SCALE MODEL NEWS

SMN report: Mat Irvine reported from the 2011 iHobby Expo in November, and one of the upcoming kits that looked very interesting indeed was the 1:72 scale USS Skipjack nuclear submarine. Well, the sub’s now coming into view and should be available very soon indeed. TV star submarine Moebius has another big submarine on offer too, and that’s the Seaview , star of 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea', a long-running TV series that was aired from 1964-68. To this science-fiction fan, the Seaview is probably the more interesting of the pair, not least for its mini-sub - included in the Moebius kit - and for the windows in the bow section. Perfect for a TV series, big, square windows up front are the last thing a working submarine needs, but kudos to the special effects team - it looked really good when you saw crew figures walking about behind those four holes in the pressure hull. High-speed sub The Moebius 1:72 scale USS Skipjack  was one of the most advanced subs of its time, pow...

Mat Irvine reports The USS Long Beach is another recent Revell-Germany issue in its Classic Kits range. The Long Beach is a significant ship in that it was the first - and still only - nuclear-powered cruiser, the first all-new cruiser built for the US Navy after WWII, and the first that was armed primarily with guided missiles, though she did have two 5-inch guns amidships and could launch torpedos. Long Beach was also the only one ever built in her class, so therefore remains unique. Regulus 2 cruise missile The Revell kit dates from 1960, the year after the real ship was launched and features two nuclear reactors, one for each propeller shaft, and three types of missile. There are twin launchers forward for the medium-range surface-to-air (SAM) Terrier, one twin launcher aft for the long-range Talos SAM, while amidships is a Regulus 2 cruise missile, positioned on a launcher ready for takeoff. It’s not clear that the real ship actually carried the Regulus, but it certainly looks ...