This article was taken from the June 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Airfix turned generations of children into model-makers. Now the DIY kits are getting their own exhibition, at the Royal Air Force Museum in London, from 1 June. "It has an enormous cloud of nostalgia hanging over it," says Andrew Cormack, keeper of visual arts, medals and uniforms at the museum, and curator of the exhibition. "What I'd like to do is to cover the whole range." As well as iconic military planes (the Spitfire still sells 150,000 models each year), Airfix made self-assembly tanks, battleships, trains, model villages and even historical figures -- "Charles I, Joan of Arc, Napoleon. They also made 25cm-high anatomical skeletons."
The show includes rare box art which, according to Cormack, has been toned down in recent years. "You no longer see aircraft dropping bombs and shooting rockets. It must have been the sensitivities of the 90s, but it's less exciting."
At the exhibition, child-made models will sit alongside the more professional paint jobs. "People had great fun making them, even if in the end they looked awful." Now, pass the Humbrol 238...
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
