Airfix

[Gondor]

Just had a look on the Airfix web site, how can you tell which Series a kit belongs to?


Gondor

[NARSES2]

Just had a look on the Airfix web site, how can you tell which Series a kit belongs to?


Gondor

It's part of the kit number, the first two numbers following the A. As examples : The 1/48 Buccaneer is kit No A12012 and is series 12, the 1/72 Mig 17 is A03091 and is series 3 etc.

[NARSES2]

Workbench with CAD shots of the 1/48 Bristol Bulldog and interview with the designers:
https://uk.airfix.com/community/blog-and-news/workbench/bristol-bulldog-inter-war-aviation-perfection

Interwar aircraft aren't usually my thing and it's not my scale either but I must admit it's turning my head.

And mine 

[Weaver]

Changes To The Flying Hours scheme.

This might be old news to some people, but because I've got three unused Airfix Flying Hours Passports, I've just noticed that the terms have changed several times in the last few years, so beware if you've got an old passport and always check the website for the latest T&Cs.

The webpage for Flying Hours is here: https://support.airfix.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360017083939-Airfix-Club-Flying-Hours
(You have to be logged on and a Club member to see it).


Number of Tokens Needed.

This has gone up significantly at some point since 2015. However, Series 9 kits are now included.

Old Scheme:
12 tokens - Series 1 or 2 kit
24 tokens - Series 3 or 4 kit
36 tokens - Series 5 or 6 kit
48 tokens - Series 7 or 8 kit

Current Scheme:
16 tokens - Series 1 or 2 kit
30 tokens - Series 3 or 4 kit
40 tokens - Series 5 or 6 kit
60 tokens - Series 7, 8 or 9 kit


Postage Costs:

The cheque you have to include to cover postage.

Pre 2015: £2.95
On a current passport sent to me only a few weeks ago: £4.98
On the website today: £5.95


Lastly, and this is pure speculation on my part, I wouldn't be surprised if they discontinue the Flying Hours scheme in the next few years and replace it with some variation on their Hobby Points scheme, which is all digital and essentially does the same thing, i.e. reward you for buying Airfix kits. At the moment it only applies to purchases though their website, but you could easily imagine a system where Flying Hours tokens are replaced by a discount code on the box which gets you more Hobby Points but which you can only upload through the Club Members Area of the website.

It might, therefore, be a good idea to use any Flying Hours tokens you've got whilst you still can.

The plot thickens...

I just rang them up to check what to use as a "membership number" because the passport asks for one but they haven't given me one. It turns out that your e-mail address is now your membership number. The self-print passports are slightly different and ask for e-mail address.

While I was on I pointed out the discrepancy in the postage charges, and she confirmed that it's £3.95, not £4.98 as per the passport or £5.95 as per the website! She double-checked this with the lady who does the Flying Hours and yep, definitely £3.95.

That's not the first error I've spotted on their website: somebody needs to have a word with their web managers.

[chrisonord]

I need to join the Airfix club as I have approximately 100 flying hours to trade. I should be able to get a 1/72nd scale phantom FGR 2 and a Buccaneer for that lot shouldn't I?

[NARSES2]

I need to join the Airfix club as I have approximately 100 flying hours to trade. I should be able to get a 1/72nd scale phantom FGR 2 and a Buccaneer for that lot shouldn't I?

Assuming your after 1/72, then yes. They are both series 6 kits so you need 80 tokens for the pair.

[Weaver]

I need to join the Airfix club as I have approximately 100 flying hours to trade. I should be able to get a 1/72nd scale phantom FGR 2 and a Buccaneer for that lot shouldn't I?

Assuming your after 1/72, then yes. They are both series 6 kits so you need 80 tokens for the pair.

The lady I spoke to today offered, unprompted, that you can claim two kits if you can fit enough hours on one passport, i.e. two series 4s if you have 60 tokens.

I'm not sure if you have to fit all your tokens in the 40 spaces on the passport though: if you do, then they'd have to be all value 2 or greater to claim 80. If you do have to fit them all on one passport and you can't do it, then you'd have to order one kit, wait for it to come, complete with another passport, and then order the other. That would mean you'd be paying two lots of postage through.

Once you're in the club you can get into the member's area on the website where there's a dedicated club helpline number that goes straight through to an actual human after only one automated menu. It might be worth joining and then ringing up to check before sending them off.

[Gondor]

I need to join the Airfix club as I have approximately 100 flying hours to trade. I should be able to get a 1/72nd scale phantom FGR 2 and a Buccaneer for that lot shouldn't I?

Assuming your after 1/72, then yes. They are both series 6 kits so you need 80 tokens for the pair.

The lady I spoke to today offered, unprompted, that you can claim two kits if you can fit enough hours on one passport, i.e. two series 4s if you have 60 tokens.

I'm not sure if you have to fit all your tokens in the 40 spaces on the passport though: if you do, then they'd have to be all value 2 or greater to claim 80. If you do have to fit them all on one passport and you can't do it, then you'd have to order one kit, wait for it to come, complete with another passport, and then order the other. That would mean you'd be paying two lots of postage through.

Once you're in the club you can get into the member's area on the website where there's a dedicated club helpline number that goes straight through to an actual human after only one automated menu. It might be worth joining and then ringing up to check before sending them off.

Saying that though, you are only paying for the postage, in both directions for a kit! Not too bad I would think.

Gondor

[chrisonord]

Cheers everyone, I will crack on with it when I get a spare moment

[Weaver]

The other thing is, if you're going to join the Club, JOIN THE HOBBY REWARDS POINTS SCHEME FIRST (it's free).

Hobby Rewards (HR) is another discount scheme that only applies to website purchases. 1 point = £0.01, so the 459 points I've got right now get me £4.59 of the next kit I buy.

The point of joining HR first is:
1. You get 200 bonus HR points for joining Hobby Rewards.
2. You get another 200 bonus HR points for filling in a questionaire.
2. You earn 350 regular HR points on the £35 purchase of your Airfix Club membership.
3. You get 300 MORE bonus HR points for joining the Airfix Club.

That's 1050 HR points, or £10.50 off another purchase if you wait 21 days (see below). You can use HR points in addition to the 10% discount you get for joining the Airfix Club.

HR points come in two flavours:
1. Bonus HR points apply immediately and can be spent immediately.
2. Normal HR points earned by spending money on the website are "pending" (can't be spent) until 21 days after delivery of the relevent goods.
(This is so that you can't spend the points and then return the goods for a refund).

There's a nice easy dashboard once you log in that shows you where you're up to with usable and pending HR points.

[Weaver]

Cheers everyone, I will crack on with it when I get a spare moment

Read my last post about HR points.

[chrisonord]

Thanks Harold, much appreciated.
The flying hours I have vary from 1 to 5 I think..? So they can be used up without taking up too many spaces on the passport can't they?

[chrisonord]

I have just looked at the airfix club page, as all I want to do is redeem the tokens. £35 to receive a load of stuff that's no good to me is a bit steep, so sack that idea.

[The Wooksta!]

Agreed.  I have a big bag of tokens and a large requirement for Mosquitoes.  I'm not spending 35 notes on a load of crap I neither need nor want.  Neither do I need their rewards scheme as I don't buy direct from Airfix, I'd rather support my LHS than a big corporation.

Too many hoops to jump through.

[Weaver]

When I first drew attention to the combination of the Hobby Rewards and the Airfix Club about a month ago, they were still selling AC membership on the 2023 basis, i.e. £15 for basic membership and you could choose whether to add the club exclusive kit or not. That's the basis on which I got my membership and it's why I was going on about it.

Since they launched the 2024 membership, they've removed the "no kit" option for UK members (Rest Of The World still get it though), so now if you don't want the 2024 Club Kit (a Spitfire and a Typhoon in D-Day colours), then it looks like much less of a good deal, unless you've got a LOT of Flying Hours and/or you intend to buy a LOT of kits off the website using the 10% discount and the Hobby Reward points.

I had intended to use my Hobby Reward points around about now to buy a Rotordyne, but it's just vanished off the website, so if there isn't one at Leeds at the right price, I'll be buying one from my LHS next week.

It's worth pointing out that LHS's stocking Airfix are diminishing. Hobbycraft have clearly done a deal with Bachmann (Airfix were the ONLY things on clearance sale over New Year) and a local independent toy/model shop told me the other day that the reason they have nearly no Airfix now (and hence nearly no models at all) is that Airfix are rubbish at supplying them because they're small (having said that, my other LHS does routinely have Airfix in, so go figure).