Airfix 2013 calendar, desktop downloads.
 

April looks pretty as a picture and that TSR2 looks amazing.

Scale Plastic Model Kits by Airfix

I wonder; anyone have their career paths mapped out at aged 10 by Airfix?

Yep, a bedroom ceiling with airfix kits strung from fishing line - glad I never had to replaster it.

from the kit to the medals to a very comfy airliner seat....loved every minute

I had all the recce cards. German and British were easy. Hadn't quite mastered all the Jap ones though :)

Used to drool over the superbly carved wooden models in our model shop.

Made the first Airfix Spitfire and Gladiator. More glue than paint.

Very nice indeed.


"More glue than paint."

That makes two of us. Attention to detail was never my strong point.

Devil if you got glue on the canopies! :* Biggest I built was the Lancaster; envied the chap who had the B29. Straight from school to RAF, then civil. No complaints.

Have un-opened Hunter and Phantom boxes. I'll get around to it one day.

Toothpaste is your friend....

I wish I had know that 30 years ago !

I have an F3 and a Fulmar sitting in boxes in the garage, my old jet and my Grandad's old fighter, he managed a few kills in his unlike me!

One day I'll put them together, honest...

Built the B36 which was almost as tall as me at the time. (wingspan)

http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/a...psf7def4e6.jpg

I think someone should mention that doing away with this machine was bonkers :)

I spent ages at Valley making one of these once. Everything was immaculate and I even filled the joints etc. Unfortunately, when moving down to Chivenor I placed my beloved model atop my mighty Fiesta and off I drove. They didn't tell me on the box that Airfix models would be wrecked if they fall upon tarmac at speed (not great speed, remember it was a Fiesta) :{

I cannot tell a lie, the crowning achievement of my 13th year was finishing a 1/24 scale Mk II Spitfire, complete with folded masking tape pilots harness, mud splattered undercarriage, exhaust burns and oil stained belly. Saw a Mk VIII (VH-HET) fly in the flesh a year later and was hooked for life..

I bet you can't buy that one in BA Pontius.

My first was a Frog 'Comet' Douglas F3D-2 Skynight in 1957....

Much 'locate and cement' work then followed, thanks mainly to Airfix. But it took 4 weeks pocket money before one could afford the latest 2/- kit in its poly bag!

But Airfix 2013 calendar - or Hooters 2013 calendar? Tricky choice....:\

Made a B36 but really wanted a B52.

Made a P51 once, actually managed to have the prop so it would spin. It was really spinning until it went in to a nose dive at Marble Arch. I was well annoyed that mother would not let me stop and pick it up.

Years later No 2 daughter managed to lose a Cindy doll at Marble Arch too. Bring a brutal father I wouldn't stop either :)

From the Airfix Halifax instructions (1960's vintage)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...psf8e823c2.jpg

To my 10 year old mind trying to understand why parts was referred to as male and female and how they fitted together was a little baffling.

This mystery was soon cleared up for many of us by those at my prep school who had elder sisters....:8 So we were all well-briefed long before the headmaster gave us 'The Talk' at the end of our final summer term.....:ooh:

A Series 1 Spitfire cost 19p from Davies' in Cowbridge in the early 70s.

I used to put a bangers into jet tailpipes to see how high they would get.

There's an as yet to be discovered PBY Catalina at the bottom of my father's fish pond. I didn't realise the lead weights I placed in the nose to keep it down would send it down when it alighted on water:ugh:

My dad bought me the first few, and then built them for me......My first effort was a Jaguar (Circa 1972??)...Glue on fingers and canopy, and also the melted nose due too much glue (sorry...cement!)..First saw a 'Real' Jaguar some decades later...
Within a year, by age 12, had the collection of mis-scaled and mis-era 'dog-fight' from ceiling with fishing wire....Lancaster and Saturn 5 looked cool form my bed though! ...

lightly sand the two halves so when you join them the form a slight gap on the exterior, fill the gap with car bog, sand it down, glue the canopy down with white pva glue and a toothpick (also good for holding wheels)

I took up modelling again a few years back, I find it very therapeutic and restful, though of late haven't had time.
Things have moved on since the days of 1/72 and today you can buy big kits such as the 1/24 Mossie and 1/32 B17 with a Lanc in that scale on the way, and in case you wonder how big that is.

B17 and B25 in 1/32 ...

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7371/yan1.jpg

Proudest was the Sunderland ( with sliding front gun turret and "beaching trolley")
Always had a liking for the Bloodhound kit , complete with Plod and Dog.

Still remember the tearful day when mother announced that she had "tidied your bedroom and cleaned those dusty aeroplanes" - the inevitable damage to gun turrets and aerials remains with me !

Sneaks in a picture of one of my models........... :O

This is one I'm doing for an Ex Para who served in the Falklands, base made by me, still work in progress as haven't had the time to finish/ and struggling with ammo for it, 200mm or 1/9th which is about 8 inches tall and made of resin, I just love painting them :O

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/f.../falk3para.jpg

SAS

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/f...6/sassmall.jpg

:rolleyes:

.

Nutty ... Suggest you get some strap on magnifying googles as you appear to have developed a squint :E

http://onfinite.com/libraries/972407/813.jpg

Nice models @#24 mate :D

....I have a 1/2 built Spitfire (1/32nd Mk24) in my Study.

Still building after all these years...

Having spent hours doing the best possible job I could as an 8-12 year old putting my models together and getting the paint and decals accurate, I would tape them to the bedroom ceiling using cotton thread.

Then for target practice, I would spin the model into a circle at the end of the thread whilst attempting to blow it out of the sky with my 'GAT' air pistol! Usually, one hit from .177 lead was enough to completely destroy single seaters and perhaps several for Mosquito sizes and upwards!

Still have Airfix 1/72 models of a Dominie and Jet Provost waiting to be made, including the little tins of Humbrol paint. Have had the boxes for over 35 years now!

Guess not many parents buy their kids pellet guns at the age of 8 anymore? :eek:

I'd love to get hold of one of these ...

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6134/...6a5bda7039.jpg

But sadly the Aeroclub 1/48 Vacform Chipmunk is "rare as hen's teeth" :(

The 1/72 Airfix Chipmunk is pants ...

Not sure if it was a airfix model or an American kit but as a 10yo I built and painted a Saturn V on Christmas morning before my parents had even got out of bed.
One of my problems was that I glued on all the weapons, drop tanks and pods regardless of the type, there was a F4 with over wing missiles and bombs !

KeefBeer ... Yep it was the 1/444 Airfix Saturn V ... I had one too :ok:

They still make it :eek:

http://pws.prserv.net/gbinet.dbjames/saturn.jpg

There is a band of modellers out there that like to build "what if" projects ...

How about this for a ... Shackrod or Nimleton :}

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/u...l/DSCF0031.jpg

More here ...

What If Models

When I was 14 years old, I built a Frog model P2V7 Neptune. 14 years later I was flying the real thing in Australia. The Neppy was one of the few purpose-designed LRMP aircraft, and a delight to fly.

Ooh.. Davies in Cowbridge! They were still going strong in the mid 80s with a splendid selection of humbrol paints. Pickwick Papers in Llantwit was also a mandatory stop when visiting the grandparents.


Living about 3 miles from the approach of end of 27 at St Athan and a similar distance from the departure end of 30 at Rhoose had a significant effect on my already aviation-addled young brain.

Me too! 25 Dec 69 - up at 4am, finished by breakfast. Then went onto the Lunar Lander model which was 1/72 with a 6" plastic disk as the surface of the moon and astronauts too :ok:

Nice photo Coffman....

I used to drool at the window of Cuttriss's model shop in Doncaster. I kicked off with the Spitfire and, if I remember correctly, was finished in a garish gloss emerald green and **** brown!

As I got better the models went up on the bedroom ceiling pinned with drawing pins. That was fine until the bigger models such as the WW2 bombers and Sunderland when, without warning, they would detach from their support and do a flat spin onto the lino floor at dead of night.

I've had a super-detailed Tamiya 1/48 Lancaster on the go for the past goodness knows how long. I suppose that eventually I will complete it.


No many people would be brave enough to admit that Beags :eek: Still, as they say in the Hebrides, keep it in the family!

They certainly do! Got one on the go with my five year old right now.


Posted from Pprune.org App for Android

I was always in such a rush i never painted the pilots.so i had my plastic airforce with anaemic crews.

Coffman, there is a new resin 1/48th Chipmunk kit, not cheap, but its out there, same with the Grob, Bulldog etc, see

1:48 complete kits

SR.53 and Auster Antarctic started me down the slippery slope. The last project was a Testor 1/32 F-117, done for the kids. The big stack of unmade kits just went to the storage unit.

I'm still nostalgic for the 1950s-to-early-1960s models where everything worked (although more modern models are more realistic). I even got Revell's notorious Skyraider (slide drop tank back and the gear retracts, elevators work the dive brakes) to work...

Cheers Nutty ... and it's WK518 ! :ok: :D