SCALE MODEL NEWS

SMN report Seeing that beautifully produced Hobby Master Douglas Skyraider made us think that the diecast industry has one more ‘mission impossible’ to fulfill in the quality stakes - and that’s to fill those tiny cockpits with decent-looking humanoids. Skyraider cockpit As you can see from the superb pix and video of the real thing above, the pilot sits high and mighty in the Skyraider’s cockpit, the big bubble canopy giving him a terrific all-round combat view. Sad to say, the HM aircraft features a shrunken little man looking half asleep at the controls; in fact, the figure is pretty much on a par with the infamous and malnourished Airfix flight crews of long ago. Hobby Master pilots Part of the problem is to do with what’s actually possible. The limits of moulding technology simply don’t allow a canopy of scale thickness (yet!), so the pilot is bound to sit somewhat low in the cockpit. Even so, the average diecast pilot is pretty half-hearted, and in open cockpit machines, the issu...

David Jefferis reports Hobby Master is a company that offers one thing in particular that makes someone like me extremely jealous - and that’s producing, at an affordable price, aircraft with beautiful rigging detail. As a keen-teen model maker I tried so many times to make biplanes with convincing interplane wires - and failed most of the time. It takes a particular skill, that’s for sure, and it’s not one of mine, nor do I possess the patience to hone those skills. Fine detail from Hobby Master So here comes a company that manages to design its products so well that such ultra-fine detailing is a production-line reality. And look at pix 3 and 4 - a 1:32 scale Dauntless dive bomber with a transparent nose to show off the neat interior! Tweaking still allowed It’s fair to say that buying such ready-made models is not as satisfying as making up a kit. Then again, such models appeal to the collector rather than the model maker. Even so, people like me who are time-poor (as ...

SMN report Revell’s annual scale-fest winners were announced this week. Model maker Joachim Balkenhol won the 2010 contest with his 1:96 scale clipper ship Thermopylae , which took him more than two years to build. The kit’s basis was another Revell ship, the Pedro Nunes , a vessel named after the Portuguese mathematician and pioneer of modern navigation methods. Joachim’s conversion mods included a full set of paper sails, and rigging that used up a staggering 160 m (525 ft) of fine twine. Amazing stuff. Here are the other winners:
 Patrick Simon (Bucket Wheel).
 Ingo Hartmann (USS United States ).
 Karsten Schmidt (Ford Cabrio).
 Fabian Schulz (Ford Rat Rod).
 Andreas Dyck (P-51D).
 Michael Sabusch (Kanonenjagdpanzer).
 Thomas Plösser (Canadair CL-13B Sabre).
 Peter Hofstetter (Diesel locomotive).
 Thorsten Hofmann (Junkers Ju-88 A-1).

 There was a mixed jury, consisting of:
 Helge Schling, Berthold Tack (Modell Fan magazine). 
 Volker Helms (DPMV and IPMS, Germany).
 Karl-Heinz Dué...

Here's a reminder for UK model fans that HAMEX 2 - the second Hanslope Model Expo - is being held this coming Sunday November 28. Mat Irvine will be showing many of the Special Effects models from his days at the BBC, and doubtless the Doctor Who robot dog K-9 will be there on demo as well. Food supplies in excellent hands The bacon butties ran out last year, which was a bit of a shame, but unsurprising really as the bacon was really something special. This year the catering crew assures the HAMEX 2 team that extra supplies have been laid in especially for the show. Kit swap If you make the show, then it's a good idea to bring along some spare cash, as there will be kits aplenty on sale - and as those winter nights are with us (and Christmas is coming) what better time to lay in 'a little something' for the work bench?! For details visit the HAMEX 2 site here .

SMN report We inspected the two-piece solid wheels sported by Revell’s Lincoln Futura, and mentioned that the tyre elements were not made of rubber, like most kits these days. Well, that's not quite right and here’s a correction from the acknowledged expert of scale auto models, Mat Irvine, who reminded us that almost all model tyres are not rubber at all, they’re usually made of vinyl, a soft plastic compound. The styrene killer strikes Apparently, the composition of some early vinyls could attack styrene and literally melt it, and Mat has a few examples of this. In Mat’s words: “I recall AMT for one went to styrene for many of its tyres in the 1970s for this very reason and only returned to vinyl in later years, when the formula had been changed. Airfix had the same trouble with the tyres in its James Bond DB5 kit, and with the tracks for many of its tank kits.” Austin-Healey model kit Mat continued: “This could have applied to the most recent reissue of the Revell Germany Austin...

David Jefferis reports Here we have 100 colour pages of the new and revived Airfix Magazine - well, it's now retitled Airfix Model World for 2010 - and a pretty good effort it is too. I’ve been involved with several magazine launches over the years, and know a little of the sweat and toil that goes into the first one. It’s always a steep learning curve and I doubt this launch AFW is an exception. So well done to the team involved. What’s it like? First off is the cover - and centre-spread - both of which feature the work of the Airfix ‘wunderkind’ box-artist, Adam Tooby. He’s already up there in the pantheon of the best - Roy Cross, at last you have a decent successor. Tooby manages to combine the precision of computer generated imagery with an artist’s touch for the finished work. I reckon we’ll see a few of his box-tops appearing as art prints before too long. See inside Editorial is wide-ranging, with a strong feature on the 1:48 Sea Vixen kit from Airfix, which has some very ni...

SMN report Seeing that Shigeo Koike P-51 Mustang painting coincided with the pic above arriving at SMN Towers. It came unannounced, so if you're the owner or the photographer, do let us know so we can give you a credit. The aircraft - a P-51D Mustang - just has to be the shiniest 'Stang we've ever seen. Click the pic to enlarge and you'll be blown away by the sheer lustrous beauty of shiny metal, which makes my Sunday afternoon cutlery-cleaning sessions with Silvo look somewhat pathetic. The gleaming Mustang is also a reminder that the type has to be just about the most-modelled aviation subject ever, even if the Supermarine Spitfire takes the podium in some markets. Museum grade replica The Mustang is not a just popular subject with serious IPMS types and more casual model makers - the folks at P51 Mustang Models will make you a museum-grade replica for a fee. On the kit front, which one is best? Well, that's an argument that could run and run, with pros and cons f...

SMN report For UK and European model enthusiasts, the IPMS (UK) Scale ModelWorld 2010 Show is ‘The Modelling Event of the Year’. Well, that’s the poster’s description, but it’s pretty accurate, for the show - in Telford, Shropshire - is certainly a mega-event. You’ll have a choice of 100-plus trade stands and 100-plus IPMS Branch and SIG (Special Interest Group) displays to look at, surely enough to keep any model fan drooling over the entire weekend of 13-14 November. Model competition A big draw at the IPMS event - over and above all those display stands - will be the model competition, in which entries are all-new - or at least, cannot have been entered in an IPMS event before. Note that all entries except Juniors should be pre-registered by November 6 - that’s this coming Saturday. The standard of modelmaking at IPMS events is simply superb, and doubtless this event will be well up to previous levels of excellence. Mat Irvine SMN’s Mat Irvine will be judging the Space, Science-Fict...

SMN report The new Airfix Model World magazine, promo’d by Key Publishing as ‘your complete guide to the world of scale modelling’ will have its official launch this coming Thursday. For older model fans, AMW is a rebirth of the much-loved Airfix Magazine, last published in October 1993, but this new version promises to be bigger and better, with more pages and a more colourful format. The new mag will focus on model aircraft, but also feature cars, ships, sci-fi and space, armour and figures, plus news, reviews, and plenty of step-by-step tips. An 'Ask the Experts' feature should be useful too. The lead article in the first Airfix Model World promises to home in on the 1:48 scale FAW2 Sea Vixen carrier jet that flew from Royal Navy flat-tops from April 1964. The pic above is from Airfix, depicting an unpainted test-shot before full-scale production of this interesting kit. It will be available soon. Airfix Model World will be available by subscription or on newstands - look ou...

SMN report Last week saw the 2010 Tokyo Hobby Show, and Hong Kong-based DML - Dragon Models Limited - put on quite a display there. Founded in 1987, DML is well-known for its excellent action figures, ready-built diecasts, and of course an ever-expanding range of plastic kits. Farewell to the Harrier - in UK service anyway So what’s on offer from Dragon at the moment? Well, there’s a smorgasbord of choice, so we’ll just pick and choose a few current faves. The Harrier II-Plus twin-kit to 1:144 scale makes up into a pair of tiny but tasty aircraft - and for this reviewer at least, a sad reminder that next year the Harrier will be phased out of UK military duty. But (grrr) the UK is the country that developed this formidable flying machine in the first place. Let’s hope that UK politicians don’t regret that decision... Tanks and ships On the humanoid front, the 1:35 scale 1940 German ‘Ghost’ Division tank crew kit assembles into a four-man set of beautifully sculpted and detailed figures...

SMN report We came across a pile of old MPC Star Wars kits in the SMN Garage the other day. The boxes are somewhat battered and bent, but the components inside seem good as new, so the kits are now in the studio, warming up for a build in those winter nights to come. Pick of the bunch is the good old Millennium Falcon, Han Solo’s starship that he piloted against the mighty forces of the evil empire. White and weathered, or bright and cheerful? It’s fair to say that the standard white paint job of the Millennium Falcon has been used as the basis for almost all builds, big and small. It’s possible of course, to overdo the weathering on surface details, and you can see a borderline case in the top pic above. It looks great, but maybe R2D2 should give the ship a wash and polish! Of course, there is absolutely no reason to stick to white - it’s certainly a standard spacecraft scheme, but there’s nothing to stop a civilian-model starship being finished in bright colours, much like a present-...

David Jefferis reports That’s not the hippie Woodstock, but the handsome town in folksy Olde Englande, on the edge of the beautiful Cotswold Hills. Here the local Oxfordshire Museum has regular displays on all manner of subjects, and at the moment it’s a Superhero show, based on the private collection of Kevin Losonczi. Robots and Aliens Kevin has been an avid fan of the Superhero genre since he was a teen, and now has 1000-plus items including many one-offs and rare pieces, including massive 1:1 scale Terminator, Predator and Robocop figures. The pull is a link to Kevin’s childhood in which his dreams were packed with magic that included having the extra powers of Superheroes. For model fans, science-fiction and Superheroes are well catered for, though it’s fair to say while the choice in ready-made figures and equipment is huge (just cruise the aisles of Toys ‘R’ Us to see what I mean) the number of model kits is not quite so expansive. Still, let’s not complain, as Moebius Models co...