Airfix Kits

There can’t be many by now middle-aged men (and maybe some women too) in England who at some point in their youth did not build an Airfix (or Frog or Revell etc) plastic model kit. It was the highlight of many a child’s week to cast an eye over rows of kits in plastic bags hanging up on racks, or more complicated kits in cardboard boxes bearing brightly coloured artwork, in the local model shop or Woolworths and deciding on which one to spend his pocket money. The excitement continued with the rush to finish the kit quickly, trying not to make a mess with the glue and the paint, and the disappointment when it was finished and looked pretty horrible! In 1948, Airfix was commissioned to produce a promotional toy - the Ferguson Tractor – which was produced in kit form. This was the first Airfix kit; 50 were initially made and they sold at 2/11d. Fifty years later, Airfix celebrated half a century of model making. Some carry on the hobby to this day and many a loft in England groans with the weight of yet to be built kits stacked in a corner. Airfix continues to produce a wide range of kits and as the company approaches its sixtieth birthday, it has been responsible for starting many a modeller into the hobby. To many people the name has became synonymous with the hobby; much as ‘Hoover’ has come to mean any type of vacuum cleaner, so ‘Airfix’ to most people now means any type of plastic kit.

Alan Simpson