1/72 - Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vc by Airfix - released

[Giorgio N]

1 hour ago, fishplanebeer said:

Very nicely put.

 

I'm sure this kit will be a major step forward after 20+ years of waiting for a half decent Spit V.

 

Perhaps a Vb might have been a better option but with the Vc it opens up numerous options to convert to a XII or Seafire as well.

 

Again many congrats to Airfix and can't wait to receive my examples when the kit is actually released this year, along with the Revell Ju88-A1.   In the meantime I'll have another KitKat and cuppa and wait to see the responses from the rivet counters and micro builders of whom I have full respect for but just not my bag.

 

Kind Regards

Colin.

 

I can understand that not all model shops may have kits from all brands and it can happen to miss one kit or the other, but I struggle to see the reason why you keep stating that modellers have been waiting for years for a "half-decent" kit of the Spitfire Mk.V...

If speaking of Spitfire V in general, there's a Tamiya kit that has been on the market for more than 15 years that is not only half decent, but is a brilliant combination of engineering, fit and detail. A kit with some shape problems, so not one for those "rivet counters" that you seem to despise so much, but a kit that ticks most boxes for most modellers. And a kit with a mould quality and a fit that Airfix has yet to match and will likely not match with their announced Vc.

Then there are the KP kits, both Vb and Vc that again are not too accurate but are very buildable from the box and are superior to most other Mk.Vs issued over the last 20 years.

So again, there have been other kits of the Spitfire V, both Vb and Vc that have been much better than half decent, Airfix here have a chance to offer a kit of a subvariant that has been covered less than others, but it's not like we've not had any good Vb and Vc over the years, we've had more than one

[Aardvark]

1 hour ago, Rabbit Leader said:

I think you’ll find that the instructions above are for the 1/48 Spitfire XIV and not the newly announced 1/72 Vc.

Cheers.. Dave 

The sprue with KitKat will be one and a half times less ???  

😲😭😭

Why, why is there ever more sweetness going to the 48th scale ???😲😭  

 

This is not fair!

😢😤

 

😁😁😁

 

B.R.

Serge 

 

P.S.

Sorry if I misled anyone with my previous posting, but I posted it only as a joke! 🤗 In addition, I'm probably the only person in this topic who does not understand anything in Spitfire.....🤗

[fishplanebeer]

Sorry but have to disagree here as I've read hundreds of posts over the past 10+ years (on various fora) earnestly asking for a half decent Spit V so just reflecting the consensus that seems to has been around for some time.

 

The Tamiya kit is fine/OK but not perfect and certainly not cheap either, and as for the others then OK if you can kit bash and spend hours amending them . The Revell version is more simple and easier to build but not great quality so best avoided.

 

For me the bottom line is that if Airfix can produce a modern and up to date MkV that doesn't require hours of filing, sanding etc.. etc.. , is generally accurate (probably with extras as has been the case with most Airfix releases) and meets the needs of the average modeller such as myself  then I'm well happy and likely to buy quite a few. It's down to Airfix in terms of their market intelligence and sales volume X price (basic micro economics) but for me a modern Spit V with some extra bits and pieces will be a real winner and well beyond all other current offerings. The fact is most of us modellers are 'modest' and have simple needs.

 

This should (will be) a  real money earner for them IMHO and mean that they can invest in those more esoteric subjects that we all crave such a P-38 and Typhoon 2/V/VI in 72nd scale plus many other subjects in different scales.

 

Kind Regards

Colin.

 

Ps. of course if it comes with a free KitKat then even better.

 

Pps. as before absolutely no offence implied or intended

[Denford]

1 hour ago, fishplanebeer said:

This should (will be) a  real money earner for them IMHO and mean that they can invest in those more esoteric subjects that we all crave such a P-38 and Typhoon 2/V/VI in 72nd scale plus many other subjects in different scales.

Sorry, but Airfix's objective is TO MAKE MONEY.

Hornby Hobbies still owe money to the Bank and, alas, can't indulge in the luxury of tooling loss-making subjects to suit a minority of buyers.  Hard I know, and there are many, many subjects 'crying out for new tooling' some commercially viable, other not.  At their rate of genuinely new toolings, even the seemingly most probable are in a very, very long queue.

[Adam Poultney]

50 minutes ago, Denford said:

Sorry, but Airfix's objective is TO MAKE MONEY.

Hornby Hobbies still owe money to the Bank and, alas, can't indulge in the luxury of tooling loss-making subjects to suit a minority of buyers.  Hard I know, and there are many, many subjects 'crying out for new tooling' some commercially viable, other not.  At their rate of genuinely new toolings, even the seemingly most probable are in a very, very long queue.

Well niche kits, often niche variants well covered subjects, obviously do make enough money to justify tooling costs otherwise companies like Mikromir wouldn't exist, and they have nowhere near the resources of Airfix/Hornby. 

[Ratch]

1 hour ago, Adam Poultney said:

nowhere near the resources of Airfix/Hornby. 

What resources are those Adam? Everyone thinks Airfix is a huge concern. You'd be surprised how small it is, how few people work for them.

[john224]

5 hours ago, Denford said:

Sorry, but Airfix's objective is TO MAKE MONEY.

Hornby Hobbies still owe money to the Bank and, alas, can't indulge in the luxury of tooling loss-making subjects to suit a minority of buyers.  Hard I know, and there are many, many subjects 'crying out for new tooling' some commercially viable, other not.  At their rate of genuinely new toolings, even the seemingly most probable are in a very, very long queue.

And you don't think the Bristol Beaufort is an esoteric subject?

[Denford]

5 hours ago, john224 said:

And you don't think the Bristol Beaufort is an esoteric subject?

No

[Graham Boak]

There seems to be an ineradicable belief that the Spitfire kits from Sword, AZ, KP etc are difficult to make, needing lots of attention and rework to make satisfactory models.  Sorry guys, but you are at least ten years behind the times. I certainly found the Airfix Hurricane and Blenheim to require more work than the last Czech kits I made.  The current Airfix Spitfire needs the interiors filing down to prevent the fuselage not closing fully, thus forcing a lack of dihedral.  It has excessively thick panel lines whilst lacking the prominent one for the wing to fuselage fairing.  It's still a nice kit.  Of course the Czech kits lack pins and sockets to "aid" assembly.  There are few kits of any kind which wouldn't benefit from treatment to the trailing edges.

 

"Hours of filing and sanding": not these kits.  Now the Airfix Blenheim was quite another matter.  As was, to a lesser extent, the Hurricane, where the upper wing didn't match the lower.

 

Roll on the Airfix Spitfire VC, but if you are so misled about its competitors you cannot make any genuine comparisons with them, even when it does condense from the vapour.

[Giorgio N]

10 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

Well niche kits, often niche variants well covered subjects, obviously do make enough money to justify tooling costs otherwise companies like Mikromir wouldn't exist, and they have nowhere near the resources of Airfix/Hornby. 

 

The difference is in the production methods used by companies like Mikromir, that allow them to make profits with a much smaller number of kits produced. That is in the end the whole reason for the existence of the "short run" kits industry. Companies like Airfix need to sell many more kits and therefore have to choose their subjects differently. A short run 1/72 kit that sells 3,000 copies overall is a great success, a "mainstream" kit that sells 3,000 copies overall is a very poor seller

[vppelt68]

55 minutes ago, Denford said:

No

+1

[sroubos]

6 hours ago, john224 said:

And you don't think the Bristol Beaufort is an esoteric subject?

It fits in with other recent releases by Airfix that seem to focus mostly on the domestic market, like the Swift, Whitley, Defiant and Blenheim. Kits that appeal mostly to the British modeller. It would be interesting to see sales numbers for these kits but my guess is 80%+ of them are sold in the UK, and apparently in such volumes that they make financial sense. If those kits hadn't sold well, I'd doubt you'd see the Beaufort being released.

 

So the Beaufort is treading on proven ground in that sense. Not that esoteric a subject from a marketing point of view at least, which I agree, is what Airfix will care about primarily.

Edited January 27, 2020 by sroubos

[Denford]

In the case of the Beaufort I'd expect a sizeable proportion of sales to be to Australia: are we still on the Airfix Spitfire Vc thread?

[Adam Poultney]

11 hours ago, Ratch said:

What resources are those Adam? Everyone thinks Airfix is a huge concern. You'd be surprised how small it is, how few people work for them.

Mainly the ability to go and LiDAR scan pretty much anything in a UK museum is probably the best thing Airfix has

[Adam Poultney]

1 hour ago, Giorgio N said:

 

The difference is in the production methods used by companies like Mikromir, that allow them to make profits with a much smaller number of kits produced. That is in the end the whole reason for the existence of the "short run" kits industry. Companies like Airfix need to sell many more kits and therefore have to choose their subjects differently. A short run 1/72 kit that sells 3,000 copies overall is a great success, a "mainstream" kit that sells 3,000 copies overall is a very poor seller

Mm true. What I meant was that producing injection kits of niche subjects can be profitable if it's done right, so not a complete loss to do. 

But as you say, it's different methods and short run kits, which are nowhere near as good as more mainstream kits. I wonder if large manufacturers like Airfix could manage to break into that market profitably if they so wished...

[RussellE]

15 hours ago, fishplanebeer said:

This should (will be) a  real money earner for them IMHO and mean that they can invest in those more esoteric subjects that we all crave such a P-38 and TEMPEST 2/V/VI in 72nd scale plus many other subjects in different scales.

 

Kind Regards

Colin.

 

 

There, fixed that for you 😉

[alt-92]

34 minutes ago, Adam Poultney said:

But as you say, it's different methods and short run kits, which are nowhere near as good as more mainstream kits. 

*ahem* Careful there... It's not like the iconic Mk.IX in 1:72 was Airfix's best ever. Handsomely beaten by so-called short run AZ/KPs .

[IanC]

2 hours ago, sroubos said:

It fits in with other recent releases by Airfix that seem to focus mostly on the domestic market, like the Swift, Whitley, Defiant and Blenheim. Kits that appeal mostly to the British modeller. It would be interesting to see sales numbers for these kits but my guess is 80%+ of them are sold in the UK, and apparently in such volumes that they make financial sense. If those kits hadn't sold well, I'd doubt you'd see the Beaufort being released.

 

So the Beaufort is treading on proven ground in that sense. Not that esoteric a subject from a marketing point of view at least, which I agree, is what Airfix will care about primarily.

 

And by the same token I'm hoping sales of the He 111, Do 17, Ju 87 and Me 262 have been just as healthy (we can assume the Bf 109E is a strong seller), so that we might in the future be treated to an esoteric/not esoteric Me 410 or Ju 88!  

[Adam Poultney]

55 minutes ago, alt-92 said:

*ahem* Careful there... It's not like the iconic Mk.IX in 1:72 was Airfix's best ever. Handsomely beaten by so-called short run AZ/KPs .

Well early new Airfix was..... Not the greatest...

Certainly fun to just chuck together and paint but not for accuracy

[Adam Poultney]

31 minutes ago, IanC said:

 

And by the same token I'm hoping sales of the He 111, Do 17, Ju 87 and Me 262 have been just as healthy (we can assume the Bf 109E is a strong seller), so that we might in the future be treated to an esoteric/not esoteric Me 410 or Ju 88!  

If we get an Me 410 I'll need one on release! 

Ju88 perhaps not immediately but a Ju188 (or 288!) for sure on release. 

If we're looking at Luftwaffe stuff, I'd like to see a He112a, He112b, He100, and Bf109A/B/C/D with modern 1/72 toolings. Not sure what Do217s are out there in 1/72. 

[Ratch]

3 hours ago, Denford said:

are we still on the Airfix Spitfire Vc thread?

Obviously the inclusion of the word Airfix in the thread title entitles folk to comment on every kit Airfix has or hasn't made over their entire existence, and the way those kits are produced, or should be.

Carry on....

[alt-92]

1 hour ago, Adam Poultney said:

Well early new Airfix was..... Not the greatest...

Certainly fun to just chuck together and paint but not for accuracy

Shape-wise it's pretty okay. Detail-wise, not really. 

 

Let's hope for better in the Vc, it would be great to have some internal bits at least on the same level or better than current Ed/AZ/<insertyourfavourite> 
(and preferably no canyons)

Who knows, it might even make a good jumping off point for an improved IX & other versions.

Edited January 27, 2020 by alt-92

[Giorgio N]

2 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

Mm true. What I meant was that producing injection kits of niche subjects can be profitable if it's done right, so not a complete loss to do. 

But as you say, it's different methods and short run kits, which are nowhere near as good as more mainstream kits. I wonder if large manufacturers like Airfix could manage to break into that market profitably if they so wished...

 

I beg to differ here. And if we're talking Modelsvit, I beg to differ even more !

Modelsvit is offering kits that feature an incredible level of detail, way superior to the likes of Airfix or Revell. Their 1/72 kits are much better detailed than many 1/48 ones ! Other manufacturers are also today achieving some good results.

The only area where modern good short run kits today differ from mainstream ones is the lack of alignment pins and sometimes short runs require some work to get a good fit... but the latter is too often true of many mainstream kits !

Airfix kits in particular are not today the best fitting kits on the market, they sure have a lot of good points but when it comes to guaranteeing a quick stress-free builds they don't always succeed. Not that this is a problem with Airfix only, Italeri kits suffer similarly and some of the latest Revell kits aren't great either from this point of view, I've built Czech short runs that were much easier and more relaxing to build than recent kits from all 3 companies. The RS Re-2005 for example was a great kit, very nicely detailed and gave me less troubles than say the Airfix 1/72 Gnat or Fw.190.

As Graham said above, I believe that too many modellers seem to assume that short run kits today are much worse than what they are. Guess some have missed the evolution of short run kits in the last few years and assume that they are still something for the very experienced and dedicated modellers only. The truth is that many can now give serious competition to the big brands even when it comes to fit.

[sroubos]

I've left quite a few of Airfix's recent kits on the shelf because of the soft detail and quality issues reported with them.

 

Companies like Eduard, Clear Prop Models, Sword and quite a few others are better in terms of detail than Airfix and not necessarily more expensive either. In fact they compete with Hasegawa and Tamiya when it comes to quality.

 

These big brands have a much larger dealer network and more name recognition but it sure is not quality anymore that sets them apart. Or maybe it does -  but not in a good way!

[John Thompson]

Regardless of how often I've moaned about the Yak-9 or other VVS subjects, speaking sensibly (I think I remember how) I really don't expect Airfix to jump on it anytime soon. If ever. The market was much different in the early '60's when they did it the first time. I'm quite interested in the promised Spitfire Vc kit; I may not buy more than one, but I will buy one!

 

John