Airfix. "That's all you need to know"

[Abitrary]

I still love phantoms,maybe its the shape,or its nostalgia,but they are great looking in my eyes.

Yep, one of the best looking planes ever, before the F series got all futuristic. It's actually the F4 not the F14 now I look.

This was the one I made, although this one has quite a groovy cockpit ladder.

http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/viet/kolf4ca.jpg

 

[Brock]

I did quite a few Airfix kits as a nipper, had a dozen or so hanging from the ceiling at one point, two of which I recall as favourites were:

-

Stuka and Mosquito.

 

[Aperitif]

Ah yes - The Stuka - lots of bombs on that - a bit like the American one with the painted tiger snarling on the nosing... Swivelling gun turrets on a Wellington or Lancaster - boy bliss!

Interlude: a guest appearance by Captain Hurricane during this interlude, with his batman "Maggot"..
Kia Ora and Lyons Maid choc ices available for a minute...

Interlude over:

 

[arranandy]

I also made a few Airfix kits in my youth. Then I moved onto the Tamiya 1/35th scale models of military models. Many a wet Saturday was spent painting and glueing As I was brought up on an island with no easy access to a show I used to get them mail order from a shop in Hemel Hempstead of all places.

 

[gbb]

Ah yes - The Stuka - lots of bombs on that - a bit like the American one with the painted tiger snarling on the nosing... Swivelling gun turrets on a Wellington or Lancaster - boy bliss!

Interlude: a guest appearance by Captain Hurricane during this interlude, with his batman "Maggot"..
Kia Ora and Lyons Maid choc ices available for a minute...

Interlude over:

Curtiss tomahawk iirc...did the americans do the Warthog with similar paintjobs ?

 

[Joe24]

I used to be into airfix. Did a few planes then got into trucks. The problem i had was the table is in the middle of the house, so it used to stink the house out.
The glue was strong smelling, the stickers always moved, and the big ones i ripped sometimes.
I remember i did a VW beetle that had no instructions with it. I got it as a present from some family up north, so i couldnt take it back. I did it though, and had some things left i didnt know where they were ment to go. Was good fun in the end though.

 

[col]

Yep, one of the best looking planes ever, before the F series got all futuristic. It's actually the F4 not the F14 now I look.

This was the one I made, although this one has quite a groovy cockpit ladder.

http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/viet/kolf4ca.jpg

That is some model,very nice.Methinks your a tad more than just a bung em together and paint em type.Yours too brock,very impressive.

 

[TimDanaher]

Aahhhh....

Remember when they produced the 1/24th scale Spitfire and Me 109e? They had soooo much detail in them (normal Airfix models were 1/72nd) . I remember you had to buy a special shade of paint (anyone remember the numbering system for the paints?) just to do the rubber gaiter on the tail wheel of the Messerschmidt).

I agonised over which one to have for my birthday...finally plumped for the 109, and painted it in Adolf Galland's colours -- with the bright-yellow glossy nose cowling. Lovely.

And I had the Aerial Arrow model, too. Painting the petrol tank in gold...

And the catalogues...thanks for those links.

 

[ufkacbln]

I posted this in the other thread, but here goes....

Airfix are still great. Me and my 8 year-old lad have done a few (Spitfire, Hurricane, Messershmit and WIP a Sunderland flying boat), my daughter also did a Ford Focus rally car. Good honest interactive fun with the kids and not a TV/Monitor screen in sight.

Revell also do a range of high quality snap-together kits which are brilliant for kids, not only aircraft and stuff but Star-Wars as well, no glue, lots of colour and detail. Keeps 'em amused for hours!

I still have my Sunderland at home in the attic from 1971!


Edited....

Mind you the series 1 kits in those days (plastic bags) were 2/- each and the Series 2 were 5/-
Now they are £2.99 that's 80/-

 

[Speicher]

I used to make model houses for model railways, yes I know very easy peasy, but I was only lickle at the time. My Big brother now has a OO train set, he might need some help with the buildings etc. Can you suggest a site to look at?. Hornby seem only to do station buildings, and they seem to be already coloured. That saves on paint and might be the place to start, but does anyone do anything more elaborate. I think his layout is circa 1960. This would be for me to do the "odd" building, I think he does his from scratch, lots of balsa wood etc around in the house shed containing his layout. He might want some aeroplanes, but in 00 guage that might be a bit small.

 

[terry huckle]

There used to be loads of kit manufacturers....can`t remember all their names, but apart from Airfix and Revell; Aurora, Lindberg Lines, Testors, Frog, Matchbox, and one I`m racking my brains to try and remember (they specialized in oo scale railway stuff and a few boats too), spring to mind.

Keil Kraft were my flying model providers, with little success I might add......made a very nice Hawker Hunter for Jetex engine, but it stubbornly refused to imitate anything close to what we might understand as flight.

 

[Speicher]

Thank you User and Terry. That gives me a few pointers in the right direction. I wonder if I could find some Tug Boats in 00 scale .
The plan for the layout look very big, you should see the size of it, I am sure he could include a dock side in it Tug Boats, Aircraft Carrier, Submarine, Paddle Steamer .

 

[Noodley]

I have just remembered I had a couple of Airfix Dinosaurs - they were indestructable. Even the combined might of the RAF, a Panzer, the 8th Army, the Afrika Corps, several ships and a Churchill Tank could not beat them.

 

[Brock]

I have just remembered I had a couple of Airfix Dinosaurs - they were indestructable. Even the combined might of the RAF, a Panzer, the 8th Army, the Afrika Corps, several ships and a Churchill Tank could not beat them.

Me too! Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Stegosaurus. Despite having a number of war plane models I actually had very little interest in the subject, but dinosaurs were a fascination for me.

Their construction was a lot simpler than most of the planes, but painting them was fun, and they were indeed indestructible.

 

[Globalti]

Oooh... you lot have got me going now. My first ever kit was a Liberator bomber, which I assembled with Bostik and was disappointed when the wings flopped. Then somebody told me you had to use special model glue so I took it apart and rebuilt it. Then I cut out the decals and stuck them on the wings - until somebody told me about soaking them off....

My favourite model of all time was the Catalina flying boat, because it's such a beautiful aircraft. I still look at videos of Cats flying nowadays - found a superb one of the first flying boat landing on Lake Geneva recently. For Catalina lovers it's here: http://www.catalina.org.uk/press-video

I also graduated onto balsa models and the Jetex engine though I never got the damned thing to light, except on one occasion in the kitchen when it became red hot so I dropped it on the floor where it skittered around like a demented mouse bouncing off things - God knows how I didn't set the house on fire. The pellets were fun though as they produced masses of dense white smoke. I also got into making my own boats with electric motors and matchstick decks but as somebody else wrote above, I also developed an interest in sugar and sodium chlorate mixtures, which were fun when confined in an old jar or can and ignited with string soaked in petrol. Also the usual stuff of setting fire to the aircraft models then shooting them to bits with the Diana .177 air rifle. Oh yes.