The world-famous British model-making kit company Airfix has gone into administration, prompting an outpouring of nostalgia for its products. Many older people have memories of assembling models of Spitfires and Lancaster bombers in their childhood.

Millions who grew up in the 1960s and 70s remember spending their weekly pocket money on plastic model kits and polystyrene cement on Saturday mornings.

Many also recall the chore of glueing, assembling and painting anything from Spitfires, Saturn 5 rockets, soldiers and sailing ships, to railway rolling stock, armoured vehicles, classic cars and even dinosaurs.

“Kids still love them and often parents enjoy playing with the kits with their children as it brings back memories from their own childhood. Retro-toys such as Airfix can help in promoting parent-children relationships in this way,” says spokesman Daniel Himsworth.

The BBC says “For speciality shops like the Swindon Model Centre, it’s really terrible news. But a spokesman adds that Airfix has been losing ground to computer games for about seven years (the company has also stopped introducing new kits and is just repackaging old ones). Airfix prices have also risen sharply in recent years.”

I remember Airfix kits in my own youth and had a few of them. I didn’t like working with plastic, though, preferring models made of balsa wood and paper, even though they didn’t look “real” as the Airfix models did.

Does anyone have any memories of Airfix kits?