SCALE MODEL NEWS

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 ...

BRITISH SPACE HERO DAN DARE has been ignored by the mainstream model kit manufacturers. It has been down to individuals like special-effects model maker Martin Bower to produce one-off miniatures of the galaxy of spacecraft that filled author-illustrator Frank Hampson’s universe.  SMN report: There have been quite a few attempts to resurrect Dan Dare, the comic book hero that sold so well to schoolboy readers in the 1950s and 1960s. And Martin Bower has been in a position to provide model-making services for two of these attempts. The photo ( below ) shows him surrounded by a fleet of assorted spacecraft that would make any Dan Dare fan green with envy. In fact, Martin was echoing a procedure that Frank Hampson and his team had perfected many years before, in their art studio. To ensure accuracy, they built models of spacecraft, aliens, and assorted accessories. Photography was important too, as models posed for figure work, to ensure that clothes and uniforms looked right in the ...