SCALE MODEL NEWS

HERE'S THE INFO on Singapore's 2018 National Airfix Aeronautical Model Engineering Competition. SMN report: The 2018 comp represents another chance for local model makers to show their skills. The pictures below show some examples of their fine work. Click at the bottom for entry details. We've shown other examples of previous entries in this, so follow the link at the bottom to read more.  Military jets ( below ) compared, each on its own base. The mini-dioramas ( below ) really make the models stand out. Science fiction subjects are popular ( below ) with Singapore model makers, as they are elsewhere.   Group sessions ( below ) are good for morale! Click here for more Singapore stuff at SMN. Click here for the 2018 competition details.

DER BEETLE BUS IS A REBORN AMT show rod from the 1970s, and this 1:25 scale kit is the first reissue. Mat Irvine:  Der Beetle Bus is based on the famous Volkswagen Microbus, though with a somewhat shortened body. The custom design was penned by AMT’s long-time creator of such vehicles, John Bogosian. He designed three show vehicles based on the same bodywork, and Der Beetle Bus is a reissue of the first such concept. Given that Der Beetle Bus didn’t exist for real, and that the assembled model measures only just over four inches long, the kit is fairly comprehensive. It has a centrally mounted Chrysler-type V8 engine that (conceptually at least) drives the rear wheels, which are shod with giant tyres. Long injector stacks pop through the roof, and there's an ‘eyeball’ collector scoop. Der Beetle Bus has front and rear traction bars, and wheelie bars at the rear. The model’s interior has seats and driving controls at the front, and a giant fuel tank at the back. With this new releas...

THE VISUALS ON MODEL KIT BOXES are what the marketing men call ‘primary sales tools.’ Simply put, if you can spot an attractive box in a store or on screen, the odds are that you’ll want to home in for a closer look.  SMN report:  Today's kits may use photographs, artwork, or a blend of the two. For example, many boxes in the Airfix range display a handsome photorealistic look, aided by CGI (Computer Graphic Imagery) software. Back in the heyday of the plastic kit, the 1950s and 1960s, box art was usually created by hugely talented commercial artists, mostly unsung heroes of the illustration world. Kits were graced with beautiful paintings, many of them fit to be framed and hung on a wall. However, in graphic studios it was usual practice to leave a visual unsigned, or even to paint out a signature before printing. The practise sounds brutal, but clients were promoting particular products, rather than any individual artist’s style of work. But over the years, it’s good to repo...

A KIT REISSUE THAT harks back to the golden age of Detroit dream cars. SMN report:  The 1950s decade was an amazing era for technical progress. Fuelled by the demands of Cold War politics, civil and military advances went hand in hand, with aviation in particular going from straight-wing slowpokes to Mach 2 skyblazers. And that progress was matched by events on the highway, for it was the age of the Detroit dream car. Every auto show displayed amazing vehicles, many of them taking their inspiration directly from the fast jets screaming overhead. One of the finest of those dream cars was the Lincoln Futura, described at the time as ‘A 250,000 Dollar Laboratory on Wheels’. The fold-back bubble canopies looked absolutely great, as did the hooded headlights and shark-mouth grilles front and rear. Under the sleek bodywork, the Futura was powered by a modified V-8 engine, and supported by a tubular steel chassis. This reissue of the original 1956 kit ( above, below ) takes you back ...

IF YOU KNOW YOUR 1950s spacecraft kits, this new Moebius model of the NEV (Nuclear Exploratory Vehicle) might look familiar as a kit that Strombecker produced - except that it isn’t. Mat Irvine:  Although the NEV is based on the same design the space scientist Krafft Ehricke devised when he worked for Convair, it is in fact a totally new kit. The handsome box ( header pic ) depicts the NEV passing over a cratered moonscape. Author Adam Johnson used some Ehricke images in his book  2001: The Lost Sciences, The Scientists, Influences and Designs  and he developed this particular concept into the new Moebius NEV kit. Let's hope there are more factual-futuristic designs to come in what looks like a growing 'Lost Science' kit series from Moebius. The NEV is very simple to build, the craft itself consisting of five fuel tanks, a propulsion module and a long boom stretching forward to connect to a habitation crew module. The tanks are identical mouldings to make up five cylinde...

FOR THE MORE MATURE MODEL MAKER out there, then these old kits might bring back a few memories. SMN looks back:  Once upon a time Hawk kits ( T-6 and T-33A below ) sporting the distinctive four diamonds logo, were a popular choice in the local model store. And as for the Revell Lockheed F-102A ( header ) the addition of included ground equipment and a team of technicians turned a model jet kit into a diorama, before the word was even invented. Well, maybe not quite that, but you know what we mean. Seriously, the Delta Dagger was a reasonable kit, turned into a kit-plus by the addition of some intelligent brainstorming in the sales department, followed up by extra parts in the box. We were never sure about the grinning youth in the top corner, though. And Monogram featured many working features, the Grumman Avenger ( below ) being a kit that included folding wings and retracting landing gear. However, our must-have kit from the Monogram range was a civilian model, a 1929 Ford Trimot...