Choxadvise him how to react correctly
Hmm… well he could have tried saying something I suppose. Just a thought – he is being paid an awful lot of money. :p
ChoxMark, I was amused by the ever-shifting Spitfire versions too! At one stage we suddenly switched to the 48th scale Griffon-engined series (not that Airfix would want to show-off one of their best moulds of course)… seemed to be a very long way from the original bagged specimen we all know and loved/hated.
It did seem like an awful lot of effort to simply obsess about one specific aircraft which presumably meant a great deal to Mr.May but didn’t mean a thing to the kids (or many of the viewers I suspect). But he got himself a Spitfire ride so that’s all that matters I guess. Wonder why he didn’t let one of the kids take the ride? Not as if his in-flight commentary offered us anything particularly incisive (“oooh wow…aaahhh…”). Brilliant. Raymond Baxter would be proud!
Alright, I’m sorry, there were so many easy targets to carp about on that show I can’t resist it! To be fair, I guess the programme did fulfil one important aim – it entertained me for an hour, so that’s fair enough I suppose!
ChoxDidn’t Bruce on here have some Harrier manuals?
ChoxIt’s a strange business. On the one hand, cheap and easy kits are obviously a good idea for kids but the potential problem is that the end result is never very impressive, so it’s inevitable that kids will always regard kits as being toys and nothing more. On the other hand, a really good kit which goes together well, and looks like the real thing when it’s finished, illustrates what potential and enjoyment can be got from the hobby – but good kits are expensive. So there’s no easy approach.
Things are even more difficult now with the arrival of some really good diecast models. Few kids would want to waste time and effort sticking a kit together if they can pull the finished model straight out of a box!
In essence, my disappointment with the programme’s aim is that it failed to show the kids just what could be achieved with skill, patience and a good kit of a modern subject. I agree it’s right to let kids play with the “cheap and nasty” stuff to get into the whole building business, but unless they get to see what can be done with practice, they’ll never know. I think the full-scale “kit” was just pointless – a mere TV gimmick to give the programme a theme. But if it was necessary that’s fine – just seems a shame that there was no illustration of how the hobby is much more than a kid’s fad these days.
It’s interesting to see how the hobby has developed into two distinct camps. There’s the older guys who want detail and accuracy, and kids who want instant amusement. Okay, there are people who drift between both areas, but in essence it’s a “toy” or “model” perception. The industry seems to be catering for both markets pretty well at present, but I have to wonedr at how the majority of kit production is aimed at the top-end of the hobby with beuatiful but hideously expensive kits which are unashamedly aimed at adults. It’s fine while we’re all alive and well, but sooner or later we’ll be gone – and you have to wonder whether there will be enough youngsters who are sufficiently interested to make that “leap” over into serious modelling. Maybe the hobby is ultimately doomed… something else that Mr.May could have explored?!
oh yes…
Straight Pride March
I don’t think anyone would have any objections to that – might be fun! But you know how it is, you have to rely on us poofs to provide the campery and glamour! Can you imagine a “Straight Pride Parade”? Norman Tebbit and Anne Widdecombe leading the march I assume? Don’t know about you but I think I’d stay home for that one!:p
PS – Yes, the Airfix 24th Mossie is due out fairly soon. Looks like a brilliant kit. Mind-blowingly expensive but impressive. I’m more excited by the news that there’s likely to be a follow-on 24th scale kit sometime in the not-too distant future and it may well be a Hawk – much more my kinda thing! Dunno about the pilot figures being gay though, but I guess Airfix could be really PC with a Hawk kit and include female figures?!
ChoxIndeed – funny how you see things differently when you’re not part of Top Gear’s “boys club”.
But I’m old enough not to care about outdated (and lame) jokes. Spare a thought for those who are not though. Might seem insignificant to you sir, but when your kid’s been beaten-up because society has made him into an acceptable target, you might think differently.
ChoxPartially true, except my surname’s different these days!
Re- the Airfix 24th Spitfire, it’s a very old kit so like a lot of the stuff in the Airfix range, it doesn’t build into a really impressive model unless you happen to have a lot of skill and patience. It’s back to what I was saying earlier about how Airfix are partly responsible for the lack of current popularity with kids as so much of their range is from a completely different era. It’s a real shame that kids are left at the mercy of a shop shelf full of shiny boxes, without any clue as to whether the contents are likely to thrill them or drive them to despair. I remember many years ago when I worked part-time at a model shop that you saw endless parents/grandparents buying kits as gifts and you just knew (from the choices they made) that the kit would be in a dustbin in a few weeks – and another kid totally turned-off the hobby for life!
ChoxWell, to answer points as concisely as possible:-
Okay, if it sounds like moaning then so be it. But at the same time I don’t see much value in writing posts which say “ooh it was great”… I mean, so what? Not much of a debate to be had there!
Girls and kits? Well yes, there will be exceptions of course but I’ve been involved with modelling for thirty years so I can safely say that a good 95 percent of modelling is an all-male preserve. Some kids are interested of course, most are not, and of those that are interested, the vast majority naturally regard kits as “toys” and a passing fad, not a serious hobby. I don’t think Mr.May did anything to change those perceptions even though the whole premise of the show was that this was his mission.
As for Mr.May saying what he likes, well it’s not about being politically correct as I said. It’s about him making every cheap joke give the impression that being anything other than 100-percent heterosexual is somehow bad and therefore funny. Might appeal to his Top Gear fans but it doesn’t seem quite so funny to a poor kid who happens to be gay and has to spend his life worrying about what others think, or if he’ll get beaten-up or worse. If Mr.May was once a teacher then you’d think he’d have more sense. Like I said, nobody would accept the idea of him making cheap gags about being black… He should appreciate that TV is a powerful medium and whilst acting like an adolescent might be perceived as being funny, it requires a degree of responsibility too. This is supposedly why TV presenters get paid a huge amount of money. It’s not a license to simply say whatever he likes.
Feel free to regard my comments as moaning – I really don’t mind! Point is, it’s easy to just say “ooh what a nice programme” but if we’re aiming to actually discuss its merits (or otherwise) then there are plenty of points to consider. Ultimately, it struck me as being a bit of a wasted opportunity, being neither one thing or another. If Mr.May wants to indulge himself in nostalgia then great – by all means do it. But don’t feed us rubbish about some mission to get kids interested in model aircraft. Conversely, if he really did want to get kids interested, then it seemed like a pretty feeble way of doing it. I mean really, what the hell has assembling a full-scale fibreglass Spitfire got to to with modelling? Absolutely nothing!
:p
PS Page:-
I didn’t get any inference that any of his comments were a put down to anybody at all
Of course – a typical (straight) viewer wouldn’t. That’s why May and co. get away with this kind of nonsense. It’s not merely a throwaway comment; it’s reinforcing a view, and one which is poisonous to the lives of many people, kids in particular. It’s just plain gratuitous, childish and nasty.
ChoxI did not enjoy the 1/48 Buccaneer at all, but in Airfix’s defence it was moulded in France
China, I believe. Lots of Airfix stuff did originate in France though because of their connections with Heller (when Airfix belonged to Humbrol). Inexplicably, most of the moulds produced by Heller were of French aircraft…
It came along when Airfix were going-through a “cheaper moulds” period (their 48th scale Hawk is equally ghastly). The sad thing was, it contrasted so much with the beautiful 48th scale Lightning (and Griffon Spitfires) that had just been produced from high-quality moulds.
ChoxNo it appears not. If you’re bored next week (7-8 Nov) pop along to the huge Scale Model World at Telford. Two hangar-sized halls full of model aircraft and accessories. You’ll be able to see for yourself by looking at the punters that it’s probably a 95%-male pursuit.
You’ll also see that (as May rightly said) it’s a hobby that appeals primarily to the 40-plus folks.
There are many reasons why this is of course and Mr.May’s conclusions are probably right, but a little over-simplified. I think the main reason why there isn’t a bigger interest from youngsters is probably due to the very fact that modelling in the UK is still automatically associated with Airfix. Unfortunately, the greater proportion of the Airfix kit range is either very old or at least not the best in terms of quality (accuracy and ease of construction). So, even if a kid does build a model, his experience is likely to be rather like that of the kids on the TV show.
The kids were given a horrible old tank kit which was ridiculously small and poorly manufactured. If they’d been given – for example, a big 32nd scale F-15 from Tamiya, then their reactions might have been rather different. Okay, I know the show was about May’s childhood obsession with Airfix and Spitfires but the slight irony is that one of the reasons why kids aren’t interested in models is precisely because of Airfix!
Airfix is indeed a name we associate with our childhood. That’s fine, but in terms of equating the interests of today’s kids with the hobby, Airfix are just one of a whole range of big name players now, and the hobby has moved-on a long, long way from the days of Spitfire kits in little polythene bags. Whilst I applaud the general idea of getting kids interested in the hobby, Mr.May’s approach sure wasn’t the way to do it!
The “gay lover” line was typically Top Gear, yes, but shouldn’t be taken seriously
Well yes, of course not, but people like Mr.May fail to understand that even throwaway “jokes” like that might seem innocent, but when the inference of the joke is that it would somehow be bad/wrong if the pilot had been his “gay lover”, then you see what the problem is. This Top Gear “we’re all lads” rubbish is fine if you’re straight, but if twits like May keep-on rubbishing people who aren’t, then prejudice and bullying just carries on. Sounds like fuss over nothing of course but think of it like this – what if he’d said “that makes you sound like my Black lover”…
There’s no need for it. We don’t need middle aged men on the TV acting as if they’re thirteen.
ChoxMixed feelings about the show. Entertaining certainly, but exactly what the point of it all was, I don’t know. Clearly, the kids (apart from one) didn’t give a stuff about Airfix kits (no surprise there). They also don’t give a stuff about Spitfires. James May clearly does though, so why did we have to go through the nonsense of pretending that he was somehow crusading to drag kids away from their computers and on to kits? What nonsense!
Likewise, I was disappointed that he just had to include a typically Top Gear-esque sneering remark about the pilot figure being like his “gay lover” – nice line to reinforce prejudice amongst the kids that he was supposedly preaching to. I’m also still not sure how he managed to twist a programme about Airfix kits so that he ends-up joyriding in a Spitfire!
Oh well – Airfix/Hornby will have got some great promotion out of the show. I wonder who paid for what? Did the Beeb (ie the license payer) cough-up for the Spitfire or did Hornby pay for that I wonder? Bet the budget would make fascinating reading! Basically, there were too many conflicting ideas, themes and aims all mixed together so that the end result was a little like a Chinese takeaway – superficially filling but leaving you with a slightly empty sensation shortly afterwards!
ChoxThink this slightly misses the point. Surely, if housing is built next to an existing active aerodrome, the new residents should be expected to accept the situation they find themselves in and take the risks (such as they are) accordingly. But of course they won’t because our “nanny state” will not allow it. This is the absurdity of the situation but you can bet that this is what will happen.
Choxthe cost breakdowns are on the appeal website
indeed they are – and they don’t make good reading
Choxcan’t give you the figures im afraid
Nor should you have to – that’s TVOC’s responsibility. Be nice to know what they’re doing with other people’s money…
Choxhmm, well maybe… but there would still be the same White House to kiss-up to 😉
ChoxJust think – we’d have good ol’ Gordon flapping his jowls at us, telling us how we’re fighting in Vietnam for the security of our country, keeping the terrorists from our doors…
I’m dozing-off just thinking about it…
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