Paul Astle

well it's out there and as boring as previous years. there are one or two I will admit liking the look of but in all honesty. i will nto pre-order. I've done that for two years runnig and NEVER got the kits. If they are feeling clients aren't buying they can look to their own system for the failures to keep their own site runnnig properly.

look on e-bay you'd be surprised how many older kits can be found there at reasonable prices

since airfix does an RAF vehicals set you could use that as a guide too.

I'll assume you're looking at larger scale old fashions pieces. if you're looking for 1/72 scale plastic i'd suggest looking a hAT- I feel it's safe to recommend that as Airfix never got into victorian era troops. hAT has very good 1879 era sets

try e-bay, there are a surprising number of kits and sets to be found there. It's how I got one of the elusive SAM-3 kits

it depends on what you're using the flag for, to get men to fololow then it should be with the grenadier/shock troops at the front "follow the flag lads" if on the defensive it should be in the middle of the formation to denote where that is. I've done georgian era re-enacting for 25+ years and the noise and smoke of muskets is mind blasting so you want something eay to locate and identify. As for them falling. my favorite was a cry by the sgt of the Scots greys at waterloo having hacked down the color guard and siged the eagle he cried out "Be-jesus boys! i have the Koo-Koo!"

Aifix response seems to have been to stop having ANY pilot/crews in new mondels with is really annoying.

Anyone else getting a little annoyed that the new kits being put out like the armstrong whitley or the Japanese 'kate' that they are no longer producing pilot's? I mean they all looked the same pretty much but it seems to be a let down now that there is not a little [person looking out of the canopy anymore. I'm geting tempted to cut up the torso of an RAF ground crew pilot but this seems unnessassary work. Anyone know why such a simple piece is being left out?

I've never understood how a nation like germany can claim they have freedom of speech, but will then arrest you for saying some things. They still do not get it. In the US it is understood freedom of seach includes the stupid/hateful things but at least that way we know who the morons are.

That's exactly what it is, someplaces it is illegal, germany for example, so the fear is the kits would be bought for the decals to use on other things but this is at the sacrifice of historical accuracy.

Afraid not John 😢 There was/is a campaign on the ATF to lobby Airfix to make the Dreadnought, but so far they have resisted ☹️ I have dreadnought from Trumpeter but it's in a much larger scale

Oh but I also want to post them here cos usually the process is straight forward! and sharing airifx models with airfix fans on the airfix site is fun

If we look at WW2 and to be fair, airfix, with the KGV, Warspite and Nelson. allows you to produce most of the battleships the british used in WW2. They'd need to produce the royal oak/revenge class to have them all. The problem is we've done all these kits. the same for the german navy. it's a catch 22. airfix doersn't want to invest in new models if there's no market, but they are killing off the market because there's no new models.

I think the problem, at least the one I had with airfix waterloo figures when i was a boy, is that there is inherantly some flex in them so things like muskets seem to go bald, witll a primer cover that issue?

I've seen books out there, try amazon, that are made up of the wonderful old amazon art. It sounds like just the sort of thing you're asking after

I look at what others do and think 'wow that's great.' i'm never going to do that. but i don't measure myself against them. i measure myself now against what i did when i was a kid. That is the only real scale to worry about.

very well said. I no longer trust airifxes pre-order system it failed me too many times. I missed the astronaughts here becasue i trusted to the system, for the last time, and just bought them off of e-bay.

The problem seems to be they care little for theuir customers. they are pushing the 1/48 range stuff now a size of vehical they really didn't do much with in the past. it's like automakers making SUV's becasue THEY make a bigger proffit on them but ingnoring the fact people might not want these and then get confused when the cutomer goes elsewhere.

The Rotodyne is a fun kit, I got it for less than that on e-bay but it shows there's an interest. The p[roblem is airfix isn'rt really making naything new just reworking old molds. I've heard they lost the molds for the Sam-3 which makes htose really rare but it is a great model. The other issue is their record keeping. I pre-ordered the astronuaghts . got a confim and then...nothing. and now they are gone.Which makes me more bitter when they say they are struggling for a market. someone takes the time to preorder and they blow it. Maybe with that one they can say 'well we sold out anyway" but the point is what else did they bobble? I'd also like to see the old AC-3 gun ship and the HMS Tiger and Daring set. for pur fantasy I'd liek to see maybe WW2 italian ships, or german light cruisers or maybe even WW1 german and british ships.

check out the selection at hAT - they have a lot of napoleonic stuff, different nations, and types of troops on a huge scale

maybe it's not so much a reply as to let them know they are slipping. wehat use to be a hallmark of the company is not not. instead of feelnig we are dealing with a group that takes pride in their product-we're sorry let us help you' they now fall back behind 'UK law says....' it is not encouraging.

i'm just going to say I'm impressed as all get out by your daughter's patience. When I was that old I wanted to build and play with it. As an aside for tols. in place of a knife i usually use nail clipers. they catch the sprue between oppsoing forced rather than driving from one way.

I usually have the opposite problem. the stuff is too bendy. If it is so brittle it's breaknig it sounds like old plastic that has perished.

to add in what I types last week-the astronaughts are no lnoger available for order BUT my 'pre-order' is still listed on my account. this is very discouraging. If Airfix wants people to buy from them direct and not just on e-bay they need to pay attentino to their clients. there's no point in buying here if they can't get their act together. I mean if someone goes out of their way to say 'yes I''d like that and I'm willing to wait just to be in the que' and they forget the cue, then what's the point?

I never had problems getting t to stick, other than humberol i've used the american line 'testors' my problem came with the flexible things like rifles in the soft plastic flexing and the paint flaking off.