Our local club has a special theme build every year. Most years we have an incentive to complete the club build. For example, members that don't complete their model buy lunch for those that do, this tends to coincide with model shows, either at the Buffalo, NY or at the Ajax, On. show. This year the theme club build is an Airfix kit...a company of which I know nothing of! So... I need your help in choosing an Airfix ship model, preferably in their 600 scale. What is out there, and are there any aftermarket PE sets available for these old kits?

Frank

hello Frank,
what ever you do, do not,repeat do not buy the Airfix Severn Class Lifeboat.33% of the parts are wrong.either way to big or way to small.the roof for it is 7 inches to big,and the deck is 4 inches to small all the way around.
there is a place i think called oldmodelskits.com.they have a lot of Airfixmodels for sale.the best is the HMS Repulse.i will try think of any others that are good.
hope this helps.
cheers,
Bruce

Thanks for the warning Bruce!
I'm fully expecting a tough build regardless of the kit I choose. Chalk it up to being spoiled by the likes of Tamiya and Hasegawa!

Frank

Ahoy, Frank!

Airfix has a decent amount of selections for kits, mate, see here... And like most other classic plastic kits, do have some issues, but most of their kits are quite buildable, and have stood the test of time...and as far as dedicated A/M sets, few and far between, but, WEM and Toms Modelworks list a few sets in this scale...sounds interesting AND fun, mate, should be a great experience!

Frank

Try looking here.
Old Kits

They have a few old Arifix kits in 1/600. Not sure about AM for them, but I will look around.

As Airfix comes back on-line it appears that they are releasing many of their old 1/600th scale kits. I always enjoyed HMS Warspite, but you will have to do some work to bring her, or indeed any of these ships, up to 21st Century par. having said that, I don't thonk that Warspite has been rereleased yet.

John

Okay, it's not a "ship" but the 1/72 Vosper MTB is a real beauty! Lovely, very fast looking "little ship".

Frank - Airfix re-released some of their old kits over the past year as they got back into business, including some ships. I picked up a 1:600 HMS Hood for 15USD at my LHS, mostly to give them some business. You can also find the old Airfix ships listed in ebay. If you draw a complete blank, I can send you my Hood. Its not a detailed kit by any stretch, but its Airfix

I think It would be fun to do the HMS AJAX with the photo etch set from White Ensign, seeing as how the Ajax show is coming up ...how appropriate is that eh? She was a Historically important ship and at one point during her career she had a cool disruption scheme on her sides....

If you want to build a really good airfix kit, tackle that gigantic HMS Victory. Now that is not only a major challenge, it is also a quality kit. I think I would go with a Hood, BIsmarck, or the Warspite. Probably lean more to the Warspite because there are really great 350 scale versions of the opther 2 I would much rather do.