NOOOOOOOooo! Airfix goes into receivership...

[philipMac]

Humbrol, Airfix's owner, went into adminstration due to "severe cash flow pressures" and a disruption in supplies from its main manufacturer in France.

Clicky (http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1862483,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1)

I used to love these things...
:cry:

[Peter Henry]

I think this is only 1/26th of the overall problem. Perhaps the whole operation needs to be scaled down and a plan to move forward cemented together? :wink:

[Red ones]

I used to love these things...
:cry:


And therein lies the problem. Loads of us used to love them!

[Sudoxe]

<shamlessly>....

It's a shame, they were a model company. You would of thought they would of stuck with it.

Dan

[Red ones]

I heard that they had spent years just touching things up and sprue-cing things to no avail.

[valleyboy]

As an avid model builder myself, I see this as a sad time.. but it has been brought on by themselves sadly.

These days, there are far more high quality manufacturers than what there use to be... Revell, Tamyia, Hawegasa and many more are now producing models of much higher quality than airfix can, and are cheaper. well, appart from Tamyia.. they cost a fortune!

And the thing is, they still use some of the same moulds which are OLD by now for some of their lines..... if you are like me, you want a model of very high quality to build, Airfix have dropped right down the pecking order on that side of things... and now are sadly paying the price for not updating a lot of their kits :cry:

[Peter Henry]

VB...You haven't got all manner of aircraft hanging from wires from your bedroom ceiling have you? :P

[valleyboy]

VB...You haven't got all manner of aircraft hanging from wires from your bedroom ceiling have you? :P


Nope... :lol:


I never get the chance to finish them off.... I have a few Tanks on my shelves.... and one or two model Enterprises from star trek :oops:

all my aircraft are still in their boxes.... I must have about a grands worth of kits along with detail kits etc of aircraft in my attic :oops:

I have a model of a B-1B in 1/48th scale... which is about 4 foot long when constructed... and a shed load of brass detail etched parts to fit too it.. its currently in a semi- constructed scale.. as I have no room to do anything with it :lol:

[Red ones]

I have a few Tommy Tanks in my bedroom
... and a shed load of brass etchings too :

:lol: :wink:

[Peter Henry]

Valleyboy wrote:

I have a few Tommy Tanks in my bedroom
... and a shed load of brass etchings too I find them a relaxing distraction from my basket weaving: :)

[tigersaw]

I could never find the glue. Just a tube of stuff that looked like glue but called cement.

[Law]

I had a 1:9 Revell MV Agusta F4-750 on the parcel shelf of my car. Unfortunately the way I secured it made the back wheel rim detach from the bike after 3 years of being bounced around. :(

[Reckless Rat]

I'd guess most males of a certain age wanted the big 1/24th (I think) Spitfire...
with all the removable engine covers, canopy, and covers over the guns that were forever falling out... etc etc.
I wonder what happened to it.



RR

[Peter Henry]

RR wrote:

I'd guess most immature males of an advanced age wanted the big 1/24th (I think) Spitfire... I am proud to count myself among them




















:P :P

[valleyboy]

I'd guess most males of a certain age wanted the big 1/24th (I think) Spitfire...
with all the removable engine covers, canopy, and covers over the guns that were forever falling out... etc etc.
I wonder what happened to it.



RR


Got one.. still building it...

given up on having the engine and gun covers removable... plus the engine isnt detailed enough for my liking, so would prefer to just keep the covers on, and spend the time tarting up the cockpit instead....

The P-51 in 1/24 is far superior in quality compared to the Spit though, which is a shame... but Ive now broken that beyond repair... so will confine that to the dustbin shortly... :lol:

cant fault Airfix on their customer service though.. had some parts missing off one kit, and the decals were missing on the above spitfire kit... sent an e-mail.. got 3 sets of decals.. and the missing part within a few days 8)

[valleyboy]

Airfix kits owned.. and in various stages of construction :

1/72nd scale

Dambuster Lancaster

Battle of Britain set: (Lancaster, Spitfire, Hurricane)


1/48th

3 x Buccaneers (1 now broken and about to fly into dustbin)

Tornado GR-1B


1/24th
P-51D Mustang

Spitfire Mk1a

Sea Harrier (YES in 1/24th scale!!!!) + etched brass detail set which cost more than the kit :oops:


have many many more kits from other manufacturers.. and probably a few more from Airfix I have forgotten about...

[Halonic]

Used to work for Wonderland models in edinburgh

The principle problems with airfix was always related to price and quality. The detail on the kits was never up to the same spec as Tamiya or even Revell, and the trade prices on airfix kits was some 30% higher then the competition, thus more margin was to be made on selling any of the foreign makes.

They just didnt keep up

No great loss, it gave Tamiya the market to develop some quite stunning kits, much to our benefit

[mudge32]

Airfix were ok-ish, but, yeah preferred the Tamiya stuff when I had more than my pocket money to spend on them.

The last kit I built was one of these (http://www.revell.de/en/products/model_kits/model_kits/aircraft/index.html?id=210&KOKANR=01&KOSCHL=01&KGSCHL=&L=1&page=11&sort=0&nc=1&searchactive=&q=&SWO=&ARMAS4=&CatalogueSID=aaf43851fca1fa2500e6f55e888bca82&KZSLPG=all&offset=82&cmd=show&ARARTN=04560&sp=1)...it was effing HOOOGE!!! Unfortunately it got knocked off its pride of place and all that's left is the cockpit section :oops: :cry: Here's some piccies of other folks B-1b's (http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal-Fea%20Archives/jet_articles/B-1/B-1.htm)

[valleyboy]

Airfix were ok-ish, but, yeah preferred the Tamiya stuff when I had more than my pocket money to spend on them.

The last kit I built was one of these (http://www.revell.de/en/products/model_kits/model_kits/aircraft/index.html?id=210&KOKANR=01&KOSCHL=01&KGSCHL=&L=1&page=11&sort=0&nc=1&searchactive=&q=&SWO=&ARMAS4=&CatalogueSID=aaf43851fca1fa2500e6f55e888bca82&KZSLPG=all&offset=82&cmd=show&ARARTN=04560&sp=1)...it was effing HOOOGE!!! Unfortunately it got knocked off its pride of place and all that's left is the cockpit section :oops: :cry: Here's some piccies of other folks B-1b's (http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal-Fea%20Archives/jet_articles/B-1/B-1.htm)


Thats the kit I have... also have the Eduard detail set for that.. looks effing super... sadly, i dont want to glue it all together as theres so much detail in the cockpit you will never see once its all put together.... plus when it is all glued together, its rather large! :lol:

[valleyboy]

Ohhhh.. thats it now.. they have LE flaps down on that.. going to have to butcher mine now! :lol:

[mudge32]

I'm trying to find another one (http://toys.search.ebay.co.uk/b-1b_Toys-Games_W0QQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompareQQcoentrypage ZsearchQQcopagenumZ1QQfclZ3QQfgtpZQQfposZPostcodeQ QfromZR2QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQga10244Z 10425QQlopgZQQsacatZ220QQsadisZ200QQsaprchiZQQsapr cloZQQsargnZQ2d1QQsaslcZ3QQsatitleZbQ2d1bQQsbrftog Z1QQsofocusZbs) now :wink: Cheaper than mine was 16 years ago !!!

[valleyboy]

They are about £40 brand new from Hannants....

always dubious buying second hand model kits :lol:

[mudge32]

They are about £40 brand new from Hannants....

always dubious buying second hand model kits :lol:

Ah,but, this 'un's (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/REVELL-1-48TH-B-1B-LANCER_W0QQitemZ170024295918QQihZ007QQcategoryZ701 06QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) supposidly new :wink:

[valleyboy]

Cant beat that then... If I hadnt have bought some PC games earlier.. I'd buy another one.. just to give the post man a heart attack! :lol:

[mudge32]

Cant beat that then... If I hadnt have bought some PC games earlier.. I'd buy another one.. just to give the post man a heart attack! :lol:

Sooooo tempted but time and where the heck to put such a humongous model!!!!

Ooooops we've gone way off topic, but, at least it's about modelkits :lol: :lol:

[UlsterSV]

I was too busy playing football to have time to glue bits of plastic to my fingers.

[philipMac]

I suppose I didnt realise that there were other companies knocking out the same, or better models. I am not really in the scene, I just remembered grandad bringing them over for me when I was a chisler. And being absolutely esctatic about it.

If there are still those kit things out there, well, that's ok :roll:

Carry on... :wink:

[philipMac]

I was too busy playing football to have time to glue bits of plastic to my fingers.

Would you go away out of that Ulster. When its battering down rain, howling wind, dark at night, the old pair have the bloody news on or something, and you are sitting there with a cup of tea, its class getting out the pointy fighter jets and attaching on the sidewinder missiles and all.

[Peter Henry]

The only perfectly scaled model I want to get my hands on is.......... :wink: :)

[Red ones]

Rumour has it Hornby are putting a new business model trogether to help cement the firms future. No rumour yet that operations are to be scaled down

[northwind]

No great loss, it gave Tamiya the market to develop some quite stunning kits, much to our benefit

I used to be in and out of there all teh time when I was still wargaming, you've probably sold me a tree or a box of 1/35 oil drums ;) Got a couple of kits somewhere I keep on meaning to put together, but then I go out and play with my 1:1 scale motorbike model instead. The parts are less fiddly :)

[Halonic]

No great loss, it gave Tamiya the market to develop some quite stunning kits, much to our benefit

I used to be in and out of there all teh time when I was still wargaming, you've probably sold me a tree or a box of 1/35 oil drums ;) Got a couple of kits somewhere I keep on meaning to put together, but then I go out and play with my 1:1 scale motorbike model instead. The parts are less fiddly :)

ahh that would have been Jim :D

I was the hairy bloke at the back that did the mail order dept and the weapons, oh how I loved the sniper rifles and crossbows :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

EDIT: Something I have ALWAYS wanted to tell someone, the most MOST prized secret of Wonderland models. On each price tag is two numbers; the price and a small code in one corner. The price is the trade price of that item in pence, plus one to each digit.

So a trade price of £6.99 would come up as 700, or a trade of £13.42 would be 2453. So take each code and take a number off, thats what they paid in pence.

Now go in, and look at the trade price of the HUGE Revell Sail Warship, the £400.00 sod. Then have a giggle to yourself :twisted: :twisted:

(hint, its about 10% of the retail cost)

[northwind]

You're secret's unsafe with me :) Hmm. It's possible I bought my peacemaker and colt navy off you... Think I know which one Jim is, he used to do the banking when I was working at Tollcross I think.