Sixty Years of Airfix Models

Author: Jeremy Brook
Publisher: Crowood
ISBN: 1847979769
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 454

Book Description
The best-known and most important manufacturer of plastic model kits in the UK, Airfix has been at the forefront of the industry since 1955 when the first Airfix aircraft kit appeared in UK branches of Woolworth's. The kits were made to a constant scale and covered a wide variety of subjects, from aircraft to birds and from tanks to dinosaurs. In 1981 the famous London-based company closed down and only the kits survived intact. For the next twenty-five years Airfix was run by Palitoy and later Humbrol, but suffered from a lack of investment. In 2006, Hornby Hobbies Ltd, the train and Scalextric manufacturer, bought the ailing company and transformed it. Money and resources were ploughed into the range, and today Airfix releases around twenty new kits per year, designed to an incredibly high standard. The old kits of the 1950s and 1960s are gradually being replaced by new state-of-the-art tooling, all bearing that most prestigious name - Airfix. Published to coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of the first Airfix aircraft kit, Sixty Years of Airfix Models, tells the full story, year by year, of the company and its products. Illustrated throughout with colour photographs.of kits, box art and completed models.

Airfix Kits

Author: Trevor Pask
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 074781158X
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 91

Book Description
With the aid of stringy glue and scalpel-sliced fingers, young and old have turned display cabinets and bedrooms into mini-museums, or tiny battlefields. This book looks at the fascinating tale of this British company a pioneer in the world of modelling as well as its products, its changing fortunes over the years, and its links with popular culture. Using colour images, Trevor Pask explores this thriving pastime, allowing Airfix kit lovers to indulge in a nostalgic journey and those new to the hobby an intriguing insight into its history.

The Airfix Book of Scale Modelling

Author: Jonathan Mock
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1844862461
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 1143

Book Description
The Airfix Book of Scale Modelling is the essential guide to getting the most out of this fascinating and rewarding hobby, explaining how to build scale models to suit all levels of modelling skill. With full colour photography throughout, the book covers the history of modelling and of the Airfix company, and shows how injection moulded kits are made. It then describes and reviews the major modelling scales, as well as outlining the range of paints, tools and accessories that are available. Chapters include guides to choosing a kit, tools for the job, painting, decals, conversions, figure-painting, dioramas and more. Common problems and how to solve them are addressed, and there is also a series of step-by-step construction projects, including expert builds of the F86 Sabre jet, the Aston Martin DBR9, a Panzer IV tank, the Airfix yeoman figure (reissued for the London 2012 Olympics), a Trafalgar class submarine and a scenic diorama.

Classic Kits

Author: Arthur Ward
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007176953
Category : Models and modelmaking
Languages : en
Pages : 202

Book Description
This fun book treats you to a nostalgic look at the history of model kits from worldwide manufacturers over the last 75 years. Classic Kits revisits our favourite model kits whether they were tanks, ships, aircraft, spaceships or tractors. With superb photography of boxes, magazines, kits and ephemera Arthur Ward reminds us all of a time when pocket money was spent on a Spitfire after school, which was assembled by tea time and destroyed, in an imaginary but fierce air battle, by bed-time. Arthur Ward, with his expert knowledge, reveals the histories of the companies behind the kits we all loved, while at the same time giving us a fun look at our favourite models. Book jacket.

Forty Years of Airfix Toys

Author: Jeremy Brook
Publisher: The Crowood Press
ISBN: 1785005367
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 641

Book Description
Airfix acquired the first plastic injection moulding machine in the U.K. in the mid 1940's and was soon manufacturing vast numbers of plastic toys. By 1981, when Airfix's financial woes led to takeover and the end of all production save for plastic model kits, it had made a wide variety of toys, games, arts, crafts, building sets, racing sets, model trains and even Meccano and Dinky toys. Profusely illustrated with over three hundred photographs, Forty Years of Airfix Toys gives the full history of the Airfix toy range including year-by-year listings of all the toys sold by Airfix; logs and packaging; Airfix's magazines and a full listing of Airfix pattern numbers. It is a comprehensive guide to the history of the toys produced by the iconic brand Airfix.

The Vintage Years of Airfix Box Art

Author: Roy Cross
Publisher: Crowood Press UK
ISBN: 9781847970763
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Airfix has been commercially producing plastic kits since 1952 and its models have been made by successive generations of young boys and men alike. In the 1960s, a talented graphic artist called Roy Cross was commissioned to paint some of the box art for Airfix, and for a ten-year-period he provided many of the glorious paintings seen on the boxes, setting new standards for realism and accuracy. Many are still being used today, a full four decades later. Inside the pages of this book are some of Roy's best artworks, shown here in full format and in superb detail, with many reproduced here in book form for the very first time. As well as his vintage box art, Roy has included many sketches and alternative versions of his Airfix box art. After Roy left Airfix in 1974, the company went through a turbulent time. The present owners are Hornby, who have ambitious plans for Airfix and the other brands it acquired including Scalextric and Corgi. The decade that Roy Cross worked for Airfix, though, could be classed as their vintage era, with some of their finest models being produced then in their millions, ready for eager youngsters to build up into detailed miniature models of their favorite aircraft, ships and locomotives.

Airfix's Little Soldiers

Author: Jean-Christophe Carbonel
Publisher: Figures and Toys
ISBN: 9782352500896
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Airfix was founded in 1939, initially manufacturing inflatable rubber toys. Now, they are synonymous with the modeling hobby. This book covers 50 years of the famous Airfix plastic soldier, from its production beginnings in 1958 through to the present day, detailing every figure Airfix has ever produced.

Ship Models from Kits

Author: Dr David Griffith
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
ISBN: 1848320914
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 148

Book Description
In the past thirty years the world of model kits has undergone a veritable revolution. New techniques in injection moulding have improved the scale accuracy and surface detail of the humble plastic kit, while many specialist companies now produce top-quality resin models, vastly broadening the range of subjects on the market. However, the really radical change has been the advent of photo-etched brass fret, which allows the finest detail to be reproduced to scale. In ship modelling, this has resulted in a new form of the hobby, mid-way between traditional build-from-the-box simplicity and the time-consuming demands of fabricating everything from scratch. These new materials have prompted innovative techniques, which are comprehensively demonstrated in this new manual. Designed for those wishing to achieve the best results from their ship kits in the 1:700 to 1:350 range of scales, it uses step by step photographs to take the reader through the building of two models, one in plastic and one in resin, from basic construction, fittings and detailing, to painting, finishing and display. Written by a highly experienced, award-winning ship modeller, the book is a showcase for the contemporary approach to the hobby.

Build and Convert Airfix Military Models

Author: Tom Cole
Publisher: Sam Publications
ISBN: 9781906959203
Category : Vehicles, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Book Description
Airfix is a famous UK manufacturer of plastic scale model kits. This book gives an aspiring modeller all the guidance they need to create a classic Airfix model.

Sailing Ships from Plastic Kits

Author: Kerry Jang
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
ISBN: 1399078925
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 129

Book Description
Models of sailing ships, with their towering masts and billowing sails, have always held a special fascination for model makers because they capture all the romance of the sea, shipboard life, and a fighting spirit. However, many would-be modelers are discouraged by the inherent complexity of the subject – especially the masts and rigging, as well as the often-sumptuous decoration. Plastic kit manufacturers were quick to capitalize on this interest and produced kits that were advertised as easy and reasonably quick to assemble, featuring ready-made detail that is easily tackled by modelers of varying skills and ages with the promise of a good result. Plastic sailing ship kits are affordable, especially in comparison to wooden ship kits, and building a fleet of the most famous ships in history is easily achieved. Despite their ease of assembly, plastic models of sailing ships, like the ships themselves, remain complicated to build. Manufacturers devised several simplifications of the most difficult aspects, such as molding the lower, upper, and topmasts in one piece, offering preformed molded plastic shrouds and ratlines, or sails in vacuum-formed plastic. However, modelers have long complained that these simplifications, the physical limitations of injected plastic moldings, and the very medium of styrene plastic itself have resulted in often crudely detailed and unrealistic finished models. This book is the remedy. It describes and demonstrates techniques unique to plastic sailing ship models that overcome these limitations, allowing the construction of authentic and personally satisfying models. Each modeler has a different expectation for their model. Some will want a simple build with some straightforward refinements, whereas others will want a more detailed build that takes advantage of the many new aftermarket items, and there are those who seek the most accurate and detailed replica possible. Sailing Ships from Plastic Kits aims to give every modeler – regardless of skill and experience – a range of fundamental and advanced techniques to choose from when transforming a plastic kit into an authentic sailing ship model. Heavily illustrated in color throughout, this book is an ideal addition to the purchase of any plastic ship kit.