Love the marketing / release strategy, managing to get a Tiger in each of five months! Interesting to see how this goes for them, Airfix do still seem to have a distribution in the UK that other brands don't have. On the other hand, disappointed that in the small scale they are still re-releasing some of their old armour kits that really are past it, instead of building on the range of their more recent toolings.

I'm pretty sure this is a round of academy reboxes.

Thanks, Ian...

MONOGRAM did quite a few Armor and Soft-skin Vehicle kits during the 1960s and 1970s in 1/32 scale. TAMIYA did a few armor kits in some odd-ball scale back in the late 1960s. I forget exactly which scale they were manufactured in, but I'm pretty sure that it was a bit larger than 1/35. 1/24 and 1/25 as scales for cars have been around since the 1950s, with AMT, JO-HAN, and to some extent, REVELL, HELLER, AIRFIX and AURORA being the main manufacturers in both of those scales. PYRO, (some of these kits have been taken up by LINDBERG) did a few in 1/24 and 1/25, but their main line of cars were done in 1/32. True, there were some real odd-balls in other scales from REVELL and AURORA; AIRFIX did a lot of 1/72 vehicles to complement their extensive line of 1/72 aircraft kits, and they also did some in 1/87/HO/OO scales- AIRFIX did some neat British Steam Locomotive kits in those scales, as well. I have several of those. Also, AURORA did a nice collection of 1/16 "OLD TIMER" automobile kits, representing early American Antique/"Veteran" cars. I'm pretty sure that I have at least one example of each of those old AURORA kits in that particular series in my collection of unbuilt kits. They were actually pretty good kits for that era. I distinctly remember building the 1911 Buick "Bug" and the 1913(?) Mercer "Raceabout" kits when I was about 8-years old. It was a fun time! That Christmas, I received the REVELL USS Saratoga Aircraft Carrier kit, and for my birthday, I received the REVELL 1/40(?) M4 Artillery Tractor/M1 155mm "Long Tom" set. WOW! Take me back! AURORA did some 1/48 armor during that era, but the tracks were all but impossible to keep together... At that time, AURORA also did a series of 1/48 aircraft, some of which were REAL DOGS, but others were quite good for that time, notably their WWI Aircraft kits and some of their 1920s/1930s Aircraft... Presently, I've got my eye on a REVELL 1/48 Gasoline Tractor/Tanker-Trailer set on Ebay that could complement some of my completed 1/48 aircraft models...

What do you think of the prices? Tiger 1 Mid Version £42.99 Tiger Early Production Version is £28.99 Tiger Late version is £41.99 Tiger Early Version Operation Citadel £28.99 Battle of the Bulge Sherman £27.99 Panther Ausf.G £42.99 M3 Stuart Honey £20.99 T34/85 Factory Production £29.99 Panzer IV Ausf.H, Mid Version £37.99 Have to wait till I see the sprue shots before I can judge.

Personally, I would stay away from the AIRFIX/ACADEMY M3A1 Stuart/British Honey kits- Way too many inaccuracies...

AGREE... To add to what you've said, most of the latest AIRFIX 1/48 Aircraft kits are very well done, with the possible exception of their Hawker Sea Fury- Thankfully, BARRACUDA STUDIOS has addressed the (very few) faults of that particular kit quite nicely. EDUARD has done quite a few upgrades for the rest of their very latest 1/48 Aircraft kits that will turn them into real stunners...

Contents of the first of these Tiger kits has been revealed. Airfix dropped Academy's original decals and created their own, with two new paint schemes. They are supposedly for the same Tiger at different dates. Sadly, the research is poor. The paint colours are wrong. The dates and places quoted for this specific tank's history, are wrong. The tank itself was a slightly different version to what the kit builds. http://tiger1.info/models/products-page/A1363 The *one* low-cost thing that Airfix could have done to make this kit shine, was create a great new decal set for it. The potential was there. This version of Tiger served from Tunis to Leningrad with a long list of units. David

Well given that they are the Academy kits, there are no doubt spurs shots already published so you won’t need to wait to see what they look like in different boxes.