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?

In the runup to Christmas and the other holidays Craftmodo is going to be running a series of projects to help you make great gifts for the festive season.

From the pictures you’ve probably guessed what this one is all about. Yes, ornamental candles will be our first running project. They make great gifts and, being hand-crafted, are appreciated by everyone.

Project 2 will be on how to make scented soaps. This is related to candlemaking in that it deals with the fashioning of a similar kind of substance. But it does require different methods and materials. Again soaps make wonderful presents.

Project 3 will expand on our earlier post about marbling paper. This is really my favourite, so we’ll be looking at how hand-marbled papers can be used in many applications, including scrapbooks and lampshades.

We’ll follow these with other projects to be announced later.

I’m on vacation this week, but don’t worry, I’m swatting up on great crafts to bring you on my return in a few days.

Stay tuned for some terrific ideas for the fall/autumn season and the runup to Christmas and all the festive holidays.

Duncan Cairncross

Whenever you open an older book in the library and find the paper on the inside of the cover has been “marbled”, have you ever wondered how it’s done? Probably some complex industrial process, you might guess.

But actually it isn’t. It’s a fairly simple procedure requiring only a bit of practice and a flair for creating the patterns. Here’s what you need to get started :

* Some marbling ink — obtainable from most craft outlets.
* A tray big enough to take your paper, whether letter-sized, A4, or bigger.
* Paper — not varnished or shiny.
* Some newspaper to lay out the wet sheets.
* A paintbrush, stylus, comb or feather to create the patterns in the ink.

The process is simple.

* Fill a flat-bottomed tray with about an inch of water.
* With a brush or eye-dropper put a splash of ink on the water. It will spread out quickly in widening circles.
* Drop in other colours and experiment twirling them around with a comb or stylus.
* When satisfied, place the paper carefully on the liquid surface. Wait for about one minute.
* Hold one end of the paper and draw it up and out of the liquid.
* Wash the paper under running water to dislodge excess ink.
* Place the paper on newspaper to dry.
* When completely dry leave it under a few heavy books overnight to iron out the wrinkles.

There are many variations on this craft as you can guess, and I found five or six excellent books on marbling in the local library.

This is a really interesting craft if you have an artistic temperament. Home-marbled paper is also a good conversation piece. Some artists even do this for a living, supplying printers with bulk quantities, or special commissions.