Airfix’s new Spitfire

[Sturmovik]

7 hours ago, cmatthewbacon said:

but there IS no aircraft that’s “equally iconic” when compared with a Spitfire

Depends on the country though. For the British here, the Spit might be the most iconic, for an American, it might be the P-51, and for the Germans, the Bf 109 or Me 262.

[Denford]

And for Japan the Zero

[Work In Progress]

And for the British general public, still the Concorde

[72modeler]

9 hours ago, Work In Progress said:

Even some sceptical modern-day Americans like it

Don't get me wrong, WIP- the GT6 was a sweet little machine- one of my college mates had one and it was a blast to drive; much better all the way around than the AH Sprite and the MG Midget; it also had a sweet exhaust note! Having said that, I preferred my Opel GT! See the link to the magazine ad I was talking about- isn't that Shuttleworth's Mk Vb? We now resume our regularly scheduled broadcast.

Mike

 

https://hushkit.net/2013/03/04/triumph-spitfire-versus-triumph-spitfire-cars-fight-their-flying-namesakes/

[janneman36]

At least i know i won’t spit on this one...

[Ham Hands]

On 18/05/2019 at 07:40, phildagreek said:

So Airfix have released a new Spitfire. Anyone else not really impressed & dare I say a little disappointed?

 

Don’t misunderstand me, i know it’s an iconic aircraft, perhaps THE iconic aircraft. With a history of heroes, the right aircraft at the right time & so on. And a sound, what a sound of a BBMF Spitfire going through it’s paces. I’m old enough to have read pretty much all the books as a young lad about Bader et al & it’s important stuff to know.

 

But another Spitfire kit, really? I know it’s commercially driven & it’s a business but another Spitfire. Where’s the imagination? There are so many great & equally iconic British aircraft in so many variations, do today’s young modellers even care about the Spit?

 

Anyways, it was a mild outburst & it’s done now, I won’t be adding it to my stash & if you do then good for you but how many Spitfires do we need?

What scale and type?

 

I have no idea. 🤪

[Sturmovik]

2 hours ago, Work In Progress said:

And for the British general public, still the Concorde

Can´t say no to that, the Concorde is the Concorde.

[Giorgio N]

On 5/17/2019 at 11:40 PM, phildagreek said:

So Airfix have released a new Spitfire. Anyone else not really impressed & dare I say a little disappointed?

 

Don’t misunderstand me, i know it’s an iconic aircraft, perhaps THE iconic aircraft. With a history of heroes, the right aircraft at the right time & so on. And a sound, what a sound of a BBMF Spitfire going through it’s paces. I’m old enough to have read pretty much all the books as a young lad about Bader et al & it’s important stuff to know.

 

But another Spitfire kit, really? I know it’s commercially driven & it’s a business but another Spitfire. Where’s the imagination? There are so many great & equally iconic British aircraft in so many variations, do today’s young modellers even care about the Spit?

 

Anyways, it was a mild outburst & it’s done now, I won’t be adding it to my stash & if you do then good for you but how many Spitfires do we need?

 

I can't think of any other British aircraft that could be considered as iconic as the Spitfire... important yes, some maybe even more important from a historical point of view, but iconic ?

In any case you already answered your question: it's a commercially driven decision, Spitfire sells and a variant of the Spitfire that still graces the sky and can be seen by thousands at most airshows is a guaranteed seller.

How many Spitfires do we need ? Personally I'd say at least one for every variant.. but of course I am a Spitfire fan... 😄

 

In fairness to Airfix they have not done Spitfires only, for 2019 they have also announced a 1/72 Buccaneer, a kit that was seriously needed as no modern plastic kit of the type existed. And in the past they've given us other interesting subjects, thinking of 1/48 Javelin, Sea Vixen, Meteor and Hunter for example, or the many other 1/72 kits.

I wonder how many important British types have not been recently offered by Airfix in one scale or the other ? Seems to me that the only one missing is the Mosquito, that however is still in their catalogue in 1/72 with a still decent (if older) kit..

 

15 hours ago, cmatthewbacon said:

A state of the art 1/24 Spitfire and GT6 from Airfix would certainly make me a happy man! That said, I’ll be buying at least one FR.XIV... I have at least one of all the other marks...

 

...and, sorry, but there IS no aircraft that’s “equally iconic” when compared with a Spitfire. As famous, as familiar, maybe, but iconic, no...

 

best,

M.

 

IMHO there is one other aircraft that is maybe even more iconic worldwide than the Spitfire... and it's not a type, it's a single aircraft: Fokker Dr.1 425/17, the red triplane of the Red Baron !

[NPL]

On 5/17/2019 at 11:40 PM, phildagreek said:

So Airfix have released a new Spitfire. Anyone else not really impressed & dare I say a little disappointed?

 

Don’t misunderstand me, i know it’s an iconic aircraft, perhaps THE iconic aircraft. With a history of heroes, the right aircraft at the right time & so on. And a sound, what a sound of a BBMF Spitfire going through it’s paces. I’m old enough to have read pretty much all the books as a young lad about Bader et al & it’s important stuff to know.

 

But another Spitfire kit, really? I know it’s commercially driven & it’s a business but another Spitfire. Where’s the imagination? There are so many great & equally iconic British aircraft in so many variations, do today’s young modellers even care about the Spit?

 

Anyways, it was a mild outburst & it’s done now, I won’t be adding it to my stash & if you do then good for you but how many Spitfires do we need?

To someone who has waited for this kit for more than twenty years: This is blasphemy!

 

I absolutely agree with the formula N+1. Next on the list is a highback MK.XIV which can easily be the basis of a F.21. So the '+' is easy to  identify (and then of course the PR Mk.XI.

[Ham Hands]

2 pages in, I remain clueless (not unusual. Why do people at this website ignore scale, manufacturer etc? As usual, I often have no clue. I just did a Google search. Still ignorant. As usual.

Great website but these details being ignored leave me utterly confused. I then have to do searches in order to find out WTF is going on.

Yes my mother told me I am great (foolish woman!) But I cannot read minds. My mother ignored my lack of intelligence.)

 

New Spitfire eh. What???? 🤪🤪🤪

 

🤡

 

What Mk? What scale????

What on earth is going on?

 

Posters need to understand that some of us readers are really quite stupid (me)

 

 

 

[gingerbob]

Airfix, 1/48, FR.XIV (i.e. "low back" XIV).

 

 

Edited May 20, 2019 by gingerbob

[Johnson]

I love the way these threads develop!

(Airfix 1/48 FRXIV... its on order)

[NPL]

'Iconic' ... it's a matter of definition of the word.

 

But it is iconic because of its history, and the stories told about it. Popular, well a different matter.

 

My personal absolutely non-scientific way: Hannants home page

 

Zero                                 13 pages -- all scales, everythin

Mustang                          36 pages & ditto

Focke Wulf 190                41 pages & ditto

Spitfire                              68 pages & ditto

Bf 109                               75 pages & ditto

So among modellers at least on our side, the Bf109 is no. 1, the Spitfire no. 2

 

The we google it:

 

Zero                                   71.200.000 hits

Mustang                             57.100.000 hits

Fw 190                                 8.500.000 hits

Spitfire                                71.600.000 hits

Bf 109                                   9.270.000 hits

 

The low number of hits for the German fighters is surprising, but at least it shows that the Messerschmitts have no iconic status in Germany.

 

As I said: totally non-scientific, but also quite interesting.

 

 

 

[Work In Progress]

And Concorde: "About 67,100,000 results (0.37 seconds) "

[NPL]

2 hours ago, Work In Progress said:

And Concorde: "About 67,100,000 results (0.37 seconds) "

74.000.000 but this includes anything with the name concorde. The plane has far less, 9.400.000. 

 

But as I wrote: A totally non'scientific analysis. It only gives an impression of the major issues. The surprising thing was the low number of hits for German planes. This does also include the Me 262. I guess that the Germans are not so proud of their past as, e.g., the British.

[Work In Progress]

As a Swede your Google experience will be different from that of an English Googler in any case.  And if you are logged in to a Google / Android service, and/or or haven't deleted cookies, then you will get personalised search results anyway, not the same as another person would get searching the same terms.

It is problematic though. The top Mustang Google results in the English language refer to cars, not aeroplanes. And looking at "Zero", what you you actually use as the search term? "A6M Zero" gives a different result from "Mitsubishi Zero", and for me the top results for the naked word "Zero" are a Hindi-language movie and an electri motorbike company. 

Edited May 20, 2019 by Work In Progress

[Welkin]

On 5/20/2019 at 8:30 AM, Giorgio N said:

IMHO there is one other aircraft that is maybe even more iconic worldwide than the Spitfire... and it's not a type, it's a single aircraft: Fokker Dr.1 425/17, the red triplane of the Red Baron !

 

Do you mean this?

(Acknowledgements to the late great Charles Schultz!)

[NPL]

1 hour ago, Work In Progress said:

As a Swede your Google experience will be different from that of an English Googler in any case.  And if you are logged in to a Google / Android service, and/or or haven't deleted cookies, then you will get personalised search results anyway, not the same as another person would get searching the same terms.

It is problematic though. The top Mustang Google results in the English language refer to cars, not aeroplanes. And looking at "Zero", what you you actually use as the search term? "A6M Zero" gives a different result from "Mitsubishi Zero", and for me the top results for the naked word "Zero" are a Hindi-language movie and an electri motorbike company. 

As I wrote, a totally non-scientific analysis, but it gave some indications. I have no intention of discussing details.

[NPL]

Just now, NPL said:

As I wrote, a totally non-scientific analysis, but it gave some indications. I have no intention of discussing details.

And as the vagaries of Google, you cannot teach me. Today I got 78.000 personal hits, yesterday it was around 65.000. At a time it went up to half a million but then Google regretted and it fall down do somewhat under the present level.. But try Niels + Lemche.

[Ed Russell]

9 hours ago, NPL said:

Today I got 78.000 personal hits, yesterday it was around 65.000.

I couldn't resist - Full name = About 195,000,000 results (0.61 seconds), As abbreviated here = About 304,000,000 results (0.45 seconds) 

What has that got to do with Spitfires - well, a lot as it happens..............

My name & Spitfire as search terms  = About 2,990,000 results (0.56 seconds) 

My name AND Spitfire = About 5,590,000 results (0.44 seconds) 

 

Yeah, I know............ totally irrelevant!

[NPL]

14 minutes ago, Ed Russell said:

I couldn't resist - Full name = About 195,000,000 results (0.61 seconds), As abbreviated here = About 304,000,000 results (0.45 seconds) 

What has that got to do with Spitfires - well, a lot as it happens..............

My name & Spitfire as search terms  = About 2,990,000 results (0.56 seconds) 

My name AND Spitfire = About 5,590,000 results (0.44 seconds) 

 

Yeah, I know............ totally irrelevant!

It was just to say that Google is always alive, c hanging numbers of hits several times a day. No it has nothing to do with Spitfires, but with Google. And that was the point.

[Adam Poultney]

23 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

In fairness to Airfix they have not done Spitfires only, for 2019 they have also announced a 1/72 Buccaneer, a kit that was seriously needed as no modern plastic kit of the type existed. And in the past they've given us other interesting subjects, thinking of 1/48 Javelin, Sea Vixen, Meteor and Hunter for example, or the many other 1/72 kits.

I wonder how many important British types have not been recently offered by Airfix in one scale or the other ? Seems to me that the only one missing is the Mosquito, that however is still in their catalogue in 1/72 with a still decent (if older) kit..

 

They haven't redone the vulcan yet

[Ed Russell]

19 minutes ago, NPL said:

1. Google is always alive,  2. No it has nothing to do with Spitfires

1. Gawd, I hope not......... will a wooden stake work?

2. I think if you add Spitfire to anyone's search it will increase the number........... NPL % Spitfire About 1,530,000 results (0.37 seconds)

[NPL]

22 minutes ago, Ed Russell said:

1. Gawd, I hope not......... will a wooden stake work?

2. I think if you add Spitfire to anyone's search it will increase the number........... NPL % Spitfire About 1,530,000 results (0.37 seconds)

Actually not. I tried, at got a few hundred hits. My name alone gives c. 70.000 hits. But this was never my point. The discussion was about: Is the Spitfire an iconic aircraft. My suggestion is that it was and still is. Which plane is the star at airshows? And: It is a wonderful plane, it is a super important historical artifact. Where would we all have been without it. The Hurricane and the Bf109 (not to speak of, from 1941, the FW190): Good grief! 

 

And it was all provoked by a contributor who was not happy about one more Spitfire to the collection. It is his opinion and I am quite sure that some here disagree.

[Giorgio N]

33 minutes ago, Adam Poultney said:

They haven't redone the vulcan yet

True but the current kit is still quite decent, I can see how they are trying to get more mileage from it before issuing a replacement. Guess that the lack of any competition is also a factor that makes this kit still viable for Airfix

The same likely applies to the Mosquito, the 1972 tool is sure not to the level of more recent offerings but is still considered by many a sound kit. Guess that this is another case of Airfix trying to sell more copies of this until a replacement is ready (and I'm convinced it will happen at some point).

Other subjects that were redone earlier in the Hormby era were IMHO in much more need of a revamp compared to these two