Middoman

Hi all. I am wondering if there is any likelihood that Airfix will re-issue either of these kits? The fact that they haven't done so, apart from the 1/72 Stratos IV boxing a long time, ago leads me to think that there is a reason why this hasn't happened - damaged or lost moulds etc. The 1/72 is pretty accurate, if you don't try to build it with the undercarriage up, in which case you will need a lot of filler for the various doors. In the contrast, the 1/48 wasn't the best effort, and the fact that it has an incorrectly tapering front fuselage when you got that right on the earlier 1/72 release is difficult to understand, unless the second designer didn't see the first designer's work. A hard issue to fix, and most who build it don't bother trying. In either case, these are the best kits we are likely to get of what is an iconic British aircraft whose continued popularity is remarkable considering it did not enter service and it is now sixty years since it was cancelled. Of course, a new, state of the art redesign is what's really needed, with added 'what if' squadron decals, pylons and weapons, but a re-release in either scale in your classics series would be a good second prize.

If anyone at Airfix reads the forums, I am hoping that you will re-issue your two versions of the 1/48 EE Lightning, the F1/F3 and F2/F6, in the near future. It's a long time since this modern tooling has been available, the shops have all long sold out and the only option now is eBay, where they go for silly prices.That tells me there is the demand out there. You have re-released the Sea Vix and new versions of the Meteor. Any chance the king of RAF jet fighters is on your schedule?

Wow... Airfix, you do listen! Five years on from me urging you to be the first to kit a 1/72 B-24H with a Ford nose, what do I find in your new releases for 2024. Well done - I will get several.

Come on Airfix The B-24 Liberator kits are great but there are not, nor have there ever been, in any scale a model of the B-24H as it was most commonly flown by the USAAF in the UK in the Second World War. The reason is that the B-24H - the most common mark in the UK - was built with numerous combinations of turrets but the most commonly used was built by Ford and featured the 'Ford nose' with Emerson turret and a sloped bomb aimer's position under this turret. Many kit manufacturers have released a B-24H - notably Academy - but never with this configuration. Interestingly Academy released a range of B-24Hs with markings for the so-called 'Zodiacs'. These were B-24Hs based with the 486th Bomb Group at RAF Sudbury in Suffolk (the remains of the airfield are near my home, hence my specific interest) and painted by ground crewman Phil Brinkman with individual nose art for signs of the Zodiac. These were quite famous at the time. But all these B-24Hs featured the different Ford nose and not the one one in the kit, so it isnlt a proper rendition of the aircraft. There are also no conversion kits available in 1/72. You can also buy third party decals for these aircraft but these are pointless without the right model to put them on! So come on Airfix, in addition to the lovely but less significant RAF versions of the Liberator you have released can we have a proper model of the main type of this main US bomber as mostly operated by UK-based USAAF units during WW2. Thanks for reading