SCALE MODEL NEWS

EXPERIENCED AUTO modellers may recognise this 1:25 scale kit as a reissue of the classic Dodge A-100, first released by IMC as the Little Red Wagon drag pickup.  Mat Irvine:  As with the LRW, Dodge Fever can be built one of three ways: as a pure stock machine, as a dragster push-car (one that bump-starts other dragsters), or as the dragster itself.  Note the company logo ( below ) is now ‘The NEW Lindberg Line.’ The side panel features a set of action photos of the full-size machine. Partswise, Dodge Fever is identical ( below ) to the Little Red Wagon, with a stock 273 cu in V8, or, for the dragster, a 426 hemi-V8 with fuel injection stacks, which is located amidships below the pickup bed. Included are six tyres: four stock, and two drag slicks. As for working parts, both doors can be opened, the tailgate lowered, and the front wheels turned to the desired display angle.    What is different with this new kit is the finishing scheme. It’s red, white and blue, w...

The Lindberg factual-futuristic US Moon Ship is a reissue from Round 2. The 1:96 scale spacecraft was released by the original Lindberg company in 1958. Mat Irvine: The kit is classic for its era, with, upwards from the base, the engines, two fuel tank spheres, and a crew module at the top. The various elements are held together by spindly girder-like beams that terminate as landing legs. Add a dish antenna and a solar-boiler power generator and you have the archetypal look of a late-1950s spacecraft concept. Box front (above) of the reissued Lindberg US Moon Ship. Box with the same information in French (below). This was a common point with Lindberg kits, ensuring that French-speaking Canada was catered for. At the time of the original kit, spacecraft design was moving away from the ‘V-2 missile’ look of the 1940s and early 1950s, to a non-streamlined, ‘bits and pieces’ approach that would later become apparent in many of the craft featured in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and of ...

We looked at the Aurora Lockheed XFV-1 recently, and here is its sister tailsitter fighter plane, the experimental Convair XFY-1 Pogo, still available as a 1:48 scale kit from classic kit manufacturer, Lindberg. SMN REPORT: The kit itself dates back many years, and so is hardly a state of the art production. But as an example both of its era and the subject matter, it scores very highly. The kit is made to 1:48 scale, allowing the XFY-1 to stand some 222 mm (8.7 in) on its four castoring wheels. The pilot’s entry and access from the cockpit was via a long metal ladder, and this is faithfully reproduced in the kit, as is a not so convincing seated pilot figure. In general though, the assembled kit (below) is an OK build, and the XFY-1's unusual appearance should earn it a place on display with a selection of other 1950s experimental aircraft. The overall finish is bare-metal aluminium, so careful attention with different panel shades, some light weathering, and a hint of discolour...

This is a Round 2 reissue of an original ‘Lindberg line’ kit, one of the first since the R2 takeover of Lindberg (and Hawk) in 2013. Mat Irvine: This kit was made by Lindberg early on in the development of the aircraft, and is made in a ‘fit the box’ non-conventional scale, as was the style of the time. The original box did state, in standard engineering terminology, ‘Scale 1 inch = 14 feet 4 inches’, hence the 1:172 scale oddity. The kit first appeared in the very early 1960s, and supplies a retractable undercarriage with folding doors, though frankly, unless you really want this feature it’s best to cement the doors in place and finish the model in flight mode, supported by the supplied stand. The latter, somewhat ironically, given the simplicity of the kit itself, consists of six pieces, whereas these days, two would probably suffice! The construction is very simple, with the vast main delta wing being supplied in upper and lower halves, while the slender fuselage, plus the canard ...