SCALE MODEL NEWS

  WITH SIR RICHARD BRANSON beating his space entrepreneur rival, Jeff Bezos, into space by a week or so on July 11, 2021, it's time to take a detailed look at Revell’s 1:144 scale kit of the Virgin Galactic craft. Mat Irvine: This kit actually dates from 2013 and there was a brief look at Revell test-shots in December of that year. The test shot was moulded in grey, but this production kit is in white, with three main runners, two of which are identical. Two identical clear runners are provided for the windows.  The duplication is because the layout for WhiteKnightTwo differs from the first generation. Now there are two identical fuselages with cabins for WK2. There are four Pratt and Whitney turbofan engines, two each side.  The windows are also duplicated, as all cabins share a virtually identical window layout. And SS2 is much larger than SS1, so much so that it in 1:144 scale it is about the same size as the SS1 in 1:72.   Because the WK2 fuselages are identical...

THIS SPACE AND SCIENCE-FICTION ROUNDUP concludes our review of Revell kits on display at the 2015 London Toy Fair. It's a good range with plenty of choice, whatever your interest. Mat Irvine: Unlike Airfix, which has no space kits in its 2015 range, Revell continues with a selection that includes the 1:144 scale Apollo Saturn V ( header, below ). It's an impressively large kit when assembled, though the display model here still shows the incorrect lettering for 'USA' and 'UNITED STATES' in black. This was an error that crept in when the model was issued by Revell-Monogram a few years ago, from where the display model originated. Fortunately, Revell Germany corrected this for the new release, so just to confirm that you get the decals with this lettering in the correct red colour. The Space Shuttle may have stopped flying in July, 2011, but that hasn't stopped Revell making three 1:144 scale kits available. The Space Shuttle Discovery and Booster Rockets kit...

On January 10, 2014, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo completed its third powered test flight. In command on the flight deck for the first time under rocket power was VG’s Chief Pilot, Dave Mackay. We looked at the new 1:144 scale WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo kit recently, so it’s good to see that progress on Virgin Galactic’s edge-of-space craft is proceeding well (video below) though we're not quoting odds as to when the first fare-paying passengers will fly. We’re betting 2015, rather than 2014. The Revell kit looks pretty good, though we’d like to see it in a bigger scale, with all the extra detail that would allow. Still, for the moment, the new-tool kit spec is reasonable: * Highly detailed fuselage on both WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo
 * Clear windows 
* Accurately reproduced engines and structured wings 
* Optional extended landing gear
 * Rocket nozzle
* Includes display stand
 * Super decal set with colourful Virgin Galactic design
 Scale Stats Revell Virgin Galactic...

Here’s more on Revell’s new kit of the SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo combo that will allow anyone to ‘fly into space’ - with two provisos: that they have a spare $100,000 or so, and can demonstrate that they are ‘reasonably fit’! Mat Irvine: The previous post on this 1:144 scale WhiteKnightTwo-SpaceShipOne kit gave most of the details, but as I helped Revell out with some details, advice, and a check-though of test shots against instructions, here’s a bit of background. In all you get five runners (below) three in white styrene, two in clear. However, because WK2 is in effect two aircraft joined together, two of the white runners are identical, as are both the runners moulded in clear plastic. Because many of the parts are identical, and plenty of them are very small, it is vital to pay close attention to the instructions, and not to remove parts from runners until they are required. This applies especially to the two WK2 fuselages, and the four engines, as at first glance, many co...

MAT IRVINE REPORTS Canada’s headline space involvement is in supplying the Canadarm 2 robotic arm system presently used on the International Space Station (ISS). But here’s another, smaller, Canadian space product in the form of a sleek 1:72 scale resin kit of the Silver Dart hypersonic re-entry glider from Dave Guerin’s Blap! Models of Ontario. The primary role of Blap! is in specialist one-off moulding and mould-making tasks for other companies, mostly involving resin. However, Dave also has a sideline producing model kits, of which the 1:72 scale Silver Dart is one. Easy assembly The Silver Dart kit is simple in construction: you get a baker's-dozen components including the sturdy base, but the box does also contain sheet of decals. These are rather fragile, so once applied, you will need to protect them with several coats of Testors satin varnish. Metallic finish The assembled model measures some 150 mm (6 in) long, though the big base adds to the perceived size on a display sh...

SMN report: Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic seems to be on track to become the world's first commercial spaceline, with a passenger-carrying spaceship, the VSS Enterprise , carried by a twin-fuselage mothership, VMS Eve . Both vehicles were developed by California-based Scaled Composites, headed by the veteran designer Burt Rutan. Eventually there will be two motherships and five spaceships in the Virgin Galactic space fleet. Spaceport America And now that Spaceport America, Mojave, California, has been opened, the craft have an operating base. It’s the world’s first private spaceport, with a suitably futuristic terminal ( above ) designed by the internationally famous Foster + Partners.  Voyage to the edge of space Actually, the word ‘spaceship’ is a slight exaggeration, for the Mach 3 craft are not designed to go into orbit, like the winged Space Shuttle Orbiters. Instead they will go just above the 100 km  (61 miles) mark, a somewhat arbitrary height called the Karman...

SMN report News that the US company SpaceX successfully test-flew its Dragon space capsule today makes SMN really proud - for this company is in the vanguard of the privatization of space. Along with the likes of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic program, it looks as if there might be a future for rocketry in the post-Space Shuttle era after all. Spacecraft models from Dragon And talking of Dragons, the Chinese model company of the same name is busy releasing a miniature ‘Space Collection’, to 1:72 and 1:400 scale, plus 1:6 scale astronaut figures. The spacecraft are all ready-built, mixing diecast metal with injection-plastic parts, and while some are familiar subjects - Apollo and Shuttle feature strongly - there is at least one really interesting of-the-moment release, and that’s the 1:72 scale X-37B OTV (Orbital Test Vehicle). X-37B in space Looking much like a mini-Shuttle (and originally designed to fit inside a Space Shuttle cargo bay) NASA’s X-37B program was taken over by ...