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Dennis_C

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Posts posted by Dennis_C

  1. 34 minutes ago, PhoenixII said:

    don't forget, Airfix have boxed a Meteor Mk.8 from the MPM(?) moulds, granted it was around 2012 -'13.

    My understanding is that it was the same moulds that the Xtrakit meat box was popped from, and of course their own Mk.8, Mk.9 and 10.

    I think that Hannant's had the chance to purchase the mould, but decided to go with the cheaper option, don't know if Airfix did similar?

    Interesting to know how re-packaging third-party sprues compares to selling own-produced models in terms of margin. Another question - how profitable is producing molds to sell for others to repack. Airfix very rarely repacks other manufacturers and never sells its sprues to others, while e.g. Hasegawa, Italeri or Zvezda actively trade both ways. 

    For instance, why not to sell B-25 sprues to Zvezda to let it repack with Red Stars?

    • Like 1
  2. I'm speaking strictly about 1/72 since I do not build in 1/48 hence have no ideas about what market is open there. 

     

    So - what could be reasonably expected as a new tool in 1/72 in 2019?

    1) With recent trend I do not believe that we should expect more than 2-3 completely new tools

    2) There are should be something on big side - a 4-engine WWII bomber or a V-bomber. 

    3) In 1/72 Airfix seems to concentrate on various WWII airplanes and to a lesser degree on various post-war RAF/RN aircraft for 1/72.

    Suggestions:

    #1 Avro Vulcan (as an alternative a yet uncovered WWII bomber - Liberator or Halifax)

    #2 one WWII fighter - P-47, P-38, Spitfire Mk.IX, Hurricane Mk.II or IV, Hellcat?

    #3 either a WWII double-engined bomber or something from RAF jet era - so Ju-88 is one logical choice and Meteor is another one (tooled to enable various day fighter versions from at least Mk.III to Mk.10)

     

    And... I do not expect anything more.

     

    Of course I want much more... Definitely I want all those jet aircraft already available in 1/48 - Javelin, Sea Vixen, Meteor + newly tooled Venom, Sea Hawk, Buccaneer, nothing against modern tool Jaguar. I'm just afraid that Swift's 'success' taught Airfix not to invest in those subjects too heavily. Hope Phantom's real success changes that. 

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1
  3. 14 hours ago, Patrick Martin said:

    This is the first year since the Airfix revival started (red box) that no NEW 1/72 'New Tool' has been announced

    We are going to get kits previously announced during 2017, in 2018, but it means a void in 2019.  I see short term thinking going on here

     

    This is NOT good.  All this re-box re-decal stuff would be done by the decal/resin cottage people in good time anyway.

    What we would all like to see is new kits that all the cottage people can build on.... it's an industry that employs a lot of people. 

    Airfix - be a leader, be a believer, invest in yourself, invest in new kits, make it and the punters will come. 

     

    Why even ask us builders (at Telford etc) what we want - when not a single 1/72 NEW kit can be included in the 2018 announcement.

    PM

    Exactly - there is not a single new announcement in 1/72. That's reasonable and understandable. But that is not inspiring. The last 1/72 new tool (Wellington) was announced half-year ago - on June 23rd (!) and I do not think we'll get new announcements till mid-2018. A year between two new tool 1/72 announcements? Seriously???

     

    On the opposite side - I think Airfix should have been doing more re-decalling previously. I believe they actually ran several production batches of such popular subjects as Vampire T.11 or Lightning. Doing each new run with same decal is not really a good marketing IMHO. It's welcome they are changing the approach. 

  4. 1 hour ago, Enzo Matrix said:

    For 2019, I'm thinking that we'll get a repop of the Wellington probably with Coastal Command colour schemes.

    I wonder if their molds would allow to produce Mk.XIII or Mk.XIV versions which I think were definitive for the Coastal Command. Another prediction is a re-release of later bomber versions - Mk.III or Mk.X.

     

    Good thing is that with only one truly new tool in 1/72 in 2018 - which is Wellington - it's highly likely that 2019 will surpass 2018 :)

     

    P.S. another question - does Airfix Sea King kit allows for easy release as SH-3 with let's say 1 extra sprue? Or full new fuselage needed?

  5. 7 minutes ago, Giorgio N said:

    however with these the Series 2 box included some new parts. I'll be curious to see if the Gnat and Tiger Moth get the same treatment or retain the same sprues with the only addition of extra decals.

    What part were missing in original Gnat kits? The only thing I can think of is the screen in front of the rear seat. 

  6. 23 minutes ago, shatters said:

    Surprised to see the phantom fgr2 this year, was expecting an RAF fg1 this year and the fgr2 next year.

     

    Phil

    FG.1 was supposed to be autumn 2017. So naturally FGR.2 is 1 year behind. 

     

    RAF centenary set is definitely for young Johnny / starter kit market being modestly priced at 30 GBP. I do not think there was any other way to put it as low if new tools included... 

  7. 7 minutes ago, Giorgio N said:

    Me.410 Italeri

    Boston/Havoc Special Hobby, reboxed by Revell (not all variants though)

    Skua/Roc Special Hobby

    Meteor 8 Special Hobby, reboxed by the same Airfix in the past

    MiG-17... long story of missed opportunities but there are several kits out there

    Firefly Special Hobby

    Maryland and Baltimore Special Hobby

    Sea VIxen MPM and Cyberhobby (ok, they may be not accurate but are better than the Frog kit)

    P-47 Tamiya

    No early Hunter, but for late ones the Revell is hard to beat

    Hornet Special Hobby

    Attacker AZ

    Oxford AZ

    Venom and Javelin in 1/72 are still missing from that list. And I believe both can be a good marketing choice too. Especially Venom  FB.1/4 with its long operational usage history...

  8. 12 minutes ago, Patrick Martin said:

    If you can set aside all but the one true scale for a short while .... Which kits put out by Frog have not been redone in a better format yet?

    If the marketing has already been done, and kits were released by Frog, would not their list be something to reconsider.... IMHO underlined would sell well

     

    B Shark, Me410, Boston/Havoc, Magister, Skua/Roc, Meteor 8, Beaufort, Mig-17, P-80, Firefly, Hart, Sea Venom, Martin167/Maryland/Baltimore etc, Sea Vixen, P-47Razor, Hornet (prop), early Hunter (ok late to), Javelin, Venom, Oxford, Attacker, Lysander

     

    And done by others better but still plenty of room for improvement (or way cheaper) ....  Tempest V, Barracuda, SSeat Vampire, F-94,

     

    Heck why not a T-Bird or as a re-release Tiger Moth as Thunderbird 6.

     

    PM

    Venom and Javelin are particular on this list as they were not released even as a short runs in several decades.
    MiG-17 is probably next to them as some kits are there but nothing really good even as a short run. And MiG-17 is not Airfix's area of interest. 

  9. If it's a single big new kit announcement among re-releases - that should be a big bomber in 1/72 or a medium bomber or jet fighter in 1/48 or 1/24. So it's either 1/72 Vulcan, or 1/48 Phantom, or 1/24 Spitfire.

     

    Although RAF anniversary set in 1/72 can be an option too. And that should be with one or two new tool kit among other models. In that case my bet:

    Camel (new tool)

    Gladiator (or maybe Tiger Moth)

    Spitfire (or metal wing Hurricane?)

    Hunter new tool or downscaled Meteor (can be EE Lightning though)

    Phantom FGR.2

  10. The worst kit I actually faced in more recent modelling experience was Airfix Centurion tank in 1/76. It had warped body parts which took me a while to properly attach to each other. That experience maybe distracted me from any other armoured vehicles modelling.

    Another bad mainstream kit was Revell's EF2000 that is I think known for having different quality of molds - some are nice and crisp while others are from softer plastic, sometimes warped etc. However the kit as it's designed is probably okay. 

     

    The really awful kits in my life though were MiG-15 and MiG-19 of Leningrad Toy Factory I had in the childhood. MiG-19 was especially awful beast having zero in common with the prototype and extremely simplified. E.g. it did not have undercarriage struts - wheels were glued directly to gear bay doors. Pilot was just a flat piece of plastic as if he suffered from extreme G. Though construction was fairly smooth and quick! Much quicker that I spend on each kit now.

    • Like 1
  11. 17 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

    Not really surprised by these figures. Airfix seems to have been in that range of revenue for a few years, guess that this is their spot in this era.

    That they sell through national retailers is also not surprising, one of the things I've seen about Revell is that they are very present in national chains in their main markets, in the end business come in large part through these channels and securing contracts with big toy shop chains and similar is more important that making happy a couple hundred modellers on a forum...

    It's interesting that while Revell is very well presented in toy shops across ex-USSR (together with Zvezda and some other CIS firms), Airfix is almost non-existent there. For example one of the recently opened general hobby shops in Minsk sells Revell, Zvezda, Modelist, Hobby Boss, Meng (!) - but no Airfix...

    Airfix is still present in specialised modelers' shops along with other mainstream manufacturers - but not in toy chains for some reason.

    • Like 2
  12. I would say there are two kinds of truly bad modern tool kits. Firstly these are poorly molded ones as compared to peers. An examples is Mach 2. Second category are the kits with too many shape errors. An example is OV-10 from Academy I'm now trying to finalise. 

    Maybe the third kind of a problem is ill fitting transparencies. But kits with bad transparencies are typically not that bad overall. 

  13. Why not to issue F.3 Lightning in 1/72? I know they will need to rework F.2A/6 toolings, but wouldn't F.3 sell in good numbers? And based on F.3 tooling - would it be possible to make extra bits to issue F1/1A/2 as well?

     

    Otherwise I do expect that Airfix will announce couple new kits - but unlikely they will hit the shelves earlier than Q1 2019. Hopefully at least one of them would be a 1/72 post-war jet: Bucaneer, Venom, Meteor or something less 'significant'.

  14. 1 hour ago, Meatbox8 said:

    That is an absolutely stunning model.  A great demonstration of using different tones of paint to look like natural metal.  I really like the colourful Canadian markings as well.  I hope you get more time to do modelling in the future as I would really like to see more of your work. 

    Thank you for appreciation!

     

    For multiple tone NMF - I actually just used pure Vallejo aluminium on some panels and Vallejo aluminium with a little grey colour added on others. When looking directly on the model panels have pretty similar tone, but at an angle there is different light reflection making panels look different. I tried this approach first time on Tunnan (on one photo above) and a bit overdone, but I'm very pleased with how it worked on Silver Star. Plus I used darker metal colour on the panel covering guns in the nose. That's visibly darker on actual aircraft photoes. 

    • Like 1
  15. Hi All,

     

    Finally, I managed to complete the first model for this whole year. Somehow finding time for hobby was especially complex. Hopefully I will now gain some speed and would be up to my building plans next year ^_^

    And it looks like there has been a lack of T-birds recently on this forum :hmmm:so here is another one! This time it’s Canadair CT-133 Silver Star in its earliest version of RCAF markings.

     

    IMG_5560

     

    Model is built from Sword kit combined with excellent Leading Edge decals. Sword kit requires some effort to allow for clean assembly. The worst thing in Sword’s kit is the canopy. Front screen does not match in shape and width to the main part. So you can either model canopy open or look for a replacement. In my case, my brother helped me with vacuum pressed canopies that he did earlier for his Sword’s F-94 (it has same issue). Some extensive sanding and dry-fitting was required to make sure canopy sits right on the fuselage.

    Other changes:

    • lower parts of intakes were cut from large lower wings/fuselage part and attached to each of fuselage sides for easier clean up of seams inside of intakes
    • exhaust tube was replaced with a circular one
    • added pitot tube in front of nose gear and fuel discharge tube on the aft starboard beneath the stabilizer
    • sanded fuel tank fillers from outer sides and cut them through in inner sides of fuel tanks               

    Also some mods were required to convert later service period T-33 into an earlier CT-133:

    • equipment cooling vents in front of the canopy were sanded off as these were added later in T-33 life
    • removed 4 of 6 gun port covers (Canadair CT-133’s had actually only two guns!) and drilled out 2 remaining gun ports
    • drilled starter exhaust on the aft port side, removed US-version exhausts
    • repainted some cockpit PE in black

    Otherwise Sword’s kit is pretty decent for a short run kit. As a benefit, Sword supplies resin gear bays, ejection seats and painted PE fret for cockpit and for some external bits. Resin wheels were the only purchased aftermarket.

     

    On to more photoes:

     

    IMG_5657

     

    IMG_5572IMG_5541IMG_5567IMG_5599IMG_5511IMG_5537

     

    And some family shots. First, with its British cousin that was also a very successful conversion of an early jet fighter into a T-bird:

     

    IMG_5667

     

    and second is my full collection of jets with centrifugal compressor engines - could not stand making a collective shot of fatty (or not that fatty) buddies 

     

    IMG_5671

     

    Thanks for looking! 

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

     

    Dennis

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