So which old tooling is actually left and still viable

[O1707820202]

Well at least this means that the SR.53 mould might be extant (not being on the list mentioned), and even better, usable!

[Gadfly]

2002 is 13 years ago....... 

And so you should ignore Mario's statement?

I think not.

Mario has stated the facts.

 

 

 

 Hello ' Ratch' et al.

im not ignoring anything. I dont know Mario from a bar of soap I'm sure he is a bang up guy as I'm sure you are. 

My my point is as others sort of cottoned onto is 

That possibly what was the case in 2002 might not be the case in 2015. More so given companies change ownership steel corrodes and to err is human.

[Russ1707821018]

- In the same issue three moulds were listed as "Worn beyond economical repair": Austin Maxi / Wellington B111 / B-17G Flying Fortress

 It's odd that the tool for the Maxi is listed as worn out. The kit was only in the catalogue for 4 years 1971, 72, 73, and 74. The other two, by contrast, were in production for decades.

I'm also pretty sure that by this point the 1980's Lancaster kit mold is worn out as are the original 1/48 Spitfire V and Hurricane Mk.1. There's certainly no need for any of those three to be reissued.

[Tarnish One]

- In the same issue three moulds were listed as "Worn beyond economical repair": Austin Maxi / Wellington B111 / B-17G Flying Fortress

 It's odd that the tool for the Maxi is listed as worn out. The kit was only in the catalogue for 4 years 1971, 72, 73, and 74. The other two, by contrast, were in production for decades.

 As I mentioned on another thread, the story (from Trevor Snowden no less) is that the Maxi, Marina and Bond Bug tools were left out in open storage during the move to France in the Palitoy era, and hence were rendered unusable.
 

[Russ1707821018]

- In the same issue three moulds were listed as "Worn beyond economical repair": Austin Maxi / Wellington B111 / B-17G Flying Fortress

 It's odd that the tool for the Maxi is listed as worn out. The kit was only in the catalogue for 4 years 1971, 72, 73, and 74. The other two, by contrast, were in production for decades.

 

 As I mentioned on another thread, the story (from Trevor Snowden no less) is that the Maxi, Marina and Bond Bug tools were left out in open storage during the move to France in the Palitoy era, and hence were rendered unusable.

 

 

 So maybe they aren't good enough for a regular Airfix kit release, but they might be okay for this KitStarter program. An imperfect set of kit parts would still be better than tracking down an original kit.  

 

[John Bollig]

Okay, so maybe we should just give up and not even try to get some of these kits reissued ?  I am hopeful that some day we will get to see those favorite kits reissued.  Yes it will take effort, time and blood sweat and toil to do get the models in our hot little hands.   I have gone to great lengths to get airfix kits. Much of my adult life has been spent towards the actual acquiring of said airfix kits.  I welcome efforts to reissue kits and toys that  mean so much to so many.   If it fails, at least fail trying to get the kits that many of us have been waiting generations to get. 

[Gadfly]

Hi Admin,

Thanks for the reply. Why start this grand social media experiment with two Bird Kits?

Cheers

Gadfly

[Gadfly]

Hi Admin,

I understand. It's a good concept. There seems to be a lot of unknowns such as the exact threshold for success in getting a requested kit into production.

will it be a full featured kit with packaging and decals or just sprues

Along with what's actually possible. Given the bird kits are ' not exactly mainstream'  getting to the threshold may not actually happen. 

[Caerbannog]

Well at least this means that the SR.53 mould might be extant (not being on the list mentioned), and even better, usable!

 

 I have an SR.53 from a manufacturer called Ursus. Then there is  a company called Aerodrome which also released these sprues. So maybe these molds were sold long ago.

 

[George Sweety]

I like the idea but I just see the choice of two bird kits for openers as a total waste of time that will ruin this experiment from the outset. I have never been interested in making models of wildlife and I never will be and not one of the model makers that I have ever encountered have expressed any interest in the subject. So here is my theory of how this will pan out. Not much interest in bird kits (the only two options available at the moment) from the general modelling community leads Airfix to conclude that there isn't a lot of interest in resurrecting old moulds so the experiment is deemed a failure. Now if you had opted for one bird kit and one aircraft/vehicle/ship kit then I'm sure that Airfix would see a marked rise in interest rather than just the bird option. I am interested in some long out of production kits, just not birds.

[jaguarsrule]

Hi Admin

Can you tell us if the 1/600 SS France moulds are lost forever.  I read a long time ago that they went missing when the moulds were transferred to France to be made by Heller.

[George Sweety]

Hi George,

 

That certainly won't be the case. KitStarter is a brand new feature and we're really excited to explore what's possible. You have, however, highlighted another reason why we have the KitStarter forum. It really gives an opportunity for us to see what collectors want.

 

 Thanks for your reply admin. I really do hope that it is a success but these bird kits can be picked up on a well known auction site for quite a bit cheaper than £20 so I cannot see a great deal of interest in this particular choice for the kick off. If you monitored the prices of long OOP Airfix kits on a well known auction site then you would soon find which kits would generate the most interest. As an example, I contacted Airfix about 7/8 years ago when I was still an Airfix Club member and asked if there were any plans to re-issue the HP Hampden kit as I was totally fed up with the ridiculous prices that these kits were fetching on a well known auction site. I was told by Airfix that there were no plans to re-release the kit in the foreseeable future. And we now have the Hampden kit in production again and I am certainly most happy about that. Regards, George.

 

[Tak]

[Gadfly]

Hi Admin,

Thanks for  the replies and making social media a two way process.

A few more questions I realise your in 'Beta' but they are worth asking.

1. If different kits need differing levels of 'crowd funding' (preorders) what determines this? Complexity of kit? So a single engined fighter needs less backers than a 4 engined bomber.for example.

2. Once a kit reaches the required number of backers it gets run (subject to tooling viability) the cost for this kit is then 20 GBP or thereabouts. What stops you then running the tool at full production capacity and releasing the re run kit at normal retail price? Thus somewhat undermining the ' enthusiast backer'

3. If an aircraft kit reaches production will it come with decals? If so will they be the originally issued scheme or new art work?

4. Is there any intent to freshen up any of the tooling with new  sprues or parts?

5. If a kit subject is potentially subject to copyright or licensing issues say film or TV series tie ins etc. Does that exclude that subject as a possibility ?

Cheers

GF

[O1707820202]

The price of a Kitstarter kit is a bit inordinate. £20 for the birds, as the only example. Whilst I'd be interested in backing a birds kit, potentially, I'm not so interested at £20. Using how the 'kickstarter' programmes generally work, might I suggest that there is an ability to fund a kit, say for £1 one is 'Bronze', but not to buy the kit, just a 'thanks' email, and to offer two levels of purchase. For 'Silver' £10 one gets the basic kit, as a second run, whilst an initial run (100 kits?) is £20, which also comes with a certificate that this was a 'Kitstarter Gold', and the number. As the number depends upon when you sign up, lower numbers indicate an earlier purchase.

I appreciate it's slightly more complex, but it does open up Kitstarter projects to a wider audience.

One other point - how about a link from the front page to the Kitstart page? I could go in via news, and (eventually) via the big scroller, but no fixed link from the front page to Kitstarter.

[Gadfly]

Hi Gadfly,

 

Apologies for the small delay in coming back to you. Answers below:

 

1. Yes, but there are more factors to consider, some of which are deemed "commercially sensitive." This means we won't be able to disclose all the factors.

 

2. This is a consideration we will take into account when deciding which kits will be made available on KitStarter. While it seems unlikely that we would put a kit that's been on KitStarter back into general release, we don't want a situation where we would never be able to re-release any of the kits that have been backed on KitStarter.

 

3. Kits that are fully backed via KitStarter will include the original decals. However, we will try and make these kind of details clear on each individual kit that gets listed on KitStarter.

 

4. No. The kits that you back/request on the Forum should be those that you are happy to build as they were originally manufactured.

 

5. Possibly, but these are issues for us to resolve. Moving forward, I would just ask everyone to vote for and back the kits they really want to see. If a kit that is subject to a copyright becomes very popular it is then up to us to look into all the issues surrounding it being manufactured again. If these issues cannot be resolved we will endeavour to report these back (although we may not be able to share all the details).

 

 Hi Admin

Many thanks for the replies. I think they help to clarify exactly what Kitstarter is and what's possible.

[jaguarsrule]

I need to ask this again,  do the 1/600 SS France moulds still exist?   because if the don't, there's no sense asking for it.   (There's an old urban legend that they went missing while in transit to Heller)

[Ratch]

F602S/06202-2

SS France

1/600 scale.

Available as F602S from 1963 to 1972.

Issued as 06202-2 from 1973 to 1979.

Listed as 06204-8 SS Norway in 1980 but not issued.

Mould missing in 1999.

[jaguarsrule]

F602S/06202-2

SS France

1/600 scale.

Available as F602S from 1963 to 1972.

Issued as 06202-2 from 1973 to 1979.

Listed as 06204-8 SS Norway in 1980 but not issued.

Mould missing in 1999.

Sorry Ratch, but I read what you wrote on a forum back in 2006,  What I'm hoping for is confirmation from Airfix Admin whether the moulds are missing or not now that Hornby have access to the moulds.

Time and time again over the years there have been stories of moulds destroyed or disappearing for many kits that suddenly re-appear.

Anyway hopefully I can get confirmation from the horses mouth (Admin) whether the 1/600 SS France moulds are in fact missing from Airfix's inventory.

 

 

[Flakjumper]

- In the same issue three moulds were listed as "Worn beyond economical repair": Austin Maxi / Wellington B111 / B-17G Flying Fortress

 It's odd that the tool for the Maxi is listed as worn out. The kit was only in the catalogue for 4 years 1971, 72, 73, and 74. The other two, by contrast, were in production for decades.

 

 As I mentioned on another thread, the story (from Trevor Snowden no less) is that the Maxi, Marina and Bond Bug tools were left out in open storage during the move to France in the Palitoy era, and hence were rendered unusable.

 

 

 So maybe they aren't good enough for a regular Airfix kit release, but they might be okay for this KitStarter program. An imperfect set of kit parts would still be better than tracking down an original kit.  

 

 

 I completely agree. 

 

[MG Writer]

- In the same issue three moulds were listed as "Worn beyond economical repair": Austin Maxi / Wellington B111 / B-17G Flying Fortress

 It's odd that the tool for the Maxi is listed as worn out. The kit was only in the catalogue for 4 years 1971, 72, 73, and 74. The other two, by contrast, were in production for decades.

 

 As I mentioned on another thread, the story (from Trevor Snowden no less) is that the Maxi, Marina and Bond Bug tools were left out in open storage during the move to France in the Palitoy era, and hence were rendered unusable.

 

 

 So maybe they aren't good enough for a regular Airfix kit release, but they might be okay for this KitStarter program. An imperfect set of kit parts would still be better than tracking down an original kit.  

 

It would be nice to know. I fondly remember the Maxi, Marina, Capri, Victor Estate and others as really excellent kits which I loved building, but with my limited early modelling skills. There are full size owners' clubs who might support their reissue...

 

 

[Ratch]

- In 2002 The Airfix Collector's Club magazine Constant Scale listed just four moulds actually missing: S.S.France / Aston Martin DB5 / SAM 2 "Guideline" / Infantry Combat Group,

 

 

  Mario, wasn't the Infantry Combat Group (S3) included in the Road to Berlin (12301) in 2005?

[steven_pietr]

Ratch, that's a mistake in the Airfix Kit List. Googling indicated the set contains WWII British Paratroops S23 and not Infantry Combat Group S3. The equivalent Heller set is called "1945 The Last Battle". This website has photos of some of the contents, which definitely shows the British Paratroops. They are the tan coloured figures.

http://www.delcampe.net/page/item/id,96771981,var,maq710-Maquette-et-figurines-plastique-172e-HELLER-Grand-coffret-1945-the-last-battle-incluant-un-Stug-75-mm-un,language,I.html

 

[Ratch]

 Thanks Steven.

[MG Writer]

So...... Is the MG1100 kit still feasible? It would make an interesting double hit with the MGB - both cars launched in 1962!