Airfix Books
In 1970 the Airfix range of kits was expanding, with many new and interesting models being added to the range nearly every month. Airfix Magazine was enjoying record sales with over 40,000 copies printed in July 1970, and roughly two and a half readers per issue, which meant that approximately 100,000 people read it each month! In August 1970, Airfix announced the first of a new series of modelling books that were to be published by Patrick Stephens Limited, the publishers of Airfix Magazine. PSL had for some time printed a series of modelling books, many edited or written by former editors or contributors to Airfix Magazine. The new range was to be published ‘in association with Airfix Products Ltd’ and initially would consist of books dealing with conversions or superdetailing of specific Airfix kits.
These books would be subtitled Their History and How to Model Them. The first part of each book would contain a brief history of the ship, aircraft or tank, followed by a section on how to improve or enhance the model, and then, where appropriate, convert to different marks. The authors were in most cases well known to readers of Airfix Magazine as they had for years contributed to that journal. One, Roy Cross, was Airfix’s principal artist and had previously written several books on aircraft, so was no stranger to writing a book.
With one exception the ‘history’ books all used the kit illustration for the cover, the exception being the book on the Lancaster, which probably lacked suitable Airfix artwork. The first book was HMS Victory – Classic Ships – Their History and How to Model Them – No. 1. It was written by Noel C. L. Hackney, who also wrote the other two ship books, and was published on 25 August 1970. The second book, on the Mayflower, appeared in December shortly after the release of the kit. The third and final ship book was on the Cutty Sark and appeared in 1974.
1971 would see the publication of the first of two new series. The first, the Airfix Magazine Annual, would run for eight years; each year contained a collection of articles similar to those produced in the monthly magazine.
The final annual to be released was the Airfix Magazine Annual No.8. It was in fact released as two books, one for aircraft modellers and one for military modellers. Both were paperback, which seemed to suggest an element of cost cutting.
A selection of titles from the three ‘Their History and How to Model Them’ series – Classic Ships, Classic Aircraft and Classic Armoured Fighting Vehicles.
The second new series was entitled Spitfire – Classic Aircraft No.1 –Their History and How to Model Them’. It was published in November 1971. The author was Roy Cross. Five further books were published, based on aircraft modelled by Airfix. The final one on the Mosquito was produced after the Airfix collapse and was based on models produced by several manufacturers.
Each book contained a section on the history of the subject, which was followed by a section on ‘superdetailing’ the kit and converting it into other versions. The first few books devoted much space to detailing the wing interiors, where there was much scope for filling in the wheel well and ammunition trays. The later kits had this detail included as standard. I well remember spending hours cutting out plasticard strips based on the templates in the book and sticking them into the wings. A rewarding ‘boxed-in’ look followed, but I couldn’t help feeling relieved when kits such as the Hurricane had it all done for you!
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 book was printed in a second edition in paperback form, but one does not see it very often. In mid-1974 a new range was announced entitled ‘Airfix Magazine Modelling Guides’. They were released two at a time and the range eventually totalled twenty-eight books! They were smaller than the other books and had single colour covers with simple drawings to illustrate the contents. They were released in pairs roughly four times a year. The authors tended to come from amongst those who wrote articles in Airfix Magazine, not surprisingly.
In 1976 a final range was announced. Entitled Classic Armoured Fighting Vehicles – Their History and How to Model Them it ran to two books devoted to the Crusader and Lee/Grant tanks which had recently been produced to 1:32 scale by Airfix.
The final book to be published under the Airfix/PSL agreement was the Lancaster book in 1979. The smaller modelling section was based on existing Lancaster kits and was published before the new Airfix Lancaster was released. The other books were based on the 1:24 Superkits.
The books have long been out of print and did not make the transition to Palitoy. They can still be found on eBay and are worth buying if one intends to model one of the old, earlier Airfix kits that are still available.
PSL had also produced several books that expanded on several series of articles which had appeared in Airfix Magazine, such as ‘Bombing Colours’ and ‘Fighting Colours’.
It was a bold venture, which shows the strong position held by Airfix kits in the 1970s. No other manufacturer has come close to producing a range of books about their model kits. In fact in 2011, Airfix lent its name to a series of books produced by SAM Publications entitled Build and Convert, which mainly deal with improving early Airfix kits.
Books about Airfix
In addition to the books produced by Airfix in the 1970s, many books about Airfix have been written, most since the Hornby takeover.
The first book detailing the history of Airfix was written in 1984 by a young modeller called Arthur Ward. He approached Peter Allen who had been a designer at Airfix and was now chief designer at Palitoy/Airfix. Peter was impressed by the young man’s knowledge about Airfix; most would-be authors wanted Peter to supply the information! So Arthur set to work. He interviewed many of the former Airfix staff and examined much of the Airfix archive that had been transferred to Coalville and was at that time still largely intact. The resulting book, The Model World of Airfix, was published in 1985 and sold in a box set which contained a model of the HP42 Heracles and Kamov Ka-25B ‘Hormone’.
Older modellers, like myself, were already familiar with the range of kits, but it was the early history of Airfix that fascinated us. Arthur had spoken to the likes of Ralph Ehrmann and John Gray who had unique knowledge of the early years of Airfix before it became the premier kit company in the world.
Until Arthur took up his pen again in 1999, it was the only book about the history of Airfix. Pat Lewarne, an enthusiast who ran a kit collectors’ shop called ‘Collectakit’, had produced a privately published booklet entitled The Enthusiast’s Guide to Airfix Models in 1987, which listed all the kits produced by Airfix up until the sale to Humbrol. Much of the information, such as year of release and catalogue numbers, came from a careful study of the catalogues produced since 1963.
During the lean years of Airfix kit production during the late 1980s and 1990s, these two books helped to remind us of the size and magnificence that was the old Airfix range. We were literally taken back to our childhoods. Diehard enthusiasts like me already had extensive notes and records accumulated over the previous twenty-five years, but these two books helped to fill in the missing pieces and ‘flesh out’ the story of Airfix.
Inevitably we would find errors or information that did not ‘gel’ with the careful notes we had been making for many years previously. However, much of the information had come from primary sources, the original Airfix men and the Airfix archive. Memories are not infallible, however, and dates and the like are easily misplaced. Also a book is the result of months, sometimes years of painstaking research, and eventually one has to commit to publication. Any perceived errors cannot be amended unless one is lucky enough to publish a second edition.
Nowadays we have the internet, which is a wonderful thing but does produce its own problems. Large numbers of enthusiasts, who previously had little or no contact with others of their ilk, could now, through the medium of the World Wide Web, chat and exchange information and ideas instantly with their fellow enthusiasts. Now one can write something on the internet and in the time it takes to make a cup of tea, several people have already made postings to tell you that you’ve got it wrong!
Frequently, of course, they are right, but often any comments are merely their personal views and not necessarily always right. In the fifteen years I have been running the Airfix Collectors’ Club, I have published nearly sixty quarterly magazines, and some of the information printed in the early issues has been revised in later ones to take account of new information that has been unearthed since. Much of the information in this book comes from research that I did for Constant Scale. I feel at least I have a body of work behind me to support what will be written in this book.
In 1999, Arthur wrote his second book called Airfix: Celebrating 50 Years of the Greatest Plastic Kits in the World’. It took the story up to 1999, the fiftieth anniversary of the Ferguson Tractor. Now we could read about the Humbrol years, and there was further information on the early years. To the man in the street, who wanted to reminisce about his childhood, this was an ideal book with lots of colour pictures and stories to remind him of days gone by.
Also in 1999, Steve Knight, who runs the Kitmaster Collectors Club with Marcus Archer, wrote a book entitled Let’s Stick Together about the history of Kitmaster before it was taken over by Airfix, and the subsequent use by Airfix of the Kitmaster moulds. It contained more details and statistics and helped greatly with our understanding of Airfix in the 1960s. In 2012, Steve printed a greatly revised book that included much new information and was entitled Let’s Stick a Little More!
Arthur would write three more books before Hornby had got to grips with Airfix. In 2004, he published Classic Kits: Collecting the Greatest Model Kits in the World which had sections on all the plastic kit companies. Some only ran to two or three pages, but the Airfix section was naturally the largest. New information was included, particularly about the years up to 2004.
In 2007 and 2008, Arthur wrote two books for Crowood. The first was about television and film toys and had a small section on Airfix film and television toys. The other was about the classic toys of the 1960s and 1970s, and again Airfix featured in a small section.
Meanwhile Roy Cross had published two beautiful books on his aviation and marine art. Airfix illustrations featured in both books to a lesser extent, but it was wonderful to see these paintings as they had been painted. Such was the demand for pictures of his Airfix artwork that in 2009 he wrote a book called Vintage Years of Airfix Box Art, which was devoted entirely to his Airfix artwork. Hornby kindly supplied the transparencies for the artwork, and Roy used some of his unseen ‘roughs’. This was the book the Airfix enthusiast had been waiting for.
In 2014, to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of Airfix, Roy wrote a second book featuring the remaining artwork. I was privileged to go through the transparencies held by Airfix to select those not previously printed in Roy’s earlier books. About a dozen transparencies are missing, but otherwise all of Roy’s Airfix artwork is now available to savour.
In 2004, Paul Morehead, who publishes the quarterly magazine Plastic Warrior, privately printed a small booklet entitled Airfix: The Early Years, which gave much information on the soldiers and figures produced by Airfix in the late 1940s.
Over half the books on Airfix have been published in the last five or six years since Hornby brought Airfix back to its prominent position in the modelling world. This is an indication of how Hornby has rejuvenated Airfix, because now many people want to write books about Airfix. Some of the books are about specific parts of the Airfix range and have involved considerable research on the part of the authors. A couple seem to be basically abridged versions of Arthur’s seminal works and perpetuate one or two of the errors.
Things kicked off in a big way in 2009, when Arthur published his Boys’ Book of Airfix, which updated and added new details to the Airfix story. It was joined by Roy’s book on Airfix artwork, and a book on the Airfix range of OO/HO figures called, aptly, Airfix’s Little Soldiers. Written by French Airfix aficionado Jean-Christophe Carbonel, it tells the story of Airfix’s range of OO/HO figures and is well illustrated.
Three more books were published in 2010. James May, well known for his Top Gear and toy programmes, wrote the Airfix Handbook, which told the story briefly of Airfix and then went on to to give details of his full-size replica of BT-K, which was built for RAF Cosford. John Bentley wrote a book on the aircraft of the Battle of Britain with numerous references to Airfix kits. Trevor Pask wrote a condensed story of Airfix for Shire Publications, which company produced a series of books on the history of toy companies.
In 2011, Jonathan Mock, who designs most of Airfix’s decals, wrote a book called The Airfix Book of Scale Modelling, and SAM Publications released the first of a small range of paperback magazines with the title of Build and Convert; at the time of writing there are seven books in the series. Each book has a theme, such as military models or aircraft, and the author then takes an older kit, mostly Airfix, and improves and finishes the model to the current standard. Plans to produce a couple of books devoted to Revell kits do not appear to have been proceeded with.
In 2011, I also printed two booklets for the members of the Airfix Collectors’ Club. Listed as Club Guides Numbers 2 and 3, they were contents and indexes for Airfix Magazine. Number 1 dealt with every issue from 1960 to 1981, and Number 3 covered all the issues up to 1993, when Airfix Magazine ceased. In 2010 I had printed Guide Number 1, which was a listing of every known Airfix kit and the box-top artist. A greatly expanded and updated version was published in late 2014.
In 2012 Steve Knight published his second book on Kitmaster. Like the first, there is a sizable section on Airfix and its use of the Kitmaster moulds it acquired in 1963, and it has been updated with more information.
Also in 2012, Trevor Snowden, who had recently retired from Hornby/Airfix and was an acknowledged Spitfire enthusiast, wrote Spitfire Revisited. In this book he showed how to model every version of the Spitfire. Most of the models chosen were Airfix kits, many of which had been designed by the man himself!
Mark Stanton wrote a book for Crowood about building civil aircraft which used a large number of Airfix kits. Didier Palix, another French Airfix enthusiast had also written a book about Airfix’s aircraft kits. Unlike J. C. Carbonel’s book on the OO/HO figures, this book was mainly visual. Each page was devoted to all the headers and box tops used in each series from 1955 to 1982. For those who loved the artwork and box styles of the ‘golden age’ of Airfix aircraft kits, this book will rekindle all those happy memories.
From 2013, SAM Publications produced Build and Convert Numbers 3 to 7, again mainly using Airfix kits. Arthur Ward made a welcome return to the literary world of Airfix with his book entitled The Other Side of Airfix, which told the story of the non-kit parts of old Airfix, with stories about the arts and crafts, toys and games and other ranges that Airfix was involved with before the collapse of 1981.
Roy Cross produced his second book of Airfix artwork for the seventy-fifth anniversary of Airfix in 2014. So admirers of Roy’ s artwork can now view virtually the entire catalogue of his artwork through the various books he has published.
Also in 2014, to coincide with the release of the1:24 Hawker Typhoon kit, a booklet entitled How to Build: The Airfix Hawker Typhoon Mk Ib was published by ADH Publishing and also sold by Hornby. Many of the above books are now out of print, but they frequently appear on eBay and are not too difficult to get hold of.
Airfix/PSL Books – All Hardbacks (unless otherwise stated)
Classic Ships –Their History and How to Model Them
90101/0 85059 053 1 |
No. 1 – HMS Victory – 1970 |
£1.05 |
90102/0 85059 058 2 |
No. 2 – Mayflower – 1970 |
£1.05 |
90107/0 85059 123 6 |
No. 3 – Cutty Sark – 1974 |
£1.95 |
Classic Aircraft –Their History and How to Model Them
90104/0 85059 082 5 |
No. 1 – Spitfire – 1971 |
£1.50 |
90105/0 85059 106 6 |
No. 2 – Bf 109B-E – 1972 |
£1.60 |
0 85059 106 6/0 85059 649 1 |
No. 2 – Bf 109B-E – reprint – paperback – 1976 |
|
90106/0 85059 107 4 |
No. 3 – P-51 Mustang – 1973 |
£1.60 |
90108/0 85059 124 4 |
No. 4 – Hawker Hurricane – 1974 |
£1.80 |
0 85059 193 7 |
No. 5 – Ju 87 Stuka – 1977 |
£2.95 |
0 85059 344 1 |
No. 6 – Lancaster – 1979 |
£4.95 |
|
No. 7 – Mosquito – 1980? |
Classic Armoured Fighting Vehicles –Their History and How to Model Them
90110/0 85059 194 5 |
No. 1 – Crusader Tank – 1976 |
£2.50 |
0 85059 269 0 |
No. 2 – Lee/Grant Tank – 1977 |
£2.95 |
Airfix Magazine Annuals – Published Autumn Before
0 85059 077 9 |
No. 1 – 1972 |
£1.25 |
0 85059 095 7 |
No. 2 – 1973 |
£1.20 |
0 85059 134 1 |
No. 3 – 1974 |
£1.25 |
0 85059 166 X |
No. 4 – 1975 |
£1.60 |
0 85059 214 3 |
No. 5 – 1976 |
£1.95 |
0 85059 266 7 |
No. 6 – 1977 |
£2.50 |
0 85059 264 X |
No. 7 – 1978 |
£2.95 |
0 85059 294 1 |
No. 8 – 1979 – Aircraft Modellers – paperback |
£2.95 |
0 85059 314 X |
No. 8 – 1979 – Military Modellers – paperback |
£2.95 |
Airfix Modellers’ Guides – 1974 Onwards
90120/0 85059 153 8 |
No. 1 – Plastic Modelling – 1974 |
£1.00 |
90121/0 85059 154 6 |
No. 2 – Aircraft Modelling – 1974 |
£1.00 |
90122/0 85059 177 5 |
No. 3 – Military Modelling – 1974 |
£1.20 |
90123/0 85059 178 3 |
No. 4 – Napoleonic Wargaming – 1974 |
£1.20 |
90124/0 85059 203 8 |
No. 5 – Tank and AFV Modelling – 1975 |
£1.20 |
90125/0 85059 204 6 |
No. 6 – RAF Fighters of World War II – 1975 |
£1.20 |
90126/0 85059 210 0 |
No. 7 – Warship Modelling – 1975 |
£1.20 |
90127/0 85059 211 9 |
No. 8 – German Tanks of World War II – 1975 |
£1.20 |
90128/0 85059 212 7 |
No. 9 – Ancient Wargaming – 1975 |
£1.20 |
90129/0 85059 213 5 |
No. 10 – Luftwaffe Camouflage – 1975 |
£1.20 |
90130/0 85059 215 1 |
No. 11 – RAF Camouflage – 1975 |
£1.20 |
90131/0 85059 216 X |
No. 12 – Afrika Korps – 1975 |
£1.20 |
90132/0 85059 224 0 |
No. 13 – French Foreign Legion – 1976 |
£1.40 |
90133/0 85059 225 9 |
No. 14 – World War II American Fighters – 1976 |
£1.40 |
90134/0 85059 230 5 |
No. 15 – World War II Wargaming – 1976 |
£1.40 |
90135/0 85059 231 3 |
No. 16 – Modelling Jet Fighters – 1976 |
£1.40 |
90136/0 85059 232 1 |
No. 17 – World War II British Tanks – 1976 |
£1.40 |
90137/0 85059 233 X |
No. 18 – World War II USAF Camouflage – 1976 |
£1.40 |
90138/0 85059 234 8 |
No. 19 – Model Soldiers – 1976 |
£1.40 |
90139/0 85059 235 6 |
No. 20 – 8th Army in the Desert – 1976 |
£1.40 |
0 85059 249 6 |
No. 21 – Modelling Armoured Cars – 1977 |
£1.60 |
0 85059 250 X |
No. 22 – Russian Tanks of World War II – 1977 |
£1.60 |
0 85059 257 7 |
No. 23 – German Fighters of World War II – 1977 |
£1.60 |
0 85059 258 5 |
No. 24 – Amateur Civil War Wargaming – 1977 |
£1.60 |
No. 25 – Modelling World War II Fighters – 1977 |
£1.60 |
|
0 85059 260 7 |
No. 26 – American Tanks of World War II – 1977 |
£1.60 |
0 85059 261 5 |
No. 27 – Modelling RAF Vehicles – 1978 |
£1.60 |
0 85059 259 3 |
No. 28 – The English Civil War – 1978 |
£1.60 |
|
|
|
0 905418 71 9 |
Aircraft Conversions – nine from Airfix Magazine – Alan W. Hall – Gresham Books, 1979 |
£1.35 |
Airfix Colouring Books
Children’s Leisure Products Ltd, 1979:
0 7094 0143 4 |
Aircraft – 48 Exciting Scenes to Colour |
£0.35 |
0 7904 0144 2 |
Ships – 48 Exciting Scenes to Colour |
£0.35 |
0 7094 0145 ? |
? |
|
0 7904 0146 9 |
Railways – 48 Exciting Scenes to Colour |
£0.35 |
Posters
In collaboration with Airfix Products Ltd:
C1182 |
‘HMS Victory’ – EP Group of Companies – Main illustration Brian Knight – 1973 |
C1202 |
‘The Story of Flight’ – EP Group of Companies – Main illustrations Roy Cross and Brian Knight – 1974 |
90141-3 |
Datachart No. 1 – ‘German Fighter Aircraft, 1939–45’ – Roy Cross – Bf 109E – 1975 £? |
Books About Airfix
Various authors and publishers:
Bentley, John G. Aircraft of the Battle of Britain (Ravette Publishing 2010, ISBN: 978 184161 339 0) £6.99
Cole, Tom Build & Convert 1: Airfix Military Models (SAM Publications 2011, ISBN: 978 1 906959 20 3) £19.99
Carbonel, J. C. Airfix’s Little Soldiers: HO/OO from 1959 to 2009 (Histoire & Collections 2009, ISBN: 978 2 35250 089 6)
Cross, Roy Celebration of Flight: Aviation Art of Roy Cross (Crowood 2002, ISBN: 978 1 84037 326 4) £25.00
Cross, Roy Celebration of Sail: Marine Art of Roy Cross (Crowood 2005, ISBN: 978 1 86126 715 3) £29.95
Cross, Roy Vintage Years of Airfix Box Art (Crowood 2009, ISBN: 978 1 84797 076 3) £35.00
Cross, Roy More Vintage Years of Airfix Box Art (Crowood 2014, ISBN: 978 1 84797 820 2) £35.00
Grant, Mike Build & Convert 2: Circuits & Bumps (SAM Publications 2012, ISBN: 978 1 906959 27 2) £9.99
Grant, Mike Build & Convert 4: Beyond the Box – More Circuits & Bumps (SAM Publications 2013, ISBN: 978 1 906959 29 6) £9.99
Green, Brett How to Build: The Airfix Hawker Typhoon Mk 1B (AH2901) (Magazine, ADH Publishing 2014) £12.95
Hatcher, Gary Build & Convert 3: Classic British Jets (Classic Plastic Series, SAM Publications 2013, ISBN: 978 1 906959 28 9) £9.99
Hatcher, Gary Build & Convert 5: Classic British Bombers (Classic Plastic Series, SAM Publications 2013, ISBN: 978 1 906959 30 2) £9.99
Hatcher, Gary Build & Convert 6: Aviation Classics Part 1 (SAM Publications 2014, ISBN: 978 1 906959 31 9) £9.99
Knight, Steve Let’s Stick Together (Irwell Press 1999, ISBN: 1 871608 90 2) £13.95
Knight, Steve Let’s Stick a Little Bit More (Irwell Press 2012, ISBN: 978 1 906919 49 8) £27.95
Lewarne, P. A. Enthusiasts Guide to Airfix Models (Collectakit 1987, privately published)
May, James The Airfix Handbook – James May’s Toy Stories (Conway 2010, ISBN: 978 184486 116 3) £9.99
Mock, Jonathan Airfix Book of Scale Modelling (Conway 2011, ISBN: 978 1 84486 126 2) £14.99
Morehead, Paul Airfix: The Early Years – Plastic Warrior (2004, privately published) £3.00
Palix, Didier Airfix: The Golden Age 1955–1982 (Editions Didier Palix 2012, ISBN: 978 2 954207 80 3) 38 Euros
Pask, Trevor Airfix Kits (Shire Publications 2010, ISBN: 978 0 74780 791 9) £6.99
Smith, Alec Build & Convert 7: Classic Warplanes –The Spitfire and Friends (SAM Publications 2014, ISBN: 978 1 906959 32 6) £9.99
Snowden, Trevor Spitfire Revisited (Dalrymple & Verdun Publishing 2012, ISBN: 978 1 905414 17 8) £24.95
Stanton, Mark Building & Detailing Scale Commercial Aircraft (Crowood 2012, ISBN: 978 1 84797 428 0) £16.99
Ward, Arthur Model World of Airfix (Palitoy 1984, ISBN: 0 947792 03 1)
Ward, Arthur Airfix: Celebrating 50 years of the Greatest Plastic Kits in the World (Harper Collins 1999, ISBN: 000 472327 9) £19.99
Ward, Arthur Classic Kits: Collecting the Greatest Model Kits in the World (Collins 2004, ISBN: 0 00 717695 3) £20.00
Ward, Arthur TV and Film Toys and Ephemera (Crowood 2007, ISBN: 978 1 86126 926 3) £19.95
Ward, Arthur Classic Toys of the 1960s and 1970s (Crowood 2008, ISBN: 978 1 86126 926 3) £19.95
Ward, Arthur The Boys Book of Airfix (Ebury Press (Airfix No. AH2898A) 2009, ISBN: 978 0 09 192898 8) £20.00
Ward, Arthur The Other Side of Airfix – Sixty Years of Toys, Games & Crafts (Pen & Sword 2013, ISBN: 978 1 84884 851 1) £19.99
