SCALE MODEL NEWS

Mat Irvine: It’s perhaps a slightly odd decision for Hasegawa to model a spaceprobe that is more than 35 years old… but let us be pleased the company did, as it is a very interesting kit for any space enthusiast. Two Voyager craft were launched in 1977, their mission to study the outer gas giant planets of the Solar System. Initially these were just Jupiter and Saturn, but Voyager 2 was redirected in mid-flight to go on to encounter Uranus and Neptune as well. Currently the Voyagers are the most travelled objects to leave planet Earth, with Voyager 1 now some 18.5 billion km (12bn miles) from the Sun, far beyond the planets in the distant area known as the heliosphere. Just over 80 parts make up the Hasegawa kit, which measures some 325mm (13in) to the end of the magnetometer boom. The components are supplied on two black plastic runners, plus one in white and one gold-plated for the onboard ‘Golden Record’ message disc carried by each craft ‘just in case’ a future civili...

  An appreciation by Mat Irvine Sir Patrick Moore, creator and presenter of ‘The Sky at Night’, a long-running BBC TV astronomy show, died yesterday, December 9, aged 89. Although Sir Patrick Moore's name is perhaps not automatically associated with scale models, in fact it was through modelling that I first met Patrick Moore more than 40 years ago, when I supplied some spacecraft miniatures to The Sky at Night, a connection that continued on and off until the present day. I don’t think anyone would deny that Patrick was the world’s most famous amateur astronomer, for he was a professional broadcaster, but an amateur astronomer in the true sense of the term. Through The Sky at Night, he inspired countless people, many of whom went on to become professional astronomers, space scientists, or were given a lifetime interest in the subject. It would be difficult to put a figure on these numbers, though I know I was one of them. Patrick in The Sky at Night studio ( above ) around the lat...

SMN report: Hasegawa of Japan is bringing us hot new and revised products at a pace-and-a-half. Here a taste of what’s in store - space, sci-fi, aviation, and... girls! Dreamliner The 1:200 scale Boeing 787 Dreamliner comes in two flavours, JAL (Japan Airlines) and ANA (All Nippon Airways), differentiated in several ways, such as the differing engines used by the two airlines. At this scale, the changes are visually minor, but Hasegawa has detailed everything you need for an accurate finished model. Voyager Real-space fans have a treat in store with the 1:48 scale Voyager space probe. Two were launched back in 1977, their mission to record data and information about the outer planets. After swooping past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, they are now drifting into interstellar space, beyond the Solar System.  Golden Record The Hasegawa kit includes a scale representation of the ‘Golden Record’, a video disc containing the sights and sounds of Earth. There’s one aboard each space...