Airfix

[kitbasher]

Any news/gossip as to when the Spit PR19 and Spit IXc will be out? 

[AeroplaneDriver]

http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/?FULL=AX03073

Hannants have the new tool Airfix Hawks in.  Anyone seen a review of these yet?

[monkeyhanger]

I'm really looking forward to the 1/72 scale (my preferred scale) Canberras.

I have bought the Tempest and Meteor F8. Both good kits.

I have browsed this thread for a while and I'm pleased to see very little mindless critisism of Airfix. We all know that some of the early kits are dogs but I've got my daughters building cheap kits like:

Bristol Blenheim - finished in an overall tiger scheme by Sophie aged 10
Bristol Beaufighter - finished ina dalmation spotty dog scheme by Phoebe aged 11

We are regular visitors to Transport Models in Preston and have bought other stuff.

[philp]

I would like to pick up one or two of the Meteors for a Korean War bird and one of the Pucaras.
Will be interested to see how the new Spitfires are received and I also want a couple Cranberrys in 72nd to do an Argentine version and a few B-57s.

[Mossie]

They've re-released several of their older 1/32 car kits:

Ford Escourt Mk.I
Aston Martin
MGB Roadster
Triumph TR4A

The Dennis Fire Engine & Omnibus is due a return too, although it wasn't that long since it was last around.

[AeroplaneDriver]

I saw that they had re-released the cars.  I've got an old MGB in the stash and it's a great little kit.  May have to get another...

[Mossie]

They seem to have only released them in Starter Set form, which pushes the price up a bit for those of us who have the paints & glue, but still, they're very welcome.  I'd like to see the Mk.I Capri again, the Frog Eye Sprite too.

[Weaver]

Michael Benolkin has managed to talk someone into giving him a review sample of the Airfix kit # 10104, 1/48 scale B-57B, RB-57E, B-57G Canberra and has some nice images of the kit contents for your viewing pleasure on CyberModeler.  The MSRP is still a bit steep at $57.45 which is very close to what I paid for the Classic Airframes B-57B kit several years ago. 

While the Airfix kit does give you some additional build options for the RB-57 Patricia Lynn aircraft and the Butt-Ugly B-57G Tropic Moon interdiction aircraft it may come to pass that the best option would be a kit-bashing of biblical proportions between the Airfix and Classic Airframes B-57 kits and use the best features from both kits to make one very expensive model.  I do like that bulbous nose of the B-57G, it looks to be ideal for use without the EO gear fairings to create something interesting. 


(image source: CyberModeler

Looking at those pics, it looks like you get quite a lot of spare British bits in the kit too. The bottom two trees (mostly weapons) also include 2 x AS.30s, 4 x Matra pods, conventional bomb bay doors, and the B(I).8 gunpack. Also, the bombs on these sprues look more like British 1000lb GPs than Mk.117s, although I admit it's a subtle thing without something to scale them by.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Looking at those pics, it looks like you get quite a lot of spare British bits in the kit too. The bottom two trees (mostly weapons) also include 2 x AS.30s, 4 x Matra pods, conventional bomb bay doors, and the B(I).8 gunpack. Also, the bombs on these sprues look more like British 1000lb GPs than Mk.117s, although I admit it's a subtle thing without something to scale them by.

Your observations are correct, the details are a bit soft but I have come to expect that from Airfix over the years.  It will take a bit of dressing up but the weapons in most cases can be used for their intended purposes.  Fortunately for the purists, replacement U.S. weapons appropriate for this aircraft are available in the Hasegawa 1/48th scale weapons sets (A, B, C, and D) or other kits. 

I downloaded and merged the relevant portions of the two sprue shots from CyberModeler for attachment to this comment.  The fins on the U.K. bomb shapes have small extensions on the rear of the fins.  This gives me the impression that Airfix was attempting to model the BL.755 cluster munition dispenser instead of the standard 1000 pound general purpose bomb.  The M117 general purpose bomb shapes in the same image are very soft on details, it does not help that the attachment point is a wedge-shaped depression in the bomb body. 

[Mossie]

I downloaded and merged the relevant portions of the two sprue shots from CyberModeler for attachment to this comment.  The fins on the U.K. bomb shapes have small extensions on the rear of the fins.  This gives me the impression that Airfix was attempting to model the BL.755 cluster munition dispenser instead of the standard 1000 pound general purpose bomb.  The M117 general purpose bomb shapes in the same image are very soft on details, it does not help that the attachment point is a wedge-shaped depression in the bomb body.  

I don't think it's modelled on the BL.755.  British 1000 lb bombs have a standard body, to which any of several fin types (I think there are around thirty marks) can be fitted.  I've tried to find a list of these fins in the past, but without luck.  It's sometimes assumed that some of the more unusual fin marks are innacurate, but it's often that they're just not well known.

[Weaver]

Looking at those pics, it looks like you get quite a lot of spare British bits in the kit too. The bottom two trees (mostly weapons) also include 2 x AS.30s, 4 x Matra pods, conventional bomb bay doors, and the B(I).8 gunpack. Also, the bombs on these sprues look more like British 1000lb GPs than Mk.117s, although I admit it's a subtle thing without something to scale them by.

Your observations are correct, the details are a bit soft but I have come to expect that from Airfix over the years.  It will take a bit of dressing up but the weapons in most cases can be used for their intended purposes.  Fortunately for the purists, replacement U.S. weapons appropriate for this aircraft are available in the Hasegawa 1/48th scale weapons sets (A, B, C, and D) or other kits. 

There are 4 x LGBs (right for the -G model) on the third tree down: the one with the US pattern noses, intakes and bomb bay.

[Geoff]

Anyone know anything about the Spit PRXIX in 1/72nd that has been released?

[Radish]

Over on Britmodeller the Spit XIX gets the thumbs up, less so for the '109G which seems to lack an interior. And the pilots in both kits seem to have modern bone domes!
The Hawks appear to be good.

[Geoff]

thanks

[Radish]

Over on Britmodeller, the Bf-109G is shown to be diabolically awful, apart from the decal sheet. I suggested it was built as an Iraqi-production version from 1946.