Should we be expecting a new Airfix release announcement today?

[Knight_Flyer]

Well done Airfix on the P-40. It'll sell by the container load in the US and will find other projects.

I'm a died in the wool aircraft modeller and hope for such types as a Battle in 1/72 (surely only a matter of time), but I'm wondering what has there been for those looking for tanks, ships and the like? Not all of us want things that fly!

Trevor

Not sure if Airfix have made much of an impact and therefore modellers of these subjects aren't expecting much. For instance 1/35 seems to be the main scale for armour and Airfix doesn't do this scale although 1/48 seems fairly popular and they have released a few military vehicles. 1/350 for ships and again only a few and none in 1/700. As for cars - 1/24 is the main scale and again none.

However I don't really make models of these subjects and those who do may know better. Aircraft is really Airfix's strength and I think they should stay with this for the time being.

[Calum]

I can honestly say that something has certainly improved with distribution to Australia.

A few years ago we had to wait the best part of six months in order to see any newly released kits, however this seems to have reduced dramatically to about a few weeks! If they can solve the distribution problem to a little place like Australia, I'm sure they'll rectify any issues with the huge market that the US must be.

The Whitley, Kate and Heinkel are already on our shelves, and suspect the Wildcat won't be too long.

On the down side, I think the poor Aussie exchange rate have inflated these kits somewhat, however that's really out of anyone's hands.

Cheers.. Dave.

With regard to Australia, I believe some places just buy direct from Airfix...Those shops obviously get he kits reasonably quick. Other places seem to wait 2-3 months (which is still better than 6). For example the shop I visit only got the new Hurricane and Spitfires late last month, and I know they get every new release from most major manufacturers. But I have seen them in other shops.

I've found prices for Airfix here seems comparable with most overseas online stores once shipping is included, that includes Airfix direct.

back to the P-40B. To me it seems like a good move, for the obvious reasons i.e. currently poorly kitted in 1/48, vast overseas appeal (USA) and some appeal from UK/Commonwealth countries as it was used by the RAF..

[MikeR]

They are going bananas over on HS.

Good bananas or bad bananas?

Not sure if Airfix have made much of an impact and therefore modellers of these subjects aren't expecting much. For instance 1/35 seems to be the main scale for armour and Airfix doesn't do this scale although 1/48 seems fairly popular and they have released a few military vehicles. 1/350 for ships and again only a few and none in 1/700. As for cars - 1/24 is the main scale and again none.

However I don't really make models of these subjects and those who do may know better. Aircraft is really Airfix's strength and I think they should stay with this for the time being.

I'm inclined to agree. The 1/35 market is pretty saturated at the moment, to the extent Bronco and IBG Models have made a start on British softskins, something I thought would be a bit unlikely!

As for ships, it would be nice for Airfix to do something, but the savaging they received from the ship modelling community after the Daring and Illustrious were released have probably put them off.

Mike.

[dazdot]

It really hasn't,.It's been done in 1/48 with reasonable accuracy only once, by Monogram, a full 50 years ago, and the moulds are now completely shot. The two other attempts, the 20 year old Hobbycraft kit and the nine or 10 year old Trumpeter one, both have serious basic outline problems.

The AMT and Mauve kits of the later P-40 variants in 1/48 are all much superior to the current P-40B/C options.

And have you tried getting either?

[zebra]

With regard to Australia, I believe some places just buy direct from Airfix...Those shops obviously get he kits reasonably quick. Other places seem to wait 2-3 months (which is still better than 6). For example the shop I visit only got the new Hurricane and Spitfires late last month, and I know they get every new release from most major manufacturers. But I have seen them in other shops.

You must be right Calum... had a browse around a couple of the shops in Melbourne the other week, in one of them I heard the Defiant is impossible to get hold of, while the other had 5 or 6 on the shelf, plus Whitleys, Blenheims and a load of other recent releases.

As for the P-40B - doesn't really light my fire (although that might not stop me buying one) but it's good of Airfix to ease the pressure on my wallet by announcing something I'm not particularly interested in for a change!

[Black Knight]

No more B's c's or even d's I want an affordable accurate e f m or n The b and c has been done to death over the years

And have you tried getting either?

[Work In Progress]

Good bananas or bad bananas?

Very much up the good end of the bananas scale when I looked on Friday afternoon

[dazdot]

Cheers for that! That was a reasonable question for something I would have been more interested in. I'd like to know how I was trolling?

[VMA131Marine]

And have you tried getting either?

Italeri still sells a boxing of the AMT P-40M/N kit. There are also the Hasegawa 1/48 P-40E/K/M/N in various boxings. These all seem to be out of production at the moment. None of these kits are hard to get through sites like ebay.

[dazdot]

Thank you

[MikeR]

Very much up the good end of the bananas scale when I looked on Friday afternoon

I had a quick shifty last night and it looks as though the bad banana's have started - something about the shape of the underside, I think.

To be expected, it's part of the process when a new kit's announced!

Mike.

[SleeperService]

I had a quick shifty last night and it looks as though the bad banana's have started - something about the shape of the underside, I think.

To be expected, it's part of the process when a new kit's announced!

Mike.

Isn't the next stage calling the 'references/plans' accuracy into question? I'm never sure where red lined photos fit in the sequence either

[Wez]

I look at it this way, Airfix will have done first hand research at one of the worlds foremost restorers, hopefully they will have used their fancy-dancy LIDAR machine too, I have confidence in their abilities at least to capture the shapes and dimensions of the aircraft accurately - successfully translating that into a model is another thing but again, I have confidence in Airfix to do this.

I'm wondering on what basis someone can say one restoration is more accurate than another especially if the rebuild is to pattern rather than drawing (drawings so often don't often reflect the subtle changes made during production and service), they seldom successfully capture all of the mods made.

As for good bananas/bad bananas, for me a good one is towards the green end of the yellow spectrum with firm flesh before they become too sweet.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Wez

[Space Ranger]

Isn't the next stage calling the 'references/plans' accuracy into question? I'm never sure where red lined photos fit in the sequence either

As a contributor of one of those red-lined photos, I would point out that photogrammetry is a reputable technique for determining angles and distances, but accuracy depends on the angle and focal length at which the photos are taken and the validity of certain assumptions made about the subject (whether a contour is straight or curved, for example). The clarity/sharpness of the photos is also important; drawing conclusions from photos seen at typical screen resolutions of 72-100 pixels per inch is suspect.

Airfix was provided with copies of original Curtis plans for the early P-40 models, so if the plans are correct, then the model should be accurate.

But you have to understand the Hyperscale audience. There are some members of that forum who take delight in understanding the technical details of the subjects they model and want to better understand how new kits represent those details and how to correct errors, if any. I am one of those.

On the other hand, there are Hyperscalers who believe that ALL new kits are gifts from the Gods of the Modeling Industry, to whom we should genuflect and grovel before in reverence and awe and accept such gifts (even though we have to pay for them with our hard-earned cash) and cherish them, warts and all, without turning a critical eye, yea, even constructively, lest we lose favor in their sight and be ejected from the Garden of Modeling.

As for bananas, I'm not much fond of them at all.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Space Ranger

[Wez]

As a contributor of one of those red-lined photos, I would point out that photogrammetry is a reputable technique for determining angles and distances, but accuracy depends on the angle at which the photos are taken and the validity of certain assumptions made about the subject (whether a contour is straight or curved, for example). The clarity/sharpness of the photos is also important; drawing conclusions from photos seen at typical screen resolutions of 72-100 pixels per inch is suspect.

Airfix was provided with copies of original Curtis plans for the early P-40 models, so if the plans are correct, then the model should be accurate.

But you have to understand the Hyperscale audience. There are some members of that forum who take delight in understanding the technical details of the subjects they model and want to better understand how new kits represent those details and how to correct errors, if any. I am one of those.

On the other hand, there are Hyperscalers who believe that ALL new kits are gifts from the Gods of the Modeling Industry, to whom we should genuflect and grovel before in reverence and awe and accept such gifts (even though we have to pay for them with our hard-earned cash) and cherish them, warts and all, without turning a critical eye, yea, even constructively, lest we lose favor in their sight and be ejected from the Garden of Modeling.

As for bananas, I'm not much fond of them at all.

That penultimate paragraph was very funny, I liked that. There are people like that here too.

I remember when Gaston Marty used photogrammetry (is that even a word), to declare certain kits as unbuildable, IIRC correctly, Tamiya's 1/48th P-47 and Zero were singled out as examples of unbuildable, he was pilloried and ridiculed before being tarred and feathered then run out of town. It IS a very difficult technique to right, if the photo is poor quality or the perspective is slightly out it makes the whole technique null and void. I find the whole technique suspect.

I like to understand where a kit is wrong, it allows me to choose whether the error warrants correction, it's my model and my choice but I have far too many times got hung up on minutiae and not finished a model as a result - and lost my enjoyment and mojo as a result.

As for trusting manufacturers plans I'd be very careful about that. I work in the aircraft industry, I know that drawings often don't have changes made during production incorporated onto them, often the changes are on change notes that accompany the drawings, these could have minor changes to shapes or equipment that aren't reflected on the drawings, if you don't have the change notes too you could be on a hiding to nothing. Which is why we often manufacture parts to pattern - make what you see not what you think you see.

I think manufacturers like Airfix that actually do research on real aircraft are more actually likely to capture the shapes correctly (which can only be helped by LIDAR), we've all seen the results when manufacturers just rely on plans.

As I've said elsewhere, I'm looking forward to this kit, hopefully I'll get around to finally making my Winchester Spitfire Bridge "Spitfire"

Edited September 29, 2015 by Wez

[Space Ranger]

That penultimate paragraph was very funny, I liked that. There are people like that here too.

I remember when Gaston Marty used photogrammetry (is that even a word), to declare certain kits as unbuildable, IIRC correctly, Tamiya's 1/48th P-47 and Zero were singled out as examples of unbuildable, he was pilloried and ridiculed before being tarred and feathered then run out of town. It IS a very difficult technique to right, if the photo is poor quality or the perspective is slightly out it makes the whole technique null and void. I find the whole technique suspect.

I like to understand where a kit is wrong, it allows me to choose whether the error warrants correction, it's my model and my choice but I have far too many times got hung up on minutiae and not finished a model as a result - and lost my enjoyment and mojo as a result.

As for trusting manufacturers plans I'd be very careful about that. I work in the aircraft industry, I know that drawings often don't have changes made during production incorporated onto them, often the changes are on change notes that accompany the drawings, these could have minor changes to shapes or equipment that aren't reflected on the drawings, if you don't have the change notes too you could be on a hiding to nothing. Which is why we often manufacture parts to pattern - make what you see not what you think you see.

I think manufacturers like Airfix that actually do research on real aircraft are more actually likely to capture the shapes correctly (which can only be helped by LIDAR), we've all seen the results when manufacturers just rely on plans.

As I've said elsewhere, I'm looking forward to this kit, hopefully I'll get around to finally making my Winchester Spitfire Bridge "Spitfire"

Yes, "photogrammetry" is a word:

photogrammetry |ˌfōtəˈgramitrē|

noun

the use of photography in surveying and mapping to measure distances between objects.

DERIVATIVES

photogrammetric |-grəˈmetrik| adjective

photogrammetrist |-trist| |ˈfoʊdəˈgrømətrəst|

Photogrammetric techniques have used by photo interpreters and intelligence analysts to estimate sizes of objects (and deduce their possible identities) for years. I was first exposed (!) to it when I worked for the Texas Highway Department while in college in the late 1960s-70s. We used it then to plot alternate rights-of-way alignments for future highway projects, a process that is still used. But we were dealing with long-focal-length aerial photos with minimum distortion, and we had various maps and plats of known accuracy to verify our photogrammetry.

[Wez]

Yes, "photogrammetry" is a word:

photogrammetry |ˌfōtəˈgramitrē|

noun

the use of photography in surveying and mapping to measure distances between objects.

DERIVATIVES

photogrammetric |-grəˈmetrik| adjective

photogrammetrist |-trist| |ˈfoʊdəˈgrømətrəst|

Photogrammetric techniques have used by photo interpreters and intelligence analysts to estimate sizes of objects (and deduce their possible identities) for years. I was first exposed (!) to it when I worked for the Texas Highway Department while in college in the late 1960s-70s. We used it then to plot alternate rights-of-way alignments for future highway projects, a process that is still used. But we were dealing with long-focal-length aerial photos with minimum distortion, and we had various maps and plats of known accuracy to verify our photogrammetry.

Well you learn something new every day, thanks for that

Going back to Airfix, I applaud their intention to use good engineering drawings and to measure/LIDAR a real aircraft, that way we wouldn't get caricatures of aeroplanes rather than something that's truly representative of the subject.

I'd love to see a 1/48th Hawker Hind - that would be a treat!

[SleeperService]

My remark was a little tongue in cheek but some of the pictures of proof were blown up and enhanced before the red lines were added. In some cases the picture could have been assessed as saying anything.

However I've learned something from your replies for which I Thank You.

IMHO if something is amiss such that something is out of alignment or that one area is bigger than another when the reverse should be so then that will annoy the heck out of me. hich is the case with the Trumpeter Westland Whirlwind and Hornet

In my experience if a kit has a serious error somebody will work out a way around it then the rest can decide whether they apply the fix or live with it. I'm fine with that.

I love the Gods of the Modelling Industry bit as well.

[Rabbit Leader]

If Airfix is true to recent form - then should we be expecting a new announcement within the next 24 hours?

Yes - there's the recent rumour milling around that it's a new British Phantom, but I hazard to suggest - what if it isn't !!

Technically this is another US subject, although it has been rather nicely anglicised with those whopping large Speys.

Time will tell I suppose - good luck with your favourite choices, but someone will be striking another subject off those ever growing wishlists!!

Cheers.. Dave

[Patrick Martin]

So now every second Friday is - Dream Friday?

[JimHead23]

I hope you get it as spot on as last time Dave!

I've got my fingers crossed for a Hampden or a Battle.

Regards

Jim

[VMA131Marine]

If Airfix is true to recent form - then should we be expecting a new announcement within the next 24 hours?

Yes - there's the recent rumour milling around that it's a new British Phantom, but I hazard to suggest - what if it isn't !!

Technically this is another US subject, although it has been rather nicely anglicised with those whopping large Speys.

Time will tell I suppose - good luck with your favourite choices, but someone will be striking another subject off those ever growing wishlists!!

Cheers.. Dave

If it's not a Spey Phantom, my guess is a 1/72 Victor or more WWI aircraft

[dpm1did1]

A new Class 08 shunter...that'll annoy the Phantom Pholke.

Well the Hornby crowd got a shiny new one...it's about time the shake-n-bake lot got one too.

Edited October 8, 2015 by dpm1did1

[Max Headroom]

Two releases in 1/72. A tin wing Hurricane I and a Spitfire Vc.

Trevor

[PhantomBigStu]

if tommorows announcement is related to yesterdays teaser, then of course were pretty sure it is the spey phantom, with a few others from the same hanger less likely, could well be a red herring, with the spey phantom (or whatever else it is) for another week