SCALE MODEL NEWS

THIS EXCELLENT VIDEO takes us behind the scenes to show the thought process behind creating a state of the art model kit, here the Airfix 1:72 scale De Havilland Mosquito. SMN report: YouTuber Ralph Ford sums up the video in his comment: "... What a great video. To see what the designer was striving for and to listen to a designer who is a builder is the way all kits should be designed. I hope to see more of these types of video in the future. Congrats on a beautiful, practical designed kit. PS other companies had better take a heads up here. This is the future and this gentleman is the type of designer you need to be employing if you want to stay competitive. Airfix has gone from from to second tier to innovator with this business model." The kit itself looks pretty good. If you are a 1:72 scale builder and keen on World War II subjects, then building this Mosquito is likely to be a must-do, especially with long winter evenings ahead. Enjoy!

SMN Report: The 1:72 scale de Havilland DH100 Vampire T11 from Airfix is now widely available. A look inside the box reveals that the new-tool kit is a good one. What’s on offer with this kit? How about neatly engraved panel lines, some decent cockpit detail including an instrument panel with accurately printed instruments. On the build front, it’s important to note that the Vampire T11 is a confirmed tail-sitter, so to display the aircraft balanced comfortably on its landing gear, you need to weight up the nosecone, though this is detailed in the instructions. When assembled, the 55-part Airfix Vampire T11 has a length of 146mm (5.7in) and wingspan of 161mm (6.3in). Wide-view canopy Being a side-by-side two-seater, the cockpit canopy is relatively large, and it’s good to see that Airfix designers are putting in the extra mile where 1:72 scale components are concerned. An example is in the neatly moulded and very clear three-section canopy, which includes the front windshield, opening ...

Mr J REPORT: I can remember my very first airliner kit, a 1:96 scale Frog de Havilland Comet IV. The kit came with minimal detail, but did have looong decal strips for the fuselage sides, and a daunting amount of white paint was needed to cover the upper surface. After much careful application of tape, on went the paint and, well, to my chagrin much of it seeped underneath, and the kit was never the same again. I soon learned to mask with the best of them, but somehow never really returned to airliners with any degree of enthusiasm! How I wish I'd had the facilities shown here for a Thomson Airways revamp from old insignia to swoopy new markings. I wish!

SMN report: Here’s an unusual early jet-age choice from Hong Kong’s Dragon, a 1:72 scale de Havilland Sea Vixen FAW1. Coming so soon after the 1:48 scale kit from Airfix, does this one measure up to that bigger kit? What’s in the box? The box includes one transparent set of components and four runners for the remainder, all of which are  moulded in plain grey. Two decal sheets give a choice of markings for six Royal Navy aircraft. There’s a clear set of instructions, with paint and marking guides. It’s all neatly packed, and the parts look crisp and sharply moulded. Transparencies Of particular note are the canopy and hatch to the observer’s ‘coal hole’. Both items are thin and clear, though you will have some careful masking to do when it’s painting time. Other features If you wish to have the ventral airbrake open, you will have to cut a hole and add a blank inside the fuselage as Dragon have not included the brake’s internal bay. That's odd, because the same features for the und...

Mat Irvine builds a 1934 racing aircraft When this kit was first issued it was regarded as a pretty nice little model of the aircraft that won the 1934 England to Australia MacRobertson Air Race. The slight trouble today is that the Airfix DH.88 was released more than half a century ago, in 1957, and things in the kit world have moved on considerably since then! Inside the box In 1957 you tended to get one-piece wings, no cockpit detail, and a very simplified approach to kit building - and with this latest DH.88 nothing has really changed. In fact, the only detectable tooling changes with this new kit are that part numbers have been added to the runners! But having said that, with a few modifications the 24-part kit can be made to look reasonable, and this is greatly helped as - and this is for the first time - instead of the best known version, the bright-red Grosvenor House , the decals are for another of the original three Air Race planes, Black Magic , which was stunningly finished...