Chocks away! Airfix’s Spitfire takes to the skies again.
 

Lovely article in the Grauniad:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...he-skies-again

Nothing to do with the price of fish but we were having a debate this morning on how to pronounce Grauniad.

As I was looking on the net for various conflicting answers, I discovered that people cannot even agree on how to pronounce the word ‘Guardian’.

Warning. Vaguely on-topic. Funny, slightly baffling article, India Four Two.
Yesterday at an antiques stall I found a plastic kit model of a Zero fighter, which I very nearly bought.

I always thought Grauniad was just a Private Eye joke, but I see it's a dig at the frequent typos in the Guardian, back in the days of hot type.

I was stunned by the prices! When I first started buying 1/72 Airfix kits in the stapled plastic bags at Woolies, I think the price was 1/11d (9.6p).

As a kid growing up in Darwin Australia I glued together one of them Spitfires. Proudly showed it to an old timer living next door and got told why did I waste my time making one of them crappy things. Apparently during WW2 there were some Spitfires defending Darwin from air attack and the they proved to be fairly useless..:ooh:

My later reading on the subject showed them Spitfires weren’t that bad, certainly kept the bombers up high and aimless, though they certainly proved that 20mm cannons and ‘big wings’ at high altitude were not the ‘answer’.

I remember Grauniad as the title used by Spike Milligan in his 1960s/'70s tv shows
Not only Airfiix made 1/72 Spitfires; I had several of different makes eg Frog, Revell (not sure but I think Monogram may have made one too) plus Airfiix made at least two different marks.

The kit in question is a 1/24 scale model.

This is a brand-new kit of the Spitfire 9. The original 1/24 kit was a Battle of Britain Mk 1 which came out in the early 1970's. The new kit is a CAD kit, with amazing detail.
Is it worth the price? That's up to the modellers although Airfix will have done their research to see if the market is there. In fact I think they did a survey to ask modellers
what they wanted, and this one came out on top.

Just for the people who might read the Grauniad. 1/72 means that one inch (or centimetre) on the model is equal to 72 such units on the real thing.
Sorry Grandma......

When discussing a Spitfire I would have thought one only talks in inch’s. No poofy French terms are to be used..;)

I was never aware that the cost of an Airfix kit was calculated by the scale of the kit times the cost of a real one...

What an utterly outrageous price! It might be reasonable at a tenth of that!

It builds into a kit that is 40cm long by 47cm wide (or 15.75 inches by 18.5 inches) and has 433 pieces. It will take weeks to build properly. Compared to many other companies this kit is an absolute bargain. Have a look at the website. Airfix is here.
A Spitfire Mk1a in 72nd scale is £8.99. Remember the 1:24 scale kit is 27 times bigger. (by volume)

Having occasionally bought plastic model kits, for something that size (and presumable very good detail), a price around 100 pounds is about right (I have a whole shelf of 1/12 scale Mercury capsule kits - they went for about $60 each - and they are quite a bit smaller). I'm seeing that Spit kit for sale on this side of the pond for about $120 (it shows a retail of $160 but nobody who knows what they are doing pays retail when buying on-line). My favorite on-line hobby store for plastic models says $114, but it's not in stock.

Well, a 2/- Airfix kit of the late '50s works out at £1.84 in today's prices....??

It does look pretty good, size and quality-wise, and what’s £100 nowadays? Two meals out, or ten pints of beer? Give me the model anytime.

Then don't buy it! :ugh:

The 2 bob Airfix in bags was preceded by pre and post war Frog kits of varying prices, then in the early '60s Frog started issuing a new range of kits for half a crown, then the Labour government came to power and the cost of Airfixs' suddenly became 2s3d and so on.

TSR-2, P1154, and then this; was there no limit to their mismanagement of the Nation's aerospace sector?

£95 quid for a new tool 1/24th scale model is pretty reasonable in the grand scheme of things.
What will £95 buy you these days?

Almost a tyre for the car.
Nearly a tank of diesel.
Six male haircuts.
Four litres of Jack Daniels.
One quarter of a decent seat at the O2 to see Queen.
40 pints at a Weatherspoon
Two tickets to a Duxford air show.
8 bottles of decent (ish) wine.

I think the Spit is not bad value at all.

Hard to believe some comments here regarding cost (or "pricepoint" as BS-ridden management types say). Airfix is currently on a roll with a superlative Anson in 1/48 scale (at £40-odd) and the 1/24 Typhoon pretty much saved their bacon I recall.

To the point. A 1/24 scale Spitfire at less than £100 is extremely good value. You can easily spend twice that on a 1/32 scale kit. The days of six kits for tuppence and enough left for the bus ride home never existed. Airfix will do very well from this and allied to their new type of plastic (which allows for crisper detail), it looks like it will be an instant classic and will serve them well for a long time.

It's also worth noting that Kotare's long-awaited (and likely superlative) Spitfire kit is going to cost more than the Airfix kit, despite being to smaller 1/32 scale.

Anyway I'm off back to my 1/24 race car kits. They cost £150+ but I'm happy with that. Because if I don't like it I don't buy. But I wouldn't whinge about it.

As a builder of model (wooden) boat kits, if I could get one anyway worth having for that price, I would be very happy indeed.
A second point, having listened to the politics shows for the last week, is that £100 for the Spitfire kit is going to seem cheap a year or two from now!

I saw a programme on TV about Hornby Airfix Scalextrix etc. They said the traditional Spitfire kits produced in the 1960s had about 60 parts. Now they only have thirty or so as the average modern kid does not have the patience to build in the way that kids in the 1960s did and modern kids want quicker results. I remember the fun of building and trying to get the prop and the wheels to turn and trying to avoid getting glue on the canopy. I am not talking about this new 1/24th kit but the standard 1/72 kit that now has some pieces that click together and do not have to be glued.