SCALE MODEL NEWS

A TREAT AWAITS MODEL FIGHTER FANS in the entrance lobby of RAF Museum, Cosford, UK. SMN report: RAF Cosford is one of two free to enter sites offering a guide the the Royal Air Force and its history.  RAF Cosford tells the story of "...the people who moulded the world of aviation from the daredevil early aviators to wartime heroes and the thousands of ordinary Service men and women who have served in the RAF and whose contribution has shaped the world that we live in today." Etched-glass aircraft outlines ( below ) decorate the large windows of the high tech museum entrance area. Centrepiece of the lobby is a hand-crafted 1:5 scale P-51D Mustang, made by David Glen MSc. The model was a labour of love for David, that took ten years to finish. Before he created the Mustang, David had made a 1:5 scale Spitfire, which he donated to the other RAF Museum site, based at Hendon, North London. Using a common display tip, the Mustang is mounted on a mirror base, which enables you to se...

You’ve only got this week to get along to the Royal Air Force Museum in London, to see a fascinating exhibition. It closes at the end of May, so for a close look at Airfix kit history, it’s the place to be. Mat Irvine reports: The show consists of two displays, one of original box-art, primarily by noted artist Roy Cross, then two large cabinets that hold examples of models, boxes, paints, and other artifacts. The show is not just about model aircraft, instead covering the whole range of Airfix subjects. Possibly the most interesting part is that the models shown are not professionally built as you might expect - actually, they are constructed by amateur model makers. Models in the show include aircraft, figures, rail rolling stock, ships, cars old and new, and some educational models, such as the Beam Engine. An injection-moulding unit (below) is also on display, perhaps the only one that would fit inside a cabinet, itself strong enough to take the weight of the solid-steel mould, pr...

SMN REPORT Here’s a well-timed kit release, a movie tie-in that’s bang up to the minute. It’s a variation on Italeri’s existing AW-101 kit to 1:72 scale, modded slightly to represent the triple-engined beast shown in the latest James Bond movie Skyfall . We haven’t see the new James Bond movie yet (though an SMN  Crew cinema outing is slotted for Wednesday this week) so we can’t comment on the accuracy or otherwise of this special Skyfall edition. But it seems a good idea and we’re all for kits like this, not least because they help attract newcomers to scale models. Smaller diecast Matching the theme of the 1:72 plastic kit is a smaller diecast version, this time to 1:100 scale. It’s ready to fly out of the box and comes in Skyfall colours and markings. Big boat President John F. Kennedy’s World War II command, PT109, is a famous boat all right, and here is Italeri’s 1:35 scale model of it. As with other motor torpedo boats from Italeri, the PT109 is superb, and comes complete w...