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AIRFIX ARE DOING A 1/48 VULCAN!!?!?!!??!!?


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That thing will be huge! Any idea of wingspan? Biggest injected molded kit.

Chuck

1.5x the span of their 1/72 kit :thumbsup: I don't think it's still as big as a 1/72 B-36 in terms of overall span, but in terms of square feet of plastic, probably..

If this is a cruel joke, I'll personally flog somebody with a wet piece of sandpaper...

J

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My understanding is thats its to gauge feed-back - like the TSR2 and Canberra's a few years ago.

There's no certainty that it would get issued, but I'd like to think that it would.

Incidentally I have the built (yet to be finished) Aeroclub B2 in 1/48th scale and I can concur - it is massive. Thats one of the reasons its NOT finished! I'd have no-where to put it!!

As for the 1/48th TSR2 that WILL happen, its been on their "to do" list for a while now.

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Yeah calm down guys - I spent two hours in a meeting with the Marketing Manager yesterday evening and when the Vulcan came-up it was pretty clear that there were no plans to do it as such - the Aeroclub model was just to see what sort of interest it generated so don't get too excited just yet.

TSR2 will probably be January at the earliest now it seems. Looks okay but it's certainly not an "add glue and shake the box" job sadly. Airfix have already sold the whole lot before they're even in the UK!

Sea Vixen is one that is planned for next year (I mentioned this on this very forum months ago but some people didn't believe me - doh!) and I believe the two large 72nd scale subjects are also still in there somewhere... ooh er...

Anyway what about the lovely 72nd Canberras? they looked delicious!

Sad thing to note was that I was told the Nimrods didn't sell well at all - shame that such a noble endeavour wasn't appreciated!

Edited by Chox
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Incidentally I have the built (yet to be finished) Aeroclub B2 in 1/48th scale and I can concur - it is massive. Thats one of the reasons its NOT finished! I'd have no-where to put it!!

BAH! What a weed! Bunch of guys at Bruntingthorpe have a 1/1 scale Vulcan, don't hear them whinging about it.

I'll get me coat...

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Not surprised the nimrod didnt sell well.. the decals were shite and when ( after nearly 2 months) i recieved replacements they were worse than the originals .. I for one wont buy Airfix kits .. Yes i know trumpeter did the mouldings but who was the jerk who produced the decals ?... and why should people buy aftermarket when there should be decent transfers in the original box

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Yes i know trumpeter did the mouldings

Who told you that? "Trumpeter" and "China" are not the same thing. There are literally dozens, if not hundreds of tooling shops in southern China...

J

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Some are from China and some from India but I think in this case he's right in that it was done by Trumpeter.

We were talking about it and the jury's out as to why it didn't sell as well as all the enthusiasm indicated. I said that I thought it was probably because even though people loved the kit, they still mostly just bought only one. Airfix seem to think it's either the cost or the size of the kit, which is probably true. They don't seem to be disappointed though which is encouraging!

I know what Chris means about the decals but I don't think it was that important an issue really. The mass market of casual buyers probably thought the decals were fine, and even the more picky of us could use most of the stencilling so I think the decals aren't an issue really. Admittedly it would have been great if they were top-class but the way i see it I was happy enough to finally see a Nimrod kit, with or without decals. I think part of the problem has been that the aftermarket sheets are a bit of a problem when you're only building one or maybe two examples - a whole sheet to only use a few markings is an expensive waste. Shame that nobody has done a sheet of mixed subjects (like Modeldecal used to do) with the Nimrod as just one or two of the options. It would have been a much more attractive buy.

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Who told you that? "Trumpeter" and "China" are not the same thing. There are literally dozens, if not hundreds of tooling shops in southern China...

Humbrol did and it was pretty much common knowledge. Trumpeter were contracted to do the work by Humbrol in 2006, cue intermission, and completed the work for Hornby in 2007.

The Vulcan was a gag done by some guys who've done that a few times before (one year a 1/48 Hawk and box art from on the stand for a few hours before anyone noticed it - this was prior to the real kit by two year!) and ended up being a test-the-water thing (like the 1/24 Sea Harriers, Spitfire IX and P-51B were).

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Airfix rose like the Phoenix but has had its wings burned again a little by the 1/72 Nimrod and will see how the big 1/24 Mossie fares, long after most of the fraternity have moved to 1/48 or larger. The Mossie will do well if they cater for several fighter subvariants - NF noses etc - rather than just the basic FB.VI. In the scheme of things, that would take few extra parts, and they’re better off offering it all ‘off the bat’ rather than trying for multiple issues/new boxings, which add unecessary costs: Joe Jr modeller being given a kit by Auntie wants those options, and Joe Sr will ultimately buy aftermarket before Airfix bring out the necessaries.

My gut feeling is that a 1/48 scale Vulcan B.2 is just the right kit for Airfix - there isn’t much of a complicated cockpit interior to do that isn’t visible or painted black, leaving just the weapons bay and wheel wells - and the parts could cope with very heavy sanding and reinscribing if that was necessary. A 1/48 Sea Vixen would be nice but a Vulcan would sell - big time.

Somebody trying to steal their thunder, maybe? The only real reason I can see why Airfix would back out of such a big-seller is because Trumpeter are working on one already, and have the CAD/CAM lined-up as a scare tactic. In a recession you need to fight back or go under.

My 2p’s worth

Tony T

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Well to be fair Tony, I didn't say that Airfix had suffered any "wing burning" - the view seems to be that it wasn't a disaster but that the actual sales fell short of the pre-release enthusiasm. But then the same happened with the 48th Lightnings years ago. Guess it's just a characteristic of the hobby - people get very excited over releases but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're planning on insulating their roof space with 'em.

As for the Vulcan, it's one of those subjects that would delight me, but you don't need many brain cells to work-out how the actual sales wouldn't be all that great. Apart from the keen folks like us, you can't imagine that there is much casual sales potential in a huge kit like that, costing gawd-knows how much. I guess it might have some mileage as a limited edition or something, but I dunno. You have to wonder just how popular the big Mossie will actually be, despite all the die-hard WWII fans getting excited about it. I mean, no matter how much you might like a subject, that's gonna be an awful lot of plastic to accommodate and pay for!

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