Is this the worst Spitfire kit available?

1/76 is the same as model railway 00 gauge (4mm to 1ft), which is why vehicles are the same scale. 1/72 is 1in to 6ft. They’re close enough to work together.

My daughters made these at an Airfix event at RAFM Cosford :

I have often spoke with some regret that young people don’t appear to be interested in aeroplanes anymore, so its so good to see that I am not entirely right.

It’s great to see children getting interested in these models & there seems to be a trend developing that it is the girls who seem to be the most enthusiastic, not only with models, back in June when the BBMF formation of 2 Spitfires & 2 Hurricanes flew over here, it was my neighbour’s 6 year old daughter who was absolutely enthralled by the sight & sound & ran to my fence to ask me what they were, I gave a brief explanation of the BBMF & the reasons for which they exist, I thought that maybe she would find it a bit boring, not at all, (at this point I realised I had totally failed to get a photo of the formation!) so I brought out one of my models of a BBMF Spitfire, built many years ago, I could see that she was just waiting for me to say she could have the model, so I said if your parents agree, you can have the model, but you must promise me you will take care of it & try to build one like it. I also lent her parents my BBMF DVD to play for her. My neighbour returned the DVD saying it’s the first time his daughter had sat still & quiet for a whole hour, but you have now lumbered me with a long journey to RAF Coningsby during the holidays! They all enjoyed the visit to BBMF & the young girl is making a good job of building an Airfix Hurricane. Good result, I think.
Here’s a photo of two of my old models, the MkV was built over 45 years ago & has survived several house moves & a few ‘child attacks’
Regards, Rich.[ATTACH=CONFIG]240485[/ATTACH]

Hi All,
Paul,
You get what you pay for….:D
Vultee35,
Excellent to see a young girl interested in aircraft kits:eagerness: Trained well young padawan you have !!!!!:D

Geoff.

They’ve had a hard life, and are now my slip on workshop boots. I can get them on and off without having to bother with laces.

I don’t suppose those boots are for sale are they? I bet they could tell some tales!

My daughter was 3 years 10 months when we bought her first kit, a Revell Red Arrows Hawk. From an early age, she was very arty, and precise, so I figured I’d give it a go. We worked in 30 to 45 minute stretches, picking times when her mood and concentration was right. With some help, she made a brilliant job of it.

Just before her 5th birthday last November, we bought the Airfix Spitfire diorama, but building it as a Pink PR Spit; little at a time.

It’s worth spending a bit more for a proper kit, and just taking it slow, while allowing them to do as much on their own as possible.[/QUOTE]

Skybirds models by James Hay Stevens were the first assembly kits to a constant scale in the UK. Initially, as a boy Stevens had made models for himself to match his Britains lead soldiers.

These were 2″ tall or approx 1/36th. Finding it difficult to house his growing collection as his interest in aircraft grew, he halved the scale the 6′ = 1″ or 72 scale. His 1/72 drawings then started to appear in magazines.

Aeromodeller adopted this scale as it was a convenient scale for “solid modellers” and page sizes. It was also easy to scale up for rubber powered flying scale models in the popular 1/24 and 1/12 scales. For many years copies of Aeromodeller drawings came in 1/72 and 1/36 scales as well as 1/48. Frog as the first plastic model company also adopted 1/72 scale.for their Penguin series.

In America the popular scales were based on the 1/8″. 1/48 was halved to 1/96 and as pointed out 1/32 is 3/8’s.

John

Aeroclub Models Kit manufacturer and consultant

Scale Model Aircraft published 1933.

Yes, or perhaps the Hasegawa examples, but I was trying to limit the size of the post. At the same time Fujimi, Nitto, Midori, Edai and Matchbox were producing in 1/76…

Wow! Those company names bring some memories back! Especially Matchbox; they used to sell them at our local Post Office for about thirty new pence a kit!

Much of the former Matchbox (military vehicle) range, and some of the Esci range I believe, are now sold by Revell; who have sold both 1:76 and 1:72 scale together (and mixed them up sometimes).

1/72 scale ( 1 inch to six feet )…

1:72 scale…..one inch to six feet…..of course! You know, I’ve never realised that till you posted that…

…the perils of a metric only education! (Plus confusion over 1:76 scale; 4mm to the foot!!!)

1/72 scale ( 1 inch to six feet ) was introduced in the 1930’s by FROG so I believe and was adopted during WW2 as the scale for aircraft identification models. It pretty much became an industry standard until the 1970’s I think.

Skybirds were the company that settled on 1/72 for model aircraft, then as you say, but the “1/76” intertwining yarn of this thread is about AFVs as started by Airfix.

Yes, or perhaps the Hasegawa examples, but I was trying to limit the size of the post. At the same time Fujimi, Nitto, Midori, Edai and Matchbox were producing in 1/76: Hasegawa never had a large range and ESCI went out of business, so I think it is justified to argue that 1/72 only really took over after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The only other survivor in mainstream kits is Fujimi, and they’ve just started releasing in 1/72. As indeed have Airfix, at least with their Airfield sets.

1/72 scale ( 1 inch to six feet ) was introduced in the 1930’s by FROG so I believe and was adopted during WW2 as the scale for aircraft identification models. It pretty much became an industry standard until the 1970’s I think.

The first kits I came across that ‘broke’ the Airfix / Matchbox 1:76 scale rule were Italian ‘Esci’ kits in 1:72…

Yes, or perhaps the Hasegawa examples, but I was trying to limit the size of the post. At the same time Fujimi, Nitto, Midori, Edai and Matchbox were producing in 1/76: Hasegawa never had a large range and ESCI went out of business, so I think it is justified to argue that 1/72 only really took over after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The only other survivor in mainstream kits is Fujimi, and they’ve just started releasing in 1/72. As indeed have Airfix, at least with their Airfield sets.

Well, here’s an Airfix Spitfire my daughter built. I actually quite like the colours she chose. She was very proud of it!

My other daughter built one of the “awful” Spitfire kits. We picked it up from The Works for £1.99. Even though I was totally perplexed by the back to front wings, she enjoyed building and painting it…and I guess that’s all that matters really.

Regards;
Steve

…largely superseded by 1/72 mainly because of the large number of Eastern European kits using this.

The first kits I came across that ‘broke’ the Airfix / Matchbox 1:76 scale rule were Italian ‘Esci’ kits in 1:72…

…but I know what you mean about Eastern European kits today…..I’d have killed for their subjects in my youth!

My son (11years old) and I have built loads of Spitfires any time we are at a show when Airfix have their tent- almost makes me feel guilty as we tend to take home about 6!

He has loads of Airfix kits- inspired by James May a while ago on Toy Story.

You mention Minecraft- can’t exactly build “high realism” models but you can build things! My son has a “Cold War Memorial flight” (Victor, Vulcan, Valiant, Hunter) on one of his worlds! Will try and get pix if I can!

Anything to inspire younger generation!

Has anyone seen the ‘Airfix tent’ at airshows? A brilliant initiative; your kid gets to build a 1:72 Spitfire, Hurricane or Mustang at a table with loads of other kids (and dads)! It is completely free, all glue and paint is provided (but no sharp knives!), you can come and go whenever you like (or get bored), and they give you a box to take your finished (or not) kit away in…

I was at a custom car show recently and in the U.S. Revell is doing the same thing.
Children could make a 1/24 snap kit of the new Mustang (the Ford not the North American). It was molded in two colours so painting wasn’t necessary.
Good to see they’re thinking about bringing along new customers.

But with today’s detailed and often rather expensive kits it is a bit of the change from when I was little and I built my first kit, an Aurora Spitfire…with about a dozen pieces total which cost well under a dollar.
Today’s kits are a bit more complex (and presumably therefore intimidating) and cost a bit more than a child’s weekly allowance.

1/76 was the standard for Airfix AFVs because it matched the model railway OO gauge that was such good business for Airfix in its early days. 1/76 is still common for this purpose, if less so in AFVs where it has been largely superseded by 1/72 mainly because of the large number of Eastern European kits using this. However, many resin and white metal limited-production vehicle models are still available and continue to be released in the UK. Please excuse abbreviated history.

It is however rare to non-existent in aircraft modelling, though some Japanese companies attempted to introduce 1/75th some decades back.

Rumour has it that it was designed by a team of Irish draughtsmen

The Dutch would say Belgians, however, the Belgians would say Dutch…..

Has anyone seen the ‘Airfix tent’ at airshows? A brilliant initiative; your kid gets to build a 1:72 Spitfire, Hurricane or Mustang at a table with loads of other kids (and dads)! It is completely free, all glue and paint is provided (but no sharp knives!), you can come and go whenever you like (or get bored), and they give you a box to take your finished (or not) kit away in…

…last time I saw them they were at Old Warden (1:72 Harrier). Absolute 10/10 for Airfix! 🙂