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New 1/48th Scale Blenheim Announced by Airfix!!


tonyot

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I'm absolutely delighted, my most wanted subject (albeit as a Mk.IV) ever.

I've never been quite ready to start the CA kit sat in my loft, I should be able to get half a dozen Airfix subjects built in the same timescale as one of those...

 

Truly fantastic news for this man,

 

Cheers,

Bill.

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16 hours ago, Scott_ said:

Oh sure Airfix - go and release a beautiful Blenheim in 48th. Nice job.

 

Now what do I do???   :P

 

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I'd throw the dreadful MPM kits away for starters and then have three goes at making the Airfix ones.

 

With luck you'll end up with at least one model that you won't have hurled against the wall in frustration and is fit to take its place on the display shelf...

 

 

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22 hours ago, Denford said:

 

Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes. must have, me want, licence to print money, etc...

 

Had the CA kit and passed it along years ago and have often considered getting another for a Operation Banquet mini theme. 

 

 

Christian, exiled to africa

Edited by wyverns4
behind with the times...
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20 hours ago, Hub Plott said:

Thanks for this.  I had no idea that anything from a Hornet existed, and when I last visited the de H Heritage centre neither did they!

That said, the restorers have a huge and expensive task ahead of them.  Were I Airfix, I would wait until a substantial rebuild had been completed, then 'link' the tooling to the restoration.  5+ years I'd say with another 2-3 years work to produce a kit.

Not sure I'll be around to see it, but my two Skybirds models are OK for me and capture the elegance of the real thing.

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Noice - I'll have to get at least one.

 

But it raises the question - why is Airfix so allergic to a Beaufort? That would have to sell at least equally well, yet I gather it's not even on the Airfix radar.

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On 13/10/2017 at 10:17 PM, Scott_ said:

Oh sure Airfix - go and release a beautiful Blenheim in 48th. Nice job.

 

Now what do I do???   :P

 

6f4Oq6v.jpg

Err...build them?   At least they're proper scale for a British aircraft.

 

I've still got two proper Airfix Blenheims to build, one lovely Roy Cross and one ghastly photo boxart!

Cheers Will 

 

PS is the price blacked out so your significant other doesn't find out or so we don't cry/snigger at how much you paid?

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2 hours ago, Admiral Puff said:

Noice - I'll have to get at least one.

 

But it raises the question - why is Airfix so allergic to a Beaufort? That would have to sell at least equally well, yet I gather it's not even on the Airfix radar.

Patience, dear boy, patience.

 

Once the Beaufort in Australia is restored to flight, the Airfix research team will pack their t-shirts, hats, sun-cream and LIDAR gear and be on the first A380 out there.  Or they could just drive up to Hendon but where's the fun in that?

 

Cheers Will 

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Lovely, what AIRFIX is giving to us these days! Hope, we'll reward their efforts with buying enough of their kits... I would appreciate a Blenheim Mk.IV in 1:48th scale, too, - and a HP Hampden (1:48) as well!!

Rock on, AIRFIX! You made my boyhood days and now you're making my senility, haha!

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13 hours ago, Admiral Puff said:

Noice - I'll have to get at least one.

 

But it raises the question - why is Airfix so allergic to a Beaufort? That would have to sell at least equally well, yet I gather it's not even on the Airfix radar.

Wouldn't say they were 'allergic'.

For every subject tooled, another has to be 'dropped' or at least postponed.

What is your source of information that it isn't even on the Airfix radar?

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On ‎14‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 11:17 AM, Heraldcoupe said:

I'm absolutely delighted, my most wanted subject (albeit as a Mk.IV) ever.

I've never been quite ready to start the CA kit sat in my loft, I should be able to get half a dozen Airfix subjects built in the same timescale as one of those...

 

Truly fantastic news for this man,

 

Cheers,

Bill.

Could be a while before Airfix tool a Mk IV though ( if ever) . Look how long the new Hurricane has been out and no rag wing one yet.  I recall building my CA Mk I and it wasn't too hard. Biggest issue was grinding off the huge pour stubs on the U/C bays.  Later kits have smaller pour stubs. The Glazing was a little trying too, but overall it was one of the better limited run kits I have built.

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15 minutes ago, neilh said:

Could be a while before Airfix tool a Mk IV though ( if ever) . Look how long the new Hurricane has been out and no rag wing one yet. 

The differences between a metal and fabric-winged Hurricane lie a lot deeper though, new wings and new fuselage to take account of all the changes. Airfix have demonstrated how much commonality there is between the Mk1 and MkIV Blenheims in the way the 1/72 tooling was broken down. I don't see them missing a trick with this one, especially with their having studied the survivor in Finland.

 

Either way, I'll be more than happy with a Mk1 Blenheim or two. 

 

Cheers,

Bill.

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2 hours ago, Denford said:

What is your source of information that it isn't even on the Airfix radar?

My main source is a conversation I had on my last visit to Telford a couple of years ago with various individuals, including a couple from Airfix, all of whom I regard as reliable sources and all of whom said that Airfix had no plans, whether short- or long-term, to do a Beaufort in ANY scale. 

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16 hours ago, Admiral Puff said:

But it raises the question - why is Airfix so allergic to a Beaufort? That would have to sell at least equally well, yet I gather it's not even on the Airfix radar.

The Beaufort has nowhere the public awareness that the Blenheim has, choosing this subject makes far more sense sales wise.

 

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It's a Series 9 A09186 - so £36.99 https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/shop/aircraft/military-aircraft/bristol-blenheim-mk-if-1-48.html

 

Same as the Walrus/Meteor and its due in Nov 2018, expect a MkIV will be announced before its on the streets.

 

 

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On 10/15/2017 at 6:31 PM, malpaso said:

Err...build them?   At least they're proper scale for a British aircraft.

 

I've still got two proper Airfix Blenheims to build, one lovely Roy Cross and one ghastly photo boxart!

Cheers Will 

 

PS is the price blacked out so your significant other doesn't find out or so we don't cry/snigger at how much you paid?

 

I've already built one of the Airfix Mk.1s. As for the censored price - it was actually someone else who did that, then sold it to me for $20 - bargain!

 

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On 10/15/2017 at 12:45 AM, IanC said:

I'd throw the dreadful MPM kits away for starters and then have three goes at making the Airfix ones.

 

With luck you'll end up with at least one model that you won't have hurled against the wall in frustration and is fit to take its place on the display shelf...

 

 

 

Current plan is to keep the Mk.V as it's the only game in town. I was planning on selling the MPM Mk.IV, because who needs 3 Blenheims of the same mark.

 

Then of course Airfix goes and announces this Mk.IV in a scheme I've loved since I was a kid and oh well dammit Airfix I guess I can cope with 3...

 

Spoiler

LovDwhs.jpg

 

 

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Source: https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/news/workbench/airfix-classics-on-finals/

 

Quote

New Blenheim strikes a chord

 

B_New_Airfix_Bristol_Blenheim_MkIF_A0918

Computer rendered 3D Blenheim images shown last week caused some excitement in the modelling world.

 

Amongst the most rewarding content we can bring you within any edition of Workbench, the announcement of a new tooling project is the culmination of many months of work by our development department, whilst also being a time of great excitement for the entire Airfix team. We know that our readers are really interested to receive these exclusive announcements, but we are clearly equally interested to see how well our new tooling projects are received by modellers in the days following the exclusive reveal. The new 1/48th scale Bristol Blenheim Mk.IF announcement made in the previous edition of Workbench seems to have caused quite a stir within the modelling community and we are pleased to report that we have been inundated with complementary messages from delighted modellers regarding this fantastic new model. Its seems that many people share our excitement regarding this spectacular new model and we are grateful for the many e-mails we have received from readers all over the world, who are very much looking forward to adding this larger scale Bristol Blenheim to their future build schedules.

 

C_New_Airfix_Bristol_Blenheim_MkIF_A0918

Workbench readers are now familiar with the CAD screenshot images produced by the Airfix design team.

 

With the Blenheim occupying such a prominent position in the history of a modernising Royal Air Force, it is no wonder that the announcement of our new model was met with such overwhelming support and as this 1/48th scale beauty will be released during next year’s RAF centenary commemorations, it is already looking certain to be one of the modelling highlights of 2018. It has also not been lost on our readers that this will be the first time that a twin piston engined WWII subject has been covered in this larger scale and will utilise all the very latest design and development techniques that have met with such popular acclaim over recent years. As you may expect, many of the e-mails of support we received this week also included numerous suggestions for other new models you would like to see produced in the future. Whilst the Airfix team would clearly love to have unlimited development budget to bring you as many new model toolings as possible, commercial realities dictate that it may take some time to work through the many suggestions we received. What we certainly can say is that all these suggestions are both interesting and gratefully received by the team and we may well see a number of them announced as new tooling projects within future editions of Workbench in the years to come.

For now, we would like to thank everyone who kindly sent in their Blenheim e-mails, whilst also apologising for being unable to answer them all individually - there simply were so many of them. Obviously, we will endeavour to bring you regular updates from this project as it progresses through the development process, as this is clearly a model that will be of great interest to many Workbench readers. As detailed in our previous blog, the scheduled release date for the new Bristol Blenheim Mk.IF (A09186) is November 2018 and interestingly, we hope to have the prototype model on our stand at Telford in a couple of week’s time. If you are heading down to Scale ModelWorld, please come along to inspect our Blenheim, but if you are unable to make the show, rest assured that we will take lots of pictures and include a report in a future edition of Workbench.

 

V.P.

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"we are pleased to report that we have been inundated with complementary messages from delighted modellers regarding this fantastic new model. Its seems that many people share our excitement regarding this spectacular new model and we are grateful for the many e-mails we have received from readers all over the world.."

 

Do people really do this? I've never emailed a model manufacturer to say how thrilled I was. Isn't buying the thing enough?

 

I feel like a right old curmudgeon. :lol:

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On ‎10‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 9:04 AM, IanC said:

"we are pleased to report that we have been inundated with complementary messages from delighted modellers regarding this fantastic new model. Its seems that many people share our excitement regarding this spectacular new model and we are grateful for the many e-mails we have received from readers all over the world.."

 

Do people really do this? I've never emailed a model manufacturer to say how thrilled I was. Isn't buying the thing enough?

 

I feel like a right old curmudgeon. :lol:

 

I did write to Airfix primarily to suggest they include the blast plate visible on several photos of MkIf airframes...but my email did include some hearty gratitude for embarking on this kit.  Maybe I'm weird but I WANT Airfix to keep releasing kits like this Blenheim and the Walrus (and the Defiant).  Yes, I know they need to keep churning out P-51s and Spitfires but I will do all in my power to encourage them to keep including more esoteric subjects in their range.

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