FROG MODEL KITS: A QUICK LOOK AT SOME CLASSICS

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FAREWELL TO SPECIAL-EFFECTS MODEL MAKER BILL PEARSON

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WE ARE VERY sad to learn of the death of professional model maker Bill Pearson. Mat Irvine: A special-effects model maker extraordinaire, Bill Pearson is probably best known for being a model-shop supervisor for such movie classics as Alien (1979), Flash Gordon (1980), and Outland (1981). Bill was a member of the BBC Visual Effects Department for two years or so in the early 1980s, which is when I got to know him. While he was at BBC VFX he worked on a variety of programmes, including The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Doctor Who, and Blake’s 7. Later, Bill worked on Gerry Anderson’s Space Precinct (1994), The James Bond movie Die Another Day (2002), Gravity (2013), Duncan Jones’ Moon (2009), and the Red Dwarf series. The photos (below) are shown courtesy of, and copyright  The Prop Gallery  and Mat Irvine . Bill Pearson ( below ) seen in the early 1980s, while working for the BBC Visual Effects Department. Here, he is working on Supereme Commandeer Servalan’s spac...
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ROCKETSHIP X-M RETURNS FROM RETRO-SPACE

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SCIENCE FICTION B-MOVIES WERE A STAPLE OF CINEMAS in the 1950s. Many were appalling, such as Plan 9 from Outer Space . A few were extremely good, such Forbidden Planet , and Destination Moon . Others sat in the middle, the so-so zone occupied by the likes of Rocketship X-M . Mat Irvine:  The plot of the 1950 movie Rocketship X-M was based around a Moon mission, hence the X-M name, short for Expedition Moon. However, the X-M ship didn’t actually land there. Instead, the screenwriters included a meteoroid storm that blew it off-course and on to the planet Mars, despite the enormous difference in distance between the two worlds. Otherwise, the design of the Rocketship X-M spacecraft was a reasonable one, being based on a science-fact article ( below ) that appeared in the Life magazine of January 1949. This had given an accurately-conceived depiction of such a trip, with paintings and diagrams to back up the text. The somewhat phallic Life spaceship design became, more or less, the R...
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AOSHIMA HAYABUSA SPACEPROBE BACK ON SALE

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Mat Irvine reports Recently I looked at the Aoshima 1:32 scale Hayabusa spaceprobe kit, but had to add the rider that as soon as it was issued, it appeared to have been withdrawn. This was a great shame for, as I said then, conventional injection kits of satellites and spaceprobes - as against rockets and manned spaceflight - were extremely few and far between. Hayabusa in the shops But it’s now it's back, as reported by Hobby Link Japan, the company that had kindly supplied the sample kit. So for those of you who missed it first time around, you now have a second chance to experience this detailed kit, from the neatly-engraved solar panels and sensors to the thruster engines and antenna dish. Interesting stand The asteroid-shaped stand is a bonus too, with the tiny Minerva sub-satellite shown landed on the surface, though this was an event which did not succeed on the mission itself. The stand's shape echoes that of Hayabusa’s target, asteroid Itokawa, a chunk of space rock so...
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