SCALE MODEL NEWS

HERE'S A HANDSOME piece of cgi by our friends at MetaBallStudios (MBS). Sit back and enjoy all those familiar vehicles from the worlds of fantasy and science-fiction. From Batman to Star Wars, Mad Max to the War of the Worlds, it's gorgeous stuff. 

THIS LAYOUT COMBINES traditional model rail construction with a dash of science fiction. The Edwardian sci-fi story  War of the Worlds by HG Wells makes for an interesting, and very different, diorama setting. SMN report: Invasion from an alien world is an old science-fiction theme, and one that's tackled successfully in this suitably British model rail display. It's a good subject for all model makers, and kit manufacturers have supplied various scale models to satisfy demand. Pegasus Hobbies have an interesting take on the 1953 George Pal movie, an award-winner in its day, and a classic that should be seen by all sci-fi fans. Click to read all about the Pegasus kit. The latest War of the Worlds reinvention is from the BBC ( below ). The three-part series is currently on-air and streamed on iPlayer. It's worth watching, not least because it is set in England, as was HG Wells's original tale. The effects are also worthwhile, even if the pace becomes somewhat ponderou...

PEGASUS HOBBIES is billed as the largest hobby store in southern California (SoCal), and having walked all the aisles, I can confirm the statement is true. Mat Irvine:  President of Pegasus Hobbies is Larry Thompson, whom I first met at trade hobby shows in Chicago, variously RCHTA and then iHobby Expo. Back then, model company personnel would meet up over a weekend to display their wares, and get together with like-minded others for a natter over a pizza and beer. Larry traveled to Chicago for those events, but would always add “If you are ever in California, drop by.” So, as I was there recently, that’s just what I did. The Pegasus Hobbies store is located in Montclair, about an hour or so on the I-10 from downtown Los Angeles. Located in a side street off the interstate, at first glance it doesn’t look that imposing, but you soon spot what appears to be a control tower on the roof, along with a full size yellow and black Gee Bee Model Z race plane. Both are replicas, but do set ...

Aaah… the 'Little Belgian' aka 'The Muscles from Brussels' strikes the Internet again with this oh-so-fun CGI splits-in-space. Last time we looked, it was heading toward the million-hits mark, with no end in sight. Seriously (maybe) it's another example of how modelling has moved on since the early days of puppets and strings. For scale model fans, the lesson is in creating interesting dioramas with - if you're reasonably Photoshop-literate - great backdrops and the ability to print off photo-realistic support material, whether that's old rail station adverts, building frontages, crowds, or whatever else takes your interest. Here's a nifty example from the leaping cat buffs at Jaguar Mk2 Info , and of course there are many, many more equally beautiful creations around the Internet and of course, at model shows. This particular Jaguar diorama took my fancy as I learned to drive on the beast - and found there was little or no gap between first and reverse ...

Mat Irvine reports from iHobby Expo: Continuing my look at the new goodies on show at iHobby, this time I'm inspecting Pegasus Hobbies, a company that started off by making glitzy accessories for car modellers, an aspect it still does, but that now also makes aircraft and military models, and is best known for its science-fiction kits. War of the Worlds This is high on the Pegasus listing, and with the classic 1953 George Pal movie having been covered, attention is now being given to the more recent Tom Cruise movie of 2005. A Martian figure has already been released, and next up is the three-legged Martian war machine. Interestingly, the Pal ‘flying’ design was the only one that eschewed HG Wells’s text description - all other versions, including the Jeff Wayne audio and stage show version, and this latest, follow Wells closely. The Pegasus kit is big and tall - it stands more than 600 mm (24 in) high, even in 1:144 scale. The kit will also provide an opportunity for internal ligh...

SMN report With the news of an Earth-type alien world being found - the exoplanet Gliese 581g - it’s worth remembering the physicist Stephen Hawking’s warning that intelligent ETs might not be friendly. And that of course was the theme of English author HG Wells’s masterwork The War of the Worlds . Music and Martians So when Mat Irvine’s colleague Nick Argento of Glencoe Models sent a link to a stop-frame animation of this classic invasion story, we had to look it up. What a hoot, and the classical music scores fit well with the subject too. The humans are ringers for Action Man and Co, while the Martian tripod models (you can see them in action at the 4:03 timing mark) are pretty convincing, and a reminder of the splendid artwork printed in Classics Illustrated many years ago. See Glencoe Models here . View a Pegasus Hobbies Martian here . Visit the Classics Illustrated War of the Worlds graphic novel here .