Construction Kits

A little off topic but what the heck. Why did some aircraft types not have models produced by say Airfix? Im thinking here of the Vulcan and Victor, after the Falklands Matchbox brought out models of them but until the Falklands they hadnt been covered by the kit manufacturers.

It may well be due to size and complexity of mould design to produce large (15 inch span odd) models at 1/72 scale. Distortion following mould release?

Possibly peter, but Matchbox managed to bring one out. One possibilty I thought of was the fact that of course the Vulcan and Victor were of course nuclear bombers, I wonder if MOD said no?????

canberra;92279 wrote:

Some kits are worth more than you paid for them. The example was the Shackleton from Frog, I beleive they were the only mainstream kit manufacturer to make a Shackleton kit.

The Frog Shackleton has devalued since Revell released it fairly recently as a mainstream kit, I brought four Revell ones from asda for £4.00 each, an original Frog one in local adds for £12, and I noticed the Newark Museum shop had a Frog one for £15.
If you going to tackle the Shack, the Frog example is the best one to build due to the quality of the moulds, followed by the Revell ones. Steer clear of the awful Novo and other mouldings from the old eastern block.
Some frog kits maintain valiue otheres seem to waver, I paid a fortune for the DH110 kit, which can now be found much cheaper - possibly the EBay effect.

canberra;92375 wrote:

A little off topic but what the heck. Why did some aircraft types not have models produced by say Airfix? Im thinking here of the Vulcan and Victor...

Airfix did do the Vulcan, indeed still readily availble in XH558 markings, looks nice when it's done but a pig to build really nicely, needs correction to jet pipes and intakes etc.
ISTR reading that Airfix were intending on doing the Victor, but Matchbox had pipped them to the post.
Of course Airfix have recently brought out a fantastic Valiant kit, so we can happily build and display all three V Bombers!

My days of model making are long gone, last one I attempted was would you believe a 1/72 scale B52!!! But at the shop at Newark I saw the 1/24 scale Mosquito and I must admit I was tempted to buy it.

Ahh, paint - ! When Airfix produced their own range of paints, it came in wee screw top bottles, about the size of your Mum's / big sister's nail varnish bottles. Great to begin, but unless you kept the bottle and lid screw scrupulously clean, try getting it off after a few uses - ! And as for not getting the brush covered in paint when the bottle was half used, no chance - ! Then Humbrol came to the rescue with their tinlets; vastly superior to Airfix until now. 'Orrible and watery. I use the Revell range of aquacolours. Fine for my needs and they don't dry up.

ahh my last attempt was the Airix Canberra when it first came out, sat next to the balsa version someone had given my old dad when he left Watton. Was a lovely thing in grey and black I think a B1 if I recall and inch for inch matching the Airfix model. Sad to say, they were thrown out when Mum moved.

Didnt the owners of humbrol end up buying airfix? And I remember the Airfix Canberra, it came with a stand that you had to use to prop it up, unless you did what I did and put blu tack in the nose.