SCALE MODEL NEWS

THE MOOF MUSEUM IS tucked away under Brussels Central Station, and it’s easy to miss. We chanced upon the collection after arriving in Brussels from a two-hour train ride on the high-speed Eurostar service from central London. SMN report: MOOF stands for Museum Of Original Figurines, and it’s an absolute delight for anyone (like me) who loves strip cartoons and graphic stories. These are popular throughout Europe, where they are known as BD, or Bandes Dessinees, meaning ‘designed strips.’ You won’t find plastic kits at MOOF, but if you like miniatures in their wider sense, then the place really earns its keep. The day we arrived, Eric Pierre was behind the counter, and he looked after our travel bags while we explored the museum. The entrance ( below ) is just inside the Galerie Horta shopping mall. Outside Galerie Horta and MOOF, a super-size Smurf ( below ) stands on guard. The Smurfs are another Belgian creation, the characters originating from the pen of the artist Peyo, back in 1...

French publisher-cum-model producer Editions Atlas has some very interesting miniatures available at the moment. SMN report: A long-time staple of the Armee de l'Air (French Air Force) training fleet, the Alpha Jet from Editions Atlas is to 1:72 scale. The metal and plastic miniature is accurately produced, though it lacks the ultimate precise detail that you might expect with an equivalent injection-moulded kit. But it's a sturdy production, so should last for years on the display shelf, and certainly looks the part in neatly applied red, white and blue stripes. The gold tail lettering marks the 60th anniversary of the national air display team, the Patrouille de France (French Patrol). Facel was a French car manufacturer that lasted only a decade, from 1954-64, but in those years the company produced a handsome series of cars. The Facel Vega FV2 (below) was the car to be seen in if you were a 1950s French movie star, and this 1:43 scale open-top version is what we get from E...

A recent visit to the famed Covent Garden Piazza in London revealed that there are miniatures to be found in the unlikeliest places. SMN Report: There is one obvious place to track down, and that’s the Tintin shop in Floral Street . Packed to the rafters with Tintin stuff, it’s a Herge fan’s delight. For us, the red-and-white chequered Moon rocket from Destination Moon on sale in no less than three different sizes was a spoonful of cream on the cake. Add various 1:43 scale vehicles from the story, and the place became a graphic novel and model fan’s treasure-trove. As was the Forbidden Planet store , in Shaftesbury Avenue. Books, collectibles, comics, games, miniatures… if you like fantasy and science-fiction, the place is unmissable. Mind you, there are other Forbidden Planet stores spread around the UK, so one of them might be reachable if a trip to London is not on your itinerary. And in the Covent Garden Piazza itself? Well, we found no dedicated model or miniature store, sad to ...

We don’t cover a great many diecasts at SMN, as this is primarily a model making site, rather than one designed for collectors. But there are justifiable exceptions, and the Moulinsart Tintin collection from France is one of them. If you’ve ever read a Tintin graphic novel, or admired the crisp line drawings of the character’s Belgian creator, Hergé, then you’ll love these nicely engineered miniatures. Remember the blue taxi in Tintin in America ? The Citroen 2CV in The Castafiore Emerald ? These two and many others have been engineered to 1:43 scale, by Moulinsart. What defines these miniatures is the stylish look - unlike the ultra-realistic aim of most diecast engineers, Tintin models are made to echo the appearance of drawings as they were printed in the books. So there’s often a subtle simplification of detail, but more importantly, there has been the addition of truly excellent scale figurines, to create a micro-diorama effect with each release. Most subjects can be traced to a s...