SCALE MODEL NEWS

  EVERY NOW AND THEN you look at your unbuilt-kit collection and pick one that may not be brand new, but still could do with being changed from a box of components to a finished model. Which was the situation I faced with this Polar Lights Batplane kit. Mat Irvine: This is a Polar Lights reissue of the original Aurora Batplane, a kit that dates back to the 1960s. Except that, while the kit is a re-tooling of the Aurora original, and while the two kits layouts match, the Polar Lights parts are from a newer mould.  But it remains a simple kit, with a one-piece cockpit interior that features the busts of Batman and Robin. It also has two-piece wings, one-piece tailplanes and a very simplified landing gear assembly. If you want to spray finish the completed craft, it’s best to paint the interior first. You can get in quite a lot of detail with what is after all a single moulding. You can then fit in the fuselage halves, attach the canopy and mask it off, which will allow an overs...

BRUNEAU AUCTIONEERS ARE PUTTING UP FOR SALE the First Stage of the Andy Yanchus Model Collection. Mat Irvine: I find it hard to believe, but it’s been over a year since well-known modelmaker and kit historian, Andy Yanchus, died on 11 September, 2021. But tomorrow, 17 September 2022, much of his collected material will come up for auction at Bruneau and Co Auctioneers, based on Rhode Island. However, this 225-lot event is only ‘Part One’ of the sale, and Bruneau reckon there is more to come. There’s plenty to see at the Bruneau website here . And if you are interested in bidding, either follow the links there or go directly here . You have to register to bid and you can also follow via apps from the Apple Store or Google Play. In fact, you can already bid online (and some already have), but the live bidding begins 10.00 am EDT (1500 hrs BST) on Saturday 17 September 2022. Here's what Bruneau and Co has to say about the sale: "... Andy collected everything, but most importantl...

 

  WITH MOST SCALE MODEL NEWS REVIEWS, we deal first with the model, then maybe go into a few intriguing details that we hope are of interest. But with this new Atlantis kit, we have approached it the other way around, as things are not anything like straightforward. Mat Irvine:  Firstly is this kit ‘new’? Well yes, it is a brand-new release from Atlantis Models, but it is not ‘completely new.’ Ah, you might logically surmise, it’s got to be a re-release of existing tooling and from the type of the model, it has to be an ex-Aurora kit. To which you can then answer, “Well, yes – and no…” The Metaluna Mutant appeared in the 1955 American film  This Island Earth . Based on a story by Raymond F Jones, it tells of the alien visitor Exeter ( played by Jeff Morrow ) capturing atomic scientist Cal Meacham ( Rex Reason ) to return him and other Earth scientists, to the distant world of Metaluna to aid them in a war against the oppressing Zagons.  This Island Earth  was on...