SCALE MODEL NEWS

THIS IS A NEAT CONVERSION from resin manufacturer Jimmy Flintstone Studios, based on the Moebius Models 1:25 scale1953 Hudson Hornet. This creates a Flower Car, a type often seen accompanying American funeral processions. Mat Irvine:  What you get in the Jimmy Flintstone box is a resin car body that replaces the injection styrene body from the Moebius kit. Everything else comes from Moebius, even the hood, and it is a perfect fit. There are only two modifications necessary to get the Flintstone bodywork to fit. Jimmy Flintstone provides the resin body ( below ). Other parts, including the hood, come from the Moebius kit. Note the fit of the styrene hood into the resin body. First, you need to trim the tops off the Moebius rear wheel housings, to allow a good fit on the new pickup bed. Second, the interior side panels need their rear sections removing. The rear seat isn’t used, and the kit’s windows require a bit of juggling to fit the resin surrounds, but as far as modifications go...

Mat Irvine: Robby the Robot, mechanoid star of the classic movie ‘Forbidden Planet’ is now available as a 1:12 scale ‘Movie Poster Edition’ kit that depicts the space-girl Altaira in its arms. This new Robby kit (the second from Polar Lights) reproduces an excellent poster scene, in which the big robot is shown holding Altaira, the movie's lone female. To do this, Polar Lights designers have made a near brand-new kit, in which Robby’s torso and head remain the same as the earlier kit, but with new arms and legs, plus the Altaira figure. New kit components are moulded in white, compared with the first kit’s tan shade. Notable differences in the mouldings include the legs (centre) and base (left). Oddly, the optional claw-grip hands (bottom centre in white) are still included, though cannot be used in the new version. Translating dimensions Talking with the designers at Round 2 LLC, I found that creating the kit wasn’t quite as straightforward as just deciding to make a straight rep...