Airfix 1/72 Coastal Defence Fort - wargaming applications?

[carlos marighela]

Oddly enough, as a lad I never had the Coastal Fort. I did have the La Haye Sainte set, in fact I even bought a replacement version many years later. I’m still interested in WW2 but Napoleonics not so much. Still, it is true Airfix have a lot to answer for, as did Britains and to a much lesser extent Timpo.

[Ash]

Found this on eBay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Airfix-D-DAY-Coastal-Defence-Fort-1-72/174502841562?hash=item28a12e0cda:g:itMAAOSw8WlfoEqo

I had the 'gun emplacement' with the little 'pill box' & search light, a very long time ago...

[Harry Faversham]

I blame Airfix for everything that happened to me over the next 40 years

Yep, it were Airfix wot dunnit!!!

 

[Commander Roj]

My Airfix commandos must have stormed that fort dozens of times in the 70s and early 80s, accompanied by my tuneless humming of the Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare themes (when it was being guarded by HO/OO Gerbirgsjäger on top of a mountain*).






*One Christmas my dad built me a play table in the attic, it had a beach for D-Day games, a river for A Bridge too Far, and a mountain made from papier-mâché over chicken wire for Where Eagles Dare. I have a great dad. Wish he still made terrain for me like when I was a nipper.

Wow. Your attic sounds like ‘70’s boys heaven!

[Onebigriver]

Didn't realise I was going to kick off such a nostalgia-fest! 

[Bearwoodman]

Yep 

Seems to me that the world of wargaming is divided between those who blame Airfix and those (younger) who blame GW. The outcome is more or less the same. A life sentence addiction 

Exactly! Although I blame both! As a child in the 80s I was amassing a veritable squadron of 1:72 humbrol-daubed western desert Hawker Hurricanes to combat my younger brother's Me 109s, when one day my dad came home with a box of RTB01 Wombles - 10 for each of us. Happy days...

[has.been]

I'm older, I blame Airfix, & Bob O'Brien for his 'Romans Friends & Foes' series of articles in...Airfix magazine.

[Plynkes]

I managed to combine my WW2 modelling hobby with 40k. When RT came along I was in my mid-teens, and I was introduced to the game by a pal at college. It didn't take me long to convert my lovingly-crafted Tamiya Brummbär (which I had spent hours covering with zimmerit paste made from milliput and had airbrushed too) into a tank for Space Orks.


My old Palitoy Star Wars figures got the same treatment. I made an Ork Dreadnought out of R2D2's body glued to IG88's legs. I was ruthless in my cannibalisation, driven by the power-mad lust to expand my Space Ork Empire! 

[BillK]

Add me to the list of those who blame Airfix... and Roco, and then Eidai, then Matchbox and Fujimi and Nitto, for the piles of metal and plastic I have today.

[Calimero]

Yep 

Seems to me that the world of wargaming is divided between those who blame Airfix and those (younger) who blame GW. The outcome is more or less the same. A life sentence addiction 

I blame Airfix too. Especially the Waterloo French Infantry and the Plain Wars US cavalry (*child voice; what do you mean they’re not from the same period?)

And I blame GW too... for almost putting me out of the hobby...

[fred]

I’m definitely in the blame Airfix camp. I recall having big battles with Airfix figures all across my bedroom floor, long before rules and dice where involved. Britains soldiers come into it too.

But looking back at Airfix stuff it does look poor - but they are still churning them out!

[Onebigriver]

I blame Airfix, Matchbox, Humbrol, Revell, GW and the c1/35 "made in Hong Kong" toy soldiers you bought in bags at newsagents with out of scale vehicles.

The older Airfix figures are a mixed bag I've painted and based the 4 packs of soldiers that came in the D-Day set (that I'd picked up in the charity shop for £6) and am happy with results. I've also bought the  British Infantry set released in 2011 to use on the tabletop.

[gamer Mac]

I too blam Airfix
We used to have battles in the garden 40 years ago and my Dad is still finding the odd figure when he does the garden
As for the set under discussion I always found the guns far too big and some of the trenches too small

[carlos marighela]

Back in the day Airfix and Matchbox had the edge. The smaller kits could be purchased at the newsagent. Exotic kit, like Nitto, Fujimi and the like involved a trip to a proper model shop or at the very least a well stocked toy shop.

Airfix was just the gateway drug. The newsagent sold copies of Military Modelling and Battle, which alerted you to much harder drugs.

[bluewillow]

I have used it a few times for commando raids and a FJR raid. It is a ok piece

Cheers
Matt