Airfix 1/48 Buccaneer S.2 for 2022!

[colin]

On 1/10/2022 at 4:52 PM, PLC1966 said:

Looks lovely, and while £72 is a bit hot for me, I suspect it is a decent price for a modern tooling of a Cold War Jet. Tamiya Phantom £80.00+ anyone.  Perhaps time has moved on and it just is the way the world is nowadays....if it comes to price I probably struggle with the £24.00 for a 1/72 Meteor more than this......but then Revell were knocking out the Hunter 1/72 for £18.00.........stop now, my head hurts......

 

This look great......

Problem is you know Tamiya will be a joy to build with good detail out of the box, Airfix will have to up their game if their prices start knocking on Tamiya's door.

Will wait until it's released and we get to see how it builds and whether they have Q&R problems etc.Heres hoping as I really would like a Bucc in 48

[71chally]

5 hours ago, wadeocu said:

The other thought is what is that insert in the nose for - nose weight or structural support perhaps?

I would say to put the nose weight in, similar to their 1:72 Vulcan set up.

It also seems to indicate that the nose wont have a folding option as per the real jet.

 

Re the pricing I'm afraid I don't buy into the argument of comparing to Tamiya etc to justify the price.

Tamiya are of superb engineering, plastic quality and surface finesse, as good as they are now Airfix just don't come close to this, can suffer quality control issues and not great plastic (apart from the few UK produced kits).

The Tamiya new tool Tomcat is £50-60 and the F-4B Phantom £45 in their home territory. 

The Airfix Buccaneer I would have expected at £50-55, I really hope that this is going to be an outstanding kit to justify £72 as like other people have said, there's not a lot wrong with the old one.  I note that their Javelin has recently jumped from £60 to £72 though.

[John B (Sc)]

Blimey - I hadn't realised that the Revell 1/72 Hunter was now priced at £18.00. I bought their (superb) 1/32 Hunter for less than that ! 

 

Clearly now time to build some of the saved stash; I don't feel I want to pay the depressingly raised prices now.  Javelins and Victors at £70+ ; that is bad enough but at least they are fairly large. The Buccaneer is a deal smaller. Like Beermonster I'd be prepared to go £55 or so for the nice extra detail, not more.  Sad, but it looks like I have hit my price limit. 

[tony.t]

£72 had the equivalent value of about £4.50 in late 1965 when the S.2 was first going to sea, which actually would have been about a quarter of average weekly earnings.

So, as this year's average weekly wage is around £600 it means that, in comparable real terms, we're getting it at half-price! Bargain!

 

In all seriousness, £72 is about right given the size and complexity of the model compared to similar kits from China and Japan. But QC had better be commensurately good. This kit was one I asked Santa about. 

 

Tony 

 

 

 

 

[The_Lancaster]

I feel ultimately if Airfix attempted to work in everything that has been suggested so far as potential corrections or fix potential errors, we would never get a buccaneer released let alone for the price!! 

They'd still be there trying to get it right... Ourselves as modellers have always been a hard bunch to please 

However, personally I am over the moon to have finally a buildable Buccaneer in a proper scale! I definitely will invest in one, and without taking the fun away from model-making by trying to calculate inflation costs etc. for the price I suppose we just have to accept it for what it is. 

The real fun here I think is just the burst of inspiration I got when i first saw it! It's definitely going to be fun to weather, I can't wait!

 

 

[JFM148]

I think the price is fair compared, not to Tamiya, (which has some "not so perfect" kits either, and very expensive ones) but to Trumpeter ones. The A-6 Intruder comes to my mind.  So, I will definitely buy 2 new Buccaneers and keep my beloved two old, but very nice Bucs on the stash.  Only the weapons and the amount of detail on the Airfix kit makes all the difference.

[Tiger331]

On 1/10/2022 at 9:43 PM, Doccur said:

If this had a Tamiya/Hasegawa/Eduard label on it instead of Airfix I’m not convinced you’d get half of the moaning about the price. As expressed by a couple of people above, you want a quality kit? You have got to pay for it! 

 

 

Totally agree............just another 'excuse' to have at go at Airfix rather than support home grown products of home grown aircraft (and vehicles etc).

[New Tool]

I think this might be a picture of it. Unsure though.

 

https://ibb.co/YN5SDM4

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/LGFGwiJen72kT8U39

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by New Tool

[JeffreyK]

On 1/12/2022 at 10:39 PM, RedhillPhil said:

Dear Mr. Airfix,

                      Thankyou for listening to us and releasing a newly tooled kit of the Buccaneer. It does seem a tad expensive but I do realise that the research and tooling does take time and time is money. And now - if I may - could I ask for just one more thing. Could we have a 1/48 Scimitar please,  pretty please?

Regards,

Phil.

...the 1:48 Scimitar is in the way from new company DBMK:

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235102177-148-supermarine-scimitar-by-db-model-kits-dbmk-release-october-2023/page/7/

[SleeperService]

If it's £72 and of the same standard as the recent 1/48 Vampire I'll be quite happy. The cost needs to be seen in context currently rather than historically as we are not living in a functioning economy and haven't been since at least 2008. I recently spent just over a hundred quid to get from Nottingham to Suffolk by train when a family emergency occurred. The last trip to see a decent band play at a regional venue was £150+ for two of us before we stepped inside.

Model making is a cheap hobby. Try fishing, jet skiing, or car restoration if you want to experience the warmth of money being burned before your disbelieving eyes.

 

That drum shaped bit in the kit nose. Could it be the rear end of the radar equipment? Seems sensible to have it as a removable item bearing in mind reliability issues when the aircraft was designed. 

[amos brierley]

I think £72 or possibly less is , well, a fantastic price to pay for a new Bucc + a FANTASTIC selection of weapons + intake blanks + ladders + instructions + decals and all in a box. I’m loving it. 

[RichG]

On 1/12/2022 at 3:03 PM, Bertie Psmith said:

Our varying reactions to the price of this new kit is fascinating me. I'd be very interested to know whether our judgements, positive or negative, are in any way related to the money we have spent on those stashes, in some cases perhaps running into thousands of pounds, and which many of us old boys will never live long enough to build.

A really interesting point which has struck a chord with me. In my own case, this kit, amongst all the Airfix 2022 programme, has given me cause to seriously think about this very issue.  In previous years I would happily pre-order everything on the Airfix list and the thought of a 1/48 Buccaneer to Airfix's current standards given cause for serious drooling. But for some reason not this year. Maybe the price is an issue sub-consciously, but in truth I've hardly considered it and to be honest even if it was sub £40 I think I would feel the same way. Its possibly the memory of the old moulding of (what seems to me) not so long ago; but a serious dose of reality has swept over me making me think very hard about all that existing investment in the loft, particularly the AM.  I have concluded the time has come to either focus on that, or to seriously reduce the stash; probably both.

 

I'm thrilled that Airfix are tooling a 1/48 Buccaneer (and the other kits, particularly the Anson & Meteor F.8). I'm sure it will be a great kit and a further step forward for Airfix. I shall enjoy watching the subsequent reviews & builds, but this year I think I will step off the merry-go-round.

 

Rich  

 

        

[Adam Poultney]

2 hours ago, amos brierley said:

I think £72 or possibly less is , well, a fantastic price to pay for a new Bucc + a FANTASTIC selection of weapons + intake blanks + ladders + instructions + decals and all in a box. I’m loving it. 

just thinking.... it would make at least a bit of sense to tool ordinance, blanks, ladders, etc on a separate sprue and sell a cheaper version without them, similar to what Revell did with their A320neo and An225. 

Keeps the not insignificant amount of people who think it's a bit overpriced happy and keeps those who don't want to use the bombs and stuff happy

[Bertie McBoatface]

27 minutes ago, RichG said:

but this year I think I will step off the merry-go-round.

 

I couldn't have put it better. My 'stash' at the moment is 18 kits all planned to be built this year (with one exception which is for a prospective GB in '23). Next November I'll order my Xmas presents to myself with the money I've been saving monthly since now, and that will be my building program for 2023. And so on. So it's not a stash any longer, just a year's worth of models. 

 

Oh! I just realised that I never had a stash at all until I joined a model club. Before that, I'd buy one kit and build it, then get another one. After being 'clubbed' I either got carried away with everyone else's enthusiasm or kept up with the Jones's in a kind of "I've got more than you have" deal, or both. Maybe next year I'll go back to 'buy one build one'.  Yes, I will.

[DonH]

2 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

I couldn't have put it better. My 'stash' at the moment is 18 kits all planned to be built this year (with one exception which is for a prospective GB in '23). Next November I'll order my Xmas presents to myself with the money I've been saving monthly since now, and that will be my building program for 2023. And so on. So it's not a stash any longer, just a year's worth of models. 

 

Oh! I just realised that I never had a stash at all until I joined a model club. Before that, I'd buy one kit and build it, then get another one. After being 'clubbed' I either got carried away with everyone else's enthusiasm or kept up with the Jones's in a kind of "I've got more than you have" deal, or both. Maybe next year I'll go back to 'buy one build one'.  Yes, I will.

You can build 18 kits in a year? That would take me 18 times that!

 

I am delighted that Airfix appears to be in robust health with all the new releases. Long may that continue.
 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

6 hours ago, DonH said:

You can build 18 kits in a year?

That is the rather optimistic goal for the year but I’m already thinking it’s not going to happen!

[MarcV]

I'll be unfollowing until this is actually about the kit and not it's price.

[Greg B]

14 minutes ago, MarcV said:

I'll be unfollowing until this is actually about the kit and not it's price.

yep, the thread is supposed about the new kit and it’s details not the price. That has been set by Airfix. Multiple and repeated bleats about the price are not exactly contributing to the thread and are beginning to become an irritant. 

[Shar2]

Well, I wasn't going to buy any more kits, but this has hit the spot, big time. Will definitely be having this. It certainly looks light years ahead of the old offering.

[Gordon J]

I know much has been made of the price of the proposed new Airfix Buccaneer and I don't want to be the one to keep that discussion going, but while in a Lego shop at the weekend it's cost was put in perspective when I spied an AT-AT from the Empire Strikes back film.

 

OK so I know they are not the same thing. Yes there is way more plastic in the Lego box and licensing issues from Disney and Star Wars and the like and the thing builds up to the size of a small dog, but the cold hard facts of the matter are;

 

The all-new 1/48 Airfix Buccaneer - £72.49

The Lego AT-AT - £699.99

 

[VMA131Marine]

7 hours ago, Gordon J said:

I know much has been made of the price of the proposed new Airfix Buccaneer and I don't want to be the one to keep that discussion going, but while in a Lego shop at the weekend it's cost was put in perspective when I spied an AT-AT from the Empire Strikes back film.

 

OK so I know they are not the same thing. Yes there is way more plastic in the Lego box and licensing issues from Disney and Star Wars and the like and the thing builds up to the size of a small dog, but the cold hard facts of the matter are;

 

The all-new 1/48 Airfix Buccaneer - £72.49

The Lego AT-AT - £699.99

 

Well the AT-AT does contain nearly 7000 pieces.

[Adam Poultney]

8 hours ago, Gordon J said:

I know much has been made of the price of the proposed new Airfix Buccaneer and I don't want to be the one to keep that discussion going, but while in a Lego shop at the weekend it's cost was put in perspective when I spied an AT-AT from the Empire Strikes back film.

 

OK so I know they are not the same thing. Yes there is way more plastic in the Lego box and licensing issues from Disney and Star Wars and the like and the thing builds up to the size of a small dog, but the cold hard facts of the matter are;

 

The all-new 1/48 Airfix Buccaneer - £72.49

The Lego AT-AT - £699.99

 

Completely false equivalence 

A 7000+ part set is more the equivalent to the Border/exWNW Lancaster which will cost a similar price. Not the kind of thing your average hobbyist will get

[Sundowner14]

Maybe we could have one model pricing thread? Looking forward to actual kit discussion in the interim? #Letitgo

 

 

[Homebee]

Source: https://www.facebook.com/officialairfix/posts/10159592643251271

 

Quote

Highly requested and one of our new tools for 2022, the 1:48 Blackburn Buccaneer S.2! Who's looking forward to the release of this kit?

Including:

• TV & AR Martel Missiles
• Folding Wings
• Early/Late Homer Pods
• Two Types of Tailplane Fairing
• Various Other Weapons
• Open & Closed Airbrakes
• Intake, Exhaust Covers and Ladders
• Detailed Engine & Hatch
• Posable Ailerons & Tailplane Elevators
• Detailed Cockpit & Bomb Bay

Find out more here: uk.airfix.com/products/blackburn-buccaneer-s2-a12012

 

V.P.

[AMB]

On 1/15/2022 at 5:07 PM, Shar2 said:

Well, I wasn't going to buy any more kits, but this has hit the spot, big time. Will definitely be having this. It certainly looks light years ahead of the old offering.

How do you know - it's not been released yet?   I have seen excellent jobs made with the current  Airfix 1/48th Buccaneer without the need of another one!  Would prefer to see something different made that really needs a new mould.