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Airfix kits that need a re tool ? whats next?


keith in the uk

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I agree with the last comment. Whilst Airfix are most certainly not without their flaws like any other model company, they've released subjects no-one else has touched, such as the Westland scout I'm beating into submission right now.

Whilst there's a lot wrong with the kit I'd still rather have it and have to put some work in than not have a kit of it at all.

I find I get a far greater sense of achievement from some of the older kits that I have to work at, rather than a "shake and bake" tamigawa kit.

Each to their own however!

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I have one in my Deep Stash. :smartass:

And I even think I've got two of them! :cheers:

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.. I'd still rather have it and have to put some work in than not have a kit of it at all.

Spot on. The rest of the world hasn't exactly been queueing up to provide us with, say, a new Handley Page O/400.

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Spot on. The rest of the world hasn't exactly been queueing up to provide us with, say, a new Handley Page O/400.

Strange you should mention that kit - I have a part built one up the attic somewhere I started years ago!!!!

Edited by badger
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New or retooled to the standard of their brand new kits then I would like to see (all 72nd scale)

Hurricane Mk1

Westland Whirlwind (fighter bomber)

Sopwith Dolphin (still waiting for Mr Jackson to announce this in 32nd scale)

Bristol M1C

Sea Hornet

Sea Mosquito (with folding wings)

Sea Fury

Boulton Paul Defiant

Blenheim

Me 262

Gloster Gladiator

Lightning

Fairmile D

Vampire

Venom

Anson

Walrus

Typhoon

Tempest

Meteor

Hamilcar

Fairey Firefly

Fairey Battle

DH 98 Dominie

Bristol Brigand

Beaufighter

Avro Lincoln

Airspeed Oxford

Edited to add scale

Edited by Folkbox1
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Before we take the time to do this, do they (Airfix) notice forums? Perhaps Nicholas Cove might give us an indication!

Can I assume that since Airfix haven't responded in the last 4 days, they in fact do not go on Britmodeller?

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Now that would be an interesting list:

Skua

Whitley

Gloster E28/39

Tupolev SB2

Maryland

Blenheim MkI (sorry, had to keep nudging that one to keep it top of the list!)

Shark

Vengeance

He219

Me410

DH Hornet

Vimy

He111

P-51A

Wallace

Magister

Sea Fury

D.520

D.XXI

Attacker (Airfix could also re-pop their Sea Hawk)

Gannet

Beaufort

Master

Barracuda

Wyvern

Oooh the possibilities...!

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Now that would be an interesting list:

Skua

Whitley

Gloster E28/39

Tupolev SB2

Maryland

Blenheim MkI (sorry, had to keep nudging that one to keep it top of the list!)

Shark

Vengeance

He219

Me410

DH Hornet

Vimy

He111

P-51A

Wallace

Magister

Sea Fury

D.520

D.XXI

Attacker (Airfix could also re-pop their Sea Hawk)

Gannet

Beaufort

Master

Barracuda

Wyvern

Oooh the possibilities...!

Quite! You missed also Baltimore, Boston, Hotspur, Proctor, Fairey Delta II, EE P1 (!), Bristol 138 (!), Oxford, Shackleton (!), Beaufighter, Sea Venom & Javelin.

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Can I assume that since Airfix haven't responded in the last 4 days, they in fact do not go on Britmodeller?

I doubt you'll get an official Airfix response on a forum, even though they read them - once bitten twice shy. They do respond to questions on their Facebook page.

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This comment can surely only be made with zero knowledge of a lot of the older kits. Some of them are stinkers, for sure, but a lot of them are still perfectly good.

The other thing to remember is that not everybody that builds kits does so to count the rivets and measure the thickness of the elevators with a micrometer. There are many people out there that build kits because they like aeroplanes and even if some are mildly inaccurate, they are all recognisable as the subject they are meant to be.

Also, kids that throw together kits on a Saturday afternoon probably don't care that "...the radiator on that mark should be 0.7mm to the left..." etc but do want a wide range of relatively inexpensive kits they can hang from their bedroom ceilings. If it gets them into modelling or aeroplanes all the better.

For these modellers, their extensive range, price and availability makes Airfix the first choice.

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I have noticed that since Airfix have come under Hornby ownership the company in my opinion has gone from strength to strength with some surpurb new kits like the Sea Vixen , Nimrod , Valiant

and a soon to released Spitfire MK22-24 in 1.72nd scale and of course the Lightning reissues.

Looking through the current Airfix catalogue there are still a lot of the old tool kits which could do with an update.

I was wondering if this is Airfixs current policy to update the old kits or compleatly release new tool kits of the same subjects ? ( And some new ones along the way )

If so i would love to see the Typhoon , Tigermoth , Hampden etc get the same treatment.

Keep up the good work Airfix i look forward to your next releases. :thumbsup:

I'm looking this subject without British glasses. Also I'm trying to look the big picture of different kits available from different manufacturers wheater they do or not do profit for Airfix.

Need ot be redone:

- C-47/DC-3!!!

- Blenheim I/IV/V (but not from Caruana's drawings!)

- Fieseler Storch,

- Fiat G.50. AML is a dog to built!

- AVRO 504K,

- F.27,

- Bf 109G, Hurricane IIC, MiG-15...

- Hawk 75A/Mohawk (would have been easy to be done as a variation of the Tomahawk...)

- Gladiator,

- Lysander,

- Hs 126,

- Airacobra,

- Hurricane I (Corgi looks nice...),

- Tiger Moth (and the DH 60 family too!),

- Ju 87 (B, D, G),

- Il-28/Il-28R,

- Fouga Magister,

- etc.

What I have been wondering for a long time is that there is no state of the art kits of the Vampire family. Especially the double-seaters are sorely missing.

Cheers,

AaCee

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Spitfire F.XIVe please. With optional fuselages and canopy.

In 1/48. I'm happy to have two different kits for the full and cut-down fuselage versions. Of course, the cut-down fuselage version would have to have optional wingtips and a broad chord rudder to give us a Mk XVIII. Careful tooling could even give us a XIX.

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Also, kids that throw together kits on a Saturday afternoon probably don't care that "...the radiator on that mark should be 0.7mm to the left..." etc but do want a wide range of relatively inexpensive kits they can hang from their bedroom ceilings. If it gets them into modelling or aeroplanes all the better.

And thats the point as far as the future of modelling is concerned. Most of us probably started making models by buying a kit with your pocket money each Saturday, building it in an hour, breaking all propeller blades, aerials etc it in a week and then doing the same the following Saturday (well thats how me and Matchbox got together in the seventies). Kids can do that with an Airfix kit but can't do that with a Tamiya etc. And I am sorry but if we price the kids out today the hobby will die tomorrow. If people like Airfix can produce reasonable looking kits at a reasonable prices it is fine by me, I can enjoy doing a poor Airfix kit (I am on an old Airfix 1/48 Spit Mk VB at the moment and it is a really poor mould) as much as a lovely but twice as expensiveJapanesekit.

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If we're only talking about subjects that Airfix have previously released being re-tooled then...

...in 1/72nd:

Puma

Mosquito (to include the twin stage Merlins)

Hawker Typhoon

Lysander

F84F Thunderstreak

Hurricane I

Blenheim

Spitfire Vc

Lynx

F-80 (current kit is entirely serviceable just has raised lines)

F-86D (ditto)

Tiger Moth

Hawker Demon

Gloster Gladiator

Harvard (not Texan)

Firefly

Beaufighter (I know there's the Hasegawa kit but it costs an arm and three legs)!

Defiant

...there's plenty more but that little lot should keep them going for a year or two.

If we expand onto kits they've done in one scale that they should replicate in another, well... ...in 1/72nd:

EE Lightnings (just scale down the 1/48th kits please)

EE Canberra B2/6 (what's stopping you from doing this Airfix)?

DH Sea Vixen

Seafire 47

That really is enough for now, better stop before I get a nosebleed! I must say, I really like Airfix's recent output, the surface detail may not be to everybody's taste but I'd say their Swordfish, Zero, P-40B, Gnat and the new Spitfire 22 are great kits!

Wez

Edited by Wez
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A new Blenheim would be my first choice, closely followed by a Beaufighter.

Then

Wellington

Stirling

Sunderland

Halifax

Superfreighter

Buccaneer

Battle

Jet Provost

Belvedere

Hudson

Mirage

HP 0/400

Their old 1/600 ships...Warspite, Hood, Ajax, Suffolk, Hotspur etc etc

The list is endless, just about all their distinctive stuff I guess.

Pete

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  • 3 weeks later...

If we're talking WWII, then top of the list for me wouldn't be one of there own to re-tool- but a Whitley is a must!!!!! please. :partytime:

Follow this with re-vamped Hampden, Halifax BIII, Defiant & Blenheim.

Oh & just market the David brown tractor & trollies as a kit in it's own right, then chuck in a decent Watch office to scale (1/72, not HO/OO), or even a hangar front for diorama's :winkgrin:

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One kit I would like to see Airfix re-tool completely is the 48th Buccaneer.I built the orginal kit when it first came out and it was a S*d to do .A Bucc up to their Lynx standard would be great.

Phil

Here Here, I agree completely, that cockpit is just a step up from the old Linbberg and Hawk kits with the pilot glued to a flat stick. But retooling costs a lot of money and they need to pick and choose carefully, still they can't go wrong with the best low level attack platform of the Cold War.

Cheers

Edited by Spitfires Forever
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eeeeeeeeevnin all

(ok everyone, now just breath in and out and relax... this ones not about airyplanes)

My vote would go to Airfix retooling and releasing their old motorbikes. Theres probably more chance of me buying the moon than that happening, but they are/were cracking little kits.

Ok, well I know that some of you may find this extremely sad, and possibly heretic, but i have only ever owned / built four airyplanes, My Hasagawa Wright Flyer and Camel, and the Airfix Lancaster and Stirling i got for xmas in the early eighties and the Stirling i loved... and would recant my heresy for a nice retool.....

and nope, never built a Spitfire... Was never really into 4 wheeled Triumphs :)

Steve

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Well all i can say is the easiest way to put people of modelling is buy the Victoria Cross Ikons set. It is absolute junk The Blenheim is going straight in the bin,I won't bother with the Hampden and I am trying to make something of the Battle that resembles an aircraft. The Hurricane with much work was better. This set was bought for me as a present otherwise Mr Airfix could have all £29.99 of it back!!!!

DO NOT BUY THIS SET, RUBBISH DOES NOT COME CLOSE TO DESCRIBING IT!

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Well all i can say is the easiest way to put people of modelling is buy the Victoria Cross Ikons set. It is absolute junk The Blenheim is going straight in the bin,I won't bother with the Hampden and I am trying to make something of the Battle that resembles an aircraft. The Hurricane with much work was better. This set was bought for me as a present otherwise Mr Airfix could have all £29.99 of it back!!!!

DO NOT BUY THIS SET, RUBBISH DOES NOT COME CLOSE TO DESCRIBING IT!

Which is the whole point of this thread really - those kits you've mentioned really are very, very old and are prime for re-tooling, I don't know which of Airfix's Hurricanes the set includes but if it's their Mk1 it dates from the late 70's/early 80's - having said that it's a really nice kit.

As for the Blenheim, Battle and Hampden - I don't think you'll find many here who wouldn't want to see those subjects re-tooled!

Wez

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