Hello all. This is my first posting, but I have lurked here for several years so I hope I won't make too many faux pas!
Anyway, I took a trip to my local model shop today. I was mainly after an Airfix RNLI Lifeboat for my dad for Christmas - I had promised him one for his birthday a few years ago when Airfix promptly went and had their problems! Knowing that Hannants hadn't got any stock of the Doctor Who + TARDIS yet, I was expecting my local shop to bemoan the poor distribution. Well, to my surprise they must have had at least half a dozen of them on display! I resisted the urge to buy them all and sell them at an inflated price on Ebay. I'm not sure if the rules here allow me to identify the shop, so if you want to know where I got it from, drop me an email.
I've been building models off and on since I was 4 or so, and for some reason this one really took me back to the exciting early days. Anyway, enough of my wittering, on with the facts!
The box is quite large- (13x13x4in approx) and there are plenty of box photos around so I won't post one here. There is no skill level indication that I can see.
Rather than lift the top off, you open one end of the box. The end I opened had a plastic and cardboard shell with the 12 paint mini-pots, 3 Humbrol brushes and a tube of good old Humbrol cement. In the base of the cardboard part is the complete roof assembly with integrated electronics for the flashing light and Tardis sound effect. It is moulded in dark blue (approximately the right colour for those who dont want to paint it). Unfortunately they have moulded in a wood-effect which to my eyes never looks right, so I may sand that off i due course.
The manual comes in a sealed plastic bag with a back-drop card for inside the tardis, and a 'sticker' sheet - not decals. The stickers are 4 "Police Public Call Box" for the top of each side of the box, plus an additional sticker which covers the small telephone box door. They are fine and I don't know how they could be improved, but I suspect 3rd party companies may produce replacements.
I haven't seen the instruction manual from any recently designed Airfix kits, but this is several steps forwards from anything I have seen them come out with. In the field of manual design, a staple to hold the sheets together is regarded as advanced. This one is 20 colour pages and a paragon of clarity, with block-coloured diagrams. Another first (for me) at the back of the manual is an article on paint techniques and how to paint the various items. It covers basic painting, overbrushing, drybrushing, washing and brushing with dry powder. It then goes on to tell you which techniques to use where on the Tardis, Doctor and Martha. There are 10 close-up photos each of the Doctor and Martha. All I can say about them is wow, they must have some phenomenal artists!
In total there are 4 bags of sprues.
- Small bag of transparent windows. (5 parts)
- Bag of rather complex transparent parts for the Tardis console. This means the console lends itself to being lit... (10 parts)
- Bag of blue sprues. Tardis components. Shame all the wood parts have to have the infuriating wood grain on! To sand off this will be a real challenge as many components have convex parts. However that texture is sharp. Ejector pin holes are all on the reverse, with only slight evidence of plastic sink in the floor panels. Of note is that the parts are marked as Hornby not Airfix (25 parts)
I left the best til last.
- Bag of 4 light grey sprues (39 parts), plus a separate bag of details (8 parts)
Again, pin marks only on the reverse sides. No sink marks that I can see. Some seam marks but the 2 halves of the mould look to be well registered so no heavy duty carving will be needed.
- Detail bag. Not resin! Not sure what it is, but its flexible and rubbery, so possibly rubber? Part of the hair has definitely been added as a separate item and at the moment it looks a bit like 2 alien facehuggers are sat on their heads so I will be attempting to remove their hair pieces in the near future. A small amount of tidying will be necessary but that is being really picky, because the detail in the hands and heads is absolutely exquisite. The Doctor's Converse Allstar boots even have the correct sole pattern and vent holes. No star logos though - the BBC removed those for tv!
Apologies for not having any photos yet. The only camera I have access to is a horrible fixed focus phonecam which really doesn't do this justice. When I have had a sort-out I'll see if I can get my scanner to scan some of the detail items.
Is it worth £25? That's tricky. It is well presented, with the light/sound device, and the paints etc. Which is fine if you are a non-modeller or a casual hobbyist, but personally I'd rather have £5-7 off the price and use my own. If this kit is symbolic of the future of Airfix though, then I am all for it. The parts are well moulded, vastly better than the old Airfix stuff, and probably equal to the top Revell stuff, although there isn't a great quantity of them and there is certainly one eye on the abilities of the less experienced modeller. The character modelling is truly exceptional. I know they used external artists to model these, and it had to be okayed by the people at the BBC, so I wouldn't expect this level of detail in future releases. However- great start Airfix!
Mike.