Airfix announcement at Telford 2018, F6F-5 Hellcat 1/24 scale

[85sqn]

On 10/15/2018 at 3:32 PM, trickydicky210 said:

I think its worth mentioning a couple of points here to which Airfix have previously stated when speculating about new tool kits:

1. They wont make 1/32 aircraft - there are others who do that
2. They will only produce kits if a real example exists or if there are accurate manufacturer drawings available.

Now the following is my speculation:

I would guess if its a 1/24 aircraft, Airfix would want to position themselves so that its unlikely to be available elsewhere i.e Trumpeter do a 1/24 Zero & Tamiya do a 1/32 one, so they wont have a unique product if they make a 1/24 zero

So if you take out the 1/32 Trumpy, Revell, Tamiya, Kittyhawk, Wingnut kits (ignoring multi-media and resin such as special hobby, Fly, Silver wings, as you arent comparing apples with apples), then kit subjects such as Gloster Gladiator, Spit Mk1, Defiant, look more plausible.

I suppose you could also mark down kits that are old tool such as the matchbox/revell Venom & lysander, so they could count as speculatives

I would imagine anything that attracts a licence fee, i.e a BAE or boeing product would be overlooked.

If its not 1/24, 2019 is 50 years since Concorde enetered service and i wouldnt be surprised to see a new tool, even if its not the big announcement.

Anyway here ends my speculation (for now)

Rich

Most British a/c will attract some sort of fee to BAE then. As an example: the Boulton Paul Defiant, BAE own the rights, plans etc and it is mentioned on the box of the 1/48 kit I bought yesterday. I know anything Hawker, BAE own amongst many other former manufacturers.

[sniperUK]

1 hour ago, 85sqn said:

Most British a/c will attract some sort of fee to BAE then. As an example: the Boulton Paul Defiant, BAE own the rights, plans etc and it is mentioned on the box of the 1/48 kit I bought yesterday. I know anything Hawker, BAE own amongst many other former manufacturers.

Most are under some companies rights ,the difference is there are a few that rip the bottom out of it others that are very easy to work with such as Westland and BAe , things like Typhoon and F-35 introduce other (security) problems as accurate drawings are classified and forget running a LIDAR scanner over it.

[woody37]

I think it’s gong to be a 1/24 lancaster to trump HK and WNW 😂

[fightersweep]

1 minute ago, woody37 said:

I think it’s gong to be a 1/24 lancaster to trump HK and WNW 😂

 

...and just take a pause to think about the size of that box! 

[woody37]

1 minute ago, fightersweep said:

 

...and just take a pause to think about the size of that box! 

It’s a lot of red ink!

 

[janneman36]

On 10/15/2018 at 4:32 PM, trickydicky210 said:

I think its worth mentioning a couple of points here to which Airfix have previously stated when speculating about new tool kits:

1. They wont make 1/32 aircraft - there are others who do that
2. They will only produce kits if a real example exists or if there are accurate manufacturer drawings available.

Now the following is my speculation:

I would guess if its a 1/24 aircraft, Airfix would want to position themselves so that its unlikely to be available elsewhere i.e Trumpeter do a 1/24 Zero & Tamiya do a 1/32 one, so they wont have a unique product if they make a 1/24 zero

So if you take out the 1/32 Trumpy, Revell, Tamiya, Kittyhawk, Wingnut kits (ignoring multi-media and resin such as special hobby, Fly, Silver wings, as you arent comparing apples with apples), then kit subjects such as Gloster Gladiator, Spit Mk1, Defiant, look more plausible.

I suppose you could also mark down kits that are old tool such as the matchbox/revell Venom & lysander, so they could count as speculatives

I would imagine anything that attracts a licence fee, i.e a BAE or boeing product would be overlooked.

If its not 1/24, 2019 is 50 years since Concorde enetered service and i wouldnt be surprised to see a new tool, even if its not the big announcement.

Anyway here ends my speculation (for now)

Rich

The Dakota for instance is a Boeing licensed thing and they did that one so license does not rule out a specific subject...

[averarandy]

By big news, do they mean a big scale, or big in size, or big news, as in exciting? 

areva

Edited October 16, 2018 by averarandy

[Plasto]

In the blog post ‘Big’ was in bold IIRC so the emphasis is on that word, 

 

It’s reasonable to take it at face value and assume a large kit or subject..

Edited October 16, 2018 by Plasto

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

1 hour ago, fightersweep said:

..and just take a pause to think about the size of that box! 

It would have to be a big box  ! SWMBO will make you live in it. 

[fightersweep]

9 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

It would have to be a big box  ! SWMBO will make you live in it. 

Well, living in a new build as I do, I reckon an Airfix box for a 1/24 Lanc would have more square footage than my house! 

[Tbolt]

1 hour ago, averarandy said:

By big news, do they mean a big scale, or big in size, or big news, as in exciting? 

areva

Maybe it's a "Big Wing" boxing of 50 Spitfire's

[Seahawk]

On ‎10‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 3:32 PM, trickydicky210 said:

2. They will only produce kits if a real example exists or if there are accurate manufacturer drawings available.

This is not quite what the man himself, Simon Owen, said in my hearing this evening.  Noting that he had been misquoted, he said the criterion is whether Airfix can be confident they will be able to make an accurate model.  The example he gave was the Whitley.  There is no intact Whitley to LIDAR and there are only relatively small fragments to examine.  However the shape of a Whitley fuselage is fairly straightforward and they were confident they could get its shape right.  However trying the same approach with the complex contours of a Victor would have been a complete non-starter. 

 

And there are manufacturers' drawings, accurate manufacturers' drawings and accurate manufacturers drawings' containing the data Airfix need to produce an accurate model.  The third category is much less common than one might think.

 

 

[Work In Progress]

Hmm Airfix "misquoted"?  I was there in the room for the live presentation at Telford in November 2014 and heard them convey exactly the meaning alluded to by trickydicky210. However, if they are now happy working with a little more wiggle room then that's fine by me.

 

Claims of "I was misquoted", or close relative "My words were taken out of context" are common political escape routes, but there are worse sins.

[Scott_]

All this talk of large planes at the Museum of Flight (B-47s, B-52s, B-29s) overlooks another large plane that they have. Unlike the others mentioned (well excluding the few RAF B-29s) one that saw plenty of service in the RAF. And a subject similar to an existing catalogue item that has been consistently selling well

 

They have a B-17F

 

http://www.museumofflight.org/aircraft/boeing-b-17f-flying-fortress

 

Just think of how sweet a Coastal Command version would be...

Edited October 17, 2018 by Scott_

[Scott_]

On 10/12/2018 at 6:10 AM, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Is it possible that since they’re already doing the Mk.XIV in 1/48 that the opted to scale that up simultaneously to 1/24th ? Or st the least 1/32nd ? Just me being hopeful but if you're doing one. It seems like it wouldnt be to hard to duplicate the molds in a larger scale ? 

 

Dennis

 

Some speculation on my part - but I don't see them announcing the same aircraft in 24 and 48 so close together - IMO the temptation would be for people to opt for the smaller version (whereas with the Typhoon you either went for the 24 or had the 72nd one - probably not much chance of people cross-shopping those)

 

Airfix currently have just 2 24th scale kits listed on their site - the Mustang and Typhoon. My guess would be that they might do another mark of Spit in 24th - either a BoB Mk.1 to replace their old offering or a Mk.VIII or Mk.IX

[Gordon J]

5 hours ago, Scott_ said:

All this talk of large planes at the Museum of Flight (B-47s, B-52s, B-29s) overlooks another large plane that they have. Unlike the others mentioned (well excluding the few RAF B-29s) one that saw plenty of service in the RAF. And a subject similar to an existing catalogue item that has been consistently selling well

 

They have a B-17F

 

http://www.museumofflight.org/aircraft/boeing-b-17f-flying-fortress

 

Just think of how sweet a Coastal Command version would be...

Now you mention it a B-17F is probably a good call as to what the Airfix Telford announcement might be. They did the G model a few years ago and adding the older F seems the logical next step.

 

I for one would welcome a decent B-17F kit.

[IanC]

I'm sticking my neck out here, but I can assure you it'll either be a very big plane in 1/72, a medium sized plane in 1/48 or a small plane in 1/24.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2018 by IanC

[Procopius]

"Modellers will be excited to know we're re-issuing 2010's Hurricane IIc kit, a very popular seller which will appeal to many."

 

-- Airfix at Telford, probably

[Max Headroom]

13 minutes ago, Procopius said:

"Modellers will be excited to know we're re-issuing 2010's Hurricane IIc kit, a very popular seller which will appeal to many."

 

-- Airfix at Telford, probably

Oh dear.......

 

The transfers were nice though!

 

Trevor

[IanC]

2 hours ago, Procopius said:

"Modellers will be excited to know we're re-issuing 2010's Hurricane IIc kit, a very popular seller which will appeal to many."

 

-- Airfix at Telford, probably

 

Haha. Maybe with the Bf 109G in a dream team dogfight double?

[st george]

4 hours ago, IanC said:

I'm sticking my neck out here, but I can assure you it'll either be a very big plane in 1/72, a medium sized plane in 1/48 or a small plane in 1/24.

 

 

 

 

Any of these would be welcome. 1/72 C130, 1/48 Hampden or a 1/24 BAE Hawk.

[Planebuilder62]

My guess is either a 1/72 Vulcan or  a 1/24 Mosquito bomber. Both are ‘’ big´´

 

 

[IanC]

1 hour ago, st george said:

Any of these would be welcome. 1/72 C130, 1/48 Hampden or a 1/24 BAE Hawk.

 

Think I'd prefer the Hampden in 1/72 though. It would be a perfect companion to the Wellington and Whitley, of course.

 

 

[thepureness]

Several years Airfix had what I would call a Flagship release which was often unveiled at Telford.

 

We have the Valient, Typhoon, Javelin, Victor and Phantom, though the flagship of 2015 the Shackleton wasn't announced at Telford and there hasn't really been a flagship of 2018 but we have the Hunter and 1/48 Blenheim to look forward to.

 

It has got to be something big to get the interest up and would be something that would require huge investment but need instant profit once released, and taking Hornby's current financial situation. They would have to own the market on the kit with no other type of the kit available, at least in the scale they are producing the kit in and looking at their releases over the last few years one aircraft is staring us quite blank in the face. 

 

The Avro Vulcan once more enters the topic and the interest not just in the British market but worldwide, and they have already issued newly tooled kits of the other V bombers in the last 7-8 years. At this stage, I would be completely shocked if they did not produce a new tool Vulcan, and that post a few months ago of Trumpeter's Vulcan teaser probably shocked them into acting now.

[janneman36]

Well a Vulcan would be nice but a Big thing would be a C130 with a new tool Bloodhound and Landy...

I classify the 130 as big...or maybe they are going to do BIG pricing..😱

A Hampden in 1/24 could be nice as well...

Edited October 17, 2018 by janneman36