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1/24 scale..... What more can Airfix offer ?


Radpoe Spitfire

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I'm pretty sure the Gladiator would outsell the Vampire by a fair margin, particularly if they had all the bits in the box to do a Swedish or Finnish Gladiator with Skiis and a Mk.II (even better if they also included the Sea Gladiator bits). There's good reasons why the Gladiator's been kitted so many times over the years (although we still need a good one in 1/48, the Roden's a PITA to build). And it's got far more interesting colour schemes than the Vampire.

Whilst I'm an advocate of a Gladiator in 1/24th - it's a good subject for that scale, I have to disagree that it has more interesting than the Vampire, in fact I think the Vampire reigns supreme over the Gladiator in terms of variety of colour schemes as it had far more users, similarly the Vampire was pre-eminent during the heyday of post WW.2 RAF and RAuxAF colour schemes whereas the Gladiator was introduced at a time when the bright squadron markings were starting to be covered up.

I'd love to see a decent, volume produced, injection moulded single seat Vampire in any scale but I suspect a Gladiator may be more popular in 1/24th scale.

I have to say that a Vampire would be a good size model for a jet in 1/24th scale though...

Wez

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Whilst I'm an advocate of a Gladiator in 1/24th - it's a good subject for that scale, I have to disagree that it has more interesting than the Vampire, in fact I think the Vampire reigns supreme over the Gladiator in terms of variety of colour schemes as it had far more users, similarly the Vampire was pre-eminent during the heyday of post WW.2 RAF and RAuxAF colour schemes whereas the Gladiator was introduced at a time when the bright squadron markings were starting to be covered up.

I'd love to see a decent, volume produced, injection moulded single seat Vampire in any scale but I suspect a Gladiator may be more popular in 1/24th scale.

I have to say that a Vampire would be a good size model for a jet in 1/24th scale though...

Wez

I'll cop to more Vampire users total (~30 vs 18), I'll strongly disagree on the subject of paint schemes. Both have a strong history of colourful silver schemes, and both have a variety of camo schemes. That said, I'd give the Gladiator the win for unique & interesting schemes (for starters, it's just about the only aircraft to have worn the Skull & Crossbones as actual national markings).

But you can cover almost all Gladiator usage with a single boxing (include skiis and the Mk. II prop and you have pretty much every Gladiator except some of the Malta Defense ones with the jury-rigged engines) while any Vampire boxing is going to cover only a fraction of users and the most common one is going to be a trainer (T.11 and variants) which never are as popular as fighters.

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Well well... now the discusion has reached an enjoyable level...

A Vampire kit with the possibility to make a Mk.1 / Mk.5 / Mk. 6 and Mk.9 would be nice...

I hade Chipmunk on my list, but removed it because it was a trainer. However, there are a lot of them still flying as civilians. In Sweden we have three or four airworthy ones, and we didn't even had them in the air force! I had the opportunity to get a ride in one this summer and I loved every second of the flight.

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V1 would not be that large in 24 scale, to make it a decent 'Superkit' offering with say full internals it would really need to be 1/16 or 1/12. As much as I would like one as large and detailed as that - it's far to niche to heavily invest into in that scale, so I won't be holding my breath.

Marty...

Edited by marty_hopkirk
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That said, I'd give the Gladiator the win for unique & interesting schemes (for starters, it's just about the only aircraft to have worn the Skull & Crossbones as actual national markings).

Details please... :pirate:

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Update the previous kits. Hurricane, Spitfire, Stuka, Me-109, Harrier. Well, I say update, what I mean is new kits with the level of detail of the Typhoon. Don't get me wrong, these are all good kits, I just think they are a little long in the tooth so to speak.

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Well, put me down for a Sea Fury. I can't see me being interested in a Spitfire or Hurricane.

Others I'd be tempted by:

Sopwith Dolphin (as WNW don't look to be bringing one out)

Tempest

Welkin

Hornet

Defiant

Swordfish

Whirlwind (not the helicopter)

B52 (hahahaha)

Venom

Vampire

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Details please... :pirate:

F.19, the Swedish volunteer squadron, wore the Skull & Crossbones on its Gladiators for around 1 week, between the official end of the Winter War and their return to Sweden. It was a case of needing to paint out the Finnish markings but not wanting to officially recognize the fact they were in reality a Swedish squadron deployed to Finland rather than just a group of volunteers.

It is in fact one of the marking options for the Series 2 release of Airfix's recent 1/72 Gladiator, as well as a different aircraft of this group was featured in one of the Roden boxings.

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Hi,

IMHO, going from 1/48 to 1/32 to 1/24 for relatively sleek aircraft such as Spitfire, Hurricane etc is a wasted opportunity for adding/seeing more detail.

If anything, I'd like to see a 1/24 Bulldog or Siskin as an injection-moulded kit, perhaps Swordfish, but we are getting a bit large here.

Cheers,

GrahamB

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Hi I usually don't do 24th scale as there fewer kits available, though one which a lot of people seem to forget is the Gloster E.28/39. We've never really had a good kit of this & I'm sure Airfix could make an amazing job of this important and unusual aircraft. Just think...... full cockpit detail and an accurate Whittle jet engine!!!!

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