The Airfix Generation

[Remgain]

My first kit was a Hurricane, more than forty years ago.
It was in a transparent plastic bag with a folded paper label, with the colour picture on it, and inside there were the instructions.
I painted it - wrongly - in glossy brown and matt green camouflage.
And I was very proud of it.
My dad, seeing the model, said that was the kind of aircrafts that flown over his home on the way to strafe Milano rail yard, they were so low that he was able to see the faces of the pilots. Although Probably they were Thunderbolts...

It was an hobby totally different from what it became now.
No informations, no documentation, few Humbrol enamels.
Nowadays to complete a model, you need the kit, 3-4 photo etched kits, some details in resin, and some bits in aluminium or white metal.
And somebody will pop up saying that this bolt is in the wrong place


good memories

Marco

[zizi666]

Oh dear. My first kit was a Matchbox 1/72 Walrus Mk.1 I choose in the shooting range at the local fair some 30+ years ago.
Managed to put it together somehow, but everything looked so skewed and horrible I didn't even bother to paint it.
Poor thing got binned pretty fast. Nevertheless, I liked fiddling with those tiny parts and got me some simpler stuff afterwards. Mostly Matchbox 1/72 & Airfix 1/76. Some years later I started on 1/35 WW2 ETO : Tamiya, Italeri and 1 very bad esci kit (I just had to have that goliath remote controlled tank)
In those days you'd get free catalogues except for Tamiya, but I didn't mind paying for those beauties. I think I still have the pages with the diorama photos and cammo schemes somewhere.
though the results didn't look as good as today, I had loads of fun.

[Hammers]

Ah. I still have a huge box in the garage which has followed me around since the day mother begot Nils. I can bear getting rid of it.

The crowning moment, although perhaps not necessarily my favourite piece, must have been when I got the 1/32 Stuka.

1/72 Forward command post, anyone?

[Blackwolf]

I feel nicely old at the moment Lots of kit and figures,the German paras were outstanding,even had FG 42s. Favourite kit? FW 190,first kit I properly painted,even did a little research,I was nine...

[carlos marighela]

Ah. I still have a huge box in the garage which has followed me around since the day mother begot Nils. I can bear getting rid of it.

The crowning moment, although perhaps not necessarily my favourite piece, must have been when I got the 1/32 Stuka.

1/72 Forward command post, anyone?

Yup. Actually I bought a couple of re-released versions as replacements a few years ago, along with the Jungle Outpost and the Bailey Bridge. Of course the command post no longer comes with the scenic base but there's a crowd in the UK doing vac formed versions. Actually I think they do the vac fomed bases for the Airfix boxed sets like the airfield and revetments etc.

 It's funny, the old Airfix terrain offerings seem a damn sight better detailed than the new resin stuff they are pushing.

Regrets? Never got my hands on the 1/32 Command Post or the Desert version, the latter is listed for re-release this year. Always regretted not getting the Coastal gun emplacemnet too.

[Patrick R]

A Matchbox Spitfire was my first kit, though mom had to jump in to help me as I must have been only five or six at the time.

I had the Airfix Heinkel, took it to school to show it off, then the teacher asked to have a look, opened the window and hurled it out, saying aloud "I wonder how well this one flies" much to my horror ! I retrieved it out of the bushes, but most barrels, antennae, wheels etc were missing.

If I still had all the kits I ever built, my house would look like an airport, tank factory and army barracks, oh wait ...

[has.been]

My first 'solo' kit was the Airfix HMS Cambletown. I still remember turning down offers of help from my father & elder brother, I must have been about 4 years old (couldn't read so the instructions were not a lot of help and were thrown to one side. my wife thinks I am still the same) As a result I resorted to a practice that, many years later, would get me through my 'A' level Engineering Drawing Exam.  i.e. you have a hole of a certain size & a part that fits, so put them together, however this resulted in my 'Cambletown' having the torpedo tube where 'B' turret should have been, the conning tower where 'C' turret should have been etc. etc. The 'construction was held together with the entire contents of a tube of styrene glue, which melted most of the ship. My father (God bless him) praised my efforts & explained how the origional rammed the shipyard gates at St Nazaire, blowing them up in the process. My elder brother comented 'Looks like after it blew up' (Arn't elder brothers wonderful).

[Westfalia Chris]

My first 'solo' kit was the Airfix HMS Cambletown. I still remember turning down offers of help from my father & elder brother, I must have been about 4 years old (couldn't read so the instructions were not a lot of help and were thrown to one side. my wife thinks I am still the same) As a result I resorted to a practice that, many years later, would get me through my 'A' level Engineering Drawing Exam.  i.e. you have a hole of a certain size & a part that fits, so put them together, however this resulted in my 'Cambletown' having the torpedo tube where 'B' turret should have been, the conning tower where 'C' turret should have been etc. etc. The 'construction was held together with the entire contents of a tube of styrene glue, which melted most of the ship. My father (God bless him) praised my efforts & explained how the origional rammed the shipyard gates at St Nazaire, blowing them up in the process. My elder brother comented 'Looks like after it blew up' (Arn't elder brothers wonderful).

Well, battle damage is considered by many to be the hardest part to model convincingly, so you COULD consider it a compliment retro-actively (if nothing else, just to spite him! ; ).

On topic, I cannot really chime in as I only started modelling in the mid-80s, with considerable help from my father, so the kits actually looked the way they should. Still, I have a considerable fondness for vintage kits (not indiscriminately, mind you), and I just finished a 1983-mould Airfix Hawker Hunter, which pretty much sums up the best (looks like the real thing, with robust parts) and a little of the poorer (simple detail, fit not 100% precise) traits of the Airfixperience.

On a related note, when I lived in the UK a couple of years back, I noted that the term "The Airfix Hobby" was used quite widely. I had previously considered the variant "The Games Workshop Hobby" to be a quite obnoxious marketing ploy, but does the Airfix variant actually date back to earlier decades or is it a recent thing?

It's obviously a transfer of the most popular brand being used pro toto, similar to "to xerox" etc. But I wondered if Airfix' cultural importance back in the day was so pronounced that it left that strong impression early on.

[Mjolnir]

I feel nicely old at the moment Lots of kit and figures,the German paras were outstanding,even had FG 42s. Favourite kit? FW 190,first kit I properly painted,even did a little research,I was nine...

Me too, but I was 13

I still have the cover of the box

[Mjolnir]

I feel nicely old at the moment Lots of kit and figures,the German paras were outstanding,even had FG 42s. Favourite kit? FW 190,first kit I properly painted,even did a little research,I was nine...

This one ?
I saved the cover



Michael

[Mjolnir]

Good stuff, have you got any more? I much prefer those old dynamic art on the boxes, rather than the more sterile modern packaging... really need the "dakka-dakka-dakka" element.

As promised



Michael

[Cholly]

Ahh Happy Days. My first Airfix model, or first model of any kind, was a Mosquito Fighter/Bomber made for my grandfather for his birthday (he spent the war making the real thing, inc. helping redesign the propellor and cockpit) way back in 1983 at the tender age of nine. I made planes, my older brother made ships, my younger brother broke anything he could get his (at the time) sticky fingers on!

[Argonor]

Careful with the swastikas in here; I don't know if a picture of a model kit box violates the rules, but remember, it's a German forum.  

[ZuluPaul]

Airfix was my first love when I started wargaming. Had loads of WWII figures & tanks. Alas they are gone now... given to nephews but the fond memories still are there

[joroas]

My first kit was a stuka in a bag, but did not know of polystyrene cement, I was only 8, so used the only glue in the house, UHU, so, of course, it fell apart!
 
2/- a pack for figures lead to cheap wargaming at 10!