SCALE MODEL NEWS

WEIRD DESIGNS ARE A FEATURE OF Luftwaffe 1946, aircraft designs that were being worked on toward the end of World War II. And perhaps the oddest Luft 46 project, and frankly least likely, was the Haunebu II Saucer, as featured in this 1:144 scale Pegasus kit. Mat Irvine:  Some Luft 46 designs are well-known, and in fact flew, such as the Me 163 Komet, Junkers Ju 287 and Bachem Natter. Others remained as paper projects, such as the Arado Amerika bomber, the Focke-Wulf eight-engine transport, various Horten designs, and many others. As for the Haunebu Saucer, there is no evidence that a flying saucer was ever designed or built. However, that hasn’t stopped model companies producing semi-fictional kits. The first of these was probably a resin model from the Hong Kong-based Anigrand Craftswork . Then the Japanese company Wave issued the first conventional styrene kit, though this hasn’t been widely available. Now Pegasus Hobbies has made the 1:144 scale version I feature here. The Pega...

  PIRATE KITS HAVE ALWAYS done well for model companies, both as figures and ships, so issuing the star vessel from Pirates of the Caribbean , the most successful pirate movie franchise ever, has to be a good move. Mat Irvine: This kit from Revell Germany actually originated with Zvezda in Russia, and the parts are still made there. However this is a re-boxing, with evocative box-art and a new instruction booklet. Oddly though, these are not in colour, like other recent Revell Germany kits. Plenty of components ( below ) to keep a nautical modeller busy. This can only be a quick review of the kit as, with almost 900 parts, it’s not exactly a ‘quick build.’ However, construction follows the usual approach with galleon kits. This can basically be split into two sections, the ‘easy bit’ meaning assembling the main components. Then comes the ‘hard bit’ which is the rigging, and this will almost certainly take at least three times longer than the main build. Completed model pictures ar...

HERE ARE JUST A FEW OF the exhibits at  smallspace 6 , the ‘Big Little Show’ held in the village of Hanslope, UK, last Sunday, July 16, 2017. Mat Irvine:   Smallspace has grown and grown over its six years, but despite that, the event still maintains that it is the ‘Best Small Space, SF and Fantasy Show.’ Antares Concepts makes kits ( below ) of these neatly produced space creations. Special guests at smallspace 6 were Tony Harding ( below left ) ex-BBC Visual Effects (VFX) Department, who designed the original K-9 for the Doctor Who story The Invisible Enemy  in 1977. Mike Tucker ( middle ) was also with the VFX Dept. Mike now runs The Model Unit , and in 2006 created the ‘rusty’ K-9 version for the ‘New Who’ episode School Reunion . Also in the pic is actor John Leeson ( below right ) who is the ‘Voice of the Dog.’ All three are deciding which of the ‘Guest K-9s’ will be awarded the special prize - Best Dog in the Universe . Winner ( below ) of the other award -...

Mat Irvine's Smallspace 6 model show  blew the weeds off similar events yesterday. Until next year, how about a look at this concept. We're looking at our existing Star Trek miniatures, thinking of ways to customise them!

COMING THIS SUNDAY - the sixth and best mega show from the Hamex team. Click here for full details of the unmissable event.

THE TRIDENT SINGLE-SEAT RESEARCH PLANE is the subject of Jean-Christophe ‘JC’ Carbonel’s second book exploring French aviation projects. Mat Irvine : JC first dealt with the Coleoptere vertical takeoff machine, and now he tackles the shapely Trident, a design from Sud-Aviation for a mixed power, rocket-assisted interceptor. The book contains what has to be virtually every illustration, photo and diagram of the project. The main text is in French, but the images have extended captions in English, which is my connection with the book, as I wrote them for JC. The experimental Trident was powered by two wingtip turbojets, plus a rocket engine in the tail. Twelve Tridents were built and flown during the early 1950s, though the whole project was cancelled in 1957. Besides JC's exhaustive history of the Trident, he also explores the popular culture that surrounded it, as he includes four colour pages showing the aircraft in fiction.   Then there are seven pages of model kits that have bee...

NICE STUFF from Airfix, in the form of this tasty cgi animation of the 1:48 scale Supermarine Walrus kit. SMN report: If only all kits went together as smoothy and easily as depicted in this mini-movie! But the kit is a big advance on the old 1:72 scale Airfix model, not least because of the extra detail allowed by the bigger 1:48 scale. We're looking forward to seeing some nicely made examples at model shows, maybe even the odd one featured as part of a naval diorama, with a Walrus ready for flight on a ship's catapult. Then again, perhaps there's also room for our own alt-history version, decorated in a civil airline colour scheme. The gun positions would be replaced by a pair of domes, each one providing weatherproofing for a lounge seat (with personal drinks bar) for a first-class VIP passenger and friend. Steerage passengers have to make do with being stuffed into the cramped fuselage, below and behind the flight deck.