Airfix......the end of an era?
 

With the recent news that Humbrol, the parent company of Airfix, has gone into receivership it is highly likely that another part of my childhood will soon disappear. Both names have been part of the British modelling scene for as long as I can remember and it will be sad to see them go.:(
In the mid to late 1950’s my mother took me shopping with her every Saturday. What would normally have been a boring way for a young lad to spend a Saturday morning was made bearable by an occasional visit to Woolworth’s to chose an Airfix aircraft kit. Usually this was one of the smaller planes such as a Spitfire costing about 2/- (10p) and sold in a plastic bag but if I had been really well behaved the budget occasionally stretched to 4/- (20p) which bought something bigger, and in a box such as a Mosquito. There were bigger models still, such as Lancaster bombers and Sunderland flying boats but they cost in the region of 10/- (50p) and were reserved for special occasions such as Birthdays and Christmas.
When I think back it’s amazing just how detailed those early kits were. The tiny plastic parts were a real challenge for a clumsy youth and inevitably more glue ended up on your hands and clothes than on the model. I always thought that the struts between the upper and lower wings of biplanes were the hardest to assemble and often led to such frustration that the plane prematurely “took a test flight” across the room on more than one occasion.:D Still, it was good experience and I am sure it prepared me for bigger things to come.
More in keeping with this Forum Airfix also had a small range of plastic 00 scale railway kits. In the 50’s and 60’s I don’t think there was a home layout in the country that didn’t have an Airfix model of Oakham signalbox on it.
Do any other members of the forum have fond memories of Airfix?
John

Now you have suddenly reminded me (deja vu?) of the distant past when I could only afford the kits in the plastic bags. I aspired to having a kit in a box.

I also remember risking life and limb standing on a chair put on my bed (very wobbly) to attach planes to the ceiling in dynamic poses with black cotton thread.

I also remember the "scene" when my Dad came home and found that I had made dozens of drawing pin holes all over the ceiling.

It'll be OK just as long as someone keeps selling the wonderfully smelly glue...........

Too true :D :D
I think Airfix must have created the first generation of glue sniffers.
John

I loved the Airfix kits.

My first introduction to them was through my late Uncle, who used to make them and then give them to me. I can still recall spinning round and round in the garden with an Airfix Lancaster bomber on the end of two pieces of string; making it fly just above the bushes!

And the boxes of soldiers! My friends and I used to have huge make believe battles in the back garden between the 8th Army and the Afrika Corps.

But my most off the wall memory of Humbrol/Airfix is from about 18 years ago. We used to live about five minutes from the Humbrol factory on Hedon Road in Hull. And then one day the factory caught fire, quite seriously in fact, a young female employee was killed. The smoke could be seen for miles; everyone was evacuated, including my wife and infant daughter. Having said that, my Grandad, who also lived nearby and was well into his 90's, decided to ignore the police and went for a walk along Hedon Road to inspect the damage, quite unconcerned about the fact that several highly inflammable chemical tanks at the rear of the factory were in serious danger of explosion.

there is one good thing, is that what i have heard hornby are meant to be buying air fix so they may still live on

I hope it is true. The way they are going Hornby will own everything soon.:D
John.

To manufacture in China.

Yes.....like it or not we really are becoming a nation of shopkeepers.
I'm afaid, if our hobbies are to survive, Chinese manufactured trains and kits will have to become acceptable.
John.

I would love to see Airfix stay in the UK, but I would rather they were made in the east than not at all. I was also an Airfix child, but living in Rhodesia as a child, we had to pay more for our kits than the 2/- & 2/6 (10p & 12 1/2p) that they cost in the UK. I can remember having 4/- in my pocket and wondering weather to spend it on an Airfix or a small Dinky car. So it was only Christmas and birthdays that we were given a kit to make up. My brother was far better at making them than I was, though I don't remember him making many of them.
Syd

I don't know how I missed this but it looks like good news for Airfix and Humbrol:) but NOT Hull:(
Hornby snaps up Airfix for £2.6m