SCALE MODEL NEWS

AIRFIX HAS RELEASED A FASCINATING TIME-LAPSE mini-movie for your delectation. The subject is the recent 1:72 scale Fokker E.II Eindecker, and very good it looks too. SMN report: As you see on the video (below) there's been a lot of effort put into the production values, and much care has also been put into the model itself, which looks most satisfying. In fact for this builder, the video reveals an exercise in alternatives. Shall I build a World War I subject and put in maximum effort on the wiring side? Or shall I sneakily buy a pre-built diecast model with all the hard work done for me? Hmmm... decisions, decisions. At least there are no interplane wires or cables to include in this particular model, because it was a monoplane, made infamous during the 'Fokker Scourge' of 1915, when the forward-firing machine gun made its pilots deadly aerial adversaries. Sitting in the cockpit of an E.II ( below ) is Max Immelmann, an ace who made his name for the Immelmann Turn, which ...

  THIS MODEL IS BASED ON AN ORIGINAL ADAMS KIT that dates back to 1958, the year that the Vanguard rocket sent a small satellite into orbit.   Mat Irvine: The 1:76 scale kit consists of the sleek Vanguard launch rocket, the launch pad and service tower. To these, add four figures. The rocket is the simplest section, consisting of first, second and third stages, each with engine bell detail. The third-stage section can be separated, with a same-scale Vanguard satellite on top, to sit under the nose cone. There were 11 Vanguards produced, though only three were successful in launching satellites. The decal sheet provides markings for six of these (actually seven, as two are identical) detailed in accompanying diagrams. The rocket itself is simple in construction, but the launcher setup has far more parts. It is in two sections, the launch pad and service tower. The original Adams kit had these parts moulded in yellow, which is fine for the pad, but the tower should be painted a...

IT’S NOT OFTEN WE can welcome a brand-new kit company to the fold, especially one that is using injection styrene, so it’s a big hello to Horizon Models from Australia. Mat Irvine:  Horizon Models was actually started in 2015, issuing its first kit late that year, a 1:72 scale Mercury spacecraft. Some comments were made about the fact that Dragon had recently made a 1:72 scale Mercury, so why another? But no one seems to complain that virtually all the model companies make Spitfires, Mustangs, or Space Shuttles. So we don’t mind a bit if there’s more choice out there where space capsules are concerned. Also, the Horizon Mercury kit is more detailed than the Dragon release, and it  allows for more build options. The kit box's side panel ( below ) shows two finish options. There is no separate instruction booklet. Instead, all details ( below ) are printed on the back of the box. These are comprehensive, although the Mercury book in  Mike Mackowski’s Space in Miniature seri...

VINTAGE AMERICANA FROM UKRAINIAN COMPANY ICM comes in the form of this neat 1911 Ford Model T four seater. Mat Irvine:  This is the second ICM Ford T release, the 1911 Touring, or four-seater, and a kit that is the earliest Model T made in 1:24/5 scale. Consequently, it beats any made by AMT or other home-based US companies. Neatly moulded components ( below ). Note the white tyres ( bottom right ) and brass plated parts just above them. If you are used to the standard American kit style, this ICM will prove a bit different in construction, but you still get the conventional type of early four-cylinder engine block, axles and suspension. The wheels represent wood-style items from this era (which are also featured in AMT early Model T kits) but - and this is a first - ICM's tyres are the very old type, which were white, not black. Many of the parts are very delicate and care is needed when it comes to the final assembly. In particular, the support bars that run from the windshield f...

  ROUND 2 HAS REISSUED ONE OF MPC’s most comprehensive and unusual kits, the American-type 4-4-0 wood burning locomotive, named the  General . Mat Irvine:  A locomotive model is hardly rare in the US - railroads are the biggest modelling subject - but what makes this kit unusual is that it is not to a standard scale such as 1:87, but to the car kit 1:25 scale, making it a very big model indeed. The latest box ( header ) is the third version of the artwork, but the first that makes it look like a real loco running on rural tracks. The box base ( below ), in common with many Round 2 kits, is used to present information that includes a photo of the assembled and finished model. When assembled, the  General  and tender measure more than two feet long. There are more than 300 parts, moulded in black, red, grey, clear and gold-plated. The two-part display base is moulded in brown. Opening the box ( below ) reveals that it is packed very full indeed. The  General ...