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Me lads got me a Spitfire and a bloody big Vulcan bomber for Christmas, I haven't built an Airfix model for probably 55 Years or more, gonna start putting them together tomorrow (there'll be bloody glue everywhere!!!) assuming your housebound what you gonna do?
My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic.
I started off on the £1/10d Aircraft series, I used to paint them up as I went along and hung them from sewing thread from my bedroom ceiling. The years passed and once married I got into back into it and started building 1/6th scale Tamiya Formula 1 cars and a lovely BMW R90S. Around 2 years ago my wife surprised me with a Tamiya 1/12th scale Harley Davidson which gave me the bug again and since then I have built various Revell, Airfix military vehicles and aircraft but also 2 more Tamiya motorbikes a Yamaha YZR-M1 and my favourite; the Ducati 1199 Panigale S Tricolore which I spray painted the main body work and hand painted the rest. I suspect that I contracted C-19 last November without knowing what it was (I thought it was just a virulent chest infection) but have been self isolating for a couple of months now since I began to suspect what it was I had and my sanity has been saved by a video game called No Man's Sky on the XBox. I have around 700 hours in it now and it has really stopped me from getting cabin fever.
I hate superglue, even when you're trying to be ultra careful the sh*t gets everywhere. Shame as I'd like to have that steady mindset to build models, I love tanks.
You shouldn't be using superglue on these types of model made from polystyrene plastic. There's a specific type of glue which slightly 'melts' the plastic and makes it stick and set such as Revell's Contacta Glue or the best stuff I've come across which is Tamiya's Extra Thin Model Cement. Nowhere near as messy as superglue, and doesn't stick your fingers together.
You shouldn't be using superglue on these types of model made from polystyrene plastic. There's a specific type of glue which slightly 'melts' the plastic and makes it stick and set such as Revell's Contacta Glue or the best stuff I've come across which is Tamiya's Extra Thin Model Cement. Nowhere near as messy as superglue, and doesn't stick your fingers together.
That's where I've been going wrong then I guess.
I did try and build a screen copy 1970's Cylon Centurion costume in 2011, it's still in the loft and I might try and finish it. I got as far as wet sanding down all the armour ready to be chromed. I realised how much Chrome plating was going to cost and never really had the balls to pay out. I see some Chrome wraps are pretty good these days and a fraction of the cost.
It was more Lego, Meccano, and Subbuteo for me but I gave Airfix a go. Didn’t get on with the glue but liked the little paint pots. I have a very vivid memory of being about nine years old, staring through the window of a toy shop on the Walworth Road, and seeing a box for what must have been from the Airfix French Revolution range as it was an Airfix scale model build your own guillotine. I’ve never forgotten this.
Used to play football at Wilberforce Road School and go to cubs at St Johns Church - 58th Paddington, plenty of boys from the Avenues there. Did you go to Peto's and the Army surplus shop on the Harrow Road ?
You shouldn't be using superglue on these types of model made from polystyrene plastic. There's a specific type of glue which slightly 'melts' the plastic and makes it stick and set such as Revell's Contacta Glue or the best stuff I've come across which is Tamiya's Extra Thin Model Cement. Nowhere near as messy as superglue, and doesn't stick your fingers together.
Everyone's Airfix technique should have vastly improved by the end of this lockdown.
In my garage I have a 1:24 scale Mosquito which has been there for around four years. Fortunately for me at the moment I can work from my office as I’m pretty much the only one there but I suspect that by the time lockdown ends I’ll have built it along with my Lego Tower Bridge.
Used to play football at Wilberforce Road School and go to cubs at St Johns Church - 58th Paddington, plenty of boys from the Avenues there. Did you go to Peto's and the Army surplus shop on the Harrow Road ?
Ah, another Wilberforce alumni. I was there with Tony Grealish. Mum used to drag me off to Peto's for smart clothes. My idea of smart was the shop along by the bike shop (Edit Fudges) that used to sell Ben Sherman and Arnold Palmer.
Apart from Raycliff's, another Saturday morning stop off was the book and comic exchange shop. Reckon I let a few nowadays valuable Marvel and DC comics get away from me there.
As to Airfix models, I remember perfecting the art of inserting those little lighter fluid bulbs and cotton wool into the fuselage and giving the models the Viking funeral they deserved.
The rigging did for me. Great memories though. I used to spend most of my money on Airfix, either the various models or the miniature soldiers.Saturday morning, I would do my jobs, get my pocket money and walk up to the toy shop on Kensal Rise, back home with my Airfix box.
Woods, right on the hill next to the station steps? Spent half my life in there as a young 'un.
I used to have a bedroom full of flying Airfix planes hung up on fishing line with red cellophane blazing from the cannons. HMS Hood was often sunk in the bath. I've since help build and paint them for my boys and more recently grandsons. The old instructions were far better as I learned terms like nacelles, cowlings, fuselage and ailerons ... locate and cement.
...and then there were the paint colours - duck-egg blue. I'd never seen a duck's egg but I knew they were the colour of the underside of a spitfire's wings.
Did anyone else ever get the catalogue? That was a thing of beauty, a massive glossy magazine illustrating every kit they made. I remember being ill in bed on a schoolday and reading the thing from cover to cover working out which kits I'd buy (if I ever had done there wouldn't have been room to move). The WW1 biplanes were my favourite, the Sopwith Camel vs the Albatros
...and then there were the paint colours - duck-egg blue. I'd never seen a duck's egg but I knew they were the colour of the underside of a spitfire's wings.
Did anyone else ever get the catalogue? That was a thing of beauty, a massive glossy magazine illustrating every kit they made. I remember being ill in bed on a schoolday and reading the thing from cover to cover working out which kits I'd buy (if I ever had done there wouldn't have been room to move). The WW1 biplanes were my favourite, the Sopwith Camel vs the Albatros
Yes, with you all the way. Humbrol colours lined up for each model, duck egg blue for the Spitfire engine nacelle as well? The illustrations used to show planes & warships engaged in warfare...that stopped after a while.
Any other customers of Model Mart on Willesden High Road?
My brother lead me astray from Airfix kits to Model Mart's Avalon Hill games. Blitzkrieg, anyone?
My brother was a very keen wargamer, he used to drag me down to a model soldier shop in Camberwell to buy Napoleonic figures. Took about a day on the old 176.
The WW1 biplanes were best as the fixed undercarriage gave full scope for mortal combat, from takeoff (whilst being machine gunned by sneaky Hun fockes) to heroic attempt to crash land. Airfix missed a trick by not making the Spitfires etc retractable.
I note also a few references to setting the planes on fire. Now that was great for combat simulation as the plastic and paint seemed to burn acrid smoke for ages. No smoke alarms in those days.
The big debate in my day was Hurricane v Spitfire: it said volumes about your character if you preferred the stolid, dependable former (which actually claimed more kills in the Battle of Britain) over the flashier upstart.
The rigging did for me. Great memories though. I used to spend most of my money on Airfix, either the various models or the miniature soldiers.Saturday morning, I would do my jobs, get my pocket money and walk up to the toy shop on Kensal Rise, back home with my Airfix box.
I loved those miniature soldiers. I had an older cousin who worked for Airfix. He would give bag loads of them including prototypes that never made it into the boxes. I was the envy of all my mates!
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