Short Skyvan - Airfix "Vintage Classics" reissue...oh boy.

Sometime in the past Airfix realized that it was good to bag the parts:

Unfortunately someone at Airfix missed correcting the mistakes on the newly-printed instructions (blue and red arrows are mine):

There is really well-printed decal sheet (by Cartograph), but with the same Greek option that has been around for decades, and a "fake camo" subject that would be very difficult to paint, with a "mouth" decal that has to follow compound curves...hum. There are so many extremely beautiful schemes this airplane wore during its long line, even airline liveries, one hoped a couple of those would have been considered instead:

Molds from 1975, a little flash here, a little flash there, a sink mark somewhere:

Defective transparencies...again, and this time with a missing part! 

As you open the plastic bag beware those loose parts:

I don't think this was a smart move, what percentage of modelers has a high-def 3D-printer at home?

Unfortunately my copy had deformed fuselage sides...

Sigh...

Was this the product of a partial cooling system failure/blockage that prevented that particular area from cooling thus the plastic remaining soft as the sprues were removed form the molding machine? Or the parts being removed too soon from the mold?

I wish quality control would have caught that, so I don't have to engage in customer service conversations and waiting (hopefully) for new parts to be sent to start building.

I just wrote to Hannants -from whom I bought the kit- to see what solution they offer to replace the deformed fuselage sides and the missing light "lens" in the clear sprue. They in turn are contacting Hornby to see what answer they get.

As a decades-long loyal Airfix customer, with scores of their kits built during my life, and many of them posted in this very blog*, I was expecting better from them.

The Net shows similar concerns:

*These are some of the Airfix builds posted here. Many of them had to be modified to reach their modeling potential, most are civil conversions that Airfix never offered. Some are old kits that need some TLC, some are new kits that are really nice, and some are old and utterly despicable kits that don't deserve to be built, much less re-issued (the Rotodyne comes immediately to mind). It can't be said that I didn't support Airfix...as far as I could:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/02/civil-grumman-duck-172nd-airfix-ready.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2019/09/avro-anson-london-school-of-flying.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/03/sopwith-pup-civil-conversion-of-airfix.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2019/07/civil-avro-anson-modified-airfix-172.html 

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2015/04/savoia-s79-corsa-adaptation-from-172nd.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2014/07/172-airfix-fairey-rotodyne.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/02/fairey-rotodyne-modified-airfix-172nd.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2014/07/172-airfix-de-havilland-dh-88-comet.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-bristol-tourer-conversion-from-f2b.html 

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/02/handley-page-o700-airliner-conversion.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/12/anson-johnson-1949-mustang-racer-airfix.html 

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/10/ford-trimotor-corrugated-wonder.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2022/02/hawker-hurricane-civil-trial-platform-g.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/04/de-havilland-dh4a-vintage-172nd-airfix.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2022/11/bristol-bulldog-civil-conversion-of.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/08/hi-time-ii-mustang-reno-racer-academy.html

 I still have in the box the nice and relatively new DH.82a, the Boeing Vertol that I plan to convert to civil, an old release of the Catalina (same, conversion to civil) and their Lancaster that (once again) will hopefully some day be a Lancastrian (Star Dust).

 Airfix just released what looks to be a very detailed and well-molded kit of the Junkers Ju-52...but, alas, with no civil options...sigh...

As I am tired of converting military models to civil ones dealing with all kinds of issues (just click on the corresponding links above) -and corrugations being the most difficult to work with- I will give it a pass until new molds/parts come to the market. 

 

 

To be continued?...