Making Concorde from Airfix 1/72 Scale

[speedbird2]

I am a big Concorde fan. I just purchased the Airfix 1/72 Concorde model. It looks great but after reading reviews; I am scared to make this. The reviewers say the fuselage pieces just don't fit properly and must be fitted with filler. To boot, the white fuselage has different shades of white, meaning the model must be sprayed white. There are also problems with the retractable nose; it's supposed to lower easily but doesn't, so it must be placed in the horizontal position only. Other problems are mentioned about the cockpit detail, etc. I am truly scared to construct. I have made many models from Airfix in past years, and their prodicts are impeccable. I cannot believe they would release such a model kit. Has anybody heard of problems with this kit? Thanks.

s

[Dmanton300]

I am a big Concorde fan. I just purchased the Airfix 1/72 Concorde model. It looks great but after reading reviews; I am scared to make this. The reviewers say the fuselage pieces just don't fit properly and must be fitted with filler. To boot, the white fuselage has different shades of white, meaning the model must be sprayed white. There are also problems with the retractable nose; it's supposed to lower easily but doesn't, so it must be placed in the horizontal position only. Other problems are mentioned about the cockpit detail, etc. I am truly scared to construct. I have made many models from Airfix in past years, and their prodicts are impeccable. I cannot believe they would release such a model kit. Has anybody heard of problems with this kit? Thanks.

s

It's a horrific model, in just about every way imaginable. The kit was designed by Heller, and was the product of literally four or five different tooling houses. I did have a multi coloured CAD rendering somewhere showing which parts came from which tooling shop. The bottom line is that none of the shops co-operated on the cutting, so no testing was undertaken to ensure parts from one shop matched parts from another, the upshot being probably the worst designed and fitting kit the Heller/Humbrol tie up ever spawned. Seriously, it can be beaten into submission, but buy shares in milliput and 3M!

[skyhawk55]

Oh crud! I got one of those monsters in the stash. Now you got me scared.

[HowardM]

As someone who worked on Concorde as an apprentice, the kit saddened me.

Some key errors include:

Incorrect fin shape

Incorrect shape join between fuselage and nose

Nose gear bay in the wrong place

Cockpit windows too low

Wrong fuselage section

Belly fairing needs scratching

Wrong wing camber and leading edge shape

And the fit is appalling.

Dick Ward even had to redesign the decal sheet when he got the test shot, as he had assumed the correct shape.

Howard

[Jennings]

As someone who worked on Concorde as an apprentice, the kit saddened me.

Some key errors include:

Incorrect fin shape

Incorrect shape join between fuselage and nose

Nose gear bay in the wrong place

Cockpit windows too low

Wrong fuselage section

Belly fairing needs scratching

Wrong wing camber and leading edge shape

And the fit is appalling.

Dick Ward even had to redesign the decal sheet when he got the test shot, as he had assumed the correct shape.

Howard

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? :)

[pin]

I started mine some four years ago.... Given up

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234911425-alpha-delta/

[Richard M]

Apparently the "easiest" method to build it is to assemble each fuselage side separately on a flat surface, then join the two sides in a conventional manner. Still a lot of work needed to get it looking reasonable even without worrying about correcting some of the errors. As has been said, this is what you get when Heller farms out the work to several different companies, seemingly without telling any of them what the part they were working on was actually for....

[Phil Ciborowski]

Apparently the "easiest" method to build it is to assemble each fuselage side separately on a flat surface, then join the two sides in a conventional manner. Still a lot of work needed to get it looking reasonable even without worrying about correcting some of the errors. As has been said, this is what you get when Heller farms out the work to several different companies, seemingly without telling any of them what the part they were working on was actually for....

I built 3 of them, and thats the construction method i chose for the 2 that survived.

One is AF, the Other BA, and the AF one - the nose works.. yea its not the greatest kit but its still Concorde, and its still 1/72 and its still very impressive when finished.

[peebeep]

If you want a Concorde badly enough, then it is buildable. My build was spread over some time, in order to have breaks away from it and to gather up wherewithal. You will need a bucket of filler. The fin profile is easy enough to fix. I thought about fixing the nose gear location, but it is not something that is readily noticeable. I took about 9-10mm off the height of the nose leg, otherwise the sit doesn't look right, at least to my eye it doesn't. I fixed the nose in the up position, initially because the linkage mechanism parts were so fragile it was not possible to get them off the sprue without breakage. Having decided upon this course I fixed the visor with sufficient rake to be able to build up the forward nose contour with filler, otherwise the visor is grossly over length. To all intents and purposes, there's not a lot you can do about the wing error, but in any case you will be busy enough filling and sanding, because the lower panels leave huge gaps. If you persevere, you end up with a large and impressive looking model, albeit not 100% accurate. My Concorde has been exhibited at a few shows and visitors seem to enjoy looking at it.

peebeep

[Captoveur]

It's a horrific model, in just about every way imaginable. The kit was designed by Heller, and was the product of literally four or five different tooling houses. I did have a multi coloured CAD rendering somewhere showing which parts came from which tooling shop. The bottom line is that none of the shops co-operated on the cutting, so no testing was undertaken to ensure parts from one shop matched parts from another, the upshot being probably the worst designed and fitting kit the Heller/Humbrol tie up ever spawned. Seriously, it can be beaten into submission, but buy shares in milliput and 3M!

So what you're saying is they tried building it just like the real thing only not so well.

[DutyCat]

I have two of the BA ones in my stash. They are almost impossible to find now.

As has been mentioned, the kit has a lot of issues, but when complete it will be an impressive beast.

Funny thing about Heller. Some of their kits are excellent. If you look at their 1/72 Mirage fighter planes, they hold up well. Yet, their 1/72 F-18, produced much later, is a piece of crap.

[Dmanton300]

I have two of the BA ones in my stash. They are almost impossible to find now.

As has been mentioned, the kit has a lot of issues, but when complete it will be an impressive beast.

Funny thing about Heller. Some of their kits are excellent. If you look at their 1/72 Mirage fighter planes, they hold up well. Yet, their 1/72 F-18, produced much later, is a piece of crap.

The F-18 is actually a modification of the Airfix tooling first released in 1983, and representing one of the FSD complete with LERX slots and dogtooth wing, but without the dogtooth tail. I haven't looked at one for over 25 years but can believe it hasn't aged well!