old thumper

That is likely the reason, I either missed or forgot about this topic.

This is because nobody proposed or offered to host an RAF centenary build, but if they had of done my guess is it would have done well in the poll. Grumman, lots of people like building Hellcats on here, and especially Eduard Hellcats it seems.

We have now 40 nominations! The group build poll closes very soon, get your votes in now. Thanks all. 1) Old Thumper 2) Ventora3300 3) Rob G 4) Arniec 5) Theplasicsurgeon 6) Malpaso 7) Stevehnz 8) Caerbannog 9) CliffB 10) Zebra 11) Big X 12) Lawzer 13) Greg Destec 14) Adrianmf 15) Antb 16) Paul J 17) Avreda 18) Nigel Heath 19) Rafalbert 20) Jb65rams 21) 825 22) Rick Brown 23) Grandboof 24) Plasto 25) Ray S 26) PLC1966 27) Tonytiger66 28) Rabbit Leader 29) Romeo Alpha Yankee 30) Mad_djg 31) Moggy 32) Tony W 33) PhantomBigStu 34) 1903Flight 35) Threadbear 36) Ozzy 37) Martian Hale 38) Colonel Wreck 39) Bonhoff 40) Croissiant Oliver 41) Stevej60

I find these old Airfix kits are more rewarding and enjoyable to build than a lot of the more modern ones that cost several times as much money. I have had Azur kits that looked as though they were moulded under a hedge by a bloke drunk on cheap cider.

That is fine, I will put you on our list. Don't forget to vote for us in the poll.

I remember building that one as a nipper, looking at yours inspires me to build another.

Or perhaps it was the Aliens that brought them here? Only joking.

The Marauder is a nice kit to build, if you can find one. The 1/72 Mosquito is a pretty good kit and should be easy to get hold of as it is in the current Airfix catalogue. The Hellcat is a personal favorite.

Thanks, I see you are an administrator, could you just let us know if this thread belongs in Aircraft RFI and if not whether it could be moved? To begin with this topic was meant to be just aircraft but naturally as with all things Airfix we have digressed.

Well I was born in 1968 so I was at the age of 10 in 1978, all or most of these kits were already here by then so I have pretty much spent my life with them.

Although I acknowledge probably not Airfix's best kit, this is my favorite Airfix kit of all time the P-38F Lightning. I have built a number of these kits over the years and currently have three built examples in my collection plus one of two in the stash and will no doubt buy more. This kit is Airfix's second P-38 kit first released about 1972-4, their first P-38 kit being a J model dating from the late 1950's. First off the Pacific based sharks teeth box top version everyone knows and loves. Secondly "Pudgy", the alternative scheme from the kits most recent release. The original B- side scheme for this kit was for a North Africa based aircraft. And lastly a build which took sometime to complete, a re-scribed desert camouflaged P-38G. Just as a side note, from a small number of pictures and film clips there is evidence that a limited number of aircraft were given a desert camouflage scheme.

The trouble is there is no rfi for mixed genres and also it would be like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Please carry on posting any nostalgic Airfix pics you have. On reflection I should have included everything Airfix did in this thread.

Yes the original post was just aircraft, but as one conversation leads to another the original topic has widened. I will go with the flow and remove aircraft from the title. I was going to start separate topics for ships and armour but probably best to keep them all under the same roof. It would be really nice if someone could post pictures of the old BSA and Ariel motorbikes. It would also be really nice to see some pictures of the cars again also, not just the Marina and Maxi etc but the old vintage ones as well.

Lovely Hampden. No chance of hogging the thread, the more pictures the better.

I think Revell still produce some of them. There were some kits that Revell never produced that found their way to China.

The guns on the Mosquito look very much like carpenters panel pins. The Hellcat is a strong favorite of my own. I think some kits in the 60's had the glue capsule, later on different manufacturers such as Matchbox included small tubes of glue at times. My eyesight is going the same way, I must build my 1/72 stash before it is to late. Nice Lysander, I have one tucked away in my stash. Thanks, I would like to build the old British motorbike kits again but they cost a fortune now also. Nice to see the Black widow once again, this is one of the kits I am looking out for at shows. Thanks all for your posts, especially those with pictures.

Really nice to see this, very nicely built.

Excellent build. I agree with all the comments about this kit but things like this are a guilty pleasure of mine so very happy to see it.

That looks absolutely perfect, very nice.

Lovely job.

It is probably the most inaccurate kit I have built, but it does have an oddly beautiful shape.

I am currently in the process of moving my model collection into a modified summer house and will be taking the opportunity of photographing my collection of old Airfix kits that I began building around ten years ago when I returned to the hobby. If anyone would like to add pictures of their own builds to this thread then please do. Should anyone be interested in building classic Airfix kits of any type including aircraft, armour, ships, cars etc, then Airfix the Golden Years is waiting for you in the 2018 group build poll which is currently open until the end of this November. The old Airfix B-24J Liberator kit. My build is from a late boxing, unfortunately the Dragon and his Tail decal option has been removed from this kit. The late 50's Mosquito kit, very inaccurate but full of retro character. This kit has some very dodgy painting instructions that include duck egg green for the undersides. Some may remember it from the Me-262 dogfight double. The Original Airfix Wildcat kit. This may have been the first Airfix kit I ever built so an old favorite of mine. The Airfix Hellcat, for some reason I just like the look of this model. The original Airfix Mustang from about 1956, Fools Paradise. The original Airfix Hurricane, again from the 1950's The original Airfix Defiant, not sure how old but old, maybe 1960.

I never really liked those 1980's boxes with built models on top of plans either. I suppose Airfix must have felt the old Roy Cross paintings looked dated even back then, personally though I still much prefer them. I remember often tracing or copying Roy Cross's artwork as a kid, some how Roy Cross made paintings that looked more like the real thing than the real thing did. The other thing with the 1980's built model box tops was that the model always seemed to look perfect. Just recently I built the very old Airfix B-17G "a bit of lace", I found building this kit neatly without cracks and gaps to be very difficult. After finishing this kit I asked myself how the builder of the box top kit had finished his model complete with rivets without leaving big cracks along the joins and gaps around the windows, the answer was if you look closely at the picture all those gaps and joins are visible.

The dogfight double comment was only an observation and not a criticism of the artwork. Although I do have four palm trees in my own back garden I think it is a North African setting on the Panther tank artwork. I assume the reason why the current Panther boxing artwork includes palms is because the original artwork also included palms. I think there was an assumption by Airfix back when the original kit came out that because of the Panthers desert style camouflage that it was based in North Africa rather than Italy.