Airfix passenger ships...

[Andre B]

Hi,

Wonder about the Airfix moulds for their 1/600 passenger ships. Where they really scrapped or missing? Looking at prices of Canberra, QE 2, SS France and QE there must be a demand for new kits. And what about the "Southern Cross"? Or... ?

 

Cheers / André

Edited May 19, 2019 by Andre B

[grahamwalker]

not sure about SS France and Southern Cross but the rest are still there

 

[tempestfan]

France/Norway is said to have been lost. There were rumours this happened when the mould was (about to be) converted by an outside contractor. Not sure if that is true as the kit was last seen as a Gunze boxing and may have slipped through when General Mills bought the Airfix assets; or may have ended up forgotten at Toltoys.

The Southern Cross was possibly  funded or co-funded by Shaw Saville, and hence possibly reduced to produce when they lost interest in promoting that ship (though apparently there‘s no evidence of any promo issues). 

The QE‘s and Canberra were reissued around 20 years ago; the Free Enterprise has never been for almost 45 years but is said to still exist, and I think was one of the suggestions for the Kit Starter scheme.

[Chewbacca]

I don't know how true this is but I was told by someone on the Airfix stand at one of the last Yeovilton Model Shows that Free Enterprise would never be re-issued as there was concern over reputational damage in case the name might be mistaken for the tragic Herald of Free Enterprise.

 

Queen Elizabeth was re-issued about 5 years ago but I sense it didn't sell.  I bought one in the Airfix Black Friday sale for IIRC £5.

 

I'd love to get my hands on a Canberra but I'm not willing to pay the silly money being asked for on auction sites.  Perhaps Airfix might consider re-issuing it with QEII and the FF/DD as an extended Falklands Islands set for the 40th anniversary in 3 years time?

[Mick4350]

I purchased the 2014 edition of the RMS Mauretania and Airfix had printed the instruction sheet with one complete page missing ( Step 13 ).

 

 

[Paul J]

I've got the decal sheet for the Canberra .....

[tempestfan]

On ‎6‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 3:46 PM, Chewbacca said:

I don't know how true this is but I was told by someone on the Airfix stand at one of the last Yeovilton Model Shows that Free Enterprise would never be re-issued as there was concern over reputational damage in case the name might be mistaken for the tragic Herald of Free Enterprise.

It may well be true that this view is still prevailing at Airfix - however, ther'd be an easy way out: Make new decals and sell her as Moby Blu (though I confess I have no idea whether/to what extent her appearance changed over the years). There aren't that many kits of ferries available, the others I'm Aware of are the Sunflower's by Arii (ex Nakamura). But this may be a large part of the answer already...