Sunday, 1 February 2026

The Airfix Handbook

The Airfix Handbook - James May's Toy Stories, ISBN 978 1 84486 116 3, 96 pages illustrated in full colour throughout, I would describe this as being in the nostalgic format of childrens "Ladybird Books" but stand to be corrected on this (the illustrations are photographs).  


James May is a UK TV presenter best known for co-hosting the motoring show "Top Gear" but in 2009 he also created a six part documentary series to showcase his choice of the six most notable toys on a grand scale.  

One of these projects was to build a 1:1 scale model of the iconic Airfix Spitfire kit, and this book tells how they did it, it's split into three sections:

Introduction and The History of Airfix (50 pages)
The Big Build - full size Spitfire model (30 pages)
Complete catalogue of Airfix kits by year (8 pages)

I watched the programme when it aired and was thrilled to receive the book unexpectedly on Christmas morning (Mrs C. had found it in a local charity shop) so I don't know if it's still in print but you can probably find it on the internet.  Thoroughly recommended.

The life size model built for the programme is now on display at the Royal Air Force museum in Cosford.  Among the other projects were a basicule bridge to span a canal made out of Meccano (on display at the University of Liverpool), and a full size habitable house made out of Lego bricks, which had to be dismantled after the series because it didn't have planning permission!

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