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Airfix 2023


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2 hours ago, cerperal said:

 

 

1/350 QE Class with complete air wing (and optional broken starboard shaft)

 

 

With Airfix's quality control I should think a broken propeller shaft is a given!

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2 hours ago, wellsprop said:

totally pointless, wild guesses and wishlists

 

It would be daft to expect much more from us lot, surely?!

 

2 hours ago, wellsprop said:

 

My realistic guess is a 1/48 Hawker Fury (biplane).

 

But the existing one is perfect - how can they improve on that?!

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well with the nights starting to draw in and Autumn on its way it must be time to start this annual collection of gossip and rumour!

 

So to 2023 - 

 

Potential reboxings/new decals

 

1/72 Meteor F8 Aussie/PR - the parts are on the sprue

1/48 Blackburn Buccaneer RAF/Gulf -inevitable but when?

1/48 DHC Chipmunk 'Foreign Users'?  - normally they squeeze at least one more boxing of a 1/48 machine out...

1/48 DH Tiger Moth  'CivilIan Users?' not done yet, they did so with their 1/72

1/72 DH Mosquito TT35? again parts are there

1/72 Bristol Beaufort - second boxing?

1/72 Avro Vulcan Black Buck? - pretty likely

 

Could we see a reboxing of the 1/48 Hawker Fury as G-FURY?

 

Also might the previously heralded reissue of the 1/48 DH Sea Vixen reappear - or indeed the clamoured for 1/48 EE Lightning?

 

Vintage Classics

Be interesting to see what people think might be likely here..

Bond Bug? The Beach Buggy seemed to have been a hit 

SA Bulldog (but see below)

Piper Cherokee?

Bristol Bloodhound?

Rotodyne?

F-84?

SRN.1?

 

New Tools

 

1/72 Cold War Jet of some sort - maybe a Jaguar?

1/72 - Supermarine Spitfire TR9 - they've never done a twintub and I go back to my previous 'rumouring' that a friend saw a built up example at Airfix HQ some years ago - see also the large number of warbird operators who fly them now - with either the original rear canopy or 'Grace/Melton' conversion

1/48 Propeller driven aircraft - maybe a Gannet if they want to keep their Naval theme going?

1/48 Auster - already mentioned on Rumourmonger...

1/72 Fairey Battle - as previously mentioned in other years?

1/72 Canberra - time for a new tool?

1/72 Avro Lincoln - also rumoured but did they sell sufficient Shacks to warrant another 4 engined beastie? Failing that a B-24?

Finally given their successful Bomber Command and USAAF ground sets - which IMHO were excellent -surely a Cold War RAF Ground Support set or a Luftwaffe one could be in the works?

 

Would they try and seek their previous trainer successes by newly tooling a Bulldog or even coming up to date with a Tutor for the Air Cadet dollar?

 

Be interested to see what people think - for me any highlight would be a 1/48 Auster or the twintub Spit (obvs) to Airfix (not AZ) standard - surely just a new fuselage.... :) though I would find home for a Cherokee

 

Over to you!

 

TT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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- The Spitfire 'twin tub' is an old chestnut.  It has to sell worldwide, repeat, worldwide.   Not just in UK where a few fortunate have flown in them but in USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, South Africa and everywhere else too.  Instead why not a 2 Seat 8 in its striking all-yellow colour scheme?  The AZ rendering is 'a bit of a challenge'.  What might have been rumorued to have been seen at Airfix's HQ in another old chestnut. I recall a 24th Lysander which was surely the Matchbox one in a mistaken scale....

- Battle: known for the horrendous losses it suffered but not much else.  Like everything else it has to sell.

- Don't think we'll see anything large: the new Spitfire lX will have drawn heavily on the budget.

- Possibly a 1/72 Dragon Rapide.  World-wide usage, colour schemes to say nothing of it still giving joy rides to more than will ever fly in a Spitfire.  Xtradecal would go crazy.

- Not much WWll is 'untooled' but plenty of scope for new tools.  My favourites Corsair and Avenger, both with folding wings.  And the supposed visit by Airfix to the FAA museum...  No, I don't think it was for the Scimitar.

- Postwar: again 'retoolings' perhaps a new Sea Hawk to replace one of their earliest.  Maybe a Venom/Sea Venom.

And whatever is coming they are working on it right now and researching follow-on subjects.  Hampden will surely come, but not until restoration at Cosford is complete.

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1 hour ago, Denford said:

- Postwar: again 'retoolings' perhaps a new Sea Hawk to replace one of their earliest. 

 

That's a good call. When was the original kit released? 1957 or something like that. I don't build too many jets, but I'd like to see Airfix re-visit the Sea Hawk. 

 

In the Classics range, I'd like to see the Piper Cherokee Arrow and S.A. Bulldog get a re-tread. Nice little kits that I'd like to get hold of again with usable decals. (I read somewhere that the recent re-release of the Beagle Basset has had re-tooled transparencies. Not sure if it's true or not, but if so, I hope they do this with other kits in the Classics range.)

 

Bond Bug is a good shout, and please let's have the Marina and Maxi see the light of day again so I can savour the 1/32 Austin/British Leyland goodness without resorting to eBay and a re-mortgage.

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No educated guess - just my usual/annual wishlist (which has gotten shorter btw. - golden times):

 

1:48 DH Hampden

1:48 Seaking - with full interior please

1:48 Scimmitar (with powder blue version)

1:48 DH Venom

1:48 Spey Phantom

1:48 Spitfire (yes!) Mk XIV high back (if an 1:24 kit is needed, I would be OK with this one :-))

 

1:72 Concorde - new tool!!!

 

1:144 Space Shuttle with boosters - new tool

 

 

 

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Oh, this is always jolly! (Until the mods shut it down for wishlisting, that is).

 

In 1/72nd I would echo Canberra as a good shouts, a remarkably under-kitted aircraft in recent times (especially the fishbowl variants) considering its worldwide use. I definitely also concur on the Sea Hawk although there is the Hobby Boss which is a nice kit.

 

There are still some other relatively mainstream gaps in British WW2 subjects with no decent, accurate mainstream modern 1/72nd  kits, such as Halifax, Sea Vixen, Anson and Hudson. Three of those were in the range formerly so would seem like decent bets. 

 

In terms of 1/72nd bread-and-butter stuff from other nations, Corsair, P-38, B-24, A-20/Boston, P-47, Avenger, Ju-88 and maybe Ki-43 would strike me as possibles in either 1/72 or 1/48 (maybe not a 48th Liberator!)

 

48th isn't really my thing but I wonder if they might scale up the Tempest or two-stage Mosquito?

 

I too am not convinced of the appeal of a twin-seat Spit- if it wasn't for the current craze for them it would be a minor historical postscript to the Spitfire story and a bit of a dead end development. If it had to be yet another Spitfire then Merlin Seafires or scaling down the 48th XIV would seem logical.

 

As for the Lincoln, well I would buy one but it's very hard to see enough other people doing so, I've always thought that one was far-fetched!

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My annual Airfix prediction list (unchanged since 2018 updated for 2023):

  • TBF/M Avenger — I want a -1c but they’re more likely to do a TBM-3, their existing kit is long in the tooth, potentially lots of marking options
  • TBD Devastator — more a hope than likely — it would start to fill in their short list of early US Pacific Theater subjects. 
  • D3A Val — Zero, Kate, Val is the trio for the early Pacific Theater. Just the one missing. 
  • Ju-88A-1/5 — if not already on the docket, likely never now that Revell released theirs. But it would complete the BoB bomber set. Removing this one as I doubt they’ll do it. 
  • A heavy — which one?  Stirling would be out of left field. Hampden May be a better option. 
  • Battle — unlikely now that FFROM announced theirs. 
  • P-51B Mustang — won’t be better than Arma Hobby’s so they missed the opportunity. 
  • Yak-9 — for John Thompson
  • Post war jet — I’m not enough of a jet guy to predict which one. 

Plus a few repops w new decals

All 1/72 of course. 

 

In 1/48:

Post WW2 RAF/FAA jet. 

Plus a few repops w new decals

 

Tim

Rarely right but never wrong

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3 hours ago, Denford said:

- The Spitfire 'twin tub' is an old chestnut.  It has to sell worldwide, repeat, worldwide.   Not just in UK where a few fortunate have flown in them but in USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, South Africa and everywhere else too.  Instead why not a 2 Seat 8 in its striking all-yellow colour scheme?  The AZ rendering is 'a bit of a challenge'.  What might have been rumorued to have been seen at Airfix's HQ in another old chestnut. I recall a 24th Lysander which was surely the Matchbox one in a mistaken scale....

- Battle: known for the horrendous losses it suffered but not much else.  Like everything else it has to sell.

- Don't think we'll see anything large: the new Spitfire lX will have drawn heavily on the budget.

- Possibly a 1/72 Dragon Rapide.  World-wide usage, colour schemes to say nothing of it still giving joy rides to more than will ever fly in a Spitfire.  Xtradecal would go crazy.

- Not much WWll is 'untooled' but plenty of scope for new tools.  My favourites Corsair and Avenger, both with folding wings.  And the supposed visit by Airfix to the FAA museum...  No, I don't think it was for the Scimitar.

- Postwar: again 'retoolings' perhaps a new Sea Hawk to replace one of their earliest.  Maybe a Venom/Sea Venom.

And whatever is coming they are working on it right now and researching follow-on subjects.  Hampden will surely come, but not until restoration at Cosford is complete.

Heller/Airfix have already done the DH Rapide & Xtradecal have at least 2 72nd scale sheets out

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11 hours ago, Vulcanicity said:

There are still some other relatively mainstream gaps in British WW2 subjects with no decent, accurate mainstream modern 1/72nd  kits, such as Halifax, Sea Vixen, Anson and Hudson. Three of those were in the range formerly so would seem like decent bets.

The Royal Navy might have liked a squadron or two of Sea Vixens during WWII, but I'm not sure they could operate off the carriers they had then. 😀

Edited by Richard Humm
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11 hours ago, Richard Humm said:

The Royal Navy might have liked a squadron or two of Sea Vixens during WWII, but I'm not sure they could operate off the carriers they had then. 😀

Always proofread one's own posts! 😛

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