SCALE MODEL NEWS

  WITH MOST SCALE MODEL NEWS REVIEWS, we deal first with the model, then maybe go into a few intriguing details that we hope are of interest. But with this new Atlantis kit, we have approached it the other way around, as things are not anything like straightforward. Mat Irvine:  Firstly is this kit ‘new’? Well yes, it is a brand-new release from Atlantis Models, but it is not ‘completely new.’ Ah, you might logically surmise, it’s got to be a re-release of existing tooling and from the type of the model, it has to be an ex-Aurora kit. To which you can then answer, “Well, yes – and no…” The Metaluna Mutant appeared in the 1955 American film  This Island Earth . Based on a story by Raymond F Jones, it tells of the alien visitor Exeter ( played by Jeff Morrow ) capturing atomic scientist Cal Meacham ( Rex Reason ) to return him and other Earth scientists, to the distant world of Metaluna to aid them in a war against the oppressing Zagons.  This Island Earth  was on...

HAPPY NEW YEAR! HERE'S A ROUNDUP of scale goodness to enjoy before 2017 really gets rolling. SMN report: Scale modellers can perhaps look to their bank accounts in the New Year. Maybe its time to invest in some collectible kits to lay down for that retirement package. The 5 Space Ships of the Future ( header pic ) is certainly a rarity. Whatever you pay for this Lindberg Line multi-kit is likely to be a decent investment, as they are not making them any more. The content is an interesting mixture, as the box contains three future-factual designs, a satellite rocket, and an entirely fictional flying saucer, complete with alien pilot. Love that wheel-type space station, at the time thought to be the look of the near future. Meantime, Russian designers have come up with all sorts of Ekranoplan ground effect (GEV) designs ( below right ) which allow high speed cruising over flat land or open water, such as the Caspian Sea. Crazy enough to look more like science fiction than reality, a...

Forbidden Planet, ‘the’ classic 1950s science-fiction movie, memorably gave us not only Robby the Robot, but also the C-57D Space Cruiser. Polar Lights has already issued a larger kit of this flying saucer, but has now come up with a brand new, half-size version to 1:144 scale. Mat Irvine reports: Opening the almost-square box reveals 22 parts in silver plastic and 17 in clear. This is a very simple kit to assemble, though it makes an impressive model when completed, being 304mm (12in) in diameter. The main saucer components are individual upper and lower halves, held together with locating pegs. The upper dome is one large part while the lower dome that houses the engine is moulded in transparent plastic. This can be left clear to show engine detail, or overpainted to match the rest of the hull There are two basic build options. In flying mode, the C-57D has its landing gear retracted, the ‘glowing engine’ revealed under the clear dome. In landing mode on the desert floor of Altair I...

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...

Mat Irvine reflects “Welcome to Altair IV gentlemen…” were the words of one of science fiction’s best-known robots, Robby, from the 1956 movie Forbidden Planet , which had its first US screening on this day 54 years ago. Forbidden Planet was a very loose reworking of Shakespeare’s The Tempest , and if you feel inclined, you can find a movie parallel to all the play’s characters, not least the spirit Ariel, which takes on a more solid movie form as Robby the Robot. In the scale model world, Robby is one of the classic kits that the original Aurora model company never made. Aurora had already produced the robot from the TV series 'Lost in Space', so Robby would have made a natural follow-on, especially as ‘he’ came first and the LiS design was influenced by Robby - not surprising, as it was created by Bob Kinoshita, one of Robby’s original designers. Robby may not have appeared as an original Aurora kit, but this situation was rectified when the Polar Lights kit company came on...