This is great to see, as a modeller obsessed since being a child thanks to my dad, brilliant that Airfix look after their loyal customers. Brilliant video, even if I’m rather jealous!
It was certainly an experience that I never thought I would have the opportunity to have - a dream that I'd had since I was about 10 years old was to visit the Hornby Factory, granted there isn't much of a factory here anymore, but it was still awesome
I'm jealous as well, but that's simply because after looking at the scale models shown, and comparing them to my own, the skill difference between my skills and those of these master modelers becomes...evident, to put it lightly😅
It is interesting to discover the company. I grew up with Airfix, Matchbox, Heller... Airfix is a must, especially when you like building British aircrafts. 😀
Good to see that Hornby/Airfix/Humbrol are upping their game. For too long they have been rather remote and insular. It would be great to see more footage from the day and how they are working to relate to the modern market. Great video, Matt.
My mother worked there during the 70s and I did in during the summer of 1978 in between 5th and 6th form, Frog was the plastic kit of the day, place was known as Rovex.
I can't remember what my first Airfix kit was exactly, but I do remember the first kit I suddenly decided to try to paint properly aged about six circa 1965-66. It was a Stuka and I still have it in the loft in a box.
So many private pilots that would like some GA aircraft. Cessna Piper say in 1/48 scale. Wouldn't be complicated kits as no bombs or rockets to include.
G'day, Yay Team ! I concurr... Minimum Aircraft, Microlights, Ultralights, and Recreational Aircraft, too.... (See my much longer post to our Host....) Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !
Great to see Airfix moving with the times and engaging the community in the digitial domain. It's free advertising for them if they get this right so no brainer. Also really pleased to see Airfix making some cracking new toolings and stepping up the quality front to compete with Tamiya and Eduard etc. Curious to see what humbrol do with the paints to. I try to support British companies and would love to replace my Vallejo with Humbrol IF they perform as well. Will have to wait and see.
Hi Matt, that was a excellent video, always grezt to be able to see what model companies are doing, that 48th scale Avro Hanson looks very interesting, it is also nice to put faces to names, you and James, bext regrds tou you both from a Kiwi living in Australia
I know Hornby Hobbies own Humbrol and I'm worried about them messing about with their enamels. Its all to do with REACH listings of dodgy chemicals, which drives us aerospace engineers to distraction. Anyway, who remembers Airfix's own brand of enamel paints in the tall tapered glass bottles and metal screw tops ?
Whilst hornby owns humbrol, they all have specific and dedicated teams of people who work on each brand - so in theory what Hornby or Airfix does shouldn't always impact another brand
Wonderful video Matt. It looks like you had an amazing experience visiting the Airfix & Hornby HQ. I thought it was quite neat that you got visit the old factory. And saw a lot of the original Airfix moulds, still in existence. Hopefully Airfix will reissue a lot of those kits under the Vintage Classics range. And hopefully you went home with a few sample kits too!
haha yeah, they did give us some free samples - not sure what I'm going to do with them yet :) Sadly not all the toolings I saw were serviceable so those kits may never be seen again
@@ModelMinutes its sad some of those moulds were no longer serviceable. On the bright side at least you got the chance to see a slice of Airfix History in person.
Good review, it’s such a shame that Hornby doesn’t support its loyal vast following of railway enthusiasts, pricing is just ridiculous and now even knocking its distributors! Hornby is also missing a trick with the vast empty warehouses which the South East is crying out for a large exhibition hall as a Show ground for all its different products.
@@ModelMinutes yep sounds like Hornby, time will tell, unfortunately the top end so called ‘ Management’ needs a dam good shake up, the company could be world class, But never the way it’s operating at the moment, how can you have believe in them when watching Hornby Model World Series and laughing at that fact about making a pound profit? Must have dam good bank manager.
I was surprised to see there wasnt many content creators there, given how many youtube modellers there are. Great video though, and a very good move by Airfix publicity wise. Theyre really going up in my estimation.
I think there were a number of people who were invited but then had to cancel. Also, they were still taking some covid precautions and the spaces we were using to film weren't the largest. Had there been many more there, it would have been a bit of a squeeze
I would really like to see how the designers go about creating a model from beginning to end, and how did they design models back in the day before computers?
Airfix seems to be one of the few scale model companies that know how to make use of the social media. For those that complain about the price of Airfix kits, unfortunately they have become rather expensive. But it seems that almost all manufacturers have raised their prices. For instance, check out what RS Models kits cost, 18 £ for a single seat fighter in 1/72 is very expensive. Very few kits are less than 10 £ or €, Roden, MisterCraft, Smer come to my mind.
It's a very educational experience for the audience. Thank you for the excursion! It’s also always nice to watch RU-vidrs in a lively, relaxed atmosphere.
Amazing, the Garden of Eden of the modeling world. Discovered Humbrol in 1964 in a little hobby shop in Warrington UK, they just brushed on like magic was building Airfix well before. Its not a Spitfire if it is not Airfix. Great to see HQ using 3d printers to improve detail. Three quid for a kit, I would have needed a trailer. Thanks for sharing.
Haha! There were only a few kits at £3 and the reason they were so discounted was because they were incomplete or damaged in some way, mine was a starter set but was missing all the paints, glue and brush
6:02 I know a big gap in the market. Pilot minis for 1:72 models. Kinda sad that only a handful of models come with a seated pilot mini. After getting my BF-109 from Airfix today and looking at the Dornier Do-17 kit the days, I realized that Airfix offers pilots in some kits.
I actually asked their designer about this, shame I didn’t record it because it would be nice to show it. He explained that creating new figures takes as much time and cost to produce as most normal model kits, and quite often given the complexity of the models, getting them to orientate for moulding presents it’s own headaches. The way forward might be stl files and 3D printing these extras
@@ModelMinutes I understand this but even the aftermarket and 3D printing is almost no option as there is literally nothing. I only found 1 manufacturer of seated pilots and no 3D files at all. So far Zvezda, and for some models Revell, are the only ones I know who have pilots.
I ALSO LIKE TO MAKE MODEL-AIRCRAFTS. I ALSO MAINLY MAKE THE AIRCRAFTS IN WW2. I MAKE THEM AS THE ROC AIR FORCE WHICH FIGHTING AGAINST THE JAPANESE. THEY ARE： P-40E, P-51D, P-38L, Hs-123... ROC=REPUBLIC OF CHINA（中華民國）
Oh yeah, in USA during the 1950s and 1960-- we had Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Aretha, Bob Seger, etc playing in the background while we built Revell and Monogram models, raced slot cars and launched Estes Rockets. Great fun in Detroit as a kid. We were always on our bicycles!
Great video Matt, you can show us more i you want. Also nice that James came into the video. Can you show us more about rhe stuff you did buy. Can you show us the bargain you made. Nice video.👍
Very very disappointing that the tooling they use now is Chinese pap , come on Hornby and I know it's all to do with price but people will buy quality let's keep it in house let's keep our foundries going . I've just bought the hurricane MK1 haven't made a model since I was about 8 yrs old , I'm now 61 really looking forward to making it .
There are fifty-seven BILLION subjects they might care to make kits of, and each in a possible 4 or 5 scales, yet all the kit manufacturers can think of making are military models, and of that the vast majority are WWII subjects. It's been decades since I've seen a kit that i would like to make a model of. Otherwise, YAWN.
This video inspired me to take my autumn (Iron-man Wales aversion therapy) holiday. I wanted to visit this place. I wish I could upload my photos. But thanks for inspiration 😏👍
We take tea whenever we want lol - sometimes it is just all day.... The full range of airfix kits is on their website that they are currently producing
Love the way you supported the company by spending a whole £3 on a clearance item and got free gifts. you can see why it went out of business even enthusiasts wouldn't spend any money.
Lol you judged my support of the company based on what I purchased in this video? You clearly haven’t seen any of my other videos then because I’ve probably spent thousands of pounds on their products - I’d recommend checking out my stash videos to see how bad it actually is… Edit: I must be out of the loop as well because I didn’t know that Airfix had ceased trading and gone out of business? Last I heard a few weeks ago was that they had announced good profits and growth… but I suppose I missed out on the news that they’d shut down now 🤷♂️. Bit weird though, because I only got an email from them yesterday announcing a new product returning to the range, but that can’t be right if they closed can it?
Thanks! Yes, sadly i've not had much time to get out on the railway recently - I actually cut all the plants back only a couple of months ago and they just came back with a vengence . . . I had hoped to get some more trains running soon but it might be dependent on how much time I have
We discussed this issue in a stream over on Mos6510 Models channel, I think people aren’t used to the new kits they are producing and for the same quality compared to other manufacturers they are actually in line with them price wise
Grew up making and playing with airfix models and soldiers. Unfortunately they have gotten so expensive that I can longer afford them even as an adult!
The first models I made were Airfix WW1 planes in the late 60's. The range of those was fairly good back then. In my Australian country town it was Airfix and Frog kits.
Your lack of enthusiasm is not infectious thankfully, how a modeller could not be overflowing with joy at doing this is beyond me, perhaps you should look at some other hobby, all the best
Lol I guess enthusiasm doesn’t always have to be in your face. Would I have like 300 videos about this hobby and a huge stash if I wasn’t enthusiastic about it?
I'm sure in some future versions they will consider it, but for now I'm pretty sure they have settled on service versions. It would probably require an element of retooling though to remove the guns and turret . . .so it might not be cost effective
@@ModelMinutes I am Local to the shuttleworth collection and they have the Bae systems owned Anson sadly they changed the colour scheme on her a couple years ago, it was a really nice blue scheme
At my 47 years old all I surely can see is that each day is gone I do love more and more Model's World and as same time I do feel very weird -out of every human relation, in fact I' d love selling my house in town and get a old country house where find enought places for my oli painting and model building. All the best to every modeller in the planet.
I bought Airfix kits in the seventies. They were very poor back then. The only thing they had going was their low price. As soon as I could afford it I moved to different, better brands. Hope their kits are much better now.
they are considerably better now, but people still expect them to be cheap, so people don't try them to realise how good they have become and rather moan about how overpriced they are
My visit to Airfix……..the trip, the overnight stay and what I had for dinner??? Nice VUE joke. When we get to Airfix things improve but 40% of video was not relevant to a model builder. I drive places and stay in hotels myself don’t need to see that.
My aim was to give the overall experience that I had. Whilst it might not have been relevant to modellers that is not the sole aim of my channel, I produce content to entertain as well, which it seems most people did enjoy this video
@@ModelMinutes that’s fair. I was personally keen to see the site. How kits are made etc. I thought that choosing which kits to make etc was very interesting. For me the social experience isn’t relevant. From my perspective the other stuff isn’t what was advertised. Don’t get me wrong, the video is well made and I would like to see more of what happens at Airfix. Forgive me if I came over as overly critical, I just don’t find the first third interesting. I would add, the bloopers were good 😊
@@nbeveridge5849 thanks, it is my intention to make some follow up videos with a bit more information about other various things, but some other modellers have already uploaded that so it’s just a matter of trying to present it in a different way
G'day, Yay Team ! Very interesting..., I too began with Hornby (a clockwork Trainset, in 1964, aged 3...) and Airfix Kits (Bf-110, from memory, maybe 1967 or '68). So, out of general interest, I clicked on when ye two appeared in my Feed. The only disappointment in the whole thing being the niggardly, "mine Mine MINE, It's ALL MINE !!!" style of an attitude from the Fleet Air Arm Museum....! Presumably..., some corrupt management Executive has seen fit to sign a Contract with a private Individual, or Corporation, with a view to restricting the "Right" of the Taxpaying CitiZenry to visit the Museum, restricting it to some Entity which is in pursuit of a Busyness Model involving the use of Publicly owned Historical Museum Exhibits, in the production of Video/Still Images and Commentary - for Global Publication via MONETISED Distribution medium, including RU-vid. One suspects that 1) the FAA Museum recieves their "Cut" of the resulting AdSense Revenue, and any other Funding generated thus, from videomaking/broadcasting those aforementioned Images/Commentary... And 2) that any such Revenue gleaned, from thereby restricting and preventing any and all other Videomakers from the collection of material which MIGHT Perhaps Maybe Possibly diminish the expected potential Revenue Stream which the aforementioned FAA Museum-employed beaurocratic Factotum hopes and plans to gain access thereunto - with a view to ensuring the continuity of their own Salary Package... And, further... 3) It strikes this little old Kangaroo Feeder (!) that yonder Beaurocrat's entire Scheming little Plot may well be utterly contrary to Section TiddleyPomPoohShite, of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act...(?). Or some similar provisions of British LegalEagleBeagle&Briefcasery, enshrined at Law. One of my Co-Subscribers is a British Solicitor, his Channel is RobertHartlepool ; and if CoVid hasn't planted him, then if contact him and you tell him that I pointed you towards him for an opinion, regarding my reaction - he may well surprise you...(?) ! What I can say for certainty is that a month ago I had to be in Inverell, 60 miles from Dundee (NSW, Oz....) for an Audiometry Assesment, so I tracked down the relocated, rebuilt, renamed facility (my guess is that they must have secured substantial Federal funding during the intervening 15 years, since my previous "pilgrimage"...?). Upon my arrival I enquired, "Do you still have a Skycraft Scout on display ?" And the two attendants stood to attention, looked at each other and asked "What ?" I reached for my Wallet, saying, "It's an old Aeroplane..." And they looked at each other, and the woman said to her off-sider, "I think that might be the Red one...?" and, turning to me, "Why, did you have something to do with it ?" And I produced my wallet, opened it to a 1978 photo of the Scout in my parent's back yard, saying, " Yes, it was red last time i saw it... It took me for my first Solo, I'm the last person to have ever flown it, in November 1978...." And, behold - I was let in for free, permitted to make a Video of their whole setup, culminating in the Grand Reunion, and issued with a Free Pass to return for a rematch - any time I might feel so inclined....(!). So, to see that, please feel free to backtrack me to my Videos about a month ago, to be a bit amazed and probably have a good giggle - at, "National Transportation Museum...; Visiting My First Aeroplane !" So, as you see - I did weild a significant bit more "Leverage" than you two had available in the kitbag - but it still strikes me as being a bit of a shitty way that the FAA treated you two.... They should have charged you admission, allowed you to capture Visual Footage - using the available Light, and collect your Audio too, and told you to come back and pay again any time you felt like making a better or more specific Video - relying on your YT Coverage herding (some of) your Viewers into trekking to their Museum, and paying to enter - thus boosting their Gate Numbers, and increasing their Cash Take from boosted Visitor Numbers.... I was making a long-intended sequel to the Video Slide-show which I made ten years ago, using old photo's and Magazine Articles, titled, "The 8-Hp, 1975, Red Baron Skycraft Scout ; World's 1st Legal Minimum Aircraft !" Which is kinda whyfore I was treated like a bit of a Rare and Exotic olde Birdman, kinda thing...(!) The two Videos about the 1975 Scout currently Book-End my, "Personal Aeroplanology..." Playlist.... Who knows - maybe you might be able to coax Airfix to consider contacting Terry Griffy, it's current owner, via the N.T.M. in Inverell, where it has been on-loan for about 27 years...; because I am unaware of any Scale Static Model Kits - of ANY of the early Minimum Aircraft, Microlights, Ultralights, or "Recreational Aircraft" - which all sprung forth after what taught me how to fly, when I was a 17 year-old Smartarse....(!) ? There ye go...(!). I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed warbling it... Such is life, Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !
@@ModelMinutes No worries mate... I was wondering if the length of the Post might have frightened your Spam filter (?). Keep on keeping on... Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !
I honestly wish that someone would make more general aviation models. And not the cessna 172 or 150 either. I would love some stuff like the 180's, the 185's, the 206's in a bigger scale than 1/72 and 1/48
Really enjoyed the video, due to eyes going am not into kit building anymore (sadly) but do collect Corgi Aviation diecast, did you get to see any of that side of the business?
unfortunately it was just Airfix and Humbrol which we were given access to on our visit - I would have liked to have asked some Humbrol questions and stuff, but that will probably be for another day lol
@@andyb1201 You should take a look at this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IYk8CIeY8tg.html that I made about that very subject! I made this to address the amount of rumour and misinformation going around about that topic
Hello , I’m hopefully going to the visitor centre and shop if you don’t mind telling me what the model shop is like as well as the discount kit corner ?
the model shop has a good selection of humbrol, hornby, airfix and scalextric - but it's not as large as I was expecting and everything (mostly) seemed to be RRP. The "bargain corner" features a bit of a lucky dip as most of the stuff there seems to be missing something (paints etc) or in some way discounted
@@ModelMinutes We get so used to the notion that England is so small and compact you can walk to anywhere in the country and be home again in time for supper. xD
@@pawelpw1161 I have an elegoo mars 2 pro which uses resin and costs around £200 - review video is on my channel - this is the printer i use for detailed parts. I also have a creality ender 3 S1, which uses PLA filament but it isn't really suited for detail parts - larger "functional" parts and things like that. Again a review video is on my channel
I did put forward to airfix the idea of the releasing a kit of HMS Caroline, why. because its the last surviving WW1 battleship which you can see at the titanic quarter in Belfast. its also a shame that the gift shop does not have a kit of this ship to sell. all the planes and engineer drawings of the ship are on display for everyone to see which makes producing a model kit a little easier. all you have to do is copy the originals for scale and details. so lets hope Airfix will eventually get round to doing one.
So nice to see they decided to stay in Margate (back in my RAF days of the '90s tehy were avtively trying to abandon the town) although sad to see that Margate is looking sad and neglected.
