SCALE MODEL NEWS

Swedish model outfit Tarangus has just released its 1:72 scale Saab J-29 Tunnan (‘Barrel’) and it looks an interesting little kit. Tarangus hasn’t released too many details yet, but these pix show that the team has taken a lot of care with the production of this rotund jet, which first flew on September 1, 1948. The components look clean and flash-free, though you will certainly need a cutter tool to free the smaller parts from their runners. Resin parts (above) include items for the ejection seat, wheel wells and engine intake. The instrument panel (below) checks out as a precisely detailed component. Flying colours are detailed for three J-29s, including those used for peacekeeping duties in the Republic of Congo, 1961-64, where they won top marks for combat capabilities during the mission. Note that the Swedish spelling of Congo is ‘Kongo’ as shown on the box back. Tarangus has been making models for only four years. In the company’s words, “Tarangus AB was founded in 2009 by Fredri...

“It's not eggs-actly copyright in-fridge-ment” says Hasegawa, introducing the latest in its long line of Egg Plane mini-kits, this one a Limited-Edition Shenyang J-15. Hasegawa eggspertly goes on, “The Chinese Navy broke a whole carton of international egg-reements when they plucked all the juiciest features of the Russian Sukhoi-33 and used them to feather their own bird. “If that's not eggs-asperating enough, the roost for these finagled fighters is an aircraft carrier lifted from the hen house under false pretenses. Other countries have squawked plenty, but they ended up with egg on their faces. “Apparently, you can do anything when you're the cock of the walk. Ruffle some feathers when you crow about your Grade-A construction!” Well, yes. However, stolen design or not, this Shenyang J-15 doesn’t get around the fact that Egg Planes are as delightful as ever, and if you’re even vaguely interested in the aerotoon genre, then this Chinese bird has to be on the must-build li...

This neat diorama detailing set to 1:72 scale makes useful news from Airfix. Of course, aircraft themselves are the hard-core focus of attention in any diorama setting, but sets like this make the process of modelling the background detail relatively easy. The Airfix Resupply Set is packed with useful stuff, and we suspect that two or more packs will be on many modelmakers’ must-buy lists. In fact, you’ll need two kits to make up the Bedford trucks - a bit of cheapskatery means that alternative parts allow only one type to be made from parts supplied in the box. Still, the spare components would look OK as extras in a simulated airfield parts dump. Apart from this quibble, an excellent and interesting kit that deserves to be popular What Airfix says “...As the air war over occupied Europe progressively developed, so did the equipment used by the RAF and its Bomber Command. Specialist vehicles were introduced to supply arms and equipment to waiting machines and maintenance tasks were ma...

World War II aviation fans can look forward to this big-scale model of the widely-used Junkers Ju-88. As our Revell promo pix show, the model looks extremely convincing when assembled, with plenty of attention paid to internal detailing. The underbelly pod looks good, with drop-down machine gun access. The main landing gear has the correct tyre tread pattern. The tail wheel housing earns brownie points, with nicely-sculpted doors and a correct-length oleo for the support strut. Control surfaces are separate components, and if you adjust them suitably, will look very convincing indeed. No crew members are supplied, more’s the pity, but after-market figures are available. As usual with 1:32 scale, you get a lot of kit in the box: in this case, 380 components to assemble, resulting in a finished model that has a suitably large wingspan of more than two feet - very satisfying! About the real thing The Ju-88 was a versatile combat aircraft, deployed variously as a dive bomber, night fighter...

Mat Irvine popped in to Milton Keynes, UK, to see how the local branch of the moribund Modelzone chain was doing today. The results you see here. You can criticize Modelzone stores, especially the modest stock levels, but it's still a very sad day to see any model store going down, let alone 47 of them. For casual buyers, perhaps Modelzone's main strength was in the range of diecast models they had on show, especially good where aircraft were concerned, with squadrons of Corgi and other brands lined up in well-lit showcases. For items of specialist equipment, the chain was perhaps less successful, especially in supplying the miscellaneous bits and pieces required by serious builders of injection-moulded kits. As for the empty hole that will soon open up in Modelzone's absence, perhaps the hugely busy AppleStore a couple of minutes away could use the space as overflow. Even better, Apple could use it for the free training and support that makes the stores so useful for Mac o...

Modelzone had up to 47 stores across the UK, but ran into trading problems in 2012, moving into administration in June 2013. Not all is lost though: Amerang, the wholesale part of Modelzone, has been purchased by Ripmax, a distributor of radio-control (RC) models. It sounds an excellent fit, as Ripmax is an old-established outfit that’s been around in various forms since 1949, and RC continues to be extremely popular. Richard Hawes from administration firm Deloite said, “We are delighted to have secured a buyer for Amerang, which continues to be an attractive brand given the strength of its customer and supplier base and its reputation in the market.” Sad to say, Modelzone stores are likely to disappear, as Deloitte is putting in place a closure programme. Why did Modelzone run into trouble? It seems that online competition was a big issue, but that over-expansion was the real villain, with new stores that couldn’t cover their high lease costs. For UK modelmakers it’ll be worthwhile lo...

SKYLON UPDATE: The UK Government is investing £60m GBP ($92m USD) on the Skylon's revolutionary Sabre engine, to enable a full-scale prototype to be built - so maybe this special edition model isn't pie-in-the-sky.  That political vote of confidence means that the designers now hope to see Sabre engines powering the Skylon spaceplane on operational flights by 2022, each ship carrying a 15-tonne payload into orbit. First test flights for the uncrewed vehicle are tentatively scheduled three years earlier, in 2019. As a passenger-carrying machine, a skip-glide flight across the top of the atmosphere could enable a London-Sydney journey in as little as four hours. The British-designed Skylon is the brainchild of engineer Alan Bond, reports Mat Irvine. Bond heads his own space business, Reaction Engines, and now i t may not be too many years before the single-stage-to-orbit aerospaceplane soars into orbit. Until then we can dream on with this Herpa 1:250 scale model kit. Alan Bond (...

One of several competitions running at Airfix, this looks like a neat way of scoring the excellent 1:48 kit of the highly successful Lynx helicopter. The kit in question is the Airfix Gift Set version of the Westland Lynx HMA 8, which is boxed with assorted accessories to make assembly easier. Apart from the kit itself you get eight acrylic paints, two paintbrushes, and polystyrene cement. The 1:48 scale Airfix Lynx has had good reviews, though we’d suggest that a decent model takes a lot longer to make than the Airfix bare-bones minimum four ‘Flying Hours’ suggestion. It could well take that just to stick the 296 components together, and you can probably triple the time for even a fairly basic colour scheme. The Lynx is not a large machine in the metal, so at 1:48 scale the model is not much longer than a sheet of A4 paper - overall length of the assembled kit is 316mm (12.5in) and rotor diameter 265mm (10.4 in). Not that we’re complaining, as the kit packs in plenty of detail and the...

Our second look at the weekend smallspace space, science-fiction and fantasy model show begins with life-size Daleks taking over the Buckinghamshire village of Hanslope, home to the show. Organisers and guests pose on the Space 1999 Alpha Moon Base set (left to right) Mat Irvine, Mike Tucker, Paul Fitzmaurice and Jamie Anderson. A Cyberman stands guard over the entrance.   An expertly-made FAB-1 Rolls-Royce by David Sisson. If you look closely, the FAB 1 number plate is reversed left-to-right. This isn’t an error - it was done for a special photoshoot.   Model maker Duncan Willis (at back) recreates puppet characters from various Gerry Anderson series.    A Thunderbird puppet with a difference, representing TV personality Chris Evans as Parker, the FAB-1 Rolls-Royce driver. The real life Evans owns a Rolls-Royce with the FAB-1 number plate, which he uses to raise money for charity.   Davros, creator of the Daleks, and arch-nemesis of Doctor Who. Expert space mo...