The Airfix Farewell GB from now until 1st Jan 2007

Thunderbolt379 wrote:

I suddenly realised, though many of us are deeply concerned at the demise of Airfix ... not one of us is shedding a tear for Heller. I've never actually built a Heller, though I have their 1:100 HMS Victory and Le Soliel Royale put away for a rainy six months (each). Perhaps a lot of folks on the Continent are mourning the French giant, but it won't make a great deal of difference to my personal hobby activities. What about you folks?TB379

At my LHS, the Airfix stuff flew off the shelves (although, to be fair, amazing how much remained) when the annoucement came.  As for the Heller stuff, well, a few bits moved, but that's it.  Nothing talks as loudly as a wallet.

So, will we see you onboard TB379?

Oh, and one other thing...

I suddenly realised, though many of us are deeply concerned at the demise of Airfix ... not one of us is shedding a tear for Heller. I've never actually built a Heller, though I have their 1:100 HMS Victory and Le Soliel Royale put away for a rainy six months (each). Perhaps a lot of folks on the Continent are mourning the French giant, but it won't make a great deal of difference to my personal hobby activities. What about you folks?

TB379

Hi KJ200,

I recall building the Airfix Dora-9 about 20 years ago -- the molds were fresh and I remember it going together rather well at the time. Of course I probably wasn't as picky then as I'd be now, but I was quite impressed then. I used to have it shelved as a pair with the Airfix F-8, which also impressed the heck outa me when I was a teen.

Your D-9 is looking extremely good -- makes me wanna grab something and build! The Draken I picked up last week will take a lot of work, the raised panel lines are hideous and need rescribing. Plus, it's for conversion to an SF subject, and that'll take a long time, besides not qualifying for an OOB GB.

For an OOB I'm thinking about maybe something from the LHS. I'm probably picking up the Airfix Vulcan tomorrow, but that's for longterm storage (read: until I have a display cabinet!) Or I could dig through everything I've got for inspiration!

Cheers,

TB379

Brews, thanks for the offer, but the canopy is now sorted.

The polishing, and the dunk in Future have done the trick.

Thanks again though.

Karl

Karl,

PM me your address and I'll send you an Airfix canopy that doesn't have stress marks. I have more than enough Falcon canopies for my own.

Bruce

KJ200 wrote:

Osher, shims are just another way of dealing with gaps. I find they are often stronger and neater than filler alone. Just keep plugging away with the Mig, I hope you're eye is OK.Karl

KJ200 wrote:

This kit has to have one of the worst canopies I've ever encountered. Spent half an hour last night polishing it up, before giving it, it's second dunk in Future!

I've had several Airfix Fw190D's over the years, including one or two of the early ones. However, I've never considered the canopy particularly nasty. Thick, but clear. Maybe the QC at Trun struck again.

KJ200 wrote:

Osher, sorry to hear about your problems with the Mig. Just need to insert the pilot and seat, then I can attach the lower wing section. I've had to shim the front of this to eliminate a nasty gap along the front edge, and plugged the holes for the drop tank with plastic rod.

jwb wrote:

osher wrote: Nope!  Still, I'm having a few hassles with it.  I screwed up when painting it, and to my knowledge Mig-15s didn't have giant fingerprints on them, etc No, no. That MUST be accurate. All my kits have fingerprints!

Having done a bit of Waterloo research yesterday, I have found the following illustration, which helps a great deal:

osher wrote:

Nope!  Still, I'm having a few hassles with it.  I screwed up when painting it, and to my knowledge Mig-15s didn't have giant fingerprints on them, etc

No, no. That MUST be accurate. All my kits have fingerprints!

jwb wrote:

osher wrote: OK, here's where I am with the model: You're gonna be done before mine even arrive in the mailbox! LOL Looking good!

My Spitfire IXc/XVIe came in today. I wrote a "first look" of sorts in the Airplane forum.

I hope to get started in a few weeks. I should finish the 262 in a few days, then the Zero shortly after. By that time the P-47 will be along pretty well, and I can start the Spitfire.

I'll have a few of them by then. Once all the stuff I've ordered comes in, I'll have no less than 7 Airfix Spitfire kits. (Well, 6 Spits and one S6b....)

And I STILL want that 1/48 scale 70th Anniversaty set.

So here is the Vampire kit and also a 54mm Polish Lancer that I will also be building to go along with my 54mm Airfix collection. For very old molds the detail is not too bad. Slightly raised detail and free of flash. It even has an instrument panel, no detail on it of course. Total of 30 parts. I am glad I took photos of the sprues as I noticed no canopy??( I threw it out in the plastic bag ). That was a close disaster.

Osher: good looking progress so far, you will be finished before i get mine started.

Steve.

osher wrote:

OK, here's where I am with the model:

sidure wrote:

jwb, you lucky dog. Glad you got that 1/72 set, been trying to get it myself but no joy at the LHS. The S6b racer was the first kit I ever built and put me on the road to aircraft modeling. Been trying to find it for years. Sentimental reasons of course. Surfing online now trying to get it. Steve,

razordws wrote:

Looking good Osher

jwb, you lucky dog. Glad you got that 1/72 set, been trying to get it myself but no joy at the LHS. The S6b racer was the first kit I ever built and put me on the road to aircraft modeling. Been trying to find it for years. Sentimental reasons of course. Surfing online now trying to get it.

Steve,

jboutin wrote:

Osher, I was looking at a website for a model contest/show and in reading that particular organizers' rules for OOB, it did not allow scratch seat belts.  So I guess it is what ever the organizer declares.  So, are belts in or out?