SCALE MODEL NEWS

We wish you a very Happy New Year and all Good Wishes for 2011.

SMN annual review How to condense a whole model year into a readable piece? Impossible without filling half of Wikipedia! So here’s quickie scoot through five items that entertained us, big and small... In February we clomped through the last of the winter snow to a Collector Fair near Oxford, UK. There were the usual stalls sprinkled with tempting treats, but star of the show was the splendid O-gauge three-rail electric layout.  Of course, items like this are hardly ‘true scale’ - they are (or were) a half-way point between a non-scale ‘toy’ and a true-scale ‘model’ - but you can enjoy them for what they are - immensely pleasurable objects that also have the benefit of action, controllability, and in Kidlington anyway: lots of lovely clickety-clack noise! The trackside accessories were a joy to behold - for example, many of the buildings were re-used decorative biscuit tins, and very fine they looked too. The station was a piece of original tinplate railwayana, and looke...

It's been awhile coming, and it's not perfect just yet, but we hope you like the bigger and brighter look of SMN for the New Year 2011. We'll be tweaking the site more in future, and maybe having a different background or two, not that there's anything too shabby about the one we've chosen here. It's a pic taken by the pilot of an A330 jetliner, and what a fantastic view there is from the front seat...

As we enter the Christmas season, we can all look forward to 2011 which, if model world rumors even come partly true, promises to be a very eventful year!

 Thank you for visiting Scale Model News throughout 2010 and we look forward to your company in times to come. We are also looking forward to launching some major improvements to Scale Model News. So stay tuned!
 As for the pix above, well wouldn’t we like to make a kit of that Jules Verne Nautilus lookalike?! Sad to say, there isn’t one quite like it available, so it’s here as an Xmas-week project idea for you kit-bashers out there. And who got the idea for the Hawk paint job? This US-issue Hawk, aka T-45, is one of several of these jet trainers finished in deliciously bright Centennial markings. And you don’t need to be a skilled basher to create one for the display shelf... Have a look at some Hawks (and not just the BAe kind) here .

SMN report The Douglas DC-3 flew for the first time on December 17, 1935, 32 years after the Wright brothers made their epic first heavier-than-air flight in the biplane Flyer over Kill Devil Hill in North Carolina. Design evolution The all-metal DC-3 was a design step on from earlier Douglas Commercial designs, the DC-1 and DC-2, though it looked very similar. Two Pratt & Whitney radial engines allowed the DC-3 to carry 21 passengers up to 2382 km (1,480 miles) at some 313 km/h (195 mph). The range and speed allowed an eastbound flight across the US to be made in some 15 hours - by far the fastest time for a commercial flight. Thousands of DC-3s built The DC-3 was a runaway success and had a decades-long manufacturing life, with more than 10,000 being built as C-47 military transports during World War II. There are plenty of DC-3s still flying today, though we can't find a reliable source for an exact number. Kits by the dozen For the Douglas-Commercial fan, there’s choice ap...

David Jefferis reports. A fascinating new Airfix release for the New Year will be a modded 1:72 scale BAC TSR2. This is the ‘TSR.2MS’, a rocket-boosted, missile-equipped aircraft designed to home in on and destroy incoming space rocks headed for planet Earth. Defending the Earth Well now, NASA hasn’t suddenly issued a world-wide doomwatch alert - in fact, the TSR.2MS is one of the machines that feature in a Japanese anime (cartoon) called 'Stratos 4', a sci-fi series that’s set in the near future, around 2024. Scientists have spotted a group of comets on collision course with our world, and to answer the threat, global defences include the space-based Comet Blasters, and the ground-based Meteor Sweepers (the 'MS' of TSR.2MS). The action is based mostly on Shimoji Island off Japan, where heroine Mikaze and her friends are last-ditch defenders of the planet. Modified aircraft Ooer! But weirdly, Stratos 4’s creators decided to modify various aircraft from the 1950s, ’60s a...

Congrats to SpaceX for the successful up-and-down flight of the Dragon space capsule. And for telling us about the el neato 'secret cargo' it carried into space and back - a round of cheese, decorated with a wellie-wearing cow picture... mooo!! Apparently it was a tribute to Monty Python, though that's a sketch we missed here at SMN Towers. Meantime, here's an excellent cutaway and size chart that compares the Dragon capsule with other spacecraft. So sharpen those craft knives, space fans... Thanks to: Karl Tate of Space.com for the cutaway graphic, and Chris Thompson of SpaceX for the cheese pictures. Visit Space.com here and SpaceX here .

SMN report News that the US company SpaceX successfully test-flew its Dragon space capsule today makes SMN really proud - for this company is in the vanguard of the privatization of space. Along with the likes of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic program, it looks as if there might be a future for rocketry in the post-Space Shuttle era after all. Spacecraft models from Dragon And talking of Dragons, the Chinese model company of the same name is busy releasing a miniature ‘Space Collection’, to 1:72 and 1:400 scale, plus 1:6 scale astronaut figures. The spacecraft are all ready-built, mixing diecast metal with injection-plastic parts, and while some are familiar subjects - Apollo and Shuttle feature strongly - there is at least one really interesting of-the-moment release, and that’s the 1:72 scale X-37B OTV (Orbital Test Vehicle). X-37B in space Looking much like a mini-Shuttle (and originally designed to fit inside a Space Shuttle cargo bay) NASA’s X-37B program was taken over by ...

SMN report For lovers of World War I and big-scale aircraft models, here’s a gorgeous 1:32 scale kit from Wingnut Wings, the Sopwith Scout, or ‘Pup’, a single-seater that was much loved by its pilots. Some 2100 Pups were built during the Great War, and the Wingnut model builds into a very neat representation indeed. What’s in the box? The box features handsome art on the cover, while inside there are 128 injection-moulded plastic components and six photo-etch metal detail parts. The Cartograf decals that include markings for six different aircraft. Optional build items include different side and engine cowls, plus fuselage and upper wing. The LeRhone engine is a miniature masterpiece, while detail work throughout is good - just look at the sewn seams on the rear fuselage and the wood-effect around the cockpit. For the nimble-fingered model maker Wingnut provides a rigging diagram, and this of course sets the aircraft off a treat - in fact, it’s essential to make the best of a biplane t...

SMN report No sooner did we do the F-35 piece below, when we ran across the recent Fujimi 1:72 scale F-35B STOVL version. It’s a multi-colour kit, something along the lines of the old Matchbox releases, though it has to be said, Fujimi’s palette is far less alarming than the kaleidoscope of inappropriate shades that Matchbox dreamt up. A mixed bag from Fujimi It’s an important product, as it is about the first one that approximates the production-standard machine, though doubtless details will still change between now and squadron service. The engine is moulded in a rich dark metallic shade and has extremely fine detail, so top marks there Fujimi. Less entrancing are the weapons, which are fairly basic - serious model fans will go straight to the bits box or to aftermarket suppliers. The Fujimi model is becoming available now, from model stores and online suppliers. There’s an in-depth review of what’s in the box, with heaps of closeups and comments for and against, from model maker Dr...

SMN report After years of development, and seemingly endless delays and price hikes, the ‘5th generation’ fighter jet from Lockheed Martin, the F-35 Lightning II, has at last been ordered into limited production. It’s a bit better than recent news that the UK has dropped the F-35 STOVL version in favour of a standard configuration for launching from its as-yet unbuilt Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier. Along with other news that the UK Harrier force is being disbanded, it looks as though the UK is in for an entire decade without carrier-borne air power. Let’s hope it’s not needed. 5G helmet design Back to the F-35: it’s not been a massive hit with the model companies yet, but the rumour mill indicates that things will improve in 2011, not least with a Lindberg version to 1:32 scale. That’ll be interesting if it happens. Meantime, apart from the old Italeri 1:72 and Panda Models 1:48 offerings there’s so much to wait for. Still, we couldn’t resist showing you the latest in ‘5G’ fig...