SCALE MODEL NEWS

EAST MEETS WEST with this collaboration between Tamiya of Japan and Italeri of Italy. SMN report: Tamiya has taken the excellent 1:32 scale Italeri Lockheed Martin F-35A kit, and used it as the basis for a Limited Edition of the aircraft in Japanese military markings. As with most modern military aircraft, this F-35A has a monotone marking scheme, consisting of plain grey with a lighter grey-blue for the radome and assorted panels. Note that even the normally blood-red Japanese rising sun roundel has been reduced to a pale circle. The F-35A has them on the wings, and beside the air intakes on each side of the fuselage. The finished model is on the big side, measuring nearly a half-metre long, 19 inches to lovers of Imperial measurements. That's large enough, we reckon, to merit a diorama, even a minimal one. Perhaps a section of tarmac and a figure or two would do the job, if only to give a sense of scale. However, with or without a diorama, this F-35A will look the biz when displ...

David Jefferis: In February 2013, Iran revealed a so-called ‘stealth’ fighter plane, the Qaher 313 Conqueror. And now we have Fantastic Plastic revealing its 1:72 scale model of what proved to be a ground-hugger hoax-jet. In the words of Fantastic Plastic: “What makes the Qaher 313 truly ‘fantastic’ is that it's an obvious hoax. Within hours of the plane's debut, aviation experts throughout the world were branding it a crude fraud. The plane was too small, the cockpit too confining and its controls too simple. “Even its clear cockpit canopy (above) was so distorted it would give any pilot instant vertigo. The plane looked more suited to serve as a movie prop than a front-line combat fighter. To answer its critics, Iran quickly issued a photograph of the Qaher 313 in flight - a photo (below) that within hours was shown to be a crude Photoshop!” So hats off to Fantastic Plastic for coming up with a kit of this weird and wonderful design - let’s call it a modern version of Luftwa...

SMN report: Pre-orders are now being taken for the Revell 1:72 scale Sukhoi T-50 Stealth combat aircraft, with deliveries of the kit due to start on April 7, 2012. Moving jet nozzles Strictly speaking, we are looking at the PAK FA, which is the flying prototype for the production T-50, due to start rolling out of the factories from 2015. The handsome machine was shown off last August, at the 2011 Russian International Air Show, displaying advanced features that include electronically-controlled vectored engine nozzles, which adjust the angle of the jet exhausts to boost manoeuvrability and improve handling.  Radar-proofing Nano-tech surface materials are used, and Sukhoi claims these enable: “85 percent stealth success” whatever that means! Let’s just say the T-50 - being co-produced with India, incidentally - may be a worthy combat competitor for the current Top Gun, the US F-22 Raptor. Like the Raptor, the T-50 will house weapons internally, as ordnance hung under the wings and ...

Stealth technology is standard-issue on military hardware today, but not so long ago, it was top secret and kept far away from detailed public knowledge. So model companies came out with various guesstimate-kits, based on informed thinking by experts. Among these was the MiG-37B stealth jet, a 'faction' model even given the notional NATO codename, 'Ferret E.' End of the Cold War The reality of MiG weaponry has since proven rather different, but that doesn't make the Italeri MiG-37B kit ( above ) any less relevant - in fact, it's an extremely interesting kit that reflects the last days of the Cold War, and the dawn era of a new technology. Farewell seat and cockpit Today, the leading edge in weapons design is surely with the UAV (Uncrewed Air Vehicle), a type of combat machine certain to be at the leading edge of any and all future air wars. Let's hope they won't be necessary on many occasions in 2012. James Bond machine Meantime, enjoy the slide show and...

SMN report: Here we have China’s Dragon providing us with a cool take on the stealth helicopter that took part in - and crashed during - Operation Geronimo, the night raid in Pakistan that resulted in the death of arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden.  Intelligent design Apart from the tail section, which the world clearly saw from crash photographs, this Dragon kit is a work of intelligent surmise, but fascinating for all that, and the people in the Dragon team have clearly worked hard to produce a realistic and highly possible stealth helicopter design. Details all present Somewhat surprisingly, the kit is to a smallish 1:144 scale, perhaps a bit of a pity to those of us who like our models as big as we can get ‘em. Still, let’s not be churlish, it’s a new-tool 'what if' kit of this special-ops helo, and includes details such as angled surfaces, photo-etch intake details, landing gear that can be assembled in up or down position, and a convincing six-pack of swept rotor blade tips....

SMN report It’s something of a helicopter time at the moment - the stealth machines used in the bin Laden raid, a possible European-issue NH90 stealth-design, and now the news that British Army WAH-64D Apache AH1s have been ordered into North Africa, operating from the amphibious assault ship HMS Ocean , in joint operations with French Eurocopter Tigers.  British Army Apache at RAF Fairford. Which Apache model to make? There are plenty of Apache models out there, including the diminutive 1:144 scale Revell kit, but for a complex machine like this with so much detail in the cockpits, weapons, and rotor assemblies, smaller models are not really the most satisfying way to go, and even 1:72 scale doesn’t appeal to us. No, in our view 1:48 is the best all-round scale for doing justice to this state-of-the-art attack helicopter. And for the easily-recognizeable ‘D’ version, which mounts a Longbow radar atop the rotor mast, both Italeri and Hasegawa kits make good starting points. Front c...

SMN report The expert Italian aviation team of David Cenciotti and Ugo Crisponi have got together again to visualise a type of helicopter that Cenciotti thinks could also have taken part in the bin Laden raid in Pakistan. Modifications to the Chinook Like Crisponi’s visual of the MH-60, this Stealth-Chinook depicts many similar features of such a machine, including smoothed and faceted nose and air intakes, but the Chinook's signature fuselage sponsons are shown here modified with a similar treatment. The rotor heads have discs to cover the complex connection assemblies, and the blades themselves are spectacular hooked scimitars.  Good starting point for a stealthy build.   Boarding a standard-issue Chinook. Refuelling options Once again, Cenciotti and Crisponi have included a retractable landing gear and cleaned-up fuselage surfaces, free of all the usual humps and bumps that increase the radar cross-section. A notable omission is the in-flight refuelling probe sported b...