Airfix News Just in from Telford: 1/24 Hellcat!

[Plasto]

1 hour ago, Out2gtcha said:

So, having heard a statement from them that K1 put out indicating that they will not be doing a -3..................

 

 

 

Airfix are not going to tell anyone anything about future releases. 

 

Having just kept the hellcat a secret they are not now going to advise to everyone definitive future plans more so when that info could hurt the sales of the current projected release. Right now if you want a 1/24 hellcat the announced release is what you have so if you really wanted a -3 for the stash then you might go ah well and buy a -5 and work out how to convert it to a -3 or what paint scheme you can get away with. If you knew a -3 was going to happen you’d not buy the -5 which hurts sales of that kit.

 

same thing happened with the 1/24 Typhoon...

 

Its basic customer expectation management in play..

[Plasto]

10 minutes ago, airscale said:

i am just starting to learn about the airframe as I spoke to them about doing an IP set for it -

 

 The -3 IP is different to the -5 IP from what I can tell.

 

if you did both then if someone wanted to build a late -3 with the kit parts that would be a help...

[Dave Williams]

57 minutes ago, rafju said:

-5 => bullet proof windshield

and -3?

 

 

-3 => armor glass plate behind the windscreen.

 

This picture clearly shows the thick plate of armor glass behind the windscreen.

 

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/on-the-deck-of-the-uss-yorktown-aircraft-carrier-arm3c-news-photo/104334057

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by Dave Williams

[otis252]

This kit will be great! Anybody heard any news on a release date? Thanks.

Chuck

[rafju]

41 minutes ago, otis252 said:

This kit will be great! Anybody heard any news on a release date? Thanks.

Chuck

May 2019

[LSP_K2]

5 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Ill see if I can find where he quoted it, but I believe LSP_Kevin got/saw a response from AirFix on their site or FB site, and they seemed to confirm that they were not doing a -3 release. 

 

 

It was stated in the staff area, Brian.

[Plasto]

I don’t think the car door Typhoon was on the model buying public’s Radar when the ‘bubbletop’ Kit was released. Somewhat like the Typhoon kit with seemingly a few bits of additional tooling you could create a -3 Hellcat.  

 

Maybe that’s a subject choice criteria for Airfix what subject can I do where I can maximise my base tooling investment and extract a number of subsequent variants out of the base tooling.

 

Anyhow.

 

If the kit turns out to be nice and there is general enthusiastic support in the wider modelling community for it then Airfix will either tool the bits needed for a -3 or the aftermarket will come along with the conversion parts required.

 

We just haven’t got em today...

[GrahamF]

11 hours ago, Shoggz said:

The designer was stood by his new 'baby' all day and what a pleasant (young!) chap he was.

I also met the gentleman who had built the beautiful example they had completed on the stand.

Apparently if there had been any delays on the M20 he wouldn't have made it! Another one on a tight building deadline like our Phartycroc with his HKM Lanc.

 

And not the only one, I was casting white metal undercarriage gear [ which wasn't going well to start with, as is usual until the mould warms up ] and then jumped in my car to get to Telford, they were starting to wonder if I was coming, I also had to build one Attacker between casting bouts and then I had problems spraying, the paint was reacting and clumping up in the gun! When you're that busy you really have to keep calm, it took me back to the days of Architectural modelling when there is no time and the models have to be crated and flown to Malaysia or wherever, afterwards the workshop is a scene from a battle ground and mine was no different this morning, must do better next year.

[David Hansen]

On 11/11/2018 at 7:48 AM, Out2gtcha said:

 

 

It IS big! 

 

Motorised?!?? That's pretty cool! I was already thinking about a gear up in-flight display to hang on my work room ceiling.

 

Now dont crucify me here, but honestly the only initial thing I see that seems off a tad to my Mk 1 eyeball are the wheels.....

Maybe I'm off, but it seems like the wheels at least look like they are a bit too low in profile........something just looks off. Obviously I'll wait to see things I person before making a final call, but with the motorised option, I'm picking this one up!

No, its not just you. In some photos- but not all- the wheels look a little bit odd. I'm sure its being addressed.

 

-d-

[David Hansen]

On 11/11/2018 at 6:57 PM, Dave Williams said:

 

Not necessarily.  Early -5s were built with -3 type rear cockpit windows.  I think the point is that if only a handful of early -5s were painted in tri-color, they would have also had the rear cockpit windows.  If the Airfix kit doesn’t include an option for the rear cockpit windows, then you can’t do one in tri-color from the box.

Honestly, i don't think any -5s were delivered in anything other than Gloss Sea B ue. You might be confusing it with the F4U-1D.

 

-d-

 

[coogrfan]

Sprue pics: https://imodeler.com/2018/11/telford-kit-news-airfix-1-24-grumman-f6f-hellcat-review/

[Southern Bandit]

Looks amazing for sure, Airfix sure seem to have nailed the stressed skin effect, couple of thoughts and yup its early productions shots ... but the IP? it looks really soft, especially for 1/24 scale, am I missing something there? does the real one really look like that? the other thing was some of the riveting seems a bit heavy to me, but am no expert on this Aircraft type at all and of course know these are early shots and subject to change.

 

Its been a long, loooooong time since I have built anything Airfix 1/24 but have noticed how good the Mosquito and Typhoon were from other folks build reviews, would have preferred 1/32 for this subject of course but might just go for this ... again would have preferred a tri colour option, but not applicable to the version this kit depicts I read here ... fair play on that too.

Is there any midnight blue paint out there for this kit? Tamiya often release their own shades for new kits, but just thinking I'd need a fair bit of it if I were to buy the kit and would prefer not to mix it for correct shade

[Southern Bandit]

On 11/12/2018 at 2:42 PM, Jennings Heilig said:

Just looking at the sprue closeups on iModeler. At the risk of being hanged... row after row of dimples for rivets? In 1/24 scale? Really? The ones that weren’t absolutely flush on the Hellcat were raised. And what I see looks drastically overdone.

 

Yes, noticed this too.

Perhaps subject to change though, but apart from this and the Instrument panel, it all look pretty damn good at this stage.

[Shoggz]

..but we're all going to buy Airscale instrument panels, yes?!

[VMA131Marine]

On 11/12/2018 at 9:42 AM, Jennings Heilig said:

Just looking at the sprue closeups on iModeler. At the risk of being hanged... row after row of dimples for rivets? In 1/24 scale? Really? The ones that weren’t absolutely flush on the Hellcat were raised. And what I see looks drastically overdone.

I suspect that Airfix is still working off the assumption, probably correctly, that most people who build their kits brush paint rather than use an airbrush. So what looks overdone in the bare plastic, looks fine after painting since paint that is brushed on tends to go on thicker; certainly this is true when it comes to enamels.

 

Then you had to open up the raised versus recessed rivet debate. A long time ago, models had mostly raised panel lines and rivets and people said this wasn't realistic and detail around seams was lost and hard to restore. So now we have recessed panel lines and rivets, which are easier to preserve when cleaning up seams, but people still say they aren't realistic. If you want raised rivets, I'm pretty sure there are rivet decals available that can be applied over the recessed versions.