SCALE MODEL NEWS

THE 007 JAMES BOND-MOBILE  featured recently made us look up the best known of all 007 cars, the Aston Martin DB5. SMN report: Back in the day, Airfix made cars to 1:24 scale, and the James Bond Special Agent 007 ( header pic ) was one of these. The kit itself was pretty good, even if the box art wasn't up to the standard of Roy Cross, who painted so many Airfix kit boxes. But the real DB5 standard-bearer is undoubtably the Corgi diecast ( below ) that right from the start came complete with many working 007 features.  In fact, Corgi is presently running an online vote for the Ultimate Corgi Top 10 . There's stiff competition out there, for the DB5 is up against such worthy Corgi Toys as the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang flying car, Thunderbirds FAB-1 and others. Argh, the agony of choice! You've got until December 19 to get your vote in. There have been plenty of DB5 kits over the years. The 1:24 scale Doyusha kit ( below ) had all th...

TO WRAP UP THE LONDON TOY FAIR we returned to the Hornby stand, though not to Airfix this time, but to two other names in the Hornby stable, also involving a third. Mat Irvine: The Hornby names are Corgi and Scalextric, and they are joined by 007, otherwise known as James Bond. To celebrate the next and 24th Bond film Spectre and the 50th anniversary of the franchise, the most famous Bond vehicles will be made available, not only as Corgi diecasts, but also in Scalextric slot-car racing sets. The classic Aston Martin DB5 that first made its appearance in the third movie Goldfinger was originally modelled by Corgi in the non-standard 1:46 scale. It had about as many working features as you could cram into a model that was only 97 mm (3.8 in) long. Unfortunately, it was painted gold, rather than the movie car’s silver, the reasoning seeming to be down to the fact that that silver was thought to be too close to the bare finish of the casting material, Zamac, known in the UK as Mazac. A...

MAT IRVINE REPORT Scalextric features the latest James Bond movie as the subject of the Micro Scalextric 1:64 scale Skyfall set with track. The standard Micro Scalextric Skyfall set includes an Aston Martin DB5 and DBS, plus 3.7m (12.1ft) of double track with triple curves and a flyover straight. The 1:64 scale was a model racing format pioneered by Aurora in the 1960s, since become one of the industry standards. Tight on space? The micro scale is useful if you have limited space - the supplied track needs an area measuring just 1200 x 680mm (47.2 x 27in) which makes it easy to set up on any reasonably-sized table. Grip in the bends The cars themselves are fitted with magnets to help them stay on the track, and construction is described as, ‘super resistant’, aka ‘child-proof’ so they can crash many times over, yet stay in running order. Bigger format The Skyfall set is also available at twice the size, 1:32 scale, just right for including the extremely detailed supplied Aston...

David Jefferis reports Here we have 100 colour pages of the new and revived Airfix Magazine - well, it's now retitled Airfix Model World for 2010 - and a pretty good effort it is too. I’ve been involved with several magazine launches over the years, and know a little of the sweat and toil that goes into the first one. It’s always a steep learning curve and I doubt this launch AFW is an exception. So well done to the team involved. What’s it like? First off is the cover - and centre-spread - both of which feature the work of the Airfix ‘wunderkind’ box-artist, Adam Tooby. He’s already up there in the pantheon of the best - Roy Cross, at last you have a decent successor. Tooby manages to combine the precision of computer generated imagery with an artist’s touch for the finished work. I reckon we’ll see a few of his box-tops appearing as art prints before too long. See inside Editorial is wide-ranging, with a strong feature on the 1:48 Sea Vixen kit from Airfix, which has some very ni...

Mat Irvine reports It was a pleasant surprise when Tamiya announced that its latest 1:24 scale sports car kit would be the Aston Martin DBS. It should also be said that although the kit has not been issued ‘from a James Bond movie’ per se, given that the car’s first appearance was several months before its official 2007 launch in the Bond film Casino Royale the opening comments in  the instructions can hardly avoid making this point. Tamiya DBS details The kit is classic Tamiya and, although a complete V-12 engine is not provided, everything that’s normally visible inside the engine bay is there. You are not going to miss the lower section of the engine anyway, as the underside is hidden by the floor pan. Elsewhere in the kit, Tamiya provides full suspension, huge chrome-plated wheels, and low-profile tyres. All wheels revolve on the now-standard nylon bushes and the front pair steer. Only a left-hand drive interior is supplied (which is fine for the Bond car), though you can choo...