New Airfix models head north to Bolton

Welcome to this latest edition of our Workbench blog and all the news, updates, and modelling exclusives from the fascinating world of Airfix.

With the new 2025 range now announced and a new year of project updates to bring you here on Workbench, we’ve decided to take a little detour from our usual new year format this week, and not post the first of our designer interviews just yet. Although these are just around the corner, as this weekend just passed marked the first model show event of the year and we were in attendance, we thought we’d start this year of Workbench blogs with a look at the IPMS Bolton Show and a rather chilly start to the 2025 show season.

For just the second time in the past decade, we decided to dispatch a crack Airfix team to exhibit at the show, and to take this early season opportunity to let several of the new tooling announcements made just a few days earlier to make their public debuts in Lancashire. It was also an opportunity for us to bump into modelling friends old and new, and to support the team behind what is traditionally the start of the modelling events calendar. That being the case, we will be showcasing a selection of exclusive images taken at the show, reporting on how this successful event marked the model show season well and truly open, and importantly, how our new tooling announcements were received by the modelling public.    

As Bolton also served as the northern debut for our new 1/48th scale Lysander, and we have just received a second consignment of kits to replenish the initial delivery which sold out immediately, we will also be taking this opportunity to re-visit this rather spectacular addition to the current Airfix range in this edition.

We have much to get through this week, so let’s get cracking!

Modellers unite for an early season gathering

All set up and ready to go. With new Airfix models in town, we were expecting a busy day.

In what has now become something of a popular hobby tradition, IPMS Bolton invited the nation’s modellers to gather in the Premier Suite of the TS Community Stadium in Bolton to celebrate the start of another year of modelling, and an event which allows us all to throw off the excesses of the festive period, and get down to more serious modelling matters. Regular attendees of this show will confirm that Lancashire can usually be relied upon to greet these proceedings with a bracing welcome to this modelling extravaganza, and this year was certainly no exception. Although we didn’t get the usual snow flurries on the day, it was bitterly cold and there were still mounds of cleared snow at the edges of the event car park – the distant hills were also covered in snow, which made for a picturesque backdrop.

Before we review the event, I would just like to take this opportunity to congratulate the organising team who were responsible for planning this event, as they did a fine job, as usual. It can’t be easy planning an event of this scale, particularly as they are using a football stadium site and how a televised match was played the previous evening. In fact, it appears that this scheduling served up some unexpected challenges for the organisers, as they only received confirmation about whether this match would be taking place on Saturday or Sunday at the eleventh hour – clearly this had a significant bearing on planning and advertising this year’s show.

When doors open at 08.00 and traders and exhibitors all descend on the access area, it can seem like organised chaos, with the exhibition area still completely devoid of any displays and us all left wondering if everything will come together in time. Despite the pressure, the organising team remain calm and focussed, ensuring everyone gets the information they need and directing everyone to their allocated display area. As for the exhibitors, what they manage to achieve in that first hour is nothing short of incredible, as they turn a cold, empty hall, into a feast of modelling delights, an impressive display of model making excellence which is ready to receive its adoring public – all this and the public weren’t allowed in for another hour!

Although I would always be in attendance at a Bolton show to cover the event for our social media platforms and to secure blog and Club Magazine content, for just the second time during my tenure at Airfix, we decided we were going to exhibit at this year’s event, a significant undertaking for my colleague James, who travelled up from Kent, but not such a tough assignment for me, as the resident Airfix Northerner. Significantly for us, this would be our first model show attendance since 2025 range launch and therefore, would also be the first opportunity for some of our new tooling projects to meet the public, even though they are still in development form.

Although slightly trimmed down from our Scale ModelWorld display (he had to fit everything in his car), we did have three of our recently announced new tooling projects on display, including our impressive SLS Artemis and Alvis FV622 Stalwart Mk.2 kits. Both were displayed in test frame/prototype form and whilst both looked great and came in for plenty of attention, both are still in their development phase and may still be subject to change.

Both our new Jaguar and Stalwart development models came in for plenty of attention during a busy Bolton show.

Occupying a central position in our display, the third new tooling model making its public debut proved to be a real show stopper, a model kit the hobby has been crying out for for quite some time, and a ‘Big Cat’ everyone wanted to take home with them, our new SEPECAT Jaguar. Even before the show was opened to the public, we had a sizeable crowd around our display, with everyone desperate to get their first glimpse of the new Jaguar. Although not available for a few weeks yet, if we had of had kits available to sell on the day, we would have cleaned up, and if we had a pound for every time we were asked if we had any for sale, we’d probably have still cleaned up. Bolton really does love a Jaguar.

To be honest, we were completely overwhelmed by the support we received during the show, and the sheer number of people who came to speak to us about our new range, particularly the Jaguar. From the time we had the display ready at around 9.00am, we never stopped talking to people and the first time I looked at my watch, it was 1.30 in the afternoon! Although this was a rather humbling and thoroughly enjoyable experience, I still had show review duties to perform, and the day was fast running away from me.

That being the case, and with our display attendance clearly taking priority this year, I didn’t have as much time to speak to as many of the groups and SIGs as I usually do, so if I shot past on a quick recce with just my phone camera, please forgive me, but I will catch up with you soon.

As always, the standard of modelling on display was superb and we really are fortunate to have all these wonderful people who spend so many hours creating these modelling masterpieces, and then allow us modelling mortals to admire and take inspiration from them. I know I’m preaching to the converted here, but you lot are extremely talented and the models you create really are works of art – in my view, they are art and can hold their own against any other form of artwork.

The theme for this year’s show was ‘Top of the Box’, with organisers cleverly doing their best to emulate classic Top of the Pops graphics in promoting the theme. They were hoping to see modelling representations which matched classic kit box artwork, and as we have such a rich heritage in this field, we were hoping to see some impressive creations amongst the displays.

Added to the Vintage Classics range just last week, it was nice to see the Boeing 314 Clipper taking part in this year’s themed competition.

One display which really captured our attention was this beautiful Boeing 314 Clipper diorama, not only because it was an impressive representation of classic Roy Cross artwork, but because as of range launch earlier this month, this kit will be taking its place in our Vintage Classics range during 2025. Representing one of the most glamorous aircraft types to ever take to the skies, the Boeing 314 Clipper was produced to allow passengers and cargo to travel across both the vast expanses of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but in levels of style and comfort which rivalled those found on the great ocean liners. Twelve aircraft were produced for Pan American World Airways and BOAC, however, the start of the Second World War would result in these opulent flying boats being used mainly for military purposes, with aircraft going on to serve as transport for both Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

The model was displayed as part of the IMPS Bolton display, and if its talented creator would like to drop us a line, we’ll gladly share more details of this impressive build. On the IPMS Lancashire display, one of their members had done something really special with one of our old Collectors Series 1/45th scale 19th Century Beam Engine kits. Not only had he managed to beautifully emulate the box artwork this Beam Engine had a trick up its sleeve – it worked! Operating faultlessly throughout the show, this was model making of the highest order, combined with some engineering and electronics expertise. It was really impressive.

Not only was this 19th Century Beam Engine build a fine replication of the box artwork, but it was also actually working, as can be seen by the moving wheel in this picture.

He’s been at it again – this time we have a scrap-built Handley Page Halifax!

Another model which demanded attention on the Lancashire display tables may not have been attempting to replicate classic box artwork, but was certainly making waves. We have featured the talents of this particular modeller on a previous Bolton show review, a man who describes his models as being ‘Scrap Built’! He will gladly tell anyone admiring his models that he’s a bit of a magpie and never throws anything away, because he knows it could be useful for a future model making endeavour. We previously featured his large scale Sea Hawk and Firefly models which were both built to include exposed sections of fuselage, with both coming in for plenty of attention on show day.

Well, he’s been at it again, this time turning bits of old plastic guttering and stripped down irons into a Handley Page Halifax, and what a spectacular job he’s done too. One of the current Airfix classic kits on display was this beautiful Fairey Gannet AS.1 created by one of the members of the Staffordshire Moorlands Model Club and if you were looking for something that little bit different, IPMS Stafford had this delightful little Rettungsboje model diorama on display, a scale depiction of one of the Luftwaffe rescue buoys which were positioned in the English Channel prior to and during the Battle of Britain. 

Intended to be a haven for aircrews forced to ditch in the Channel, around 50 of these floating refuges were positioned at fixed locations, and could comfortably accommodate four people with everything they might need until rescued. Food, dry cloths, medical supplies and even beds were available inside the rescue buoy, along with an alcohol stove to enable them to make hot food and drinks to warm them up after their Channel dunking. As the buoys were positioned at fixed locations, they could be checked several times each day and if occupied, a system of flags by day and lights by night highlighted the fact that the buoy was occupied.

A 1940s Luftwaffe Rettungsboje rescue buoy, with a modern RNLI Shannon Class Lifeboat.

An ingenious solution to a very serious problem, it was great so see the modelling world had recognised the Rettungsboje in this 85th Anniversary year of the Battle of Britain.

Perhaps the most impressive of the ‘Top of the Box’ build representations on display at Bolton drew their inspiration from our relatively new RNLI Shannon Class Lifeboat Starter Set, of which there were several. Not only had their creators faithfully copied the box artwork for their display, but they also created ingenious representations of heavy seas for their model to rest on, even including scratch built accessories for that added sense of realism. There were particularly impressive Shannon Class models on both the Edinburgh Model Club and Stoke on Trent Model Club displays, with both their creators promising to send us details of their builds for inclusion in a future edition of Workbench, or the Airfix Club Magazine – we very much look forward to those.

Display of the Day

BAE Hawks as far as the eye can see, each one presented in schemes used on the aircraft during its UK military service.

With so much impressive modelling talent on display at every model show we attend, selecting our Display of the Day is always a difficult task, made slightly more difficult because people know what we’re up to these days. Although we didn’t have quite as much time as usual to get around all the displays at Bolton this year, that certainly doesn’t detract from this year’s winner, which was as worthy as it was spectacular.

If you were to ask someone to name the most successful British jet aircraft of the late 20th century, people will invariably give this quite a period of thought, when in truth their answer should be almost instantaneous – the Hawker Siddeley/BAE Systems Hawk. This magnificent aircraft celebrated its 50th Anniversary last year and whilst the Royal Air Force have now retired most of their Hawk T.1 jets, they still fly the flag for this magnificent aircraft in the markings of the world famous Red Arrows. 

In order to mark the impressive legacy of the BAE Hawk, the Training Aircraft SIG created a spectacular display of Hawks in all scales and markings for the Bolton show this year, not only charting the UK and international success of the aircraft, but also highlighting the various schemes worn by Hawks over the years. The left hand side of the display showcased a selection of Hawk models presented in schemes worn by Hawks during their UK service, but also including a couple you may remember from a project a few years ago, where we introduced our NHS Charities Together Hawk pair kit. With classic training schemes, display Hawks and Battle of Britain camouflaged examples, this display really did highlight how much we already miss the Hawk, particularly at Airshows.

The right hand side of the display was probably even more colourful and featured Hawks in international service, many of which are still plying their trades to this day. Inspecting this display, it did a really effective job in highlighting just how successful an export aircraft the Hawk has been, and led to discussions of why the RAF has so few of the Hawk T.2 variant in service today.

Quite a display. This was certainly an impressive collection of Hawk kits.

Hawk international. The BAE Hawk was certainly showing its true colours at the Bolton show this year.

Rob Monfea accepting his Airfix Trophy for Display of the Day at Bolton 2025.

A truly impressive display, we were delighted to award our latest Bolton Model Show Display of the Day trophy to the Training Aircraft SIG and their BAE Hawk 50th Anniversary display. SIG leader and Hawk expert Rob Monfea was on hand to accept the award, which was rather fitting, as he had built most, if not all of the Hawk kits on display – well done Rob.

Although it takes place very early in the year, the Bolton show is always a highlight of the model show calendar, and can always be relied upon to attract a healthy attendance of both exhibitors and modelling enthusiasts. As early season opportunity to garner some ideas and inspiration for our own modelling exploits over the coming year, it’s always humbling to see how many people work so hard to create modelling masterpieces, and then allow the rest of us to ogle them at shows like this, often reigniting our own passion for modelling in the process, but always making us feel we’re amongst friends.

To the show organisers, this was a job well done, and whilst you will probably be exhausted at the moment and will have no doubt said ‘Never again’ at least a couple of times since, your show was really enjoyable, and we look forward to seeing you again next year. Importantly, the Bolton Model Show confirms that the 2025 model show season is up and running.

We are afraid that's all we have for you in this latest edition, but we will be back next Friday with more project development updates and the very latest Airfix kit exclusives. In the meantime, we are always keen to hear your views on all things Airfix and in particular, any thoughts and opinions you may have regarding our Workbench blog. If you would like to drop us a quick line, could we please ask that you use our workbench@airfix.com email for all correspondence. 

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