SCALE MODEL NEWS

THE TEMPEST IS going forward as a new project, with a target in-service date from 2035. It will almost certainly replace the current Eurofighter Typhoon fleet, used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and eight other air arms. The UK-based BAE Systems is leading Team Tempest, with partners that include Leonardo, MBDA, Rolls-Royce. There's no model kit of the future Tempest released yet, though several are in development with garage companies. Our bet for a future Tempest kit is with Allen B. Ury and his excellent California-based Fantastic Plastic. Click here to visit the Fantastic Plastic site , and drool at the amazing range of concept and fictional air and space craft that's available.  The Tempest will doubtless change as it develops, but even now surely supplies a real-life look at the worlds of the future. Click here to see a glimpse at the upcoming website for Worlds of the Future.

SKYLON UPDATE: The UK Government is investing £60m GBP ($92m USD) on the Skylon's revolutionary Sabre engine, to enable a full-scale prototype to be built - so maybe this special edition model isn't pie-in-the-sky.  That political vote of confidence means that the designers now hope to see Sabre engines powering the Skylon spaceplane on operational flights by 2022, each ship carrying a 15-tonne payload into orbit. First test flights for the uncrewed vehicle are tentatively scheduled three years earlier, in 2019. As a passenger-carrying machine, a skip-glide flight across the top of the atmosphere could enable a London-Sydney journey in as little as four hours. The British-designed Skylon is the brainchild of engineer Alan Bond, reports Mat Irvine. Bond heads his own space business, Reaction Engines, and now i t may not be too many years before the single-stage-to-orbit aerospaceplane soars into orbit. Until then we can dream on with this Herpa 1:250 scale model kit. Alan Bond (...

SMN update: Fujimi of Japan has some fascinating stuff heading our way, including this 1:144 scale model of a ‘what-if’ design, Japan’s ‘ultimate’ World War II heavy bomber, the Nakajima G10N Fugaku (Mt Fuji) designed with the power and range to attack the US West Coast. It’s interesting that Fujimi should choose this relatively small scale, as there’s a similar-sized model out there already: the Anigrand Craftwork 111-component resin production. Choice of propellers But first let’s look at Fujimi’s upcoming offering. It’s more than a little unusual as kits go, as you get not one, but a set of four Fugaku bombers. The kit is an all-new tooling of the six-engine bomber, and the aircraft are not only pre-painted, but are also partly assembled, too. You have a choice of three-blade contra-rotating propellers or single six-bladed props.  Big bomber, even at 1:144 scale There’s more - the bomb bay doors and engine cowling gills can be assembled opened or closed, and the Nagaku can be fi...