SCALE MODEL NEWS

STAR WARS MODEL MAKERS are used to making kits at a seriously wide range of scales. The Bandai Death Star II, for example, is made to an amazing 1:2,700,000 scale. SMN report: Star Wars kits are not all made to such tiny scales of course. Vehicles like the Millennium Falcon and X-Wing are available at a typical model aircraft 1:72 scale. But even at that size, we are making models of some very large machines. The video ( bottom ) rams science-fiction ideas home by showing you just how big the film makers' dreams have been. More please!   A Walker (below) strolls past a light-industrial lot, while Star Destroyers ( header pic ) hover threateningly over New York City. Oops, the Millennium Falcon will earn a parking ticket by landing on a freeway ( below ). The Bandai Star Destroyer ( below ) is one of a range that marks new heights for sci-fi kit production. The Revell Slave 1 ( below ) may be 'just' a snap-kit, but the moulding quality is good and sharp, as this ventral vie...

Here’s an in-depth article from Keith McNeill, a master of not only model-making, but also the art of studio photography and Photoshop. Keith McNeill: “I have been interested in special effects photography since I first saw Thunderbirds in 1965 - not that I knew what special effects photography actually was when I was 11! But my interest was immediately stimulated by the model work of Derek Meddings and the photography of said models which made them appear enormous and very lifelike.  “My friend Jeff who introduced me to Thunderbirds, and had earlier got me interested in making Airfix model aircraft, made some superb wooden models of the Thunderbird craft and a very large model of Zero X, and these were the first models we tried to photograph. Knowing nothing about photography and using an old-style camera, we proceeded by trial and error - but did get some passable results on black and white film. “We then both became interested in the Apollo program and tried to improve our resu...

Mat Irvine: This is going to be about as complex a model car kit in this scale (or any scale) you are likely to build, and initially the packed box of parts looks daunting. Most of the complexity is down to the fact that the Tumbler is hardly an ordinary vehicle design, and the way a conventional car kit goes together doesn’t really apply to the Tumbler. The Moebius instructions are very clear, albeit with a couple of errors, corrected in later printings (below) and primarily regarding the way the rear airfoils fit. But once that element of construction is sorted, and considering that the Tumbler is such an unconventional design, the kit goes together very smoothly. The Moebius Tumbler kit is moulded mostly in black styrene, plus a clear runner, vinyl tyres, and a hefty metal axle for the rear wheels. The colour of the movie Tumbler is black of course, so it’s up to you whether you overpaint the plastic or not. Painted finishes always look better though, and here the finish I used was...

Excellent demo here from South African VFX-master Scott Newman. Being realistic, making a video this good might be beyond many of us, but no matter - it looks great and is something to aspire to. The Russian Mil-24 Hind gunship is a big helicopter, and has been modelled well by various manufacturers, including Revell, with its 1:48 scale kit, which Scott used in this video. Assembly is reasonably easy, with enough internal detail to be convincing, especially under the two big nose canopies. Plenty of weapons are supplied - rockets, missiles, and nose cannon - so the big beast can be modelled loaded for bear with minimum effort, or resorting to third-party suppliers. The kit has 150 components, and when assembled measures some 405mm (16in) long, showing what a big beast the real thing is. Crew figures are supplied, and if painted carefully, they can look really convincing. As for the VFX side of things, Scott's tutorial looks interesting (thanks Scott!) and of course, you can use th...

David Jefferis turns the pages First things first - BBC VFX is a thundering great tome that tips the scales at not far south of 2 kg (4 lb) and is an encyclopedic 240 pages from end to end. And in fact, that’s just what it is - a show-by-show encyclopedia detailing the work of the BBC Visual Effects (‘VFX’) Department down the years. SMN contributor Mat Irvine The two authors behind BBC VFX are long-time experts in the VFX field. We know Mat well for his contributions to SMN, and for his droolworthy Model Museum, packed with examples just about every kit ever made. Mike Tucker worked at the BBC until 2003, and now runs his own company, The Model Unit, based at Ealing Studios near London. Daleks to Moonbase 3 So what’s between the covers of BBC VFX? Quite simply, the most complete listings, descriptions, and behind-the-scenes information about virtually every BBC TV show that’s featured the Department’s expertise. Some of these are world-renowned - Doctor Who and the Daleks, for example...