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New Revell Sea Vixen in 1/72?


Meatbox8

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Just got an email from Jadlam inviting me to look at the new 2021 range from Revell and it has a Sea Vixen FAW.2 listed in 1/72.  Dare we hope for a new tool or is this a re-issue of the old Frog kit do we thinks?  It's pre-order price is £28.95 which, bearing in mind Jadlam seem to be able to beat most shops on price, seems a little steep for an ancient offering like the Frog kit. 

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3 hours ago, Beermonster1958 said:

I don't really bother about whatever issues the kit may have because at least its a modern tooling i

Of what benefit is the modernity of the tooling when you have to start sawing it up and using sections of sheet and epoxy putty to make it look like a Sea Vixen?  It isn't even well-detailed or properly-fitting, when fit is the absolute minimum compensation one should expect from a CAD-era long-run injection-moulded kit.

Edited by Work In Progress
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5 hours ago, Beermonster1958 said:

However, the relatively high price is disappointing. I don't really bother about whatever issues the kit may have because at least its a modern tooling in the one true scale!

The thing is so horribly shaped that it's not worth any price, why would one want to buy a known mishapen kit?

Typical of the Dragon 'if it looks ok,market it' team.

 

The Frog kit requires a heck of alot of work, but it's a more accurate starting point.  

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Oh well.  I DID do a search for the subject before posting on BM without aything coming up other than the Frog/Revell kit.  Dissappointing news that it is the Cyber Hobby kit.  Everything I've read about it has been negative and like others here have said, why pay so much money for an ill-fitting, not very detailed and innaccurate kit which one would have to spend more on after-market bits just to correct some of the biggest howlers and still have something which doesn't look right?

 

Maybe next year we'll get an accurate new tool from someone. 

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8 hours ago, 71chally said:

The thing is so horribly shaped that it's not worth any price, why would one want to buy a known mishapen kit?

Typical of the Dragon 'if it looks ok,market it' team.

 

The Frog kit requires a heck of alot of work, but it's a more accurate starting point.  

The problem with most Vixen kits is they are almost all based on inaccurate DH published 3 views  (deliberate misinformation during the cold war perhaps )  IMHO dragon/cyberhobby  get more right than a lot of other kits .for example they are the only ones to get the thinness of the front of the over wing booms right when viewed from above  .all the others look like they are over inflated Michelen men !.....I also think they make the best stab at the boxy cross section of the forward fuselage .... ( but there's still a lot wrong with it ....curse DH for issuing wonky drawings in the first place ....)

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I built the Cyberhobby version. It was a very nice kit that bore a strong resemblance to a Sea Vixen. For better shape wise than the old Frog kit which I also built (twice, as a Mk 1 and a Mk 2). True, the cockpit is pure fiction. A problem nicely solved by the Pavla set. The radome shape also needs some work but Aires solved that for us. With those two adjustments the kit yields a very nice Sea Vixen IMHO. Cyberhobby kits never were cheap.

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The Dragon/Cyberhobby Sea Vixen is the worst kit accuracy wise, there isn't any doubt on that, the most glaring error and the most difficult to fix is the fuselage profile which is pure fantasy.  The more you look around the rest of the kit the more things are wrong with it.

The Xtrakit one is slightly better, then the Frog, with Highplanes the best of the bunch. 

All have their issues and for pure accuracy all need modifying, for example the Highplanes booms are too thick in planform, but this is relatively easy to correct, whereas the Dragon fuselage isn't.  

 

I really don't care what people want to build, but to me modelling is trying to create the most reasonably accurate facsimile of the original as I can, and the fact that Dragon had all that technology and information at their disposal, and got it so wrong, and then charged a fortune means that kit doesn't get my money.

 

I have spent most of my adult life collecting original de Havilland Sea Vixen material and drawings, trading parts and own a cockpit section, it's not a type I talk of lightly.

What I don't get is how there is a market for constant re-pops of the type in 72nd, but seemingly not for a new kit, I guess it's to do with design and manufacturing commitment, I'm just glad Airfix went the whole hog wit their 48th kit.

 

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All very interesting. It certainly would have been a surprise if Revell in its current incarnation went out on a limb with a new tooling of the Sea Vixen. I know Revell did the Gannet a few years ago, but those were very different times for Revell, and of course there was the German angle with the Gannet.

 

I have both the Xtrakit and Frog (1976) offerings. The Frog parts are in excellent condition. No surprise, as Frog didn't produce it for long before selling it (and so much else) to Novo.

 

So I'll stay with what I have, unless, oh, Airfix decides to scale down (we live in hope, despite what Airfix says about not scaling down).

 

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If you are willing to build an original mold Frog Sea Vixen with a touch of aftermarket, it is a great basis for a nice model, it's certainly the way I go.

Unfortunately by the time Revel reissued it it had suffered badly.

 

Or we could do what @TheBaron has done and create an accurate Sea Vixen with a Mars printer!

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20 hours ago, 71chally said:

If you are willing to build an original mold Frog Sea Vixen with a touch of aftermarket, it is a great basis for a nice model, it's certainly the way I go.

Unfortunately by the time Revel reissued it it had suffered badly.

 

Or we could do what @TheBaron has done and create an accurate Sea Vixen with a Mars printer!

The Barons SV is the definitive one !  

 

(Otherwise the best option is to mix and match parts from the frog /SH /cyberhobby/high planes /Pavla/Alley cat  kits and accessories...and let simmer for a few years )

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Revell seem to have an inside knowledge of what Airfix might release i.e. Lancaster and Shackleton as a case in point. I wonder if this is the case as also Airfix have not re-released their 1/48 scale kit.

 

Regards

Robert

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  • 1 month later...
On 1/11/2021 at 8:04 AM, Robert said:

Revell seem to have an inside knowledge of what Airfix might release i.e. Lancaster and Shackleton as a case in point. I wonder if this is the case as also Airfix have not re-released their 1/48 scale kit.

 

Regards

Robert

Oooh, let's hope so!  Would love to see Airfix do a new Vix... BADLY needed!

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  • 1 month later...

Hi, 

 

I obviously am not in the model business but I have kept wondering (and execting/hoping...) - for years now -  why Airfix are not releasing a Sea Vixen and Javelin in 1/72nd scale. 

I was also hoping for a Buccaneer which is out now. 

Come on Airfix Sea Vixen and Javelin. They are all yours 😉

 

Regards.. 

 

Eric B.

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On 4/11/2021 at 5:02 PM, Eric B. said:

Hi, 

 

I obviously am not in the model business but I have kept wondering (and execting/hoping...) - for years now -  why Airfix are not releasing a Sea Vixen and Javelin in 1/72nd scale. 

I was also hoping for a Buccaneer which is out now. 

Come on Airfix Sea Vixen and Javelin. They are all yours 😉

 

Regards.. 

 

Eric B.

This has been discussed before and basically Airfix had stated they are not going to downscale the 1/48th kits they have done. I am still not sure why, although I think it is to do with them having to be started from scratch and they obviously think the market is not there. It might be that they worry that it would dilute the market, which I am not convinced about. No idea if such a statement is set in stone, but I am not holding my breath. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just looking at the same release from Jadlam. The Revell pricing does seem weird. They have a 1/72 Comet (ex-Matchbox?) for 7 quid, they are charging over 17 quid for the 1/72 Sturmpanzer 38(T) Grille, which is not the largest vehicle in the world. and for just 6 quid more you can get a whole 1/35 Leopard 1A5!

 

The Revell larger scale models generally seem to be disproportionally cheap, which I suppose is great if you model in larger scales :)

 

 

Regards,

Adrian

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On 4/11/2021 at 5:02 PM, Eric B. said:

Hi, 

 

I obviously am not in the model business but I have kept wondering (and execting/hoping...) - for years now -  why Airfix are not releasing a Sea Vixen and Javelin in 1/72nd scale. 

I was also hoping for a Buccaneer which is out now. 

Come on Airfix Sea Vixen and Javelin. They are all yours 😉

 

Regards.. 

 

Eric B.

But did the Sea Vixen and Javelin sell?  

Airfix were going to re-issue the Sea Vixen, then withdrew it.  However the costs of the original tooling must surely have been well and truly  written off, so in a sense the selling price would have been subsidised.

As for the Javelin, notwithstanding that Airfix don't downscale, they try and diversify.  Recently, and off the top of my head, there have been Hunter, Phantom, Buccaneer, with Vampire, Vulcan and Sabre to follow.  So one could say that Cold War jets have been well represented.

Edited by Denford
Omission of Vulcan !
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Well if Airfix don't do a Javelin or Sea Vixen in 1/72, someone will. They'd fit right into Airfix's range and I think the Javelin at least would sell quite well. If they can justify a 1/72 Whitley or a 1/48 Walrus, I'm sure they can justify these kits.

 

Also, instead of reissuing other manufacturers' kits, especially flawed ones like this, Revell could reissue kits like the 1/144 A400M, 1/144 C17, 1/72 Ju390, 1/72 BV222, etc which are desperate for reissues.

Edited by Adam Poultney
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As I’ve said before, I won’t buy a single 1/48 Sea Vixen, Javelin or any other kit in that scale*. I would buy a couple of Sea Vixens and a whole load of Javelins in The Gentleman’s Scale. I have seven Javelins already.

 

If you’re after casual sales, I would posit that you might draw in more buyers in the smaller scale due to the lower cost. The asking price for the Sea Vixen and Javelin wasn’t exactly cheap, was it?

 

 

Cheers,

Mark.

 

 

 

 

 

* I think that 1/48 is the work of Satan. There. I said it.

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12 hours ago, lasermonkey said:

As I’ve said before, I won’t buy a single 1/48 Sea Vixen, Javelin or any other kit in that scale*. I would buy a couple of Sea Vixens and a whole load of Javelins in The Gentleman’s Scale. I have seven Javelins already.

 

If you’re after casual sales, I would posit that you might draw in more buyers in the smaller scale due to the lower cost. The asking price for the Sea Vixen and Javelin wasn’t exactly cheap, was it?

 

 

Cheers,

Mark.

 

 

 

 

 

* I think that 1/48 is the work of Satan. There. I said it.

1/48 × 2.6713 ÷3.745+2.789 =666 !

 

I agree ! 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
On 12/04/2021 at 19:46, Mr T said:

This has been discussed before and basically Airfix had stated they are not going to downscale the 1/48th kits they have done.

 

They may tell fibs then....!! EE Lightning - eventually! :)     

 

And they've certainly been 'upscaling' their new mould kits recently - P-40, P-51, Sabre, Tiger Moth, Blenheim Mk1.... I'm no tooling engineer, but if they can do it one way, then.....? 

 

But after years of bugging Airfix at Telford for a new 1/72 Sea Vixen and Javelin, arthritic old fingers now mean a move up to 1/48th for me, so please Mr. Airfix can we have a new tool 1/48 Swift next year....?! 🤣

 

K

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