wonwinglo

Due for release in the summer and just announced by Airfix is a Dragon Rapide kit in 1=72nd,this could be a re-release of the Heller model,not a bad little kit either,markings will be Scottish Airways and Royal Navy.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

squiffythewombat

Hiya again barry,

Yes this is a realease of the Heller mould so nothing new im afraid. However i stock the Heller Rapid- its a good kit, although the transfers let it down in my opinion. However the Airfix rep tells me that they are unhappy with the currant kits they stock and over the next year or so will be tooling up for some new kits!

Have you seen the "Robogear" sets, These are sci-fi wargaming sets produced by Airfix to combat the growing Games Workshop industry. Blatently this failed terribly, even the reps admit it. So from what i can gather they are re-aiming for the desired target audience!

Barry, Im sure you already know this but i will write it for the benifit of the others__

Heller & Airfix...a love affair

Heller, as from 18months time will no longer be tied in with Airfix. About 6 months ago Heller went through a mangement buy out and the company changed totally. The days of Anglo-French kit production is coming to and end.

Airfix's products are still made in the Heller factory in france and as you guys know many of the Heller moulds are in actual fact Airfix. This is not going to be the case for long however...

Heller have the "sweet" deal with Airfix for another 18months which includes the sharing of moulds and resources and the production of Airfix kits in the Heller factory. At the end of this iterim period Airfix will be forced to relocate all their tools and manufactuering so they will likelly contract this out to the chinesse market. They will need to keep a close eye on line quality here. Heller will split and start to produce their own kits indepandtly of Airifx. That said the chances of us seeing some old moulds crop up is very likelly......Frog anyone?

Already Airfix are tooling up new models to include a 1:48th Canbarra (thank god- if one more airshow goer asks for one of these im going to kill myself!) a Nimrod and the well known TSR.2 in 1:72nd. These are just the models Airfix has offically detailed, there are more in the pipeline.

Sorry about the terrible spelling......

wonwinglo

Squiffy,interesting stuff that but it comes as no surprise,what is currently happening and it is very noticeable is the 'Hyping up' of projected kits,the long overdue TSR-2,the 1=48th Canberra that apparently Airfix got more enquiries about than anything else,and now the Nimrod,what has happened is that following the poor moulding fit on the 1=72nd scale Concorde they are hopefully going to make sure that the TSR-2 excells in that department,there really is no excuses now to not have cleaner and crisper mouldings just like the Japanese offerings with crystal clean mouldings,if Tamiya can do it then so can good old Airfix,modellers need and demand the very best and now is the time to give it.
So I think this is why the reps knowing the competition are lobbying the management and about time.
So it sounds as if the Rapide could be a fairly short lived kit,I am sure that a 1=48th scale example would sell like hot cakes,perhaps even a larger scale,dare I suggest 1=32nd ! what a beauty that would be.
Hannants have now closed their books on the TSR-2,even produced an exotic decal set for her,come on Airfix pull your socks up and get something on the market that is not another decal change or re-hash.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

squiffythewombat

im guessing my last message got lost :-( im really ill at the moment so not really up to reposting, however here is the future airfix list copied from another article im writing, im hope its of use to everyone and barry i hope im not treding on your toes here:


This years Airfix Releases:
1:72nd Gloster Meteor III & VI Doodlebug - A reissue using the old moulds

1:72nd BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde - A reissue of this large scale concord, hopefully it will actually fit together this time unlike the last issue which suffer heavily from poor moulding and warped parts.

1:48th BAe Hawk 100- Another reissue with slightly different decals (S. African included) A nice scale kit of this famous trainer, it fits well but as per usal lacks cockpit detail, something thats essential in this scale, sadly there are no aftermarket parts for this that we know of!

And also.....Some NEW kits:
1:72nd Britten-Norman Islander (Spring2006)
1:72nd BAC TSR.2 (Feb2006)
1:72nd BAE Nimrod MR Mk. I, MR Mk 2/2P & R Mk I
1:72nd DeHavilland Dragon Rapide (Summer2006)
1:72nd Spitfire 70th Anniversary:S.6B, MkIa, Vc & XVIe (Spring2006)
1:48th E.E. Canberra B.2, B.20 & B(I).6 (Winter2006)
1:48th E.E. Canberra B(I).8 & B(I).2 (Winter2006)
1:48th E.E. Canberra PR.9 (Winter2006)
1:48th Martin B-57B, RB-57E & RB-57G (Winter2006)
1:48th Spitfire 70th Anniversary; MkI, IXc & F.22/4 (Summer2006)
1:48th V,S Spitfire Mk.IXc
Most of these kits are totally new with the exceptions of the spitfire and B-57 which borrow parts from across the board. It should also be noted that the Dragon Rapide is an ex-Heller kit so nothing really new here bar the new box art.

Toby

Nigel.D

Hey squif isnt the meteor and v1 a re release of the frog kit?????

wonwinglo

Thanks Squiffy for submitting this,you have just as much right to place anything you like here it is not my domain but everyones,it is very useful gen,you keep sending this stuff.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Bunkerbarge

Someone once did a Spitfire and a V1. Can't remember who it was but I remember making it.

squiffythewombat

Hey guys, to my knowledge it is not a frog re-release. Theres several reasons i think this:

1)most of the frog moulds went to soviet bloc countries or revell when they went bust.
2)the detail on the frog kit was BAD so for airfix to re-release this would be...erm...dubious (although not unlikelly)
3)the fact that the mould would be OLD. a more likelly approach would be to re-tool the model.

I have several of the Frog kits in stock so i can have a little investigation when im better and post a photo if you like? (I also got the 2006 cat today so expect some new images when i plug in the scanner!)

wonwinglo

I think that this is going to be a very important year indeed for Airfix,they are investing heavily in new tooling and about time,interesting that the Concorde will be re-released yet again,this will be the third issue,lets hope they have re-tooled that nose to centre fuselage joint plus other critical areas that did not fit properly.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

squiffythewombat

from what i heard it was mostly warping that was the real issue on the kit, hence why the parts didnt fit well?