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1/48 De Havilland Vampire F.3 & FB.5/FB.9 by Airfix - released


Bjorn

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On 11/7/2021 at 1:09 AM, Troy Smith said:

 

 

 In Airfix glory days, the kit division was always profitable,   I suspect if Airfix were just a dedicated small model company, for comparison,  say Eduard, they could, well, be a bit more flexible, and have the time to get the details right,  and make full use of a potential tooling, Airfix frustrate me in while they block off options, eg no high back Spitfire XIV (requires new fuselage, canopy and some interior bits)  hard wing F-86 (as didn't have a slatted wing to scan, but is the gaping hole in 1/48th F-86 market )    A lot of this must be accountant driven,  but seems a shame to not even set up toolings in a way that mean an for a small amount of new parts a whole series of options could open up, which is exactly how Eduard work. 

 

 

 

 

Yet this didn't save Airfix from going down a couple of times and each time there was no attempt at running Airfix as an independent dedicated model company, something similar for example to the management buyout of Revell Germany in 2006. This likely because the way Airfix was structured could not lead to such option.

 

On the matter of having separate variants, this is something that may or not work for a company depending on their business model. It works for Eduard, and some of their kits have sold in huge numbers also thanks to the availability of countless variations (I've been recently told that their 1/48 Fw.190 sold over 200,000 copies... not bad !). At the same time Eduard's catalogue is very small in terms of actually different subjects.

Airfix may not issue variants but at the same time they offer a pretty good number of subjects... which way do we prefer as modellers ? Impossible to please everyone

 

To get somewhat back on topic, at least in the case of the Vampire the parts needed for other variants are relatively few and even if these are not included in the box I would expect aftermarket companies to offer wingtips and intake fairings for the FB.5 and FB.9.

Last but not least, price... it is indeed a bit steep, considering that the Vampire is quite a small aircraft. Still this is where pricing is going with most if not all manufacturers so I'm afraid we'll have to get used to it. I would personally wait a bit and see if someone manages to offer the kit at a couple pound less.. but then the Vampire is such a significant aircraft that I'm sure many will just swallow the pill and buy the kit as soon as hits the shelves..

 

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I find if you wait a bit or shop at shows you can usually get a deal. It terms of subject, design, decals and accuracy Airfix hit it out of the park these days, for me at least. £30 quid seems reasonable to me. I wish they would use the harder plastic more often though. 

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Got our sample today and have almost finished the review. The kit looks really nice, but their pilot looks all kinda weird :cwl: I’ll take a close up so you can judge for yourself. 

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On 11/7/2021 at 1:09 AM, Troy Smith said:

...  hard wing F-86 (as didn't have a slatted wing to scan, but is the gaping hole in 1/48th F-86 market )

 

 

Well, the F-86F at Gardermoen that Airfix scanned at the same time they did the Vampire, was indeed fitted with a slatted wing. As they already have the Martin Baker ejection seat, and the extra canopy rails, for Norwegian Sabres, on the sprues, they will definitely come with a slatted wing Sabre. The open question is though, will it be with open or closed slats?

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  • Bjorn changed the title to 1/48 De Havilland Vampire F.3 by Airfix - released
On 11/6/2021 at 9:14 AM, Vingtor said:

Will be interesting to see if the decals have the stencils in Norwegian text (as the operational aircraft had), or in English (like on the repainted Vampire at Gardermoen). That is, for those who care.... 😉

Afraid not

 

cRpYuaS.png

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(㇏(•̀ᵥᵥ•́)ノ)  Ah something to get my teeth into - let's hope its not a pain in the neck to build... BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!* 

 

🧛‍♂️

 

Rich G point 1

 

*evil laugh

 

 

Edited by RichG
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1 hour ago, Cheshiretaurus said:

Afraid not

 

cRpYuaS.png

 

Not completely wrong. The first four aircraft delivered had incorrectly English stencils applied. This was quickly corrected.

 

The blue colour in the roundels are far too light though.

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56 minutes ago, flarpen said:

Are the parts to make a FB.5 included on the sprues in this boxing?
I've looked at the sprue pics, but can't identify the wing tips needed to make a FB.5

Yes I think so -  mine arrived today and on sprue D there are two pieces which I think are the wingtips for the FB5. And of course you can do the FB9 as well with the extended starboard air intake.

 

John

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I must admit I thought that the FB.5 wingtips were included next to the F.3 ones on the original sprue shots, however they appear to be an extra set of side instrument panels. 

Could the F.5 wingtips be parts 15 & 16 on Frame D? 

This could be checked against the instructions if those parts aren't used.

There does appear to be an extra set of wingtip lights though.

 

Worst comes to the worst they could be knocked up by reshaping the F.3 tips.

.

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Most importantly,  the extended starboard intake as found on the the FB.9 and many FB.5's are on the sprue, this is good news indeed!

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Yep. Mine arrived today and the plastic looks very nice in the box. That’ll be going straight to the top of the ‘to build’ pile. 

 

Personally i don’t have an issue with the price. If you think how many hours of entertainment you’ll get out of the build then I think £30 is fine. 

 

James

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30 minutes ago, Wez said:

Most importantly,  the extended starboard intake as found on the the FB.9 and many FB.5's are on the sprue, this is good news indeed!

Ah so that's what it's for. Was looking at that part and wondered about it. 

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On 11/9/2021 at 2:59 PM, Mike said:

The kit looks really nice, but their pilot looks all kinda weird :cwl: I’ll take a close up so you can judge for yourself. 

It's accurate - rickets was very common in the1950's.......:rofl:

Edited by Paul Bradley
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On 08/11/2021 at 11:43, Giorgio N said:

 

Yet this didn't save Airfix from going down a couple of times and each time there was no attempt at running Airfix as an independent dedicated model company, something similar for example to the management buyout of Revell Germany in 2006. This likely because the way Airfix was structured could not lead to such option.

 

On the matter of having separate variants, this is something that may or not work for a company depending on their business model. It works for Eduard, and some of their kits have sold in huge numbers also thanks to the availability of countless variations (I've been recently told that their 1/48 Fw.190 sold over 200,000 copies... not bad !). At the same time Eduard's catalogue is very small in terms of actually different subjects.

Airfix may not issue variants but at the same time they offer a pretty good number of subjects... which way do we prefer as modellers ? Impossible to please everyone

 

To get somewhat back on topic, at least in the case of the Vampire the parts needed for other variants are relatively few and even if these are not included in the box I would expect aftermarket companies to offer wingtips and intake fairings for the FB.5 and FB.9.

Last but not least, price... it is indeed a bit steep, considering that the Vampire is quite a small aircraft. Still this is where pricing is going with most if not all manufacturers so I'm afraid we'll have to get used to it. I would personally wait a bit and see if someone manages to offer the kit at a couple pound less.. but then the Vampire is such a significant aircraft that I'm sure many will just swallow the pill and buy the kit as soon as hits the shelves..

 

It's not really the amount of plastic that makes it seem expensive but the lack of other stuff for that price. The Eduard Profipacks are now around £30-35 but you get masks and PE included for that. Their dual boxings can be had for £50 or under if you buy them direct. And Eduard's quality control is absolutely excellent, unlike Airfix. 

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3 hours ago, Phoenix44 said:

It's not really the amount of plastic that makes it seem expensive but the lack of other stuff for that price. The Eduard Profipacks are now around £30-35 but you get masks and PE included for that. Their dual boxings can be had for £50 or under if you buy them direct. And Eduard's quality control is absolutely excellent, unlike Airfix. 

 

Can't disagree on the value for money that Eduard offers today, probably superior to all others. My latest purchase from them was the 1/72 Adlerangriff box of the SH Bf.109, now I was lucky to find a great price online but even at full price it's a package that makes my recently purchased Airfix Spit Vc in the same scale pale: for very little more per kit (in my case actually less...) I got PE, resin, masks and a huge decal sheet with a better moulded kit as well.

Unfortunately Eduard is unlikely to ever do a Vampire...

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11 minutes ago, Giorgio N said:

Unfortunately Eduard is unlikely to ever do a Vampire...

 

And that’s why we still buy Airfix. At the end of the day it’s the subject matter that matters most. This Airfix Vampire will sell very well until someone else betters it, and I can’t see that happening for many years to come. 
Cheers.. Dave

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3 hours ago, Phoenix44 said:

It's not really the amount of plastic that makes it seem expensive but the lack of other stuff for that price. The Eduard Profipacks are now around £30-35 but you get masks and PE included for that. Their dual boxings can be had for £50 or under if you buy them direct. And Eduard's quality control is absolutely excellent, unlike Airfix. 

Three things I would like to see from Airfix:

 

Fix the QC issues

Include canopy masks (or even masks for awkward things like Vulcan intakes, they included a template for those)

Sort out the panel trenches we still see!

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19 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

 

And that’s why we still buy Airfix. At the end of the day it’s the subject matter that matters most. This Airfix Vampire will sell very well until someone else betters it, and I can’t see that happening for many years to come. 
Cheers.. Dave

 

Personally I doubt we'll see other 1/48 Vampires for quite some time, regardless of better or worse. May seem strange considered the wide use of the Vampire, but the type seems to have never really had a huge following among modellers, at least judging by the limited number of kits issued over the years.

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19 minutes ago, Dave Swindell said:

You seem to have changed your priorities, I thought it was

Vulcan B.1

Victor B.1

Valiant B.2

Well I don't want a deeply flawed Vulcan B1 kit that needs a lot of work, I would like to one day be able to build a Vulcan out the box and call it acceptably accurate 😂

So add a fourth thing to the list: stop making mistakes because of an over-reliance on LiDAR scanning and lack of asking people who know the aircraft to check their work

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3 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

Three things I would like to see from Airfix:

Sort out the panel trenches we still see!

Exactly, if they are charging that price there is no excuse.I've said before people look on Airfix with rose coloured glasses, any other manufacturer gets hounded if they do that with a new release nowadays.

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