Battle of Britain Film Remake

[Martin McIntosh]

I have never seen anything quite like that. A big round of applause for everyone involved.

[GrumpyGnome]

Like most people, I remember Airfix kits fondly...... then discovered the kits by Tamiya and Hasegawa.  A complete revelation - everything fitted!

 

In Halifax, there used to be a plastic kit 'Aladdins cave' in the Piece Hall - thousands of kits squashed into a tiny unit - piled to the ceiling with aisles that only 1 person could use at a time.  Even as an adult, I'd gaze in awe at some of the finished items in the window and think I'd never get that good!

 

They later moved out to a much larger shop, which still seems to be there, but seems a shadow of it's former self.......

[Cuban8]

Yes, the Japanese kits were excellent and came with quite a few pre-decorated and chromed parts IIRC. As a young teenager, my family lived for a while in Hackney, London and on the corner of Mare Street and Morning Lane there was a double fronted model/toyshop that kept a huge selection of American plastic kits - Monogram, Revell, Aurora etc. The subject matter that particularly interested me were the spacecraft and missiles, not cheap kits but I managed to build the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft and they gave me such a thrill just to sit and look at on my bedroom cabinet.

There was also a small general store near Hackney Hospital that had a well stocked plastic models section and they specialised in European kits like Hella.

Just goes to show how popular the plastic kit hobby was, with usually an Airfix rotary stand of popular bagged kits being able to be found in many small shops of various types.

Some years ago when I was working and out on a call, I found myself in the Hackney area and took a look at the site of the old corner model shop in Mare Street. THe building was still there but had been taken over by the Council Housing Department for offices. Mixed emotions of memories of happy afternoons after school and browsing around the old shop and now seeing it bedecked in garish illuminated signs and posters was a downer TBH.

Still an interest, I have a few space related kits that are unstarted and the wife managed to get me an original Airfix Saturn V from Ebay a few years ago. I have a highly detailed Apollo LEM kit from a Japanese manufacturer, whose name escapes me for the moment, it's a work of art and I just like to get the box out now and again to look over the contents - it really is too good to build, at least in my hands.

 

 

[Cuban8]

17 hours ago, Trevor Crook said:

I built the first 1/24 Spitfire around 1969, when I was 15. I got another a couple of years ago at an antiques centre and started it. Unfortunately I manged to spill glue into the box and ruined the sliding canopy part, so put it all away in disgust. I got inspired by the recent Hornby series which featured the new 1/24 Mk IX, and emailed Airfix to see if they still had any spares for the old kit they could sell me. After a couple of email exchanges with me providing photos of the number on the box and the page in the instruction book, they sent me the appropriate set of transparencies f.o.c. So impressed with the service that I'll probably buy the new kit when I've finished the old one!

Great series must have done wonders for the hobby, kits, trains, Scalextric etc - Aeromodelling programmes with one or two exceptions never seem to make the same mark.

Did you notice the Hornby staff were using Tamiya Liquid Cement for their building rather than their own make?

Brillant stuff, so much easier and less messy that the tubed goop of our childhood.

[leccyflyer]

18 hours ago, Trevor Crook said:

I built the first 1/24 Spitfire around 1969, when I was 15. I got another a couple of years ago at an antiques centre and started it. Unfortunately I manged to spill glue into the box and ruined the sliding canopy part, so put it all away in disgust. I got inspired by the recent Hornby series which featured the new 1/24 Mk IX, and emailed Airfix to see if they still had any spares for the old kit they could sell me. After a couple of email exchanges with me providing photos of the number on the box and the page in the instruction book, they sent me the appropriate set of transparencies f.o.c. So impressed with the service that I'll probably buy the new kit when I've finished the old one!

That 1/24th Airfix Spitfire 1a was a game changer. There had been nothing like it before. I must have built mine in 1970 or 71, because I was definitely out of primary school at the time. I fitted the electric motor inside the Merlin too,

 

The earlier mention of the Airfix Saturn V reminded me that I looked out mine last week - inspired by my visit to the museum at Herdla on holiday the previous week, which had such superb examples of the plastic modeller's art as to make me take a look at the multiple plastic kits I have squirreled away down the years. First thing, on opening the box I found the fuselage of my Model Designs FW190 which I've been searching for since we moved four years ago! Then I was dissapointed to see that the plastic "tubes" which make up the body of the 1st and 2nd stage of the Saturn V had faded to a horrid light yellowish colour. 😞 It will need to be airbrushed if it's ever going to go back on display.

 

Incidentally, as part of that process of making a plastic kit inventory, I discovered that the owners of Hornby/Airfix/Scalextrix had bought out Heller several years ago and some Airfix kits, such as the multimodel commemorative sets, are rebadged Heller kits.

[Trevor Crook]

Took this picture this morning at my 92 year old father in laws house. He had the cereal gift airfield still unopened for decades. Last year my granddaughter was doing a WW2 project at school, and he wrote down his experiences as a wartime child for them, and gave them the diorama to display. They were very impressed by both. Now he doesn't know what to do with it! 

Don't know why the picture was inserted upside down.

[leccyflyer]

My boy had the same airfield, with the folded cardboard Nissen huts and Ops Room - in fact it's still here, in my workshop storage - and spent countless hours playing with it when he was little, with the Battle of Britain VHS on a loop in the background.

 

Happy days. 🙂

 

[SIMON CRAGG]

Brilliant!

 

Just sent this to all our chaps.

 

Sure to be discussed in our club dispersal on Sunday.

 

Fantastic effort, well done all concerned.

[RICHARD WILLS]

Chaps. I'm so sorry that I missed this little trip down memory lane . Its right up my Strasse ! That miniature film remake is amazing . 

Most of you I know well so you can probably guess how much I would like it . 

Thanks for posting that up leccy . I have sent it on to all of my friends .