SCALE MODEL NEWS

MODELLED BY REVELL AT 1:32 SCALE, this is the largest conventional kit of the first aircraft to break the sound barrier, a mission achieved on 14 October 1947. The flight was made ten years to the month before the launch of the Soviet Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. Mat Irvine reports:  The Bell X-1 kit is of reasonably simple construction, the bullet-shaped fuselage being in just two halves. The wings are in upper and lower halves, but the smaller horizontal tail comes as a single component for each side. A plus point for the kit is that Revell includes a fully-detailed cockpit, complete with a seated figure of the pilot, Charles ‘Chuck’ Yeager. He can fitted in place, or omitted, whichever you choose. The access door can be sealed shut, or left off. You even get the wooden stick Yeager used to help close the door – he didn’t let on to his bosses that he had broken two ribs the previous evening, making his movements somewhat impaired! Also supplied is the four-chamber R...

SMN report The Chinese model company Dragon continues to add models to its ‘Space Collection’ range. The subjects vary in scale from 1:72 to 1:400 scale, plus 1:6 scale astronaut figures. Spacecraft are ready-built, mixing diecast-and-plastic parts, and there are several new ones that have just come in, including a variation on the 1:72 scale X-37B ‘mini Shuttle’ we discussed a while back. X-37B glides in to a smooth landing Dragon’s latest X-37B represents the automated vehicle in early glide-test mode, which is a neat (if specialist) addition to a tabletop space fleet. As we mentioned before, the real thing looks distinctly more careworn than this miniature version, but no matter, you can always give Dragon’s X-37B a dose of the weathering treatment with an airbrush. Delta II space launcher Next up, Dragon present us with a 1:400 scale Delta II launch rocket. This is an old-stager in NASA’s lineup, having been around since 1989, the rocket counting no less than seven Mars missions am...