CliffB Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 Thank you Mike that's very useful. I think within our group of 19 Lancaster models we have a mixture of green and black mines, but none as far as I know in primer red. Now there's a thought..... Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albeback52 Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Thanks to the wonders of Mr Alexander Graham Bell, Alan Turing and Tim Berners Lee, we can now look up such matters: http://www.airfix.com/airfix-products/new-for-2013/aircraft-172-scale/a08001-avro-lancaster-bii-172-a08001/ http://www.airfix.com/airfix-products/new-for-2013/aircraft-172-scale/a09007-avro-lancaster-dambusters-172-a09007/ RRRP is £24.99 for the B.II and £29.99 for the Dambuster version but - usual caveat applies - some retailers are likely to do be doing them for less than that. Price is reasonable for what is after all quite a big model of what looks like excellent quality. I wonder though at the disparity in cost between the 2 versions. I would have thought they'd retail for the same price? Unless of course an additional sprue for the Upkeep mine etc accounts for this. Not having a go. Just curious. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Work In Progress Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) Two explanations for the pricing difference, one speculative and one of known substance. The speculative one first: Marketing. It's the Dambusters' 60th anniversary, and a lot of people will want Dambuster kits this year. So charge what the market will bear. The known one: Study the box tops and you will see that the Dambuster kit is an official RAF endorsed product. It is also known that the MOD trademarked the Dambusters name in anticipation of cashing in commercially this year. So on the Dambuster kit Airfix is having to pay the government a licensing fee. Edited April 3, 2013 by Work In Progress Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albeback52 Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) Two explanations for the pricing difference, one speculative and one of known substance. The speculative one first: Marketing. It's the Dambusters' 60th anniversary, and a lot of people will want Dambuster kits this year. So charge what the market will bear. The known one: Study the box tops and you will see that the Dambuster kit is an official RAF endorsed product. It is also known that the MOD trademarked the Dambusters name in anticipation of cashing in commercially this year. So on the Dambuster kit Airfix is having to pay the government a licensing fee. That's very interesting. Thank you. I accept the marketing point. As I said before, I don't think £24.99 is unreasonable for what is after all quite a big model of what appears to be high quality. Also, while I accept your second point is speculative, I must admit that it never occurred to me. If the extra £5 was going to to a charity like the RAF Benevolent Fund, I wouldn't mind. It just sticks in my throat to think that politicians (throught the MOD) will get their filthy mitts on even more of my hard earned!! I wouldn't necessarily balk at paying £29.99 for Dambuster but, as Jonathan rightly points out, we'll probably be able to pick them up for less anyway. Allan Edited April 3, 2013 by Albeback52 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avro683 Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 It's actually the 70th anniversary. There are some nice looking commemorative publications around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plasticbutcher Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Very nice indeed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaddy Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) Beautiful work. There's only one thing (and I only learned this last week myself, since I am doing a 1/48 Dambuster for display in May): the mine - like all other British bombs - was green. Everybody's been doing it the way you did forever, and we've all been wrong every time. Not a critique of your model, just information for "the cloud." There is no actual evidence as to what the mine colours were on Operation Chastise. "Doc" Watson, 617 Sqn Armaments Officer said that they were all delivered in red primer. He said that both the inert ones and the HE filled ones were indistinguishable. He used a series of marking known only to himself to differentiate the two types. Apparently the idea was that ground crews would never know wether they were dealing with a "live" Upkeep or not. As stated previously, inert mines were supposed to painted grey and HE filled ones supposed to be "green". Other sources state that some were painted black for the operation. It is impossible to to state that colour chosen by Cliff is incorrect, as no records of the actual colours of the Upkeeps used on Chastise were kept. What we do know was at least one of them appears to have been left in it's red primer colour. The intact mine captured by the Germans was reported by them to be of a dark red colour. So it's possible to make out a case that Flt. Lt. R N G Barlow and crew went into action in AJ-E (ED927) with an Upkeep still in primer colour. For other aircraft, with no records available, the choice of colour between green, black or primer remains with the individual modeller's best assessment of likely colour based on his own research. To sum up, if you have the documentary proof, that has been missing these past 70 years, as to what the colour actually was, as opposed to what it ought to have been, I'd be more than delighted to see it. Cheers Edited April 3, 2013 by chaddy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprue Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Spot on Chaddy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Work In Progress Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 That's very interesting. Thank you. I accept the marketing point. As I said before, I don't think £24.99 is unreasonable for what is after all quite a big model of what appears to be high quality. Also, while I accept your second point is speculative, I must admit that it never occurred to me. If the extra £5 was going to to a charity like the RAF Benevolent Fund, I wouldn't mind. It just sticks in my throat to think that politicians (throught the MOD) will get their filthy mitts on even more of my hard earned!! I wouldn't necessarily balk at paying £29.99 for Dambuster but, as Jonathan rightly points out, we'll probably be able to pick them up for less anyway. Allan While my first point was speculative: my second is not. Actually upon looking into it, they may not have Dam Busters under class 28, which is the relevant class for model kits, though they do have it registered as a trade mark in other classes. However if you look at the Airfix website you will see that the trademarked Royal Air Force logo is reproduced on the box art for the Dambuster version of the new Lancaster kit. This is a use under class 28 of the MOD trademark linked below: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmcase/Results/4/EU004795696 It's actually the 70th anniversary. There are some nice looking commemorative publications around. Duh. I walked into that one It is well known that I cannot count... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now