SCALE MODEL NEWS

Scale readymades in 1:18 and 1:43 are featured in this excellent 2014 catalogue from Paul's Model Art. But the stars of the show are the superb miniature dream cars from days of retro-futures past. Motor show cars, and in particular the GM Motorama concepts hit the heights of designer dreams (below) with features like turbine exhausts, jet-plane fins, bubble canopy and aero-style intakes. This beauty was the Cadillac Cyclone XP74 concept of 1959. The LaSalle roadster (below) came from 1959, and was designed under the leadership of GM car-design legend, Harvey Earl. The Minichamps version is a limited edition in two scales, 1:18 and 1:43. The Edsel Ford Model 40 sportster (below) was designed and built in 1934. Conceived on the classic lines pioneered by cars such as the MG and Triumph, the Model 40 was sleeker than either. The model comes in 1:18 and 1:32 scales.  The 1938 retro-future design (below) came from Hispano-Suiza with the H6C Xenia. The design followed an aviation theme,...

Hobby Japan is a highly respected publication that comes in a thick paperback format. The printing is excellent, and as for the content... Well, if you like everything from robots to battleships, then you'll enjoy these hundreds of pages of online reading. Content of this particular issue concentrates on fantasy robots - think Transformers, and you have the idea. Away from mechanical men, the Heavy Cruiser Mogami  (below) features in a handsome photo-feature. Its mini-squadron of monoplanes and biplanes are neatly finished (below) and shown grouped on the aft deck. Don't be jealous, Grace Jones, the muscles aren't real. This super-stylish figurine's Mohican haircut makes her a ringer for the famed Jamaican singer.

Here's a video-peep at the next Batmobile, in battle mode, to boot. The battle-mode Batmobile is not yet available as a kit, or even as a ready-made - but keep an eye open for release dates later this year from an enterprising manufacturer. Meantime, kit bashers might care to use the video images as the basis for an interesting conversion project. Batmobiles in their various forms have been a staple of fantasy car models for many years, and this one looks set to be a terrific addition to the fleet.

Science-fiction fans start here, with this whimsical fantasy aerial trampship, named Waldo . The concept was penned by designer Ian McQue, made available as a kit from Industria Mechanika to 1:35 scale. Like so many of IM's productions, this air-ship is not from any of the well-established sci-fi or fantasy movie franchises, so Star Wars, Star Trek, Hobbit or Avengers, it's not. Instead, you have an original kit, that is suitable for almost any fictional setting. It's perfectly OK to build as is. Conceptually, Waldo stays up courtesy anti-gravity motors, but there's nothing to stop you adding a set of gas bags, or fan-style propulsors of some sort. The ship can be crewed by humans or aliens, but a nicely sculpted human pilot is included. And, as the kit is to military-kit standard 1:35 scale, there are many options available for crew or passengers. Five-view of Waldo's casually-dressed pilot figure (below). It's a well-produced 1:35 scale figure, which will look...

There was a time when missile models of all types littered the model catalogues. But things changed and they have become, like many of the real things, obsolete. Consequently, this 1:72 scale kit of the SS-25 TEL (Transporter-Erector-Launcher) by Zvezda, Russia’s major kit manufacture, comes as a bit of a surprise. Mat Irvine: The SS-25 (NATO codename Sickle) TEL would be a complex kit even in the standard military scale of 1:35, but this is to 1:72 scale, and has an amazing 309 parts. The Zvezda SS-25 can be built in one of two ways, mobile transport mode, or ready for launch. You need to decide which it will be before you build, as your choice dictates which parts you will use. This is primarily because for launch, massive support pads are deployed from either side, to raise the whole vehicle off the ground and enable it to be levelled. Photographs on the box bottom (below) show the build options. The scale is a good one for Zvezda to choose, as the TEL will look very interesting wh...

The USS Hornet (CVS-12) Apollo Recovery Vessel is a reissue by Revell-Germany of a kit first produced by Revell Inc in 1969. The kit was titled ‘Hornet + 3’ and featured the Prime Recovery Ship (PRS) for the returning Apollo 11 Moon-landing mission of July 1969 Mat Irvine:  The Revell USS Hornet is a conventional kit for a naval ship of that period. A one-piece hull and one-piece flight deck are supplied, to which you add the superstructure, various elevators that carry the aircraft from below desks, and a variety of aircraft that were carried at the time. Due to the age of the kit, details are somewhat heavy, and there are no photo-etch parts for super-detailing railings, stairs, or other equipment. You could well get these included with a more modern kit. No matter, the USS Hornet is a kit that’s more than 40 years old, and has plenty to recommend it. Although the parts themselves are a straight re-pop of the original kit, one thing that is new is the enlarged decal sheet (bel...

The Number 1 issue of Revell-Germany's 'Magazin' is online and available to view. It's not as convenient or as familiar to read as page-turn format magazines, but is definitely worth a visit, as there are interesting items and decent pix.  A biggish article on the Revell Aida  cruise liner has interesting diorama photography (above). Other articles include modelling tips and tricks, the EFA Typhoon, a World War II submarine, and more. Visit Revell Magazin here.

This video shows the first public display of a rebuilt Polikarpov I-16, as flown at the Wanaka Air Show, New Zealand, in 1998. The pilot was Mark Hanna, who sadly died the following year from injuries sustained in a landing accident near Barcelona, Spain, in a Hispano Buchon, a licence-built version of the Messerschmitt Bf 109. About the real thing The Polikarpov I-16 was a revolutionary design: the world's first operational low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear. The I-16 was introduced in the mid-1930s and formed the backbone of the Soviet Air Force at the beginning of World War II. The I-16, nicknamed ‘Ishak’ (Donkey) by its pilots, saw plenty of service before World War II. It flew in the Second Sino-Japanese War, at the Battle of Khalkhin-Gol, and also in the Spanish Civil War. In that conflict the plane was named Rata (Rat) by the Nationalists, and Mosca (Fly) by the Republicans. Yet another nickname came from pilots in the Finnish Air Force, who ...

Ark Models of Moscow features in today's online brochure. It's full of interesting Russian and Soviet machines, plus a sprinkling of what look like remarketed ex-Frog/Novo kits. The Polikarpov I-16 single-seat fighter features strongly at Ark, and it's an interesting subject. We haven't had a chance to build a kit yet, but will report when we do. The 1:48 scale ones shown here should make valuable additions to any collection to this scale. The red-and-white one (header pic) has especially interesting markings. We'll be adding a video of a preserved I-16 at an air show very soon, so watch out for that. Click here to visit Ark Models.  Not unreasonably, Ark's website is in Russian, so fire up Google translator if you want to know what they are saying over there. Then again, to do it the easy way, click the UK flag at top right.

The Lindberg factual-futuristic US Moon Ship is a reissue from Round 2. The 1:96 scale spacecraft was released by the original Lindberg company in 1958. Mat Irvine: The kit is classic for its era, with, upwards from the base, the engines, two fuel tank spheres, and a crew module at the top. The various elements are held together by spindly girder-like beams that terminate as landing legs. Add a dish antenna and a solar-boiler power generator and you have the archetypal look of a late-1950s spacecraft concept. Box front (above) of the reissued Lindberg US Moon Ship. Box with the same information in French (below). This was a common point with Lindberg kits, ensuring that French-speaking Canada was catered for. At the time of the original kit, spacecraft design was moving away from the ‘V-2 missile’ look of the 1940s and early 1950s, to a non-streamlined, ‘bits and pieces’ approach that would later become apparent in many of the craft featured in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and of ...