Airfix Vulcan. Talk about falling at the first hurdle!

[Graham T]

So thought I'd make a start on the Vulcan.  Lets see, step 1, first part C1……..oh!

 

I hope Airfix are up to scratch with replacements.  Not encouraging when the auto-response claims that they have "had a busy start to the year" (it's AUGUST!) "& Have had COVID disruptions".  How long can companies continue blaming COVID?.

[Duncan B]

50% of the Airfix Vulcans I had in stock had that very same issue.

 

Duncan B

[Hook]

Oh dear, that is bad.

[spruecutter96]

In theory at least, Airfix will have good stocks of all parts for all the models in their current catalogue (out-of-production kits' spare-parts becomes a bit more murky, from what I've read).

 

To give you an example, about 4 years ago, I bought a load of spares for the Airfix 1/24th Mosquito (total cost was about 18 quid). I would not expect you to have to pay for your new parts, as the issue was effectively caused by the makers. 

 

Airfix REALLY need to fix their quality-control issues - modellers will start to "vote-with-their-wallets", if the company can't sort out this problem. Airfix seems to have had a real spate of short-shot issues in recent years.  

 

Hope this helps. 

 

Chris.  

Edited August 23, 2022 by spruecutter96
Correcting a typo.

[Hook]

33 minutes ago, spruecutter96 said:

Airfix REALLY need to fix their quality-control issues - modellers will start of "vote-with-their-wallets", if the company can't sort out this problem.

My Doolittle B-25 lacked an entire sprue - I was told that there were no spares available. Considering the price hike of the brand in recent years,...

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[peterburns]

You can recreate that with sheet plastic in a few minutes.  Won't be able to see it anyway.  Probably takes longer to notify Airfix than to create a new floorboard

[Graham T]

1 hour ago, peterburns said:

You can recreate that with sheet plastic in a few minutes.  Won't be able to see it anyway.  Probably takes longer to notify Airfix than to create a new floorboard

It MAY come to that but there is some detail to add too.  Plus I believe it's part of the front whhel bay so possible structural!

[Sturmovik]

2 hours ago, peterburns said:

You can recreate that with sheet plastic

You shouldn't need to scratch build something from a mainstream manufacturer, especially if the kit is 60£ and the mold was short shot. Airfix has to provide OP with a new part.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Sturmovik

[stever219]

41 minutes ago, Graham T said:

It MAY come to that but there is some detail to add too.  Plus I believe it's part of the front whhel bay so possible structural!

Thankfully it’s forward of the nose wheel bay and isn’t structural per se, but if you want the crew door open you are going to need it.  The front bulkhead and pilots’ floor sections will hold the longitudinal floor supports in alignment to help get a new scratch-built floor section in if you are building with the door open, but as others have said you ought not to have to do this in a sixty-quid +kit.

[rayprit]

This kit and judging by comments many, many others is not fit for purpose and should be returned to retailer.  No matter how skilled we modellers are, we should no be expected to right the wrongs of a manufacturer, especially at £60 per shot.............it might be just a kit but imagine buying an item of clothing and finding imperfect stitching or buttons falling off...................would you stand for it?  Seller may well say that when you get it home a needle and cotton will soon sort that out...............the item is Not fit for purpose - end of story...............................sorry if your a seller of kits, but it also brings the item to your attention and could ovoid confrontation with other customers later on.

[neilh]

16 hours ago, spruecutter96 said:

In theory at least, Airfix will have good stocks of all parts for all the models in their current catalogue (out-of-production kits' spare-parts becomes a bit more murky, from what I've read).

 

To give you an example, about 4 years ago, I bought a load of spares for the Airfix 1/24th Mosquito (total cost was about 18 quid). I would not expect you to have to pay for your new parts, as the issue was effectively caused by the makers. 

 

Airfix REALLY need to fix their quality-control issues - modellers will start of "vote-with-their-wallets", if the company can't sort out this problem. Airfix seems to have had a real spate of short-shot issues in recent years.  

 

Hope this helps. 

 

Chris.  

Not sure that's the case nowadays. The Airfix spares department were amazing, but my recent experiences have been mixed. For example, for the Sea Fury and Chipmunk, I requested spares to replace effective parts and in both cases Airfix wrote back to say they had no spares, and this was just after the kits hit the market.  Fortunately the seller replaced the whole kit ( and I assume sent it back to Airfix for a vendors refund).   

[Selwyn]

13 hours ago, Sturmovik said:

You shouldn't need to scratch build something from a mainstream manufacturer, especially if the kit is 60£ and the mold was short shot. Airfix has to provide OP with a new part.

Thats incorrect. UK law says you should return it to the retailer, not the manufacturer.

 

Selwyn

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Even when fixable, you're not doing the manufacturer - in this case owned by a Public Limited Company on the London stock exchange - any favours by not making them aware of every time their product fails to be of suitable quality (even if that's by returning defective goods to the retailer - who will surely make their own displeasure known to Hornby). If they're told about (and required to remedy) every single defect in their manufacturing and packaging, they will eventually either collapse completely or some accountant will concede that a Quality Management system is cheaper than remedy. That only works when they can't hide away from the true scale of their problem though or claim there is insufficient evidence of a systematic defect in their work.

[Stuart Wilson]

I bought the Wellington II when it came out and mine was missing the entire engine sprue. As it was Airfix I checked it in the car park outside the shop and returned it pronto. However, that presumably meant at least an inconvenience for the retailer. I recently had to return an Me 262 to the same shop as it was the "A" kit but had the transparencies for the "B" kit. It seems like a third of the Airfix kits I buy have some issue or problem. I don't experience this with other manufactures. 

This is coupled with a seeming lack of concern for other faults, I may be wrong but I can't recall hearing anything from Airfix about the issues regarding the number of bolts on the wheels of their 1/35 Cromwells (six rather than eight) or the messed up bomb doors and fairing on the Mosquito BXVI. I know these are minor and correctable errors but an acknowledgement that they had made errors and a promise to put them right would at least make me think they cared about their customers. 

I don't want to bash Airfix, like most of us I grew up building them and have just realised I'm wearing an Airfix t-shirt as I type this. But they need to acknowledge their mistakes and realise that their customer base will vote with their wallets if they don't start getting it right.

 

Stuart

[Rob G]

17 hours ago, spruecutter96 said:

modellers will start of "vote-with-their-wallets"

 

4 minutes ago, Stuart Wilson said:

their customer base will vote with their wallets if they don't start getting it right. 

 

Airfix QC issues have been ongoing for how long now? It's no secret around online forums, and even model clubs and hobby shops have the discussion whenever a new Airfix kit hits the shelves. And yet... people keep apologising for Airfix and laying down their money, and saying things like "a bit of plastic card'll fix that" or "I'll just throw some filler in there", which they wouldn't allow Tamiya, Revell or even Zvezda to get away with. I doubt that anything short of a complete collapse of their kit sales will make any difference to Hornby's upper management. 

[Troy Smith]

2 hours ago, Stuart Wilson said:

I may be wrong but I can't recall hearing anything from Airfix

this not really the same thing as quality control, but likely has a similar root cause, economy, or really false economy.

2 hours ago, Stuart Wilson said:

about the issues regarding the number of bolts on the wheels of their 1/35 Cromwells (six rather than eight)

weird thing is.... their 76th Cromwell has 8 wheel bolts...

2 hours ago, Stuart Wilson said:

or the messed up bomb doors and fairing on the Mosquito BXVI. I know these are minor and correctable errors but an acknowledgement that they had made errors and a promise to put them right would at least make me think they cared about their customers. 

Airfix do read here, and other forums, and have asked for input from people who know thier subjects, which is great,  problem is thay then don't ask the for input at the end of the design stage.

We have a discussion here about SAM mags having a proof reading problem, and it is when deeply involved in a project to become 'blind' to a problem.   But both the Cromwell and Mosquito glitches should have been spotted. 

 

The moulding problem, again, you get what you pay for.   The QC problems on this have been discussed here on various occasions.

A few years back Airfix did get some kits moulded in England,  Plastech in Newhaven in fact.   

I don't know how this worked out, I know they do the Quickbuild kits, and  as I said when this was mentioned,  it's a hours drive from Kent to Sussex to find out the problems.  (some kits done were the 1/48th P-40B and Ju-87B-1 IIRC, the are marked as being made in the UK) 

perhaps with the price of international shipping more in future maybe done back in the UK, as this may tip the balance in manufacture cost.

 

Overall this really comes back to Airfix being shackled to Hornby's debt, and short sighted bean counting, as well as the members here are a a very small part of the customer base, and undoubtedly the spreadsheets still balance and they just factor in the cost of the stuff being less than the cost of delaying things to get it right?

 

2 hours ago, Rob G said:

I doubt that anything short of a complete collapse of their kit sales will make any difference to Hornby's upper management. 

Sad but true. 

[Hook]

5 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

weird thing is.... their 76th Cromwell has 8 wheel bolts...

Just like their 1982 Harrier GR.3 kit had the correct heightened RWR fin compared to the GR.1 it was based on, while the 2013 one did not.

 

And yes, it is fixable... but you shouldn't have to.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[lasermonkey]

I'd love to see Airfix (and Humbrol) freed from the shackles of Hornby. I may well be wrong, but it very much appears to me that they are run solely to prop up a failing vanity project.

[AWFK10]

If it's any consolation, I decided a few weeks ago to build one of the original Airfix Vulcans in my stash. It was the "Vulcan to the Sky" boxing issued in 2010 and the sprues were still sealed in the factory packaging. When I opened it, I could see straight away that the moulds must have seen a lot of use since the kit was released in 1983 but what I didn't notice until later was that one of the main undercarriage legs was missing. It wasn't loose in the bag and when I checked the place on the sprue where it should have been it was obvious that it had never been moulded in the first place. The sprue was completely smooth, there was no sign of an attachment point from which the part might have been torn off during handling. I was able to knock up a pair of replacement legs myself but I wasn't impressed. It's not like the kit was cheap, it had been £30 when I bought it some years ago. Furthermore it was a gift set, the type of thing that might be bought for a youngster or by someone who only has a casual interest in modelling but who's a fan of the Vulcan. If they found that their kit was missing a rather significant part, what might their feelings be about buying from Airfix again?

[Graham T]

22 hours ago, Sturmovik said:

You shouldn't need to scratch build something from a mainstream manufacturer, especially if the kit is 60£ and the mold was short shot. Airfix has to provide OP with a new part.

Absolutely!

[Denford]

As noted above, the responsibility lies with the retailer: I suspect that, in turn, there is a replacement to them from Airfix.

Probably this is the cheapest way.

Everyone talks about 'Quality Control' but those who do might like to explain how this is to be performed at reasonable cost.  Visual inspection?  Weighing?   Supermarkets and other retailers will usually replace defective goods ie when the customer has done the inspection so to speak.

 

[Adam Poultney]

Depends how much of the process is manual and how much is semi automated. I imagine they already catch most of the worst miscasts and we never know about those

[Troy Smith]

1 hour ago, Denford said:

Everyone talks about 'Quality Control' but those who do might like to explain how this is to be performed at reasonable cost.

In the two main short short problems stories, the 1/48th Sea Fury fin, and the Vulcan cockpit floor,  these have been the same problems area, affecting many kits. 

 

Now perhaps these started part way through the run,   but  it implies that they have not been inspected periodically during the run.   

 

The consistent nature of the fault in both cases implies that many in sequence had this problem, which is plastic not reaching into the mould fully in one specific place. Looking at the Vulcan part

 

It maybe a small blockage on the lower left 'feeder'  part, 

 

this is from the old thread on this, note this is the same problem. 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235097031-yet-more-qc-issues-at-airfix-check-your-vulcan-kits-for-short-shots/

 

Which suggests that periodic inspection was not done.  

Given that this is a factory dealing with injection moulding,  you should have someone or something which can run checks for issues like this. 

 

IIRC @hendie  was up on the details of injection moulding and maybe able to advise on how these faults may arise, and how products are checked.     

 

HTH

[tweeky]

Glad you mentioned this just checked mine bought direct from Airfix when it first released and its the same as yours.

 

On to Airfix's website to order another. 

[junglierating]

3 hours ago, Denford said:

As noted above, the responsibility lies with the retailer: I suspect that, in turn, there is a replacement to them from Airfix.

Probably this is the cheapest way.

Everyone talks about 'Quality Control' but those who do might like to explain how this is to be performed at reasonable cost.  Visual inspection?  Weighing?   Supermarkets and other retailers will usually replace defective goods ie when the customer has done the inspection so to speak.

 

Thats kinda not the customers problem to sort ...imagine that kinda attitude (not suggesting you have one btw ) in aircraft or ship manufacturing....mind you I have seen some shoddy stuff ....enter the QAR,S2022 MF760 etc etc ...do airfix still put that slip of paper in the box?

Thinking of which I seem to recall a QA stamp in trumpeter model kits