SCALE MODEL NEWS

This neat diorama detailing set to 1:72 scale makes useful news from Airfix. Of course, aircraft themselves are the hard-core focus of attention in any diorama setting, but sets like this make the process of modelling the background detail relatively easy. The Airfix Resupply Set is packed with useful stuff, and we suspect that two or more packs will be on many modelmakers’ must-buy lists. In fact, you’ll need two kits to make up the Bedford trucks - a bit of cheapskatery means that alternative parts allow only one type to be made from parts supplied in the box. Still, the spare components would look OK as extras in a simulated airfield parts dump. Apart from this quibble, an excellent and interesting kit that deserves to be popular What Airfix says “...As the air war over occupied Europe progressively developed, so did the equipment used by the RAF and its Bomber Command. Specialist vehicles were introduced to supply arms and equipment to waiting machines and maintenance tasks were ma...

World War II aviation fans can look forward to this big-scale model of the widely-used Junkers Ju-88. As our Revell promo pix show, the model looks extremely convincing when assembled, with plenty of attention paid to internal detailing. The underbelly pod looks good, with drop-down machine gun access. The main landing gear has the correct tyre tread pattern. The tail wheel housing earns brownie points, with nicely-sculpted doors and a correct-length oleo for the support strut. Control surfaces are separate components, and if you adjust them suitably, will look very convincing indeed. No crew members are supplied, more’s the pity, but after-market figures are available. As usual with 1:32 scale, you get a lot of kit in the box: in this case, 380 components to assemble, resulting in a finished model that has a suitably large wingspan of more than two feet - very satisfying! About the real thing The Ju-88 was a versatile combat aircraft, deployed variously as a dive bomber, night fighter...

Mat Irvine popped in to Milton Keynes, UK, to see how the local branch of the moribund Modelzone chain was doing today. The results you see here. You can criticize Modelzone stores, especially the modest stock levels, but it's still a very sad day to see any model store going down, let alone 47 of them. For casual buyers, perhaps Modelzone's main strength was in the range of diecast models they had on show, especially good where aircraft were concerned, with squadrons of Corgi and other brands lined up in well-lit showcases. For items of specialist equipment, the chain was perhaps less successful, especially in supplying the miscellaneous bits and pieces required by serious builders of injection-moulded kits. As for the empty hole that will soon open up in Modelzone's absence, perhaps the hugely busy AppleStore a couple of minutes away could use the space as overflow. Even better, Apple could use it for the free training and support that makes the stores so useful for Mac o...

Modelzone had up to 47 stores across the UK, but ran into trading problems in 2012, moving into administration in June 2013. Not all is lost though: Amerang, the wholesale part of Modelzone, has been purchased by Ripmax, a distributor of radio-control (RC) models. It sounds an excellent fit, as Ripmax is an old-established outfit that’s been around in various forms since 1949, and RC continues to be extremely popular. Richard Hawes from administration firm Deloite said, “We are delighted to have secured a buyer for Amerang, which continues to be an attractive brand given the strength of its customer and supplier base and its reputation in the market.” Sad to say, Modelzone stores are likely to disappear, as Deloitte is putting in place a closure programme. Why did Modelzone run into trouble? It seems that online competition was a big issue, but that over-expansion was the real villain, with new stores that couldn’t cover their high lease costs. For UK modelmakers it’ll be worthwhile lo...

SKYLON UPDATE: The UK Government is investing £60m GBP ($92m USD) on the Skylon's revolutionary Sabre engine, to enable a full-scale prototype to be built - so maybe this special edition model isn't pie-in-the-sky.  That political vote of confidence means that the designers now hope to see Sabre engines powering the Skylon spaceplane on operational flights by 2022, each ship carrying a 15-tonne payload into orbit. First test flights for the uncrewed vehicle are tentatively scheduled three years earlier, in 2019. As a passenger-carrying machine, a skip-glide flight across the top of the atmosphere could enable a London-Sydney journey in as little as four hours. The British-designed Skylon is the brainchild of engineer Alan Bond, reports Mat Irvine. Bond heads his own space business, Reaction Engines, and now i t may not be too many years before the single-stage-to-orbit aerospaceplane soars into orbit. Until then we can dream on with this Herpa 1:250 scale model kit. Alan Bond (...

One of several competitions running at Airfix, this looks like a neat way of scoring the excellent 1:48 kit of the highly successful Lynx helicopter. The kit in question is the Airfix Gift Set version of the Westland Lynx HMA 8, which is boxed with assorted accessories to make assembly easier. Apart from the kit itself you get eight acrylic paints, two paintbrushes, and polystyrene cement. The 1:48 scale Airfix Lynx has had good reviews, though we’d suggest that a decent model takes a lot longer to make than the Airfix bare-bones minimum four ‘Flying Hours’ suggestion. It could well take that just to stick the 296 components together, and you can probably triple the time for even a fairly basic colour scheme. The Lynx is not a large machine in the metal, so at 1:48 scale the model is not much longer than a sheet of A4 paper - overall length of the assembled kit is 316mm (12.5in) and rotor diameter 265mm (10.4 in). Not that we’re complaining, as the kit packs in plenty of detail and the...

Our second look at the weekend smallspace space, science-fiction and fantasy model show begins with life-size Daleks taking over the Buckinghamshire village of Hanslope, home to the show. Organisers and guests pose on the Space 1999 Alpha Moon Base set (left to right) Mat Irvine, Mike Tucker, Paul Fitzmaurice and Jamie Anderson. A Cyberman stands guard over the entrance.   An expertly-made FAB-1 Rolls-Royce by David Sisson. If you look closely, the FAB 1 number plate is reversed left-to-right. This isn’t an error - it was done for a special photoshoot.   Model maker Duncan Willis (at back) recreates puppet characters from various Gerry Anderson series.    A Thunderbird puppet with a difference, representing TV personality Chris Evans as Parker, the FAB-1 Rolls-Royce driver. The real life Evans owns a Rolls-Royce with the FAB-1 number plate, which he uses to raise money for charity.   Davros, creator of the Daleks, and arch-nemesis of Doctor Who. Expert space mo...

The second smallspace show - featuring space, science fiction and fantasy models - was a wild success. On July 7, the venue was so full that even the entry lobby was pressed into service for an art display. Jamie Anderson, son of Gerry Anderson (Captain Scarlet, Stingray, Thunderbirds et al) was one of the special guests (below right). To commemorate Gerry’s life and times (he died in December 2012) members of the All Sections Alpha (ASA) group set up a whole section of Moon Base Alpha in the smaller smallspace hall. ASA recreates both models and full-size sets from the Anderson TV series, Space 1999. A large Eagle Transporter (header pic) dominated the ASA model display. The closeup (below) shows some of the details, such as work on one of the rocket engines. The other special guest was Mike Tucker, originally a BBC Visual Effects Department expert, who now runs his own VFX company called The Model Unit. Mike (right below) has recently been working on a new Doctor Who series 2013 mark...

With Team Lotus currently standing third in the Formula One Driver’s World Championship, it’s an appropriate time for Corgi to start a collection of Lotus sports and racing cars. Corgi presents the Lotus Team collection, a series of 1:43 scale diecast model cars. Each model carries an authentic Lotus livery and comes complete with a collector card with info details, all packed in a neat plastic case. At present the collection includes Lotus F1 cars from the 2012 and 2013 seasons, plus the Lotus Evora road car. There are several colour schemes for this - the one shown here echoes the red-gold-white Gold Leaf Team Lotus markings used in the late 1960s. For more than 60 years, British car manufacturer Lotus has been designing and building leading edge sports and racing cars, the first of which was built in 1948, in North London by founder Colin Chapman. A founding Chapman principle was ‘performance through light weight’, and Lotus continues this aim from its design and build HQ, based on ...