Thanks to Airfix, plastic cement glue, plus healthy doses of spent Jet A1 at EGLL during my childhood, my brain became warped and I became an airline pilot..Thanks Airfix !!
When they first appeared I built the Ferguson Tractor. Shame they never repeated that. Also had ALL the early aircraft. They were packed in polythene bags stapled to a card, and only available from Woolworths. Apparently 'tis the situation of the current owners Humbrol that has brought about the end of Airfix. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfix
I used to have a great model shop in my local town when I was young...MacKays in Paisley under the train station....airfix and the rest... That is the route of all evils!.....
My pocket money used to be inflation linked to the cost of a series 1 Airfix kit!!
Many happy hours spent building and painting aeroplane kits. Was always a battle to stop my mother trying to dust them 'cos she always managed to break something!! When it came time to move on many of them were donated to the local ATC sqdn. Never checked to see what they did with them.
I could be found standing in short trousers, on the squeaky wooden floor of my local Woolworths on any Saturday morning, clutching my two shillings of pocket money, trying desperately to decide which kit I was going to buy next. The rows of kits all in plastic bags stapled to the folded instructions with a picture on the front were so seductive. What a shame, I always thought they were as much fun to build, as they were to play with. Regards, White Bear.
..............and the little slip inside that you sent off if a piece was missing so that a replacement could be sent to you. Then the agonising wait for the part to arrive so that you could get on and finish the kit!!
Ahhhhhhh memories
............and the fiddly struts of any biplanes. Needed great care to make sure the wings ended up looking right
Although I built ALL of the Series One Aircraft as they were released, I also built many of the car models. I was ham-handed and had difficulty applying the appropriate amount of polystyrene cement so that wheels and propellers still rotated. I recall the Westland Whirlwind S55 with pleasure. I believe the RAF had just changed from the Bristol Sycamore to the Whirlwind for ASR (and the crews were disappointed as the Whirlwind wouldn't fly backwards - whereas the Sycamore would - so if they overshot they had to go-around again). Happy days.
I learnt more about aeroplanes from Airfix and KeilKraft than anybody else.
Me too, especially their relative sizes. Today, aircraft recognition books rarely give sufficient VISUAL information to ascertain SIZE (apart from the measurements in text-form, which requires an inventive mind). As far as detail is concerned, the Airfix kits were superb. I was able to check over a full-size Ferguson Tractor recently and inform the owner where he had assembled parts incorrectly (in particular, bolts). Such detail gets impregnated into a young mind.
Never saw much of Airfix, but some of my happiest times as a lad were spent with Revell and Monogram kits, believe those two have now merged into one...
I remember I preferred Revell as the water transfers for the other tended to crumble before they could be sucessfully applied
Finally learned to wash the parts before painting after about a thousand botched spray jobs, paint would orange-peel on the mold release still adhering to the bits, solution: spray about two cans of paint on in an attempt to make it stick...
Paint fumes and Testors model cement, no wonder I'm a bit crosseyed
I recall the Westland Whirlwind S55 with pleasure. I believe the RAF had just changed from the Bristol Sycamore to the Whirlwind for ASR (and the crews were disappointed as the Whirlwind wouldn't fly backwards - whereas the Sycamore would - so if they overshot they had to go-around again).
All the Whirlwinds that I flew could go backwards: where did you hear that gem?
What was the price of the old kits, 1/9d? Like most others here, I must have made all of them, certainly Mum still recalls the issues they created when it came to keeping the bedroom "clean".....
And what an advance when Airfix started putting the kits into boxes, instead of plastic bags Sorry to see them go, another icon consigned to history.
Sorry to see them go, another icon consigned to history.
