SCALE MODEL NEWS

THE VISUALS ON MODEL KIT BOXES are what the marketing men call ‘primary sales tools.’ Simply put, if you can spot an attractive box in a store or on screen, the odds are that you’ll want to home in for a closer look.  SMN report:  Today's kits may use photographs, artwork, or a blend of the two. For example, many boxes in the Airfix range display a handsome photorealistic look, aided by CGI (Computer Graphic Imagery) software. Back in the heyday of the plastic kit, the 1950s and 1960s, box art was usually created by hugely talented commercial artists, mostly unsung heroes of the illustration world. Kits were graced with beautiful paintings, many of them fit to be framed and hung on a wall. However, in graphic studios it was usual practice to leave a visual unsigned, or even to paint out a signature before printing. The practise sounds brutal, but clients were promoting particular products, rather than any individual artist’s style of work. But over the years, it’s good to repo...

A KIT REISSUE THAT harks back to the golden age of Detroit dream cars. SMN report:  The 1950s decade was an amazing era for technical progress. Fuelled by the demands of Cold War politics, civil and military advances went hand in hand, with aviation in particular going from straight-wing slowpokes to Mach 2 skyblazers. And that progress was matched by events on the highway, for it was the age of the Detroit dream car. Every auto show displayed amazing vehicles, many of them taking their inspiration directly from the fast jets screaming overhead. One of the finest of those dream cars was the Lincoln Futura, described at the time as ‘A 250,000 Dollar Laboratory on Wheels’. The fold-back bubble canopies looked absolutely great, as did the hooded headlights and shark-mouth grilles front and rear. Under the sleek bodywork, the Futura was powered by a modified V-8 engine, and supported by a tubular steel chassis. This reissue of the original 1956 kit ( above, below ) takes you back ...

IF YOU KNOW YOUR 1950s spacecraft kits, this new Moebius model of the NEV (Nuclear Exploratory Vehicle) might look familiar as a kit that Strombecker produced - except that it isn’t. Mat Irvine:  Although the NEV is based on the same design the space scientist Krafft Ehricke devised when he worked for Convair, it is in fact a totally new kit. The handsome box ( header pic ) depicts the NEV passing over a cratered moonscape. Author Adam Johnson used some Ehricke images in his book  2001: The Lost Sciences, The Scientists, Influences and Designs  and he developed this particular concept into the new Moebius NEV kit. Let's hope there are more factual-futuristic designs to come in what looks like a growing 'Lost Science' kit series from Moebius. The NEV is very simple to build, the craft itself consisting of five fuel tanks, a propulsion module and a long boom stretching forward to connect to a habitation crew module. The tanks are identical mouldings to make up five cylinde...

FOR THE MORE MATURE MODEL MAKER out there, then these old kits might bring back a few memories. SMN looks back:  Once upon a time Hawk kits ( T-6 and T-33A below ) sporting the distinctive four diamonds logo, were a popular choice in the local model store. And as for the Revell Lockheed F-102A ( header ) the addition of included ground equipment and a team of technicians turned a model jet kit into a diorama, before the word was even invented. Well, maybe not quite that, but you know what we mean. Seriously, the Delta Dagger was a reasonable kit, turned into a kit-plus by the addition of some intelligent brainstorming in the sales department, followed up by extra parts in the box. We were never sure about the grinning youth in the top corner, though. And Monogram featured many working features, the Grumman Avenger ( below ) being a kit that included folding wings and retracting landing gear. However, our must-have kit from the Monogram range was a civilian model, a 1929 Ford Trimot...

  ITALERI HAS RELEASED AN INTERESTING double-kit, with two 1:72 scale experimental aircraft of the 1990s, issued together in a single box. SMN report: The aircraft are the Boeing X-32 and Lockheed Martin X-35B, two entrants in the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) competition. Neither kit is new from Italeri, but releasing both in the same box adds a sense of perspective and scale, not least because JSF was held long enough ago to make these aircraft of historical interest.   Parts for the X-32 ( below ) include a one-piece moulding for the upper fuselage and wings. It means there'll be no opportunity for misalignment or ugly seams. The X-35B kit does the same.   Components for the X-35B ( below ) are neatly laid out on the runners. Note the dorsal fan and housing, used by this vertical-lift 'B' version.   Decal sets for both planes ( below ) are nicely printed. The X-32 mockup ( below, front ) lined up next to a Boeing Hornet. Note that by this stage, the X-32 had grown a...

  THIS IS THE second issue of a recent 1:25 scale Revell kit, which was created in response to buyers’ requests. And that proves that sometimes the model companies do listen to us! Mat Irvine:  This Baja Bronco kit wears an oval Bill Stroppe and Associates sticker on the box, which associates it with a race-prep outfit that ran the Bronco in the Baja 500 and Mexican 1000 races more than four decades ago. The instruction booklet ( below ) contains all you need to know for assembly. The decal sheet allows plenty of marking options.    Component layout ( below ) shows the 137 parts, all present and correct. The Stroppe team took a standard Bronco, converting it to off-road race configuration. The special Bronco was nicknamed the ‘Big Oly’ after Olympus, the beer brand that was a major sponsor. In 1971 the Baja Bronco won both events, and after this, Stroppe converted more than 450 basic Broncos to the Baja version featured by this kit.  I found the Revell 1:25 scal...