Gorby Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 I wasn't aware of any of those three - what on earth were they thinking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil.C Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 15 minutes ago, Gorby said: I wasn't aware of any of those three - what on earth were they thinking? They tried to transpose a huge American phenomenon to Britain but it was a completely different market . I remember them from the time and liked that scene. I didn't have any of the airfix but had some Aurora stuff including the Munsters hot rods. Takes me back! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorby Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 42 minutes ago, Neil.C said: They tried to transpose a huge American phenomenon to Britain but it was a completely different market . I remember them from the time and liked that scene. I didn't have any of the airfix but had some Aurora stuff including the Munsters hot rods. I had a few of the Aurora 'Horror' kits (Forgotten Prisoner, Hunchback etc..) but I very much doubt that any of these three would have got my pocket-money vote. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil.C Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 20 hours ago, Gorby said: I had a few of the Aurora 'Horror' kits (Forgotten Prisoner, Hunchback etc..) but I very much doubt that any of these three would have got my pocket-money vote. I think it may have to do with whether you enjoyed the counter culture of the time or in fact if you were old enough! The hot rod stuff reminds me of the style of Robert Crumb a great counter culture artist. A lot of his stuff is NSFW but he drew the famous Cheap Thrills album cover by Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin. Regarding the Aurora stuff, I had to be pretty flush at the the time to buy it as they were 8/- compared to Airfix at 2/-. I did in time collect the whole set of the Famous Monsters as I was really into that scene then. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob de Bie Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 I can probably contribute a bit of nostalgia too: at last year's Euro Scale Modeling (IPMS-The Netherlands) we presented a Matchbox display with all kits that Matchbox produced from 1973 to 1989, range by range. The full story of that undertaking can be read here, with many more photos, but you'll have to run it through Google Translate or similar: Matchbox display at ESM 2016 Rob 15 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil.C Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 ^^ Wow Rob! That is fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansReggelsen Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 Wow indeed - Rob! The memories - oh the memories! Cheers Hans J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonM Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 @lasemonkey Renmodels - the first model shop I ever went in. Plastic card, exotic brands, large scale models hung from the roof. Prior to that it was Cambridge Woolies, pocket money and dad to build the spoils, or later to help me. Aircraft have faded, but we had the railway level crossing, dock crane, signal box and Drewery Shunter. Not sure where he bought them, but as a kid he built the Frog Westland Wallace, Fairey Gannet for me. I can literally still smell glue and enamel as he built a Revell P40 or a P38 on the dining table. The P38 was a favourite, simply because his story how they had escorted his ship to France on D Day. When Matchbox started producing plastic kits my mother worked for our local new agents and told the manager to stock them, purely based on my obsession with making kits! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted January 12, 2018 Author Share Posted January 12, 2018 (edited) Here's both versions of the Series 1 Aircobra.. Built straight out the bag with no extras other than paint. Built to sit alongside the header bag as part of a sixties display, they looked a bit too similar in their green suits. The cure was a whitewash winter coat for the Russian version. I've used a load of artistic licence with the Russian stars on the wing tops, but it looked a bit bland just green. Modelling as a ten year old would have done it. You should have seen an F4 I built, complete with three 20mm gun pods underslung!! No pictures, thankfully. Edited January 12, 2018 by TonyW 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil.C Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 I think the whitewash version looks great Tony. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 With the arrival of the new tool Airfix Phantom I thought it would be nice to remind ourselves where it all started... 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil.C Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 On 24/01/2018 at 17:24, TonyW said: With the arrival of the new tool Airfix Phantom I thought it would be nice to remind ourselves where it all started... I remember buying the top left version at woollies in the '60's for three shillings odd. Loved the model because it had really great decals for the time from the USS Forrestal. I remember reading later about the accident on board which caused a missile to be fired into some parked aircraft. It was in service in Vietnam at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted February 16, 2018 Author Share Posted February 16, 2018 (edited) A few more for the thread. The second issue Airfix Bf109 with a posed up desk scene... This one is a bit out of place in the aircraft end of the Forum, but it kind of belongs in a nostalgia thread. I got away with posting Flame Out Freddie a page or two back, so this one might get lucky as well. The base was knocked up with offcuts of wood used during the model room construction. Pollyfilla provided the muddy road and one or other of the Airfix combat sets supplied the sandbag wall. Looking at it now, the sandbags seem a bit out of scale. I didn't notice that boo boo at the time! It's been said before, but Airfix really missed a trick by not issuing the HP42 in 1.72 scale. It's a good looking kit in the Skyking 1. 144 scale, but imagine the impact a bigger one would have had! Edited February 16, 2018 by TonyW 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 An unbagged early Airfix Zero got assembled and painted over the weekend. The green is as close as I could get to the bag artwork. The camera flash has made the spinner appear a bit orange. I quite like it! Likewise the shiny finish. It was intended to seal in the rather old transfers as a precaution against flaking, but now it's dry I quite like the look, very period. The fuselage has rather deep panel line trenches but the wings are very finely detailed with faint raised lines. At some point I'll get myself an Aurora 1.48 scale kit, the bright yellow finish called for on that one would raise a few eyebrows these days. The Zero bag above is a Type 2 one, so are these Gift Sets... There's another three sets in these generic boxes known, a Trackside set, Lancaster, Wellington and Spitfire one and the set shown in Arthur Wards first book. That one shows a P47 included so the sets ran into the mid sixties at least. There might be more out there, who knows? 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 (edited) The first issue of G for George! Cutting edge 1950's moulding with a stunner of a box. The biggest kit yet attempted by a young Airfix. The Roy Cross type 3 boxart is probably the most memorable, but I like this one a lot. The artist is unknown. The model is a period build and very well finished it is too. It's been built straight out the box by an unknown modeller many years ago. The transfers have started to lift in places, a coat of clear in the near future will take care of that. Edited March 8, 2018 by TonyW additional text. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovely Pig Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 On 24 January 2018 at 17:24, TonyW said: With the arrival of the new tool Airfix Phantom I thought it would be nice to remind ourselves where it all started... I remember the bottom right one, purchased at a local dept store and built in a day. I was taken in by the artwork and the F4 still remains a favourite to this day 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted March 9, 2018 Author Share Posted March 9, 2018 Airfix had the Middle East covered from both sides with these two... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chillidragon Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 (edited) The SAM 3: if I remember correctly, it had Tzade plates on it (short for Tva Haganah L'Yisrael) - after a captured example. I loved the Phantom; I've always felt that primo brewski warplanes should be properly attired for serious damage, and that kit had a huge load. I never saw one in IAF markings, though. Edited March 9, 2018 by Chillidragon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 I definitely got a collection set one Christmas must have been I think very late sixties possibly into the seventies,I remember the bag's and those little glass tubes of paint,Me109 and Spitfire ix were definitely included I think Stuka too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovely Pig Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 3 hours ago, TonyW said: Airfix had the Middle East covered from both sides with these two... I remember building the SAM kit too.spent most of the time flying the missile round the house 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanC Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 This thread continues to be a real tonic. With life being a bit of a trial at present, it's really quite wonderful to revel in a bit of modeling nostalgia. Nothing evokes boyhood memories more than those old Airfix boxes! Keep 'em coming Tony.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted March 9, 2018 Author Share Posted March 9, 2018 Fair enough, have a couple of Dakota's then... Followed by a quartet of rather rare T2 boxed kits, sitting on an Airfix shop poster. All early sixties. At some point the poster will get used as a topper to a rack for displaying some of my kits. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil.C Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 On 08/03/2018 at 13:20, TonyW said: An unbagged early Airfix Zero got assembled and painted over the weekend. The green is as close as I could get to the bag artwork. The camera flash has made the spinner appear a bit orange. I quite like it! Likewise the shiny finish. It was intended to seal in the rather old transfers as a precaution against flaking, but now it's dry I quite like the look, very period. The fuselage has rather deep panel line trenches but the wings are very finely detailed with faint raised lines. At some point I'll get myself an Aurora 1.48 scale kit, the bright yellow finish called for on that one would raise a few eyebrows these days. The Zero bag above is a Type 2 one, so are these Gift Sets... There's another three sets in these generic boxes known, a Trackside set, Lancaster, Wellington and Spitfire one and the set shown in Arthur Wards first book. That one shows a P47 included so the sets ran into the mid sixties at least. There might be more out there, who knows? Great post Tony. Regarding the Airfix box sets, the one I had in the early '60's contained a Hunter and Spitfire, can't remember the rest unfortunately. Re the Zero, I had exactly the same one that came in a Christmas stocking (I guess straight from the shop) along with a Hunting Jet Provost, again in the '60's. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil.C Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 5 hours ago, TonyW said: Airfix had the Middle East covered from both sides with these two... Had the Dogfight doubles, Israeli Mirage v Egyptian Mig 15. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil.C Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 I remember buying the top left Phantom in Woolies back in the day, fabulous transfer set for USS Forrestal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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