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Airfix

Airfix

Airfix is the oldest UK manufacturer of scale plastic model kits and has been producing kits for the mass market since 1952.

Airfix produce a wide range of plastic kit models aimed at all types of scale modellers with subjects such as; military aircraft, ships, cars, dioramas and more recently licensed products such as Wallace & Gromit, and shortly Doctor Who.

Airfix was founded in 1939 by Nicholas Kove, a refugee from Hungary who originally manufactured rubber inflated toys. The name Airfix was chosen because part of the process involved fixing air into products.

Kove also believed that all successful companies should have their names at the beginning of business directories and consequently the name Airfix was born.

After WWII he switched to producing plastic combs, and was the first manufacturer to introduce an injection moulding machine.

In the late 1940s Airfix was approached by Harry Ferguson (the tractor manufacturer) to make a cheap model of one of his tractors that could be used by his sales team as a promotional tool.

This ready-built tractor proved to be popular and Ferguson allowed Airfix to produce them as toys and sell them under the Airfix name. It soon became obvious that more tractors could be sold if they were cheaper, and to achieve this they sold the kits unmade with instructions.

This proved to be successful and shortly after Woolworths approached Airfix suggesting that by using a more stable polystyrene plastic and poly bags with a card header, it would meet the Woolworths retail price of 2 shillings. The small scale Golden Hind was launched in 1952.

Airfix grew throughout the 1960s and 70s as the plastic kit modeling hobby became ever more popular.

We offer a small sample of the Airfix range to order, please allow 2 weeks for delivery.

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