Airfix becomes 'Spacefix'

In 1982 Airfix took on the production and marketing of MPC Star Wars kits and churned out a number of well known models, some of better quality that others. In order to capitalise on the wave of space fever generated by the Star Wars films, Airfix decided to remarket some older kits and add a few new ones from outside the Star Wars series. Besides the old staple of the Space Shuttle and the (by now) ancient Lunar Module, they re-released the Pan Am Orion Space Clipper in a god awful colour scheme.

However, besides the rather good Space 1999 kits and the Angel Interceptor - high points of Airfix model making career, 1982 saw the inclusion of all new models for the sci fi enthusiast. In the Snap-Fix range, a substantially easier to build range of kits, there was the great Star Cruiser and a slightly odd choice of the Star Cruiser Interceptor, a rather lack lustre model in a slightly larger scale. Another rather useless kit was the 10 piece UFO kit - this was basically a Tupperware space station bedecked with random bits of modelmaking greebly to make the surface suitably 'death star' interesting.

 

But the real big one for me - quite literally as it came in a substantial box, was the Cosmic Clipper. This seemed to borrow heavily from the 'tramp freighter' look in Star Wars without looking too derivative. The man body of the ship was a long angular craft with a multitude of small observation domes at the front, two large detachable fuel nacelles and four nice chunky looking engines. On the back of this rode a large shuttle like ship, slightly aerodynamic with lots of surface detail and on the back of this, a third smaller ship as an escape shuttle.

 When I got the model immediately after release, I eschewed the suggested white colour scheme and went for something a little more sombre. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm once more outstripped my skill and the model ended up looking a complete dogs breakfast as usual as the blue paint for the stripes on the 'Alligator' as I chose to call it, was gloss and the rest was a more realistic matt. But the kit has survived a couple of decades in the attic with only the loss of two of the engines a few small bits and an appalling paintjob.

Construction was again simple and the whole thing was more toy than kit, like the earlier Star Cruiser, but it was an original design and not a bad one at that.