Airfix Great Western paddle steamer 1/180 scale

[Peter Roberts]

I notice that Airfix are re-releasing their 1/180 scale S.S. Great Western paddle steamer. I notice one on eBay at present for about US$153 so they’ll likely be disappointed!

 

I built the smaller version of this (1/440?) many, many years ago and was intrigued by the vessel, so looking forward to seeing this in a larger scale.

 

Does anyone have any experience with the build? (That they can recall  )

 

Any recommended references?

 

 

Edited January 11, 2023 by Peter Roberts

[tempestfan]

A re-release will not necessarily bring the price of older boxings down - the Type 3 and especially the Type 4 boxings are really scarce and hence usually expensive (I saw the latter only once in my active ebay days, which spanned from 2004 to something like 2017).

I'd say the smaller one is more of an approximation, with its integral paddles on the half-wheels - but then it's something like 65.

Sorry, I am a collector so am of no help re building hints.

[Welkin]

I remember building one of these many years ago when I was nobbut a lad - it made a nice model but it was very much of it's era, particularly with the vacuform sails. As I remember it was a straightforward build with no issues.

 

It would have been nice if Airfix did all three of Brunel's wonderful ships (in the same scale) but I guess that potential sales wouldn't justify new tooling - probably OK if they can reuse the old moulds, though. Mind you, I would have thought a Great Britain would be feasible, and the kit would sell well to visitors to the actual ship?

[gavingav1]

Now if only revell will re issue their Great eastern .......

[Mjwomack]

Just seen the 'headline' price and, for a re-pop ,that's deterred me already! Think it's going to need some big discounts to shift in any numbers. Now, if they like to reissue Royal Sovereign, I'd be daft enough!

[Black Knight]

One of the ship kits I wanted but either never got around to buying or it was too expensive back then

I have one on back-order with Hannants now though

[Noel Smith]

Nice to see the Great Western reissued.    Airfix issued a nice set of classic ship kits back in the day.

I see that the Victory, Cutty Sark, Golden Hind and their inaccurate Vasa appear in their catalogue regularly. I guess that these three are regular good sellers for them

Revell did a nice Vasa kit that was far more accurate than the Airfix offering but not in their catalogue at present. The Airfix one was 1/144th scale and the Revell one was 1/150th scale so very similar sized models.

The Airfix classics that I can remember besides the above are the HMS Royal Sovereign (Sovereign of the Seas), HMS Prince, HMAS Bounty, Revenge, Discovery, Endeavour, Saint Louis, Mayflower. 

I wish that they would re tool the Vasa in 1/100th scale in light of how well researched the ship is now compared to when Airfix first issued their Vasa (Wasa) kit back in the 70's I think.

It would make for a beautiful colourful bigger display model where Airfix could really take advantage of simulating the large number of intricate figure carvings on the ship.

What would I like to see as a new model? Perhaps a Mary Rose in a bigger scale , HMS Warrior or perhaps an accurate CSS Alabama.

[TallBlondJohn]

53 minutes ago, Noel Smith said:

I wish that they would re tool the Vasa in 1/100th scale in light of how well researched the ship is now compared to when Airfix first issued their Vasa (Wasa) kit back in the 70's I think.

It would make for a beautiful colourful bigger display model where Airfix could really take advantage of simulating the large number of intricate figure carvings on the ship.

What would I like to see as a new model? Perhaps a Mary Rose in a bigger scale , HMS Warrior or perhaps an accurate CSS Alabama.

 

All these would be wonderful to see, but we wont get any new tool ships from Airfix apart from the occasional 1/350 modern RN, the sales aren't there. Maybe, just maybe, the far east might do some classic sailing ships.

[Noel Smith]

You are probably right there John.

Classic ship models are the 'Cinderella' of the plastic kit world and Revell's Vasa is the newest that I can recall.

The viability just is not there compared to relatively modern warships. Sad but true unfortunately.

 

Also this genre has suffered in the past by certain manufacturers using the same hull mouldings although hopelessly wrong to portray a ship other than their original model. OK as interior designer objects but not as true scale models.I

Best we can hope for are the occasional re releases from old tooling.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Noel Smith

[Stevejj]

Would be great if we could have a warrior kit not worried about scale!

[Noel Smith]

Billings make a big Warrior kit in wood.

 

William Mowll's book about his Victorian model ship build Great Britain will have plenty of reference material within about practices at the time that would be common to use on the Great Western.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Noel Smith

[tempestfan]

On 1/12/2023 at 9:51 PM, Noel Smith said:

I see that the Victory, Cutty Sark, Golden Hind and their inaccurate Vasa appear in their catalogue regularly. I guess that these three are regular good sellers for them

...

The Airfix classics that I can remember besides the above are the HMS Royal Sovereign (Sovereign of the Seas), HMS Prince, HMAS Bounty, Revenge, Discovery, Endeavour, Saint Louis, Mayflower. 

That's the complete portfolio. St. Louis and IIRC also Bounty were apparently tooled by some external toolmaker, as they are much less well detailed than their predecessors. Re Bounty this may also be due to it being the straggler of the series, being released with original Airifx's end on the horizon, and probably some cost cutting measures being taken. I don't think Hind suffered from the same, even though it's only two or three years older.

[Chewbacca]

On 13/01/2023 at 09:13, Noel Smith said:

The viability just is not there compared to relatively modern warships. Sad but true unfortunately.

Only just seen this.  Sadly, I fear as far as Airfix is concerned, we won't even be seeing any new tool relatively modern warships.  They're simply too expensive to tool to be able to sell in the sort of numbers to make them profitable.  Ultimately, they are a business whose raison d'etre is to make money for their shareholders and if the business case doesn't stack up, we "niche modellers" will forever be reliant upon the specialists/resin market.

 

 

On 11/01/2023 at 18:16, Welkin said:

Mind you, I would have thought a Great Britain would be feasible, and the kit would sell well to visitors to the actual ship?

 

Whilst I'd love to see a Great Britain, I can't even see that selling in the numbers to make one commercially viable.  Most people in this country outside of Bristol have never heard of SS Great Britain.  For a comparable sized model to Great Western, it's going to retail for at least £50-60 I would have thought.  How many of those might they sell in the gift shop?  1 or perhaps 2 a day?  Let's say wholesale price is 70% retail (and I do genuinely not know how much the difference is between wholesale and retail, but I do know of at least two LMS who have stopped stocking Airfix because the margins were too small) and their actual costs are 50% of wholesale.  That means that even in the best case scenario, the manufacturer is only going to get about £15k per annum from sales in the gift shop.  Beyond that how many are they likely to sell do we think?  Maybe a couple of thousand per year for the first year and 5-600 a year after that?  I have no idea how much it would cost to tool Great Britain; I do remember reading something(it may have been on BM) that any new tool model needs upwards of £250k investment from concept to release.  Based on those numbers, they would have to sell ~12,000 kits to break even, which if my projected sales figure are true (and I accept I may be being very pessimistic) will take around 11 years. Sadly that's a long time to recoup their investment when they can sell that number of boring Spitfires in a single year.

 

I'd love to be proven wrong!

[Noel Smith]

Bottom line is Historical ship models are just not viable as plastic kits regardless of manufacturer. Revell were the last with their very nice Vasa kit that is not currently in their catalogue.

Look to Occre, Billings and Artesania Latina to name  a few  wooden kit manufacturers for historical ship models as that is probably the way to go for that type of model. Different skill set will need developing to start building wooden kits, but not as daunting as you might think although a bit more challenging.

To manufacture a wooden kit is far less expensive than tooling up a plastic kit, as much is laser cut from flat materials.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Noel Smith