Airfix

[Weaver]

ref some of the comments about pricing. Bare one thing in mind Airfix isnt in business to please modellers, it like any other private business is there first and foremost to make money and turn a profit for its owner/share holders.
They can (and do) charge what they think will recoup their outlay on tooling, raw materials, equipment investment, packaging, staffing and building maintance ect.

As I raised that issue, this is pointed squarely at me.........

My point was that they have no outlay on moulds, they've existed for umpteen years and unless they've done a lot of extra work on them, something that Airfix has never done on any of their airliners except when  they turned the 727-100 into a -200, I can't see how they can possibly expect modellers to pay almost £15.00 for a kit that's :-

a] a lot smaller than a Revell 787
b] a lot less sophisticated kit than the 787
c] only £2 cheaper than the 787!

In order to turn a profit for its owner/share holders it still needs to SELL the kits.............

It may also depend on how many they expect to sell: the more they sell, the thinner the one-off costs of putting it into production are spread. Yes they don't need to make new moulds, but they still have to do all the design and set-up work for the decals, boxes etc....

The Comet and the Vanguard are (sadly) pretty obscure as far as Joe Public is concerned, whereas the 787 is the latest-shinyest-thing and a fair percentage of the people who'll see it in a toy store or other non-specialist outlet will have either flown on it already or expect to at some point. my betting is that Airfix's projected sales for these two are way less than Revell's are for the 787.

[The Wooksta!]

I have an across-the-board objection to paying £40 for any kit no matter how good it is, so I doubt I'll be getting one any time soon. That isn't a comment on the kit or the pricing, it's a statement of my priorities: if I was rich it'd be different. If they end up heavily discounted in a few year's time, I might get one then, because it would go well with my Nimrod and Neptune, neither of which I paid anything like full retail for.

I don't have a problem with the price, I'm just happy there's a new kit.  

Say you wanted to do an MR2 or an AEW2.  Firstly, you'd have to source an old Frog kit - in whatever rebox it is this week - and ebay prices are... variable, shall we say? (although there's one Canadian trader selling six in a box at a very reasonable price, although postage to the UK is through the roof*).  Say a reasonable £20.  Then you've got to find an Aeroclub conversion.  That's another £20 IF you're lucky to find one that cheap.  But what about decals?  AFAIK, only one manufacturer has done aftermarket decals for Shackletons - Aeroclub, to go with his conversions and finding one of those sheets is more difficult than finding the conversion.  The one I got was £20.  Tot that lot up and you've £60 on one model, not including postage.  Look at it that way and £39.99 seems to be a bargain.

Although you could try sourcing a Sangar vacform.  But trust me, it makes ye olde Frog kit look good!

How much would said Shatipuss cost if it was a Hasegawa kit?  3 figures, I'll bet.  Italeri are charging similar prices for the Stirling and Sunderland.  Lot of tooling there.  The cost of the Lancaster could be spread over several boxings with different variants in each.  Plus prices will naturally drop.  Don't forget the hue and cry in the UK over the price of the Hasegawa Lancaster either.  £30 for a Lancaster?  Same people didn't bat an eyelid when the Airfix one came out at the same price.

Now if Airfix are *really* clever, they'll have the wings and engines (or at least the nacelles) on separate sprues.  Which means that they could use the wings for either a Lincoln (again, they'd have to do a new sprue for the Merlins, but that could be added to a Lancaster for a B.VI) or a Tudor.

*I'm seriously thinking about it as I fancy some spares for my Lancaster/Lincoln programme.

[Weaver]

Well like I said, I was criticising neither the price point nor the value for money, I was simply registering the fact that for myself (and, I suspect, a good number of other people) £40 kits are simply off the radar, no matter how much we might want them in an ideal world. If the new Shack wasn't available, I wouldn't spend £40 on a Frogspawn one plus a bucket load of conversion bits either.

[McColm]

The prices are similar to the launch of the BAe Nimrod which was around the £40 mark, then six months later the price dropped down to £15 and has shot back up as the kits become scarce again.
I've never paid the full price for one. Best shop around.l

[rickshaw]

Would have been really nice to see an Avro Lincoln first...in the meantime http://www.djparkins.com/acatalog/1_72ndwwii.html...it's in there somewhere .

http://www.blackbirdmodels.co.uk/avro-lincoln-conversion-x2872x29-1492-p.asp

Try that one designed for the new Airfix BII kit 

"Currently out of Stock"...   

[zenrat]

1/24 Triumph Stag would be nice. There was a GT6 and Triumph Spitfire in 1/35.

Lindberg did a GT6 in 24th/25th.  Got one somewhere as it was rereleased a few year back.

Then you'll know there is something rather wrong about it.
A clever model designer would organise his sprues so a GT6, Vitesse, Spitfire and Herald could all be produced (in 1/24 natch) with the minimum of effort.

I'm with Weaver over 40 quid kits.  It's probably a fair price but circumstances mean I can't spend that on one kit.
It'll be on my xmas list next year.
I will be looking out for a Defiant though.  One of the old ones will do for whiffing.

[Thorvic]

Would have been really nice to see an Avro Lincoln first...in the meantime http://www.djparkins.com/acatalog/1_72ndwwii.html...it's in there somewhere .

Don't bother.  I've seen that conversion and it's seriously lacking a lot of bits, such as turret interiors, proper Lincoln wheels and rudders.

Does the Blackbird one come with a solid blank for the nose glazing?

no its clear resin, thats just the master for the casting of the glazing, which makes the nose much easier to use.

[Knightflyer]

Shackleton. £39.99. That's a lot of money for a kit. And they bring it out just as I get the venerable Frog Shack to work on, rivets and all! 

There appears to be various parts to do three versions according to this:

""The A11004 1:72 Avro Shackleton MR.2 has optional parts to enable Phase I, II or III types to be built, positionable control surfaces, a complete interior and newly sculpted crew figures. Airfix have been granted special permission by the Shackleton Preservation trust to access the original drawings and original aircraft.""

I presume that in the same way we had conversion sets to convert the venerable Frogspawn Mk.3s into Mk.2s, the possibility will be there (at some point in the not so distant future) of a conversion set to convert these lovely new Mk.2s into Mk.3s ? Or is that potentially a physically more difficult operation?

[Thorvic]

Shackleton. £39.99. That's a lot of money for a kit. And they bring it out just as I get the venerable Frog Shack to work on, rivets and all! 

There appears to be various parts to do three versions according to this:

""The A11004 1:72 Avro Shackleton MR.2 has optional parts to enable Phase I, II or III types to be built, positionable control surfaces, a complete interior and newly sculpted crew figures. Airfix have been granted special permission by the Shackleton Preservation trust to access the original drawings and original aircraft.""

I presume that in the same way we had conversion sets to convert the venerable Frogspawn Mk.3s into Mk.2s, the possibility will be there (at some point in the not so distant future) of a conversion set to convert these lovely new Mk.2s into Mk.3s ? Or is that potentially a physically more difficult operation?

More difficult, new canopy, new nose with undercarriage, new main landing gear and mods to accomodate it, tip tanks etc

Not impossible but would take some effort

[PR19_Kit]

More difficult, new canopy, new nose with undercarriage, new main landing gear and mods to accomodate it, tip tanks etc

Not impossible but would take some effort

But 'they' could use a FROG kit as a master.   

[Knightflyer]

Shackleton. £39.99. That's a lot of money for a kit. And they bring it out just as I get the venerable Frog Shack to work on, rivets and all! 

There appears to be various parts to do three versions according to this:

""The A11004 1:72 Avro Shackleton MR.2 has optional parts to enable Phase I, II or III types to be built, positionable control surfaces, a complete interior and newly sculpted crew figures. Airfix have been granted special permission by the Shackleton Preservation trust to access the original drawings and original aircraft.""

I presume that in the same way we had conversion sets to convert the venerable Frogspawn Mk.3s into Mk.2s, the possibility will be there (at some point in the not so distant future) of a conversion set to convert these lovely new Mk.2s into Mk.3s ? Or is that potentially a physically more difficult operation?

More difficult, new canopy, new nose with undercarriage, new main landing gear and mods to accomodate it, tip tanks etc

Not impossible but would take some effort

Would that be (potentially and hypothetically of course !) more effort than the present Mk.3 to Mk.2 conversions?

[kitnut617]

Shackleton. £39.99. That's a lot of money for a kit. And they bring it out just as I get the venerable Frog Shack to work on, rivets and all!  

There appears to be various parts to do three versions according to this:

""The A11004 1:72 Avro Shackleton MR.2 has optional parts to enable Phase I, II or III types to be built, positionable control surfaces, a complete interior and newly sculpted crew figures. Airfix have been granted special permission by the Shackleton Preservation trust to access the original drawings and original aircraft.""

I presume that in the same way we had conversion sets to convert the venerable Frogspawn Mk.3s into Mk.2s, the possibility will be there (at some point in the not so distant future) of a conversion set to convert these lovely new Mk.2s into Mk.3s ? Or is that potentially a physically more difficult operation?

More difficult, new canopy, new nose with undercarriage, new main landing gear and mods to accommodate it, tip tanks etc

Not impossible but would take some effort

You forgot the different wing    easier to cut off the access than to add on -- but I guess that's where Colin comes in with his nice resin -- 

[Captain Canada]

What are the differences between phase I-III ? I was leafing through my Shack mag to no avail. I'd really like to see the AEW variant tho. Maybe Robert would like to cough one up so I can finish one of my 6 old Frogs ? 

[Gondor]

What if Airfix produced a conversion set to allow the Shackleton Mk2 into the AEW Mk2 just like they did with the Vickers Valiant to change it from a B1 into the PR1 or tanker version.

Gondor

[McColm]

You would have thought they would have done something similar with the BAe Nimrod kit so you could build the Mk4 version.
Or even an update set for the Boeing E-3 Sentry.