SCALE MODEL NEWS

THIS 1:72 SCALE REDSTONE SPACE LAUNCHER is a recent issue from Horizon Models, a relatively new Australian model company. Mat Irvine: This latest Horizon Models 1:72 scale release features a Redstone launcher, which can be assembled to make any one of the following versions: Juno I with Explorer 1 satellite, US Army PGM-11 Redstone IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile), Sparta and WRESAT (Weapons Research Establishment Satellite). Horizon provides identical runners for most of the parts, as rockets tend to be vertically symmetrical. In some places, this can mean slight modifications to one half as against the other, such as filling in an indentation or drilling a hole. You also get some runners that are the same Horizon’s Mercury-Redstone kit, basically the lower section of the first stage, the fins and the launch pad.  The finished colours and markings differ between the four options, so you can build only one specific rocket from the kit. Unfortunately you can’t swap them ...

IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING but finally the gap has been filled between the first Volkswagen MicroBus T1 and the third, T3 version. But now we can give an overdue welcome to this 1:24 scale Revell kit of the model in the middle, the VW T2. Mat Irvine reports:  Revell has decided to issue this kit as an ‘easy-click’ system model. This means it does not have to be glued together (though you can if you want) as all parts ‘click’ into place. Revell also supplies, as with other easy-click kits, two sets of decals, conventional water-slide and peel off/stick on types, so making the kit suitable for both new and experienced modellers.  The instruction leaflet ( below ) is printed in full colour, and the two sets of decals are conventional water-slide ( top right ), and peel-off type ( bottom right ).  Parts layout ( below ) shows the various colours, plus chrome, transparent, and tyres.  One possible downside is that this T2 is moulded in colour. This is so a new modeller ...

THIS EXCELLENT VIDEO takes us behind the scenes to show the thought process behind creating a state of the art model kit, here the Airfix 1:72 scale De Havilland Mosquito. SMN report: YouTuber Ralph Ford sums up the video in his comment: "... What a great video. To see what the designer was striving for and to listen to a designer who is a builder is the way all kits should be designed. I hope to see more of these types of video in the future. Congrats on a beautiful, practical designed kit. PS other companies had better take a heads up here. This is the future and this gentleman is the type of designer you need to be employing if you want to stay competitive. Airfix has gone from from to second tier to innovator with this business model." The kit itself looks pretty good. If you are a 1:72 scale builder and keen on World War II subjects, then building this Mosquito is likely to be a must-do, especially with long winter evenings ahead. Enjoy!

WE ARE NOW AT NUMBER NINE in the Fast & Furious movie franchise, with at least one more in the works. The films have featured a very large number of cars, consequently it is slightly surprising that there haven’t been many kits of them. Mat Irvine: The movie-model link started well enough, with AMT acquiring the license in the early 2000s for Fast & Furious,  followed by 2Fast2Furious , and Tokyo Drift .  By the next decade Revell had taken over the license, though frankly only redid what AMT had already done with the first two movies, which doesn’t quite help the modeller. However, the Revell Dodge Charger, which in reality was a hotch-potch of years, was better than the original MPC kit, issued as an AMT. But now we have one of the cars from Fast & Furious 8, also known as Fate of the Furious . The vehicle is a 1971 Plymouth GTX, as driven by Dominic Toretto, played by epic cinema tough guy, Vin Diesel. The kit not brand new, being based on a Monogram kit of t...

YOU CAN SEE TOM GRIGAT’S wonderful workmanship again in the video (above). The fascinating subject is a 1:35 scale kit of the one-off Romfell Panzerwagen, built in 1915. SMN report: The Romfell armoured car consisted of just one vehicle, designed by Hauptmann Branco Romanic and Oberleutnant Simon Fellner of the Austro-Hungarian army in 1915. They named their design the Romfell, and it was first used to defend against a major Russian offensive. After that, the Romfell was moved to enter service on the Italian Front in 1917.  There is little information on how the vehicle actually performed, but its unusual curved lower armour must have helped deflect exploding enemy ordnance. And that curved armour plate is what makes the Romfell unlike anything else in battle at the time, so all in all, it was a unique piece of equipment. The 1:35 scale kit comes from Copper State Models, and partners with CSM’s other armoured car kits, featuring unusual models from countries as diverse as Canada,...

SMN VISITORS MAY WELL BE familiar with Peter Chiang, the dynamic head of Singapore's Hobby Bounties model store.  Here's a video that shows us how Peter turned his life-long interest into a popular destination for model makers, and one that's also home to regular scale competitions.

A NAME THAT WILL BE familiar to many modellers, Andy Yanchus sadly died in Florida on 11 September 2021. Mat Irvine: For many years Andy Yanchus worked with Aurora Plastics in West Hempstead, New York State, where he one of the two Project Managers there. Andy worked across the subject range, but in particular he came up with the Monster Scenes idea, a smaller version of Aurora’s classic monster kits, but presented in ‘scenes.’ In recent years he collaborated on a book with Dennis L. Prince to tell the controversial story of the Monster Scenes idea. The tale includes enraged parents, news headlines, and eventual cancellation - not bad for for a series of plastic models!   Click here to read more about Monster Scenes. Andy amassed a large model collection at the family home in Brooklyn, NY, and was extremely knowledgeable on the kit industry and its history. I encountered him when I wrote my first space models article for Scale Models International magazine, for the August 1974 is...