first airfix model

[dr_gn]

RichB said:

dr_gn said:

<clip> if you get a starter kit like the Gnat, which, according to my pal who got one for his nephew, it didn't fit together properly, so it ended up in the bin. Can't remember the specifics of it, maybe intakes or something, but it seemed to be a fault of the design.

Would the design have changed over the years? I made the Airfix Gnat a few times 50 years ago and I seem to remember it was fine.

Yes, completely new design and mouldings in 2012:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/airfix-a01006-foll...

[r159]

petemurphy said:

Ayahuasca said:

It surely has to be a Mark 1 Spitfire.

The Airfix starter kit has everything you need.

thats the one i looked at on amazon - will that scale be too fiddly or ok? thanks

This is a link to the instructions, in the starter set you usually only get one set of decals. Out of interest where about s in the country are you?
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/americanscalemodel...

[petemurphy]

r159 said:

This is a link to the instructions, in the starter set you usually only get one set of decals. Out of interest where about s in the country are you?
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/americanscalemodel...

oxfordshire

[r159]

No worries, if you’d been a bit closer you could have popped over I’d have given you a couple of kits.

[petemurphy]

ah thanks! that for all the info everyone

[Eric Mc]

I'm currently building the Airfix new-tool 1/72 Hurricane - and it is a lovely little kit. However, for 1st timers, I think the new Airfix kits can be a bit fiddly. I'd go with the Matchbox suggestion - if you can find them as Matchbox ceased production around 20 years ago.

Some of their kits have been released in more recent years by Revell - so you might be able to get one from that source.

Otherwise, an internet search should throw up some original Matchbox kits. I find Kingkit a good source for older kits at reasonable prices.

I've just had a look and they have a reasonable selection of Matchbox kits in stock.

Another "easy" set of models are available in the Hobbyboss range. They are "click together" style models but make up into nice little replicas without too much fiddling and stress.

[petemurphy]

thanks will have a look

[ottovonskidmark]

I agree with the hobbyboss kits. Very easy and a good fit. This 1/72 Hawker Typhoon should be no problem

[dr_gn]

Proper tailwheel on the Hobbyboss Typhoon

[ottovonskidmark]

dr_gn said:

Proper tailwheel on the Hobbyboss Typhoon

It does look like a truck wheel! :-)

The 1/72 Hobbyboss Seahawk is a beautiful little kit. The only negatives are the fit of the trouser leg jet exhausts and the one atom thick decals. I really need to finish it. Painted and sat on my shelf while I decide how to sort the roundels which show the camo demarcation line through the roundel!

[dr_gn]

ottovonskidmark said:

dr_gn said:

Proper tailwheel on the Hobbyboss Typhoon

It does look like a truck wheel! :-)

The 1/72 Hobbyboss Seahawk is a beautiful little kit. The only negatives are the fit of the trouser leg jet exhausts and the one atom thick decals. I really need to finish it. Painted and sat on my shelf while I decide how to sort the roundels which show the camo demarcation line through the roundel!

You could mask and spray your own roundels. I did this on the aforementioned Airfix Bulldog - bottom of the page here:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

You’d have to check the minimum size the Olfa cutter would do though. Even on the large Bulldog roundels I used the separate red dot decals from the sheet.

Other solution is to buy an aftermarket decal set for a Seahawk from Hannants, or get a sheet of standard roundels of the correct type and size.

There’s always a way!

ETA on the page I linked to, you can also see a *possible* disadvantage of buying newer releases of old kits, for example the Revell re-pops of the Matchbox originals mentioned earlier, or the recent Airfix re-releases. Moulds get worn, and the quality of parts can suffer. The original Matchbox kits from the 70’s were really good quality plastic and invariably sharply moulded and flash-free. Panel lines were often deep, but so are many modern kits. Shouldn’t bother a youngster building their first kit though. Beware the much later Matchbox kits though - they can be appallingly bad.

Edited by dr_gn on Tuesday 27th October 09:25

[dr_gn]

Here’s a bit more Matchbox stuff for the O/P

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[CanAm]

My first ever model, when younger than the OP's daughter, was the original Airfix Spitfire. Probably even easier to make than than the current Quick-Build kits, and certainly had fewer parts!
2 bob (10p) back then, but no doubt very expensive if you can find one these days.

[robemcdonald]

thinking about it weren't airfix working on beginner kits to sit between the quick builds and normal kits?
or did i dream it?

[Eric Mc]

CanAm said:

My first ever model, when younger than the OP's daughter, was the original Airfix Spitfire. Probably even easier to make than than the current Quick-Build kits, and certainly had fewer parts!
2 bob (10p) back then, but no doubt very expensive if you can find one these days.

Not the best 1/72 Spitfire kit. They did better ones later.

When you say original, do you mean this one



or this one



The best thing about the MkIX kit was Roy Cross' artwork.

[CanAm]

Eric Mc said:

CanAm said:

My first ever model, when younger than the OP's daughter, was the original Airfix Spitfire. Probably even easier to make than than the current Quick-Build kits, and certainly had fewer parts!
2 bob (10p) back then, but no doubt very expensive if you can find one these days.

Not the best 1/72 Spitfire kit. They did better ones later.

When you say original, do you mean this one



.

There wasnt much choice in 1955 Eric! Yes the Original "BTK" MkI , with the pilot's head and shoulders moulded into the fuselage and the retracted undercarriage moulded into the wings, so that if you added the U/C to pose the model sitting on its wheels there were 4 main wheels!

[RichB]

Eric Mc said:

Not the best 1/72 Spitfire kit. They did better ones later.

Let's be honest when we were 8 or 9 years old we didn't worry about roundels and detailed mouldings as long as it stuck together and looked good hanging from our ceilings! I was probably 7 or 8 when I started making Airfix planes, it helped that I had an older brother but we got zero help from mum or dad so they were all our own work. I know we both made the 1st world war biplanes before I was 10. Frankly, too much assistance from eager parents does away with the point of kids learning to do it themselves. The OP's daughter is 9 years old, rather than over thinking it I would have just bought her a spitfire and some glue and let her get on with it. She will either enjoy it or never do one again.

[dr_gn]

RichB said:

Eric Mc said:

Not the best 1/72 Spitfire kit. They did better ones later.

Let's be honest when we were 8 or 9 years old we didn't worry about roundels and detailed mouldings as long as it stuck together and looked good hanging from our ceilings! I was probably 7 or 8 when I started making Airfix planes, it helped that I had an older brother but we got zero help from mum or dad so they were all our own work. I know we both made the 1st world war biplanes before I was 10. Frankly, too much assistance from eager parents does away with the point of kids learning to do it themselves. The OP's daughter is 9 years old, rather than over thinking it I would have just bought her a spitfire and some glue and let her get on with it. She will either enjoy it or never do one again.

...but you had help from an older brother.

I wouldn't give a kit to a 9 year old and let them get on with it, IMO they'd need at least some guidance. My son is 13 now, and he mainly builds and paints Warhammer figures. He's been at the stage where he does everything himself for about a year or so, although I still wouldn't let him have a scalpel unsupervised yet. Side cutters and files work fine - just as they did for me at his age.

[RichB]

dr_gn said:

...but you had help from an older brother.

I wouldn't give a kit to a 9 year old and let them get on with it, IMO they'd need at least some guidance. My son is 13 now, and he mainly builds and paints Warhammer figures. He's been at the stage where he does everything himself for about a year or so, although I still wouldn't let him have a scalpel unsupervised yet. Side cutters and files work fine - just as they did for me at his age.

you don't know my brother... I made what I considered some very decent models and I know they were before my 10th birthday because that's when we moved house. My brother's help consisted of knocking to the floor a model of an Albatross that I had painstakingly painted the harlequin camouflage on! By 13 I was building my model railway and was using scalpels, x-acto knives, drills and soldering irons and lots other things that I could hurt myself with. Yes he encouraged me but being 4 years older he did his own thing, by the time I was 13 he had girlfriends.

[petemurphy]

RichB said:

Let's be honest when we were 8 or 9 years old we didn't worry about roundels and detailed mouldings as long as it stuck together and looked good hanging from our ceilings! I was probably 7 or 8 when I started making Airfix planes, it helped that I had an older brother but we got zero help from mum or dad so they were all our own work. I know we both made the 1st world war biplanes before I was 10. Frankly, too much assistance from eager parents does away with the point of kids learning to do it themselves. The OP's daughter is 9 years old, rather than over thinking it I would have just bought her a spitfire and some glue and let her get on with it. She will either enjoy it or never do one again.

basically this ive bought her the spitfire starter set! well its for me mainly i just want to remember the smell of that glue! thanks all some good advice if we progress