SCALE MODEL NEWS

HERE'S ANOTHER LOOK AT the master imagineer Tom Daniel, this time from Maxsmodels. It's a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at one of the icons of custom models. SMN report: Jinx Express ( header pic ) and Rommel's Rod ( below ) are classic Tom Daniel designs. Likewise, the Beer Wagon has to be one of the most memorable box tops ever printed. The Tom Daniel website is well worth a look. It's been online for 20 years. Click here to visit Tom Daniel. Click here for plenty more Tom Daniel at SMN.

LAST WEEKEND SAW A 48-HOUR GROUP build, organised by Peter Chiang, of the Hobby Bounties model store, in Singapore. SMN report: The build featured the Airfix 1:48 scale P-51 Mustang, in a 48-hour ‘kitathon.’ started at noon on Friday 22 May, and finished at noon on Sunday. Judging criteria included: Taking pictures and posting to the Hobby Bounties Facebook page. Four pictures of finished project and a picture each of key standard work done. For example, hand-painting method, spray-can blotches, masking and hand-painting, rescribing sanded-off panel lines. An out-of-the-box build, with no additional or after-market parts or decals. No electronics. Physical enhancements were allowed, but not much else. The overall winner model picture would be used on the Hobby Bounties Facebook page for three months, with credit to the modeller. The 48-hour build drew 12 participants from three countries - Kuwait, Malaysia and Singapore - plus two pro-modeller observers from the UK, Mat Irvine and Ton...

IT’S TIME TO HAVE a break from the Covid-19 gloom and doom. So here we have two reissues from Atlantis Models, model cars that are light-hearted caricatures of what were basically caricatures in the first place. Mat Irvine:  These kits are based on a pair of Tom Daniel show car designs, the Red Baron and the T’rantula. They were first made by Monogram as conventional kits, reproducing in styrene what Tom had drawn as if they were actual cars. But then Tom did another version, distorting their shape as if they were tearing off the start line, and these cartoon designs are what are in these boxes. Kit history Monogram issued the toons in the 1970s, but just once. The tooling stayed in Monogram’s, then Revell-Monogram’s mould store for decades, until 2018. At that time Revell was bought by a German company that didn’t want all the tooling, which would have been scrapped. Fortunately, Atlantis Models - run by Pete Vetri and Rick Delfavero - stepped in and bought the lot. Since then, Pe...

HERE IS ANOTHER excellent video from Tom Grigat, whose YouTube subscriber count is currently not far short of 50,000. That's pretty cool, Tom, and we hope your fanbase keeps growing! SMN report: Tom reckons the model reminds him of an early Batmobile. That’s an interesting thought, though reality is just as fascinating, and is fact rather than fiction. The Romfell Panzerwagen was a 1915 Austro-Hungarian armoured car, which had an unusual inward-sloping body, designed to deflect enemy fire downwards. It was designed by Hauptmann Romanic and Oberleutnant Fellner, who combined their surnames to create the Romfell brand name. Their creation had an air-cooled machine gun in a pillbox-style turret. Overall, the Romfell seems like an excellent design, even if it’s likely that only one was ever made. The kit is made by US manufacturer, Copper State Models (CSM), which specialises in World War I-era models. The Romfell has transparent headlight parts, full engine and interior detail, and c...

THIS IS NOT YOUR EVERYDAY war, instead Model Collect has a model range that's based on a version of the Luftwaffe 1946 what-if science faction scenario. SMN report: The idea of ‘Fist of War’ from Model Collect is that of an alternative timeline, in which World War II had actually carried on after 1945. The ideas and concepts explored with Fist of War explore types of weapons that could have been developed, if the Axis powers had kept on fighting. For sci-fi lovers, Fist of War is a great idea, especially as the 1:72 scale means the models – mostly armour of various sorts – can be incorporated into a model aircraft scene. Mind you, we don’t think even the most advanced ideas of the mid-1940s included walking tanks, so maybe Fist of War owes more to Star Wars than a realistic look at history. But no prob – treated as pure fantasy, Fist of War works well.  The kits themselves are neatly produced, and for air buffs, the V-1 flying bomb mounted on a mobile tracked launcher looks really...

STAR WARS MODEL MAKERS are used to making kits at a seriously wide range of scales. The Bandai Death Star II, for example, is made to an amazing 1:2,700,000 scale. SMN report: Star Wars kits are not all made to such tiny scales of course. Vehicles like the Millennium Falcon and X-Wing are available at a typical model aircraft 1:72 scale. But even at that size, we are making models of some very large machines. The video ( bottom ) rams science-fiction ideas home by showing you just how big the film makers' dreams have been. More please!   A Walker (below) strolls past a light-industrial lot, while Star Destroyers ( header pic ) hover threateningly over New York City. Oops, the Millennium Falcon will earn a parking ticket by landing on a freeway ( below ). The Bandai Star Destroyer ( below ) is one of a range that marks new heights for sci-fi kit production. The Revell Slave 1 ( below ) may be 'just' a snap-kit, but the moulding quality is good and sharp, as this ventral vie...

UKRAINE MANUFACTURER ICM has released a 1:24 scale model of the world’s first car, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen of 1886. Mat Irvine:  Considering the historical significance of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, it is slightly surprising that the world’s first road vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine has never featured as a model kit before. There have been diecast models and toys, but this is the first construction kit.  However, this is not an easy or straightforward build. If you are used to assembling kits from traditional model car companies, this is completely different, so take note. The actual vehicle was not large, with a length of under 2.4 m (under 8 ft) which is less than a classic Mini, at 3 m (10 ft). In reality, the Benz was a much like a horse-drawn vehicle, but with three wheels, and a single-cylinder engine, Coincidentally, this provided a similar power output to that of a horse, some 0.9hp. The intricacies of kit construction, and ICM providing absolutel...