SCALE MODEL NEWS

HERE'S AN ATTRACTIVE publication that has plenty of things to say on basic model making skills. Spanish translation is easy enough via the Internet, but if you to don't want to, then not to worry - the pictures in Modelismo y Dioramas are mostly self-explanatory. Easy to use translator at Google here .

HERE AT SMN TOWERS, we’re always discussing the importance (or not) of scale, a subject that’s hardly surprising bearing in mind the title of the website. But it really can be a trying issue - back in the early days of plastic kits, when manufacturers were in fit-the-box mode, it was hard sometimes to get any two models to match up, let alone assemble an entire collection. Happily things have changed dramatically since then, and few new releases these days are in anything but one of the popular scales. However, scale mismatches do still go on, and not only in plastic kits, as the examples here show. The red Cheetah car in these pictures is from the Gerry Anderson TV series ‘Captain Scarlet,’ as is the grey Rhino pursuit vehicle. They are both diecast releases that Corgi designers worked hard over, with fine castings, and working parts that added to the sci-fi qualities of the popular show. They gave the Cheetah flip-out spoiler and wings, the Rhino extending front and rear rams, with a...

Those wonderful 1950s-era US cars sometimes had more than wings and chrome to set them apart from common or garden designs from other countries. Mat Irvine: The Ford Skyliner was one of those automobiles, for it came with one of the best mechanised foldaway tops made. At a time when the average convertible made do with soft canvas, attached with a variety of awkward clips and grips, all the Skyliner needed was the touch of a button. The Skyliner’s folding system was extraordinarily complex, involving no less than seven motors, ten power relays, eight circuit breakers and nearly 200 m (600 ft) of wiring, all to move the hardtop roof completely in and out of the trunk. The videos (below) demo the lot in working order. The car was such a splendid machine that model company Revell jumped on the bandwagon and made a plastic kit. The pix (below) of the model are from my collection. The sequence (below) shows the model Skyliner's up, over, and down operation in detail. The Skyliner was p...

The 1:100 scale Round 2 MPC Titan IIIC launch rocket is a companion kit to the same-scale Vostok I reviewed a short while ago, and, as with the Vostok, I also helped with some technical details. Mat Irvine: The Titan IIIC is a reissue of a kit first released in 1970, and with the Vostok , was unique in being primarily a static model, but one that could also fly with the aid of an Estes-type solid-rocket motor. I wrote the text for the box bottom (below). Well, most of it… The flying options have been omitted on this kit, but some parts that are on the runners with other components, are still included, as with the Vostok. So there's an opportunity to add some spares to the bits-and-pieces box. You still get a chrome-plated runner with some parts, which was a feature of the Vostok kit, and is a legacy of MPC’s model car production. The original booklet (below middle) is reproduced for this reissue. Construction of the Titan IIIC is reasonably straightforward, with two identical boos...

If you like the look of the new 1:24 scale Airfix Hawker Typhoon 1b, then this book by Brett Green looks like an essential must-read. Packed with pictures and info, How to Build... Airfix 1:24 Hawker Typhoon 1b  is available direct from Airfix here , while other useful Brett Green model-build books are also on show at Amazon. Click here for Brett Green modelling books.

One of the major forces behind the designs for spacecraft in the classic science-fiction movie 2001: A Space Odyssey , Frederick I Ordway III, died earlier this month, aged 87. Fred Ordway (above at NARCON (National American Rocket society) in 2002.) was recommended by 2001 ’s co-author, Arthur C. Clarke, to the Director, Stanley Kubrick. Consequently Fred, and his colleague Harry Lange, went on to oversee spacecraft designs that would be technically feasible for the timescale of the movie. This certainly worked, as the movie still ranks with most sources as the, ‘Number One Science Fiction Movie ever made’, much of which stems for the authentic designs used in filming. They still stand up to scrutiny nearly half a century later. Classic wheel-shaped space station (below) from 2001 . Fred Ordway was born in New York City in 1927. From 1960-1964 he was Chief of Space Information Systems at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where he also taught at the University. ...

Fabbri have produced a whole range of 1:43 scale diecast vehicles in the long-running partwork series, 'The James Bond Car Collection.' Among them is a Ford Thunderbird, which I've matched here today with a somewhat larger 1:25 scale Revell kit. Mat Irvine: The Fabbri diecast car collection (below) was vast - it ran up to 134 vehicles, with accompanying magazines. Among these was the new-style retro-flavour Thunderbird that Ford produced in the early 2000s, number 27 in the Fabbri series. The T-Bird featured in the twentieth James Bond movie Die Another Day , which was what earned its place in the Fabbri partwork. This car returned to what the Thunderbird - 'T-Bird' to its fans - had been all about in its early days. It was a small two-seater sports car, and a competitor to the Chevrolet Corvette. The Corvette always stayed a two-seater sports car, but the T-Bird had moved in 1958 to a larger, four-seat  ‘personal car’ format, and remained that for many years. But ...

THE HASEGAWA 1:72 scale Sukhoi Su-33 is a decent kit of Russia's premier carrier warplane, and today's video provides some good detail shots, allowing model makers to add extra sparkle to this kit. Box art (below) is to a high standard, and it's no surprise to see that it's been painted by  Shigeo Koike , one of the world's grand masters of aircraft illustration. The Hasegawa kit is not brand new, though it's no worse for that. And at least for the time being, it's the only 1:72 scale kit of the Su-33 available. We found this open-the-box video (below) from Russia. We don't speak the language, but it's interesting to watch, all the same. The model pix here come courtesy Hasegawa, and depict the company's 1:72 offering. It comes with 204 components, and comes with two sets of markings, featuring Tiger and Eagle tail logos. The kit is generally up to Hasegawa's normal standards, and even at the relatively small 1:72 scale, still has an assemble...

THIS KIT WAS A GREAT surprise - and a delight to many model makers - when it was announced. Until now, Meng, one of the newer Chinese model companies operating out of Hong Kong, has concentrated mostly on 1:35 scale AFVs and associated military, with a few aircraft in 1:72, 1:48, and 1:32 scales. Now this 1:24 scale kit - a Ford F-350 Super Duty Crew Cab - has been produced to fill a gap that seems to have been oddly missed by the American manufacturers. Mat Irvine: This review will be followed by a buildup in the not too distant future, but until then, let’s have a look at what’s in the Meng Ford F-350 box. What you get is a highly-detailed kit, with full engine, chassis, and drivetrain detail. The four-wheel drive axles are there, and the front wheels are steerable. Box contents (below) include a single chrome-plated runner, a small decal sheet, and peel-off chrome foil for the rear-view mirrors. The cab is a one-piece moulding, with separate floor, side panels, and seats. Even the ...