Andy Moth

I have a photo of it painted up complete (stand alone) somewhere , Will post it as soon as ...

How about Airfix take the lead and be the first mainstream manufacturer to embrace 3D printing ? The CAD is always the most time consuming part of 3D printing and the Manufacturers have the resources . How about taking the ancient 1/72 Halifax and instead of retooling it for injection molding (will we ever see one ?) Re-do the CAD with recessed panel lines and refined detail ? Then have various trusted partners who print out the parts. Very little cost to Airfix (no million pound tools to worry about or produce). Airfix Supply instructions , Decals and Boxes. It is pie in the sky to think a main stream company will ever sell STL files to the general public as copying would be rife. Tamiya never will. Just think of all the classic kits that we may never see again , available as 3D resin, brought up to (beyond) modern detail levels ? Spare parts , additional parts (Pilots !!!!!! , some of us do inflight !!!!) , the possibilities are endless. So come on Airfix , make the leap , embrace the biggest advancement to modelling since injection molding . If nothing else , make b***dy pilots available !! What do you think ?

Don't knock your effort. Looks OK to me. Plenty have crashed and burned trying to make this kit.

Hiya peeps Just a quick word on the F6F. I decided to build the engine as I had heard of fit issues. I did a dry fit (as one should) and the crankcase and cylinder heads are tight but fit ok. So dont be tempted by all the £14.95 resin replacements - the engine parts do not need much fetling, just trim the sprue nubs off. I left out the crankcase spacer which may be the cause of a lot of fit issues. The fit and the detail are not Tamiya but it is still very good for the money. If anyone needs some advice or has some , feel free to comment.

Latest Kit is the Hellcat. Interestingly not for the subject matter , when built it will be FAA. Dear oh dear Airfix what a shonker this model is. The crankcase is oversize and will not fit the mating parts. One can spend hours with a sanding stick producing an out of round fitting part or use a lathe to true it up properly. How many modellers (plastic) have a lathe ? This is diabolical Quality Control (and I am a Quality Engineer). The molds are wrong and either no one checked it or they did and didn't care. One hopes that now this is common knowledge , Airfix will correct the mold and issue corrected parts. Add to this, general poor fit, large sprue tabs, ejector marks and soft plastic , the general view is not good. I love Airfix - some of their recent kits have been excellent (1/48 Mustang, Blenhiem ,B25) , others not so (over engineered and lacking detail (the Phantom). I want Airfx to do well and be successful. Airfix need to have a good look at Eduards Tempest . Art in plastic (the resin is a phaff and utterly unnecessary). Shame.

1/72 or 1/48 Buccaneer , sorry Airfix , the Hunter leaves me a touch cold. 1/24 F6F is interesting. One wishes Airfix would wise up a bit and realise that competing with Tamiya is futile. The modelling community will only pay big bucks for perfection . Note the storm over WNW Lancaster, £300 ? why not ? How many 1/24 Coastal Mozzies sitting on shelves ? it's not a bad kit , its a fairly good one , just too expensive. Not that Tamiya are shifting that many 1/32 Mozzies over here , though that is mostly due to the massive mark up applied by the distributer. Here is an idea for Airfix, by all means sell the whole kit but why not sell it in sections as well ? One always wishes the Tiffy had been sold as the engine and cockpit (£40-50) , so come on Airfix , sell three versions of the F6F , engine and cockpit with just enough fuselage and wing to hold it together , Full Wing and Fuselage but a dummy lump under the bonnet/hood and then the full beans kit. One will take a guess that Airfix will sell plenty of the dummy lump version but will then sell even more of the engine / cockpit AND the dummy lump. Would love Airfix to get immaginative as well - how about getting rid of the aincient 1/24 Spit and replacing it with a superdetailed Engine and Cockpit. Lastly, no-one makes a set of 1/72 and 1/48 seated pilots (yes Revell have a 1./72 set not currently in production) hands up everyone who wants a set of seated , masked pilots for jets and props , German, Japanese, US, UK , high quality injection moulding , something along the multipose line would do nicely.

I see lots of positive comments rather than the frankly disapointing whinging - especially those who reckon they will boycott Airfix because of it. Lets just point out the small fortune it costs to get replacement parts from a certain well known Japanese company. Airfix are a business that needs to make money to produce more kits - not a charity.

1/48 Buck definitely. How about a set of 1/72 seated and masked WW2 and Post war pilots ? Revell made a set (no longer available). !/48 would be nice as well seeing as neither the FGR1 or Fury had one. As an extra point - whats with Airfix pricing policy ? 1/72 mitchel - lots of plastic 25 quid - same with Fury and Phantom - good stuff and no hesitation to hand over the creditcard. So forth coming Hunter - why 36 Quid ? No Engine - its not much bigger in 1/48 than a Mitchel in 1/72. Going to think long and hard about this and my guess is the money will go on the UK Mitchel and FGR2, one thinks others will go the same way.

How many other companies have any kind of spares policy at all, let alone doing it for free as Airfix have done in the past? good luck getting anything out of Tamiya or Hasagawa. Airfix are a business and not a charity, if the kit is defective, return it to the retailer and even if the seller is from the internet then under British consumer law they are obliged to refund postage as well.