SCALE MODEL NEWS

The Round 2 model spectrum includes not only the AMT, MPC and Polar Lights brands, but now features the Lindberg and Hawk names as well. Mat Irvine reports from iHobby Expo: Round 2 had the largest of all model kit company stands at the show. My first look here is based mostly around Round 2's new and upcoming space and science-fiction kits. After this, I will look at Round 2 cars, aircraft and the rest. The booth (above) for Round 2 at the 2014 iHobby Expo. Note the display includes all R2 brands, including Auto World which deals with both slot car racing, and is the name for the online store. A pleasant surprise (below) was this MPC Space 1999 line-up. The Eagle Transporter itself is not new, but Round 2's latest offering is the first conventional injection kit to come with the twin-engine dorsal rocket booster pack included in the box. And that's excellent news for Space 1999 fans. Note the neatly applied wear and tear dirtying-down work on the assembled and finished Ea...

The 1:100 scale Round 2 MPC Titan IIIC launch rocket is a companion kit to the same-scale Vostok I reviewed a short while ago, and, as with the Vostok, I also helped with some technical details. Mat Irvine: The Titan IIIC is a reissue of a kit first released in 1970, and with the Vostok , was unique in being primarily a static model, but one that could also fly with the aid of an Estes-type solid-rocket motor. I wrote the text for the box bottom (below). Well, most of it… The flying options have been omitted on this kit, but some parts that are on the runners with other components, are still included, as with the Vostok. So there's an opportunity to add some spares to the bits-and-pieces box. You still get a chrome-plated runner with some parts, which was a feature of the Vostok kit, and is a legacy of MPC’s model car production. The original booklet (below middle) is reproduced for this reissue. Construction of the Titan IIIC is reasonably straightforward, with two identical boos...

This is a 1:100 scale model of the classic Soviet A-Type launcher in its best-known Vostok version, as used to launch Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, on April 4, 1961. This time, the MPC kit comes as a Round 2 re-release. The kit was first issued by MPC way back in 1970, when details of the launch rocket were still relatively new in the West. The design, featuring four tapered strap-on boosters, looked distinctly odd then, especially compared to cylindrical Western launchers. However, the design is now highly familiar - the basic rocket is still used to launch Soyuz and Progress craft to the ISS (International Space Station) and now also by ESA (European Space Agency) as one of its main launchers. The new box (header pic) has a 'Made in USA' label, a sign that at least some kit manufacturing is returning from the Far East. The name ‘Sharik’ ( Russian: 'little sphere' ) is printed under the Vostok title, though this really refers only to the single-seat spherical d...

At first glance, the giant 1:96 scale Saturn V launch complex built by John Ashton (above) looks as if it could be built from modern materials. But no, take a closer look, and you realise the construction is from an older period, the builder being someone who seems to like a lot of cornflakes, for he makes his models mostly out of cereal boxes. Mat Irvine reports: John Ashton entered his Saturn V launch complex into the 2010 IPMS Scale ModelWorld ‘factual space’ section, and although his work didn’t win gold, it did take a bronze. The sheer size of the model demanded attention, and although when you look closely you can see the source materials, from a couple of metres away, the whole thing takes on a very realistic look. The Saturn rocket is assembled from a 1:96 scale Revell kit, but the launch complex is constructed from found materials, mainly card from cereal boxes. Although John builds mostly from cereal boxes, he also uses other ‘found’ materials, such as florist’s wire, woode...