RussellE

Very nice Keith and congratulations on your award! 🙂 Very well deserved!

heheee, silly me getting my builds mixed up! Of course it's Berndm building Bismarck/Tirpitz side by side! Doh! Forehead slap! Amazing to think Trumpy got something as critical as the 4.7"s overscale. Thanks for looking that up for me. From the pictures I can find on Punjabi I think she missed out on the funnel shortening. Great progress btw! Bring it on! 🙂

Hi Keith! Great to see you still lurking around the salty side of things too! How're you going with the twin Bismarck/Tirpitz build and the KGV? Haven't seen any updates on them in a while? That's a shame about the 4.7"s being oversize too... Would you happen to know if there's an AM replacement readily available or is this a Pete "special"? Punjabi was lost in a collision with the KGV quite early in her career before receiving most of the refits the surviving Tribals did, but from what I read she did receive the 4" replacement on X turret. Would any of your references mention if she had the rear turret cut down to accommodate that? Russ

Hi Keith! 🙂 Ooo HMS Eskimo! I'll be watching with interest! Got this one in the stash & it's a toss up between this (as HMS Punjabi) and HMS Daring (T45) as to what gets laid down on the slipway next! I see you've gone the whole hulk on the AM! Great stuff and very neat job on the bow! Now, I see Pete's also given you replacements for the 4.7"s Are you/Is he saying Trumpy got these wrong too? 🙄 Also, what's with the funnel business? 🤔 I've got all the other corrective pieces from WEM and Northstar (boats, props, 4", 50 cal MG's, pom-pom) plus the WEM PE sheet, but it looks like it doesn't end there! PS. Is there a good reference source on these class of destroyer someone can recommend?

Superb! 😀 makes me want to get mine out of the stash and start it, but. Must. Finish. Current. Project. First. There, I said it 😂

really enjoying this build-something a bit different from the "norm" 😊

Fantastic!

Awesome!

I'd go Ju88A as well... 🤔

Se5a in 1/72 would be nice would expect to see a B24 liberator in 1/72 at some point

Airfix are probably watching the current RAF Cosford restoration of the Hampden closely and will time their release coincide with its completion... The Halifax would be welcome indeed... What did Italieri use for their Stirling? An often used method we use in the engineering field is if there is no specification, then you can not be wrong! To a point: In my total stash/completed inventory, I have 3 German and 2 American planes, the rest are RAF! (And believe me, there's a LOT of them!) Agreed: It would be nice to see a new tool Ju88 to complete the BOB collection. As I've mentioned before (and a few others on here) a new tool 1/72 Walrus would be lovely as well, (please Mr Airfix) and also a new tool 1/72 Arado Ar196 to go up against it/compliment it... And yes, I too think Airfix have missed a trick by not releasing a metal wing Hurricane... The Arma looks good from what you can see on their website

FWIW I'd like to see Airfix round out it's 1/72 bomber series: HP Hampden HP Halifax Short Stirling yes, I know the last two have recently been re-tooled by other companies, but I just happen to prefer Airfix, so I say: nyah-nyah nee nyah nyaah 😁

There are plenty of manufacturers out there (Tamiya, Trumpeter, Hasegawa, Revell) who are able to release naval subjects for well over 100GBP and they sell!. Most if not all new releases of 1/350 are over the 100 quid mark, and many over the 200quid. The fact that more and more kits are coming out in these scales is proof that there is a market as they continue to sell! So why can't Airfix get in on the act? Why should they confine themselves to less expensive a/c kits? If the other manufacturers can do it, so can Airfix. Lord knows I've bought plenty of 1/350 ships for over a 100GBP and i'd be willing to pay that for a QE class CV and plenty of others would too. And let's not forget the 1/200 ranges that go for over 200GBP and even things like Trumpeter's 1/48 type VIIc u-boat that goes for nearly 250GBP. Let's not talk about quality as an excuse either-Trumpeter's is as hit and miss as they come, yet they succeed: good choice of topic and correct scale matters. No odd ball scales, just mainstream. 1/700 for bread and butter sales, 1/350 and 1/200. So, like I said earlier, if other manufacturers can release naval subjects and make a profit, why not Airfix?

Except you wouldn't. (LIDAR the hull that is). You'd get the plans (CAD) of the outer hull shape from the MoD, (with their permission of course). And the correct subject choice: Needs to be something recognizable and in demand! most of those have been done already, that's why Airfix need a niche: Modern RN?

I have long held the view that Airfix are in a prime position to re-invigorate their ship line, given their proximity to and contacts within the RN. After dipping their toes into 1/350 scale there's now a great opportunity to get back into ships, starting with the QE carriers. After all, didn't they commission Dave Coventry to build a 1/350 kit and present it to the ship's company? Here I think if they're going to do it though, they need to have both a 1/700 scale kit and a 1/350 of her and her sister. The 1/700 scale kit would generate the sales to make it profitable (it's big at 1/700, 40cm, so this is where most sales will be) while the 1/350 kit would be the, ahem, "flagship" model, allowing Airfix to bring back the T45 and Trafalgar, and also allow it to bring in other modern RN ships as well, as they come online: the Type 26 and 31 and also the batch 2 River class. 1/350 also allows nutters like me to continue to exclusively build in 1/350, and yes I do have the type 45 already. Focusing on the modern RN fleet allows Airfix to have this niche almost all to itself. Funds permitting of course 🙄

Now, I am by no means a spitfire "experten", much more a fancier of Spitfires if you will, but FWIW, as someone with over 20yrs tooling industry experience, I can say with certainty that with modern tooling developments and techniques the question of whether Airfix releases a new 1/24 kit of the Mk1 or MkIX first becomes somewhat irrelevant. If planned correctly with future releases in mind, it is entirely possible for Airfix to tool the Mk1, MkV and MkIX from the one set of tools and the various iterations therein: A B or C. This would allow Airfix to maximize their returns from a minimal investment in one set of tools as opposed to several. Something drastically needed in HH's current predicament. 🤗 Numerically the most important marks were the MK.I (1,566), MK.VB (3,923), MK.VC (2,447), MK.VIII (1,658) and MK.IX (5,665) of which the MK.V and MK.IX contributed more than half of the production total. But, you knew that already.😃 So with this information in hand and considering the financial restrictions on HH listed above, it would make sense to tool the most popular and populous variants from a single tooling investment (Mk1, MkV and MkIX) and in turn be able to release as many variants/sub-variants from that set of tools as possible. Which order that is, as mentioned above is inconsequential given the fact that Airfix would have a versatile set of tools that can mold all 3 allowing them to release each variant over the ensuing years. 🤑 No doubt I will purchase at least one of each, thank you very much! (Much to SWMBO'd chagrin and disapproving comments 😱 Of course, Airfix could surprise us all and releases Scruggs Wunderplane with raised panel lines and overdone rivets! 😛

I'll second that! 😎 with one exception: Airfix will release the Mk IX but cleverly tool it in a way that the other marks (Mk I, V, XIV) can be released in ensuing years from the same set of tools using interchangeable inserts! 🤗

Seems to me, if I were the CEO, the logical thing to do here would be to bring manufacture of Airfix kits back in house. For example, building a dedicated molding shop in Eastern Europe owned and run by Hornby/Airfix, where wages are low enough, but skills are high, (Czech or Slovakia come to mind). This would allow the tool bank to be located all in one location, maintained by dedicated staff, on hand and ready to mold when needed with quality checked on the spot, not after it's been shipped half way round the world and is too late to get the mold back in the machine because some other work has come up! Not to mention the availability of local high quality tool makers ready to supply new tools at competitive costs, close at hand. Then again, I'm not the CEO , so what do I know? 🤔

there's no harm in asking though-what's the worst that can happen? We get a "no" and move on 😊 But we might just get lucky sometimes 😁

Probably not, but given no-one else is producing Wallace & Gromit kits & the age of the property, would it be that cost prohibitive? Might even spur new interest in our inventive cheese fancier & his clever canine friend to Aardman's benefit 🤩

Would be nice to see the Wallace and Gromit kits released again. Rare as hens teeth and fetching wild prices on ebay!

Absolutely superb build Pete. Big fan of W&G (as you can probably tell by my profile pic) and have been trying to get hold of the anti pesto van for some years (with no luck) to go with the W&G plane and motorcycle kits, so reading through your blog was eye candy of the highest order! 😃

Still some left to retool that I'd like to see in 1/72 from Airfix: Yak 3, Yak 9, Ju88, Walrus, Arado Ar196, Metal wing Hurricane, Sea Fury, HP Hampden, Short Stirling, HP Halifax 🤔

EE602 is listed as a MkVC and TA805 is listed as a MkIX🤔

Airfix's lead researcher Simon Owen has written a piece for the latest edition of work bench about his recent visit to the heritage hangar at Biggin Hill & specifically on the Spitfire. In it he states " Our (Airfix's) first Spitfire kit was released in 1955 and I am sure that you will see more editions of this famous fighter coming from us here in Kent at some point." Does this mean we can now all start furiously speculating that the next Spitfire kit will be something special (1/24 MkIX?), How soon it will be released & what they should have released instead? 😂