Old Airfix Kits

[AlexBB]

Hiya Guys,
Well since I have got back into modelling it seems we have a little group of us on a Sunday afternoon who all have an interest at one level or another and chat about various aspects over a beer or three. The landlord has even built a 1/72 Spitfire (one of the give away kits from a recent newspaper) and is now starting a 1/72 Bf 109e to keep it company on the shelf

The one guy who re kindled my interest in modelling has been into his 1/6 Tanks for a very long while and a couple of weeks ago I had taken the new Airfix catalogue in for him to have a browse as he mainly does Tamiya stuff with electronics and rather complex conversions etc.. Well another guy in the pub overhearing one of our conversations said that he had a couple of old Airfix kits sitting in the back of his wardrobe, that he had bought at a charity shop a few years ago and he would bring them in for me to see...

Anyway, he brought them in yesterday.. This type of 'Vintage' stuff is way out of my league and I wondered if any of you guys could shed any light onto the ages or history of these kits?

The Morris Cowley seems to be the oldest as we could not see a Pattern No (Kit No) on it and the build instructions form part of the fold over paper at the top of the bag. (Though we could be wrong!)

We have had a browse on a well know auction site and have found a similar, but not the same as it has a different header card Model T that says it is a First Issue 1956, not sure on how correct that is... So guessing this one is a later version and can't find anything at all similar to the the white 1904 Mercedes..

Would be very grateful if anyone knows any information...

Untitled by Alex Beebee, on Flickr

Untitled by Alex Beebee, on Flickr



PS. These are not for sale

[Tomcat64]

Wow - those are some real classics.

My guess would be they date from the late 50s or early 60s - I've got a history of Airfix book around here somewhere so will take a look later and see if that gives any more clues.

Edit: Had a quick look on Scalemates:

Model T looks to be from 1959: Model-T

Mercedes from 1962: Mercedes

And the Morris Cowley from 1967 Morris

Hope that helps

[Kevthemodeller]

These may be of interest to you

http://www.airfixcollectorsclub.co.uk/i ... ging_types

http://www.vintage-airfix.com/cars-and- ... 49_52.html click on what you have

http://www.kitkrazy.com/airfix-kits.html

[AlexBB]

Cheers Guys

That info is fantastic... and a few new web sites to add to my Fav's list which I had no idea existed...

[DrSprue]

Wow very cool kits! Very cool info as well guys!

[AlexBB]

Well I took these kits back to the guy in the pub last night, and had written out the information I had found out for him using the Scalemates site and other sources.
He was amazed that people 'just' collect kits and never build them but was quite pleased to find out they are worth more than he paid for them which I found out was £1 a few years ago!
I think he will keep them rather than selling them or building them, but he did say he might get a couple of Airfix starter kits as his interest has been lifted since talking about them....so maybe another modeller back to the fold