.  

The part could have very easily been packed into an envelope, it didn't need a box or anything like that. If the cost had been say 50p i could understand somewhat and wouldn't have had much of an issue with that, but £3/£2 for a very, very small part of a £6 kit just seemed a bit absurd to me. It was more the principle of it than anything else, i suppose.

[badger]

It's a standard charge I think - I've had them ask for that for a decal sheet but then the same for a complete TSR-2 fuselage (I bought it off ebay and both sides were missing!)

 

Airfix announced some time back they were discontinuing their armour range so stock up now.

 

Ben

[Rob G]

I'm in Australia and need a canopy for my Airfix Vampire - they wanted 5 quid for it (That's about half the price of the kit here). Think yourself lucky that they dropped your price to 2...

 

 

Needless to say, the Vampire is still sans canopy.