SCALE MODEL NEWS

HERE IS A SLEEK AIRCRAFT of interest to classic kit collectors and builders. The Martin Seamaster was one of the best-looking bombers ever made, even if it didn't have a long career. SMN report : It's a certainty that if you have a number of kits dating back to the 1950s and 1960s, then you have a treasure chest of plastic gold, items which have an achievable value via any of the internet sales sites, or indeed a local hobby or swap meet. Not that the Revell Seamaster necessarily lies at the top of everyone's most-wanted pile, not least because it was made in a weirdly random fit-the-box 1:136 scale. But the box art was pretty good, so as is often the case, an unbuilt version - mint and boxed, and definitely without any evidence of plastic cement - could be a collectible worth having. We trawled eBay and found a nice Revell 'History Makers' version on sale at just $25.00 USD, which seems a bargain, even if the box photograph is dull as ditchwater. What were the mark...

Here’s a neat little item that was first displayed at the 2014 Scale Model World show in Telford, UK. The 1:35 scale Taxi de la Marne was released by French manufacturer Mach 2, to commemorate the centenary of World War I. Mat Irvine: Didier Palix ( below ) is the founder of Mach 2 models, an outfit that has provided modellers with an intriguing array of aircraft and spacecraft models, many not made by any other company. Didier came up with a rather special vehicle to commemorate World War I, in the form of a Renault Taxi de la Marne from 1914. The taxi is produced to the military scale of 1:35, as it is intended to be seen in dioramas with other military models of the same era. A question to think about is whether this Renault would have been sent to war zones in the decidedly non-military paint scheme depicted by the kit. It may well have been the case, but you could give the taxi a more serious look by adding a coat of khaki camo finish instead, to give it a similar look to the tro...

This is a 1:100 scale model of the classic Soviet A-Type launcher in its best-known Vostok version, as used to launch Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, on April 4, 1961. This time, the MPC kit comes as a Round 2 re-release. The kit was first issued by MPC way back in 1970, when details of the launch rocket were still relatively new in the West. The design, featuring four tapered strap-on boosters, looked distinctly odd then, especially compared to cylindrical Western launchers. However, the design is now highly familiar - the basic rocket is still used to launch Soyuz and Progress craft to the ISS (International Space Station) and now also by ESA (European Space Agency) as one of its main launchers. The new box (header pic) has a 'Made in USA' label, a sign that at least some kit manufacturing is returning from the Far East. The name ‘Sharik’ ( Russian: 'little sphere' ) is printed under the Vostok title, though this really refers only to the single-seat spherical d...

Mat Irvine looks back: Although the 50th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight was on April 12, true space fans celebrate the achievement all year round. Well, that’s my excuse for looking at this kit in September! Cutting Edge 1:144 scale rocket at left, compared with the bigger Mach 2 version. The cosmonaut was borrowed from the Airfix kit. Other Vostoks I have already covered the Airfix A-Type Vostok launcher, made to 1:144 scale, the generally accepted size for launch vehicles, and indeed, two of the other A-Type kits - the Apex/AER Moldova and the limited edition Cutting Edge resin release - have been in this scale. But how about a kit that’s twice that scale?  Mach 2 Vostok from France This you can now get from the French limited edition kit company Mach 2, under the ‘Lift-Off Serie’ label. Having built this 1:72  kit, I have to say this is really one for the dedicated, as it is not an easy or straightforward build. The kit is in styrene, so will assemble...

SMN report The Airfix 2011 catalogue promised the Valiant earlier this year (SMN story here ), and the 1:72 scale kit is now coming in to land, with general sales expected around May 10. The subject is the four-engine Vickers-Armstrong Valiant jet bomber, developed after World War II to counter the Soviet threat in the early days of the Cold War. The swept-wing Valiant was the first design to fly of the ‘V-Force’, three British bombers designed to penetrate Soviet airspace and deliver nuclear weapons in the event of the Cold War turning hot.  In the model world, there has been little shortage of the other two V-bombers, the dramatic-looking Handley-Page Victor, and the big-delta Avro Vulcan, but the comparatively no-frills Valiant has been something of a Cinderella. Still, here we are now with what looks a very interesting kit indeed. Prototype Valiant about to land at the UK Farnborough Air Show, 1951. What’s in the box Boxed in the Airfix latest style, there are 142 components to...