Sizzling Scale ModelWorld show is a hobby celebration

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

As has now become something of a tradition for this first post Scale ModelWorld edition of Workbench, we will be attempting to maintain the excitement of this fabulous event for a few days more, as we post our overview of the event, but unashamedly from an Airfix perspective. For those readers who were unable to make this year’s show, we will be bringing you a selection of images which document the Airfix display stand at this year’s show, including the debut outings for both our new Westland Lysander and Sea King HC.4 built sample kits, both of which were show exclusives this year. We will also have details of a stunning modelling tribute to last year’s Airfix Scale ModelWorld attendance which really did have every member of the Airfix team smiling – it’s very clever indeed.

As you will imagine, Scale ModelWorld is a true celebration of our hobby and the people who enjoy being part of it, and we managed to gather an incredible amount of content which will appear in forthcoming editions of Workbench and as Club Magazine articles over the coming year. For this review though, we will be sticking quite close to the Airfix stand, but will be sharing details of a special Ferret build tribute and the people behind our latest Scale ModelWorld Display of the Day award, a prestigious award which recognises the incredible amount of work modelling groups and Special Interest Group members put in to ensure everyone’s attendance at the show is interesting and enjoyable.

Before we all have to accept the latest British winter, let’s remain on Scale ModelWorld time for just a few days more in this latest edition of Workbench.

A trio of Airfix kit debuts

The new 1/48th scale Westland Lysander was one of three new kits making their public debut at the Scale ModelWorld show this year.

By the time the Airfix team welcome the first visitors to any Scale ModelWorld show, that greeting marks the culmination of many months of planning for a large number of people and for those manning the stand in any particular year, the end of a gruelling couple of days of loading, travelling, unpacking and setting up our display. Planned with military precision, most years will have already seen our event planning team setting up the entire display in our warehouse at Margate, just to confirm that everything is as intended, and leaving nothing to chance, because once our display is arranged, its all about the thousands of people we’re looking forward to meeting at our stand over show weekend, with little time for anything else.

Although Scale ModelWorld is always an occasion to look forward to, it really is hard work for all concerned, however, this pales into insignificance compared to the efforts of the IPMS UK team, the people behind this magnificent event. As is often the case with large annual events of this kind, as the final table is stacked and the last van is driven out of the exhibition hall, arrangements for the next show are already well underway, and as we are now back to pre-pandemic levels of attendance by both exhibitors and visitors, there’s always much to do. Before we move on to look at this year’s show, could we just take a moment to thank Paul Regan and his hard-working team for putting on such a fantastic event and for ensuring everything went like clockwork – great work folks!

With the Airfix display ready to receive visitors and the pre-show briefing delivered and understood, the first duty for some of us was to ensure that a pallet of catalogues and range highlight brochures had been laid out for show visitors to pick up, once the show had opened, initially for IPMS members, then for everyone else an hour later. Again, we were aided by a small team of IPMS helpers who were like handout machines on the day, combining the available printed material into a single bundle for collection following the surge of show opening time. We should have known that this was going to be a busy event, because no matter how efficient we were at laying out the bundles, the tables always seemed to be running low. Indeed, before midday on Saturday, all the Airfix catalogues had been snapped up and there was still a large queue snaking around Telford’s International Centre.

Calm before the visitor storm! A free show guide and additional Airfix goodies didn’t last long once the crowds started flooding in. 

Even though we find ourselves in the digital age, there’s still no substitute for having a printed copy of the current Airfix catalogue in hand. Not only does it allow us to maintain our collection, it’s also a fantastic aide-memoir for the current range and really just looks great. It also has a unique smell all of its own, but let’s not go down that particular rabbit hole!  

Once we had returned to the Airfix stand, we had the opportunity to engage in the enjoyable task of speaking to people about all things Airfix and the modelling hobby in general. Some years ago, the team thought it was much more appropriate to move the display tables closer to the exhibition hall dividing wall, meaning there was no barrier between us (display tables) and our visitors, something which has worked so well and appears to be liked by those who visit the stand. And as for our visitors, you all excelled yourselves again this year, as we all shared stories about Airfix modelling past, in addition to discussing the latest model announcements which have joined the range since the previous Scale ModelWorld show. You’re a knowledgeable lot and there are a great many characters amongst your ranks – whatever you do, please don’t ever change, because you make this event such a treat for the entire Airfix team. 

Looking at the display layout for this year, the left-hand side of the display gathered a collection of Vintage Classics kits, including the Bristol Superfreighter which was only inducted into the Vintage Classics Hall of Fame last Friday, coinciding with the team setting up our display at Telford, but has already clearly found favour with a great many people in the hobby. Although there have been several livery incarnations of this most interesting of kits over the years, we elected to go with the British United Air Ferries decals as immortalised by the great Roy Cross with his 1967 box artwork, something we think works rather well.

The aircraft covered here was named ‘City of London’ and after operating for many years with the famous Silver City Air Ferries, transferred to British United Air Ferries following their acquisition of Silver City in January 1963. This change initiated the livery change which inspired the scheme option included with this release, tooling which was engineered in 1959, but benefitted from the production of Mr Roy Cross artwork a few years later.

Is this already our most popular Vintage Classics release? There was much affection for the Bristol Superfreighter at this year’s Scale ModelWorld show.

After a long career taking passengers and their vehicles across the English Channel and to and from the Channel Islands, this historic aircraft was written off following an accident at Guernsey Airport on 24th September 1963. This was actually the prototype Mark 32 Superfreighter and was initially leased to Silver City as their first aircraft of this variant in 1953, before being purchased outright by them the following year.

We knew the Superfreighter was going to be a popular addition to the range, but were thrilled to see just how many of these kits were snapped up over show weekend. Several of the retail displays at the show had impressive stacks of these kits available for sale, but by the end of Saturday trading, few, if any, were still available. It appears that this particular Vintage Classic will be passing across many a workstation over the coming winter build season.

Moving on from our Vintage Classics display, the next collection of modelling delights was an undoubted show highlight for us and a new kit which was unveiled in the hours leading up to the show and consequently, was making its first public appearance in both component and built model form. An impending release which is only the second from our 1/48th scale Westland Sea King tooling, our new HC.4 kit was present in some force at the show, with our display including built and painted sample kits finished in all four of the schemes included with this release, plus a board display containing all the parts required to enable this variant of the Sea King to be modelled.

Scheduled to be available before Christmas, many modellers will be hoping to find one of these beauties under their Christmas Tree this year. 

A specialist variant of the Westland Sea King, the HC.4 was the Royal Navy's Commando troop carrying and resupply helicopter replacement for their Wessex HU.5 helicopters and a development of similar aircraft produced for the Egyptian and Qatari Air Forces. 42 newly built helicopters were eventually produced in this configuration, which by their nature, were never too far from any action hotspots. 

Deployed to combat zones right across the world during their 36-year service career, the Junglie as it was affectionately known, served with distinction from the Falklands War, through to the UK's campaign in Afghanistan. As you can see when visiting the product page for this new kit on the Airfix website, early web orders/pre-orders will be dispatched with the latest in our series of collector coins, a really desirable addition which features Sea King ZA298 ‘King of the Junglies’ as its subject. Only available whilst stocks last and only relating to orders placed on the Airfix website, we’re going through these as a rate of knots at the moment, and as we failed to include these details in last week’s introduction, we thought it important to mention here.

Continuing to move along the display, the next table was full to bursting with various 1/72nd scale built kits, with larger aircraft such as B-24 Liberators and Vickers Wellington’s at the rear, with smaller single engined types at the front. Over the course of the weekend, this did encourage some discussion regarding scale and how we decide on which scale any new tooling project should be produced in. Over the years, and something which any Airfix Scale ModelWorld display will highlight, Airfix have provided the hobby with plenty of choice, be that with the subject matter modelled, or the scale in which it appears. With a vast tooling bank at our disposal, and new projects joining the range every year, balancing the scale requirements of our modelling audience does require some careful consideration, but will usually find equilibrium through the passage of time.

The Führer’s Wimpy. It’s not always the new tooling announcements that grab the attention on the Airfix stand at SMW.

The North American F-86 Sabre makes for such a pleasing build subject in 1/48th scale.

To illustrate this point, many would probably describe 1/72nd scale as THE scale for plastic modellers, but not exclusive territory for all. Only at this year’s RIAT show, I had the pleasure of a fascinating conversation with two avid modellers who in addition to complimenting our designers on the quality of our latest releases, described how they were fully paid-up members of the 1/72nd scale club, but how their eyesight was now dictating a change to 1/48th scale. They then proceeded to reel off a long list of 1/72nd scale kits they need us to produce in 1/48th scale, a list that’s going to be keeping us busy for many years to come.

Within the Airfix team, it’s become apparent over the years that try as we might, you just can’t please everyone all the time, and as we have modellers who like to work across various scales, we try our best to keep all our modelling scales serviced when it comes to new tooling additions. That being said, when unveiling any new kit at Scale ModelWorld, you can be certain that the first modeller conversation you have once the show opens will undoubtedly be, ‘You know you’ve done it in the wrong scale!’

Recent history has shown us that even though the terms up or down scaling are guaranteed to incur the wrath of our designers (because this isn’t a simple process for them), there is a precedence for kits released in one scale to find themselves released in either a larger of smaller scale at some point in the near future. New tooling projects such as the Buccaneer, Meteor, Tiger Moth and P-51D Mustang have all appeared in different scales over recent years, as we attempt to bring our modellers the subject variety we’ve always been famous for, something which must come as reassurance to those who model exclusively in a particular scale. One thing we’re definitely clear on thanks to last weekend’s discussions, is the list of subjects Airfix fans would like to see released in either larger, or smaller scales. 

Lizzy woos the Telford crowds

Such a beautiful model, our new Westland Lysander already seems destined for Airfix classic status and a warm welcome to the range early next year.

As we continue to work our way around the display, our new tooling announcement for the show was clearly going to be coming in for some close inspection over the weekend, particularly as we had built sample models in both planned scheme options available. In addition to these, we also had a full component board available, which allowed visitors to inspect the detail incorporated in every single part of the kit at their leisure. It would be fair to say that Lizzie didn’t disappoint on her debut and ended capturing many more admirers, once introductions had been made.

One of the most distinctive British aircraft to see service during the Second World War, the Westland Lysander was designed to provide the British Army with a modern aircraft for reconnaissance, observation and artillery spotting duties, replacing their ageing Hawker Hector biplanes in this role. The design team at Westlands were keen to gauge the opinions of serving Army cooperation pilots prior to starting work on the project, with the result of these studies leading them to design an aircraft with overall visibility and low speed handling as priority features. The aircraft they unveiled could hardly have looked more different from its predecessor.

Possessing exceptional rough field and short take-off and landing capabilities, the Lysander was just what the Army were looking for and following its service entry in June 1938, there were high hopes for the aircraft. Unfortunately, many of the design requirements incorporated into the aircraft were as a result of Great War thinking, but the war to come would be very different. Of the 175 Lysanders deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force, 118 would be lost, with the aircraft unable to defend itself when faced with the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt fighters. Despite this, the Lysander would prove itself to be an incredibly capable aircraft, one adaptable enough to be used successfully in several different roles.

Well this was a new tooling surprise, but what a fantastic addition to the range.

As the two new Lysander builds were being introduced to a show audience for the first time, a trio of Avro Ansons were keeping a watchful eye over them just in case, but maintaining a historical continuity when it came to subject matter. With the kit building into a stunning and incredibly interesting 1/48th scale representation of this handsome aeroplane, we will only have to wait until early in the new year to get our hands on one of these beauties.

As we move along to the second half of the display, the middle table played host to more built model delights, but was dominated by a quartet of beautifully finished 1/24th scale Spitfire Mk.VIII kits. Always guaranteed to attract plenty of attention as a large scale example of the world’s most famous fighting aeroplane, kits were finished in WWII SEAC, USAAF and RAAF Spitfire schemes, with a further example benefitting from some ‘special treatment’. Modified with the addition of some aftermarket components and the benefit of copious amounts of modelling skill, this Spitfire was finished as a high-flying HF Mk.VIII variant of the fighter, one finished in the colours of RAF No.32 Squadron and operating from Italy during the Second World War – it truly was a sight to behold.

The next display table featured a selection of recently released kits in professionally built and painted form, including Chinooks, Gloster Meteors and Bristol Bulldogs, with the final model displays showcasing our D-Day Fighters set and a selection of Starter Set vehicles which highlight just how impressive these little models actually are. This section was also home to built examples of both the Shannon and Severn Class RNLI Lifeboats, both kits which are amongst the most appealing across the entire range and both models which appeal to perhaps the widest potential market any current Airfix kit could hope to do.

A labour of love. One of our 1/24th scale Spitfire Mk.VIII kits expertly converted to an RAF high altitude variant of the world’s most famous fighting aeroplane.

Such an attractive scheme. When building this kit, it really is difficult to look past the Grey Nurse scheme.

Classic kit ahoy! Our 1/72nd scale Shannon Class Lifeboat has been an absolute model revelation since it was released and has encouraged many people back to the hobby.

If inspecting the display fully, and if you’d managed to get to this stage, you would probably have been at the Airfix stand for about half an hour or so, and might therefore be in need of a little liquid refreshment. If that proved to be the case, we even had you covered there at Scale ModelWorld 2024, not with regard to the liquid part, but certainly in providing something to put the liquid in. The extreme right hand end of the display was home to the only items we had available for sale at this year’s show, a selection of branded gifts which would be of interest to any self-respecting Airfix/modelling fan, including some limited edition items released in support of our 85th Anniversary.

Always a welcome addition to any workstation, an Airfix mug provides the refreshing break we all need when enjoying a little modelling time, particularly when its resting on one of our vinyl coasters/flight patches. When the job of paint masking is bordering on becoming a pain, something a little stronger may be called for, which is where our etched pint glasses come in, the only way to enjoy a refreshing tipple whilst modelling.

Our anniversary collectables proved a real hit at this year’s show.

Airfix related gifts which have more of a commemorative aspect to their design, our new 85th Anniversary pin badge was doing a roaring trade over show weekend, as it seemed that almost every visitor to the stand secured one as a memento of their day. If you were looking for something that little more collectable, our new 85th Anniversary coin was the perfect way in which to mark our significant occasion, as well as your own association to this famous brand, an item which will surely become much sought after in the years to come. We did come away with a few examples of each still available, and will inform readers about how and when these might become available in a forthcoming edition of Workbench.

For now though, we hope you enjoyed this little blog meander around the Airfix display at this year’s Scale ModelWorld show, a thoroughly enjoyable event which gathered the nation’s most impressive selection of inspirational modelling expertise under one roof. We hope those who attended enjoyed the show as much as we did, and we look forward to seeing you all again for more modelling fun next year.

Ferreting about in the competition hall

As you can see, this Ferret build has a story to tell.

Anyone who has ever attended a Scale ModelWorld show will attest to the fact that the modelling talent on display over show weekend is out of this world, not only in the level of skill required to create these scale masterpieces, but also the vision modellers must have at the outset of these projects. Those of us who enjoy marvelling at the wonders served up for our enjoyment every year will probably share the opinion that this calibre of modelling talent is unquestionably a form of art and is deserving of much wider recognition than is bestowed on it by the modelling community. For us modelling enthusiasts, we get as much enjoyment inspecting an impressive model build or diorama scene as we would admiring a famous painting in the National Gallery.

Amongst this array of impressive modelling talent, we are perhaps most impressed when the model build which captures our attention is the work of a younger modeller, not the usual seasoned veteran, but someone who perhaps doesn’t have that long invested in the hobby and might even be at the start of their modelling journey. That proved to be the case when adjudicating entries in this year’s Airfix Trophy competition category, when we came across a particular Ferret Scout Car build.

When we came across the model submitted by 18 year old modeller George Auty, we were instantly hooked, as there was something rather familiar about this scene. One of our team then offered the information that he’d been in touch with George and had supplied him with some information regarding the Airfix event presentation from last year – now he tells us!

Our Ferret Scout Car protector at last year’s Scale ModelWorld show, the sight which inspired George’s magnificent diorama build.

In the days since returning from the show, we’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak with George and to ask him about his inspiration for this build. He told us that he really wanted to build the Ferret kit, but once he had it on his workbench, wasn’t exactly sure how he was going to attack it. That was when he remembered visiting the Airfix stand at last year’s Scale ModelWorld show and seeing the real Ferret parked in front of the stand, helping to ensure good behaviour throughout the weekend. 

As he had taken a couple of pictures of the display during his visit, he found them, inspected them, and found his build inspiration. What if I make the Ferret look like the one in front of the Airfix stand last year? 

George had his build challenge and set about replicating the scene in scale. He told us that the kit build was very straightforward and only needed to be assembled in a manner which closely resembled the vehicle on display at last year’s show, but at the exact moment he had taken his pictures. The detail providing him with his biggest challenge was the replication of the rather distinctive Airfix flag, particularly as George clearly has an eye for detail. He wanted the flag to look as realistic as possible, and definitely in scale, which is where his dealings with Airfix HQ came in. He contacted us and asked if we could supply him with sizing details of the flag banner, and on hearing what it was for, team member James was only too happy to obtain the information for him.

Such a clever modelling idea, we just had to share George’s build with our worldwide Workbench audience.

Although James may have had prior knowledge of the project, he kept it to himself until we came across George’s build in the competition area, which is probably just as well, because coming across the build in this manner was such a pleasant surprise. George completed the build with scratch-built details including the banner, but also scale representations of the Ferret kit box resting against the turret of the model, and an A4 QR code desktop banner to complete this impressive build.

Our adjudicating team have a rigid marking criteria to adhere to when assessing the entries in the Airfix competition categories at Scale ModelWorld, but currently with just the winning entries scooping prizes, George’s fantastic model fell just short of winning this time around, but there was no way we were going to let his effort pass without recognition here in Workbench. Such a fantastic idea and impressively executed – very well done George, and thank you for letting us include your Airfix stand Ferret build as part of this review.

A 75th Anniversary Display of the Day

In the beginning ….. Expertly renovated by the AMSIG team, this is an example of the first plastic model kit ever released by Airfix.

Another of the rather pleasant responsibilities the Airfix team have at Scale ModelWorld is to select our Display of the Day, our way of marking the incredible effort and commitment model clubs and Special Interest Groups undertake each year in creating spectacular displays for us all to admire. As far as we’re concerned, every display at the show is up for consideration, with the criteria being nothing more than a display which stands apart from others, one which really captures our imagination, whether there are Airfix kits amongst the display or not.

When you hear about the latest recipients of the award, you might think that we speak with fork tongue, however, the display we chose at Scale ModelWorld this year was truly spectacular, not just in scale, but also in the modelling rarities it featured.

With a name like the Airfix Modelling Special Interest Group, it won’t come as too much of a surprise to learn that we’ve become quite close to these chaps over the years, although we do have to say that they have never previously been the recipients of our SMW award. Members of the Airfix Modelling SIG are a group of people dedicated to the building, collecting, exhibiting and celebration of all things Airfix and over the course of many years, have built up an unrivalled collection of memorabilia and kits spanning the entire history of the Airfix brand.

With members located all over the country, it isn’t uncommon for the group to have displays at shows in different parts of the country on any given weekend, however, for Scale ModelWorld, they always come together to create something just that little bit special. This year, the team decided on the theme of ’75 years of Airfix models’ and pulled out all the stops to amass a collection of Airfix related products the like of which most people outside of this group would probably have never seen and certainly not in the same place at the same time.

The Airfix Modelling Special Interest Group’s impressive display at this year’s show was a ROARING success!

Just a small part of a display which had visitors taking a pleasant stroll down Airfix memory lane.

When it came to displaying this collection, their initial idea was to have everything laid out chronologically from one end of an entire hall display line to the other, allowing visitors to stroll along a timeline of Airfix goodies from the very first model kit, to current releases and hundreds of products in between. Having reflected on this format, the team were of the opinion that those looking at the display would probably start with the period they were most familiar with, then move along from that point towards more contemporary releases, therefore possibly leaving as much as half the display unseen.

In order to counter this, they decided that by positioning the various decades randomly along the display, more people were likely to view more of the display and as a consequence, discover more of the rare and unusual items they had gathered for our delectation. This decision worked a treat, and those enjoying their display not only renewed pleasant acquaintances with Airfix products from years past, but also discovered a myriad of releases they had no idea had links to Airfix.

As the exhibition hall emptied on Saturday evening, and the AMSIG team headed off for an evening of social frivolities, members of the Airfix team spent an enjoyable few minutes inspecting the Airfix curiosities on display, each of us alone with our thoughts, but each of us with a big smile on our faces. It really made us all proud to be associated with this fantastic brand and took us back to a time when Airfix products played such an important role in our own lives. I wonder what we would have thought back then if someone would have told us that we would actually be helping to continue the heritage of Airfix in 2024! Life really can be funny sometimes.

AMSIG’s Andy Kirby accepting the 2024 Display of the Day award from Airfix Head of Brand Dale Luckhurst.

The Airfix Modelling SIG display at Scale ModelWorld 2024 was truly spectacular and the team were worthy recipients of the latest Airfix Display of the Day trophy. Congratulations once again, however, you know the pressure’s on for next year’s show display now gents!