Nostalgia

[dexter]

Just spent an hour with a smile on my face watching James May on BBC 2
building Airfix kits. Boy did it bring back some memories, those kits in the plastic bags were 1s3d when I was a lad.
I was quite impressed with the kids as well

Dex

 

[head clansman]

hi dexter

don't know so much about airfix, but I could buy a large fish and chip at crabbs fish shop on portland for 1s & 3d back in those days after a few pints all under age of course :wink: ooh lovely. Only wish i could eat them nowadays. hc

ps hope you know what you just started here :lol: :lol:

 

[BMac]

Wet, Winter, Sunday afternoons with a new 'Dogfight Doubles' Airfix kit, bliss.

Brendan

Edit:

LOOK! LOOK! LOOK!

I found them - http://www.ontracks.co.uk/index.php?pag ... &catID=973

 

[dexter]

Well done Brendan. Did you get it in the neck as well from your mum and dad for all the drawing pin holes in your bedroom ceiling when you hung your latest addition up with cotton?

 

[Smudger]

I used to go to Saturday morning pictures with my mates and then buy a kit (usually at Piles in Sutton) on the way home - Airfix or Frog. Then home to make it. All for half a crown. I never did manage to stick the canopies cleanly.

My Finest Hour was trying to weight an Airfix City of Truro kit by pouring molten lead into the tender... Luckily it missed my fingers, and I managed to get it all off the stove by the time my mother got home! I've been chimping since childhood...

A shadow of their former selves - Website

 

[BMac]

LOL Dexter...yes!

And, after the planes had done their stint on the ceiling they were taken outside with string attached to the wings and had the wings filled with lighter fluid. They were then set alight and swung round and round in ever more dramatic flame and smoke-filled dives to oblivion.

No silly health and safety killjoys then.

Brendan

 

[dexter]

I forgot all about Frog Smudger. It was Burkes Toy Shop in Sale for me, a 2 mile walk there to save on the bus fare so I could buy one a week with my "spends".

If anyone who hasn't seen the program has the ability to see it on I player or something similar, Its worth it just to hear some of his observations as to just how kits like Airfix actually encouraged children to be practical.

Dex

 

[Peter T]

I had all my Airfix models on a shelf in my bedroom which my mum used to insist on dusting at least once a week.

This meant that the more delicate bits, propeller blades, antennas etc. gradually disappeared!!

When they got too bad they ended up on the end of the flaming string in the garden.

Happy days

 

[StevieB]

I watched it and yes, it did bring back memories I was eventually more into the Japanese Tamiya models though rather than airfix, as they were far better made. My earliest memories are of making dinosaurs - with about 10-20 pieces each and painting them. A body in 2 parts, two halves for each leg, each arm one piece and a 2 part head and possibly 2 part tail. Recently trying to find something similar for my 6 yr old son to do and there is nothing like that now available :roll: Tis a sad day indeed. Cars and vehicles, or military models galore, but none suitable for a 6 yr old to do. Even the airfix website, posted above, is not very helpful - it only lets you search by type of model, not by skill level. If anyone knows of something suitable then I would love a link!

Steve.

 

[treeturner123]

Agreed it was a great program, I can’t wait for the next few. Wasn’t it good to see children raised on electronic things actually enjoying making something with pride!

I had a huge collection; the Lanc was and always will be my favourite, however my preferred method of disposal was a banger and air rifle!

 

[Vormulac]

Pah, nostalgia these days, it's not like it used to be!

Sorry.

Yes, I too was an Airfix junkie; but even when I was making them as a lad I saw a couple that my Dad made when he was a kid and those older ones were mind-bogglingly detailed in comparison. He used to blow his up with the innards of fireworks, I think mine just got occasionally 'tidied' away to make room for the latest squadron.

 

[bugbear]

hi dexter

don't know so much about airfix, but I could buy a large fish and chip at crabbs fish shop on portland for 1s & 3d back in those days after a few pints all under age of course :wink: ooh lovely. Only wish i could eat them nowadays. hc

ps hope you know what you just started here :lol: :lol:

Back in them days, even capital letters and punctuation were cheap enough to use all the time ;-)

BugBear

 

[Digit]

Pah, nostalgia these days, it's not like it used to be!

Great! Love it!

Roy.

 

[Walter Hall]

hi dexter

don't know so much about airfix, but I could buy a large fish and chip at crabbs fish shop on portland for 1s & 3d back in those days after a few pints all under age of course :wink: ooh lovely. Only wish i could eat them nowadays. hc

ps hope you know what you just started here :lol: :lol:

Back in them days, even capital letters and punctuation were cheap enough to use all the time ;-)

BugBear

And people learned sufficient grammar to know when to use "them" and when to use "those" :wink: :wink:

 

[Digit]

Suffolk dialect! Long may it live!

Roy.

 

[mailee]

Yes brilliant programme. Did you see all those boxes for spares on the shelves? I recognised a couple of Airfix kits I had like the Supercharged bently, and the 1928 Lincoln Continental, not to mention the beam engine. Sheer nostalgia, wonderful.

 

[Smudger]

Back to nostalgia - did anybody else have a needle stuck in a cork and a candle to make bullet holes in their ME109s? And their fingers, of course. Got to keep up the tradition.

 

[Alf]

Despite being a comparatively young thing, I've made a few Airfix kits in my time, but ships rather than aeroplanes. My nephew, a stripling in his 20s, used to make 'em though, so it's not entirely the province of the ancient. Great programme, I thought, and made me want to get out the glue and inadvertently stick Carley floats on my fingers all over again...

As it happens one of those balsa plane kits with the individual ribs and tissue paper "doped" over it was partially responsible for my getting into woodworking. I wonder if anyone's got into extruded plastic via early exposure to an Airfix kit? :lol:

Cheers, Alf

 

[wizer]

I had a go with model making when I was in my early teens. No one will be surprised to hear that I cocked them all up and stuck my face to the box and stuff. It was a short lived hobby.

Last year I bought a model boat but haven't got around to finishing it.

 

[Digit]

The Titanic is it wizer? :lol:

Roy.