HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL SCALE MODELLERS

Here we go again, seeing out the last of the old year 2012, and looking forward to the New Year 2013 to come.

Of course, some countries are already there, including Australia, which has celebrated with the traditional Sydney Harbour firework display. Estimates reckon that no less than 1.5 million people turned up for the show. Excellent stuff!

'THUNDERBIRDS' GERRY ANDERSON DIES

Gerry Anderson, creator of a host of children's TV series, including classics such as Stingray, Thunderbirds, and Space 1999, has just died, at 83 years old.

CARS, CARS, AND MORE CARS...

Here's a selection of scale cars, fresh from the craft bench of Mat Irvine. Enjoy!

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS TO ALL SCALE MODELLERS

Best wishes to you all from the SMN Crew, and here's to some great scale modelling in 2013. We'll be showing some tasty stuff this week before model news starts again after the festive break.

2013 INCOMING FROM AIRFIX - KITS, KITS, AND MORE KITS

Airfix is going to be busy in 2013, with a spectacular release list that's guaranteed to keep model builders occupied throughout the year. Here's a taster of the more interesting stuff coming our way, highlights from the upcoming Airfix release list.

KITTY HAWK LOCKHEED F-94C STARFIRE TO 1:48 SCALE

SMN REPORT
Kitty Hawk is a newish model company, with a limited range of kits on sale. The company motto states, ‘the finest military miniatures’, so our question is, do Kitty Hawk kits match up to that promise?

REVELL THROWS IN A KIT OF LEONARDO’S BALLISTA WAR WEAPON

FIRST LOOK FROM MAT IRVINE
Here’s one more of Revell Germany’s intriguing kit series featuring the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. This one is the ballista, a potent and deadly version of the catapult.

1:24 SCALE TOYOTA 86 SPORTS CAR KIT FROM TAMIYA

FIRST LOOK FROM MAT IRVINE
Here’s one for 1:24 scale enthusiasts from Tamiya, a sports car kit of the Toyota 86.

AT LAST - AIRFIX TYPE 45 DESTROYER ON RELEASE

SMN REPORT
The long-awaited Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer is here at last. It's a big kit too, made to 1:350 scale and measuring some 436 mm (17.2 in) long when assembled.

HORNBY BRINGS BACK HUMBROL PAINTS FROM CHINA - RESTARTS PAINT PRODUCTION IN BRITAIN

SMN REPORT
The Hornby company’s model paint brand, Humbrol, known for its familiar enamel paint tinlets, has shifted some two-thirds of production back to Britain, around ten years after such operations went to China.

A TRIBUTE TO ‘THE SKY AT NIGHT’ PRESENTER, SIR PATRICK MOORE

 

An appreciation by Mat Irvine
Sir Patrick Moore, creator and presenter of ‘The Sky at Night’, a long-running BBC TV astronomy show, died yesterday, December 9, aged 89.

‘SPACE SUITS - A GUIDE FOR SCALE MODEL BUILDERS’ ON RELEASE NOW

MAT IRVINE REPORTS 

Here’s the latest in the series of ‘Space in Miniature’ black and white books from Mike Mackowski. This eighth in the series concentrates on that basic necessity for working in space, the space suit.

IS THIS THE FUTURE OF SCALE MODELLING?

Will the world of scale models follow the same path as desktop publishing? That’s the hot question now being asked, as the latest generation of 3D printers makes possible rapid prototyping of any object that’s stored in digital form.

SEBASTIAN VETTEL FORMULA ONE RACING CAR FROM TAMIYA

SMN REPORT
Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel won his third Formula One Driver’s World Championship in 2012, and you can help celebrate that milestone by building a Tamiya 1:20 scale kit of the Renault racer he drove in 2010, to become World Champ for the first time.

HAMEX 4 MODEL SHOW TODAY

Any Brit modeller with access to the Milton Keynes area should go to HaMeX 4 today. It's the kit swapmeet and model show that's really worth a look, not least for our own Mat Irvine's display of work, from Doctor Who to space probes.

INCOMING - AIRFIX FIESTA RALLY CAR, 0/400 BIPLANE BOMBER

It's good to see production cars in the Airfix range, and here's one of the best Euro-hatchbacks around, the Ford Fiesta RS, here produced in its hot WRC version.

INCOMING - HAMEX 4 MODEL EXPO DUE SUNDAY

SMN PREVIEW:
The sales tables are booked, club stands organized, hot sandwiches on order, models good to go... Yes, it’s HaMeX again, this time the fourth in the annual event series. For anyone living in reach of the Milton Keynes area in the UK, this is the model zone to head for this coming Sunday.

SILVER DART SPACECRAFT FROM BLAP! MODELS OF CANADA

MAT IRVINE REPORTS
Canada’s headline space involvement is in supplying the Canadarm 2 robotic arm system presently used on the International Space Station (ISS). But here’s another, smaller, Canadian space product in the form of a sleek 1:72 scale resin kit of the Silver Dart hypersonic re-entry glider from Dave Guerin’s Blap! Models of Ontario.

SCALE MODELWORLD 2012 - THE WINNERS

MAT IRVINE REPORTS
The competition at Scale ModelWorld 2012 was split into a number of classes depending on subject, scale, and construction type. This has led to approaching 100 different classes, sometimes leading to some confusion as to which class to enter your creation.

MORE SCALE MODELWORLD 2013 ENTRIES TO ADMIRE AND ENJOY

The Scale ModelWorld just passed provided a galaxy of excellent modelling. Here's another roundup of goodies on show.

MORE ENTRIES FROM SCALE MODELWORLD 2012

Here are more of the excellent miniatures on display at Scale ModelWorld 2012, held in Telford, UK, over last weekend. 

COUNTDOWN TO HAMEX 4

Hanslope Model Expo (HaMeX) is due once again - this year it’s on Sunday December 2, so here’s a chance to see what's going on.

SCALE MODELWORLD 2012 - TALENT APLENTY AT THE SHOW

REPORT BY MAT IRVINE
The annual show of the UK International Plastic Modellers Society (IPMS) was held over last weekend, November 10-11, at the massive Telford International Conference Centre, now made even larger by the addition of a fourth hall.

MORE APOLLO 11 SPACECRAFT KITS FROM DRAGON - AND THIS TIME THEY’RE IN BIG 1:48 SCALE

Dragon of Hong Kong has added a pair of 1:48 scale Apollo 11 kits to its excellent - and expanding - range of real-space models. Both kits are enlarged versions of previous spacecraft made to 1:72 scale.

INCOMING - ‘SKYFALL’ JAMES BOND HELICOPTER FROM ITALERI

SMN REPORT

Here’s a well-timed kit release, a movie tie-in that’s bang up to the minute. It’s a variation on Italeri’s existing AW-101 kit to 1:72 scale, modded slightly to represent the triple-engined beast shown in the latest James Bond movie Skyfall.

SUPER-DETAILED HAND-CRAFTED 1:12 SCALE MINIATURE TOOL CHEST

Here’s proof that model making needn’t involve plastic components or a boxed kit. US miniaturist William Robertson spent some 1000 hours making this hand-crafted 1:12 scale replica of an 18th century Colonial-style tool chest.

NEW OUTFIT 'SCALE MODEL SCENERY' SUPPLIES DOWNLOADS FOR YOU TO PRINT OUT

The SMN Crew are extremely fond of dioramas, so news that there's a bunch of realistic downloads ready for instant purchase is good news indeed.

REVELL MINI COOPER Mk I - NEW TAKE ON THE CLASSIC CAR IN 1:24 SCALE

Fans of classic British cars will love this Mini Cooper Mk I from Revell, a neatly produced 126-part kit.

MORE FANTASY AND SCI-FI MODELS ON SHOW

 Here's the second of our two catch-up photo-reviews of the 'smallspace' modelfest held earlier this year. As with yesterday's selection, be very impressed with the quality of workmanship on display.

MODEL MAKERS' FANTASY AND SCI-FI FEST

There's a host of model talent out there, and these pix show off the sort of eye candy displayed at the smallspace show a while ago. Confession time - the shots were taken at the show, then misplaced in a flurry of camera changes and updates. But they are really too good to leave unseen, so enjoy the skills and imagination on display.

WILL XMAS BRING A NEW TYPE OF KIT? MODEL FACTORY HIRO RELEASES 1:20 SCALE 'MULTI-MEDIA HYBRID' FERRARI 312T4

SMN REPORT
Automotive model fans prepare to open your wallets for this 1:20 scale 1979 Ferrari 312T4. Produced by the excellent Japanese Model Factory Hiro, and due in December, the kit is proclaimed as ‘a hybrid injection’ kit. MFH reckons this is a new term to cover the massively multimedia nature of the production, containing components produced in white metal, photo-etch, spun-aluminium, and plastic injection. Sounds great to us, and as the pictures show, the results ought to be spectacular in the hands of a reasonably skilled model maker.

TIME TO MUSE MORE WITH AOSHIMA VARIATIONS ON THE HAYABUSA MUSES-C SPACE PROBE TO 1:32 SCALE

MAT IRVINE REPORTS
On August 14, 2010, SMN featured a 1:32 scale kit of the Aoshima Japanese Hayabusa asteroid sample-return mission space probe, originally known as MUSES-C. Since then, Aoshima has issued two variations of this model.

MODEL MONSTERS HELP CREATE ‘THE REAL LOCH NESS MONSTER’ eBOOK

MONSTER REPORT
I journeyed to Scotland recently with a team to investigate a famous legend, Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. We explored all around Loch Ness, visited the tourist sites, went to the museums, cruised out on the water, and theorised late into the night.

We came to some fascinating conclusions, which you can read about in The REAL Loch Ness Monster available from Amazon, Apple, and other online eStores. And there is a model connection with the book too.

‘2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY’ SPACECRAFT KITS FROM AJA MODELS

SMN REPORT

Having reviewed the excellent 2001: The Lost Science, we thought you’d like a look at the model kits AJA Models has on offer. If you have the slightest interest in the classic movie, then AJA could be the place to source your next kit.

‘2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY’ IN DETAIL - GREAT DETAIL

MAT IRVINE REPORTS

Ask any film enthusiast, and probably many non-enthusiasts, to name the best science-fiction movie of all time, and you will probably get 9 out of 10 voting for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. For all those fans - and for space modellers too - comes the new book, 2001: The Lost Science by Adam K. Johnson.

KIT HISTORY FOR SALE ON NOVEMBER 6, AT VECTIS AIRFIX ARCHIVE AUCTION

 

DAVID JEFFERIS REPORTS

On November 6, Vectis Auctions, the world's largest toy auction house, will hold an auction featuring an impressive collection of Airfix kits. And that’s not all, for the sale includes the magnificent Roy Cross box art ‘Bomb the Tirpitz’ shown here, reckoned to be in with a chance to fetch between £9500-£15,000 GBP ($15-24,000 USD).

LEGO FELIX BAUMGARTNER MAKES A JUMP

Well, it just had to happen - a LEGO replay of Felix Baumgartner's supersonic high jump.

We're not quite sure what scale this model is, as estimates of LEGO's manikins range from around 1:30 to 1:40. Whatever, this is a fun piece of video making to promote the Austrian Model Maker's Fair.

Great stuff!

1:25 SCALE AMT PHANTOM VAN KIT - OR IS IT A VANTOM?

KIT REVIEW BY MAT IRVINE
If any decade turned the van from commercial vehicle to a statement of cool, it was the 1970s. Until then, the humble panel truck was most likely seen carrying building materials, making store deliveries, or toting tools-of-the-trade. But in the 1970s, vans were tricked out with custom paint jobs, sound systems, maybe a kitchenette, even - if you were lucky - a double bed. And now in 2012, comes a Round 2 Models reissue of such a custom creation, the AMT 1:25 scale Ford Econoline Phantom van.

DOWN IN THE UBER-COOL LEGO BAT CAVE...

SMN REPORT

The LEGO name derives from the Danish words leg godt, meaning ‘play well’, which is an apt title, but in the 63 years since manufacturing started, LEGO has far outgrown its ‘kids-only’ beginnings. Here we have an amazing 20,000-brick Bat Cave, built by adult enthusiasts, Wayne Hussey and Carlyle Livingstone.

STOP THE TRAFFIC WITH THIS 1:24 SCALE ITALERI HIGHWAY

REPORT BY MAT IRVINE

Italeri is a kit company that besides making a wide variety of cars, trucks, ships, aircraft and military, also produces many accessory and diorama kits.

One brand-new release is this 1:24 scale ‘Guard rail and road section for display’, a diorama base intended for trucks or other road vehicles.

FROG KITS - AAAH... NOSTALGIA!

Talking of airliner models, this delightful old ad for Frog airliners turned up recently. For some reason I thought all Frog airliners were made to the same 1:96 scale - but no, there's variety there, though nowhere near the profusion of fit-the-box scales (more like non-scales) that were popular at the time with makers such as Revell, Lindberg and others.

CHALLENGE-AND-A-HALF FOR AIRLINER LOVERS - ALASKA AIRLINES ‘KING SALMON’ PAINT JOB ON A BOEING 737

SMN REPORT

For lovers of exotic and complex markings, this one’s a winner, and ought to be the subject for a garage-kit decal job... please! Last week, a 41-tonne king salmon landed in Anchorage, Alaska, to a rousing welcome from crowds of workers with Alaska Airlines and the state seafood industry.

DECAL PACK TO IMPROVE THE 1:12 SCALE AIRFIX DOCTOR WHO ‘WELCOME ABOARD’ KIT

MAT IRVINE REPORTS:
Cast your mind back to my May 2012 review of the 1:12 scale Airfix Doctor Who ‘Welcome Aboard’ kit. It was the one I hadn’t completed, as I was trying to summon up energy to finish the complex paint job. One thing on the waiting list was the intricate pattern on Martha’s fashionable pink top, mainly as it was, well, intricate! I’m pleased to report that a quick solution has arrived.

WIDE WHEELS - 1:25 SCALE 1955 CHRYSLER 300 FROM MOEBIUS

MAT IRVINE REPORTS:
Who would have thought that there would be resurgence of interest in 1950s-era model kits? Even more so, with kits that are not existing-tool reissues, but are brand-new.

MAKE SURE YOUR COMBAT BIRDS CAN FLY WITH THIS 1:72 SCALE MODERN PILOTS SET

SMN REPORT

Here’s a really useful set of 1:72 scale figures, featuring modern NATO combat pilots (men and women!) from the air forces of three countries: Germany, United Kingdom and United States.

JERSEY AIR SHOW - TASTY STUFF FOR AIR FANS

Sad to say, the pretty little 1:72 scale de Havilland Heron airliner depicted on this old Airfix box-top wasn't at the 2012 Jersey Air Show, either in model form or the real thing. But there were plenty of elderly aircraft flying at the display held a couple of weeks ago.

THINK PAINTING A MODEL AIRLINER IS HARD WORK? HAVE A LOOK AT THE REAL THING IN THIS FOUR-MINUTE VIDEO

Mr J REPORT:
I can remember my very first airliner kit, a 1:96 scale Frog de Havilland Comet IV. The kit came with minimal detail, but did have looong decal strips for the fuselage sides, and a daunting amount of white paint was needed to cover the upper surface. After much careful application of tape, on went the paint and, well, to my chagrin much of it seeped underneath, and the kit was never the same again. I soon learned to mask with the best of them, but somehow never really returned to airliners with any degree of enthusiasm!

How I wish I'd had the facilities shown here for a Thomson Airways revamp from old insignia to swoopy new markings. I wish!

INCOMING - USS ‘NEW YORK’ AMPHIBIOUS TRANSPORT SHIP FROM REVELL

SMN REPORT

Revell’s output of ships is strong at the moment, and here’s an up to the moment 1:350 scale kit of the USS New York, a tech-packed amphibious warfare ship.

ORIGINAL SCI-FI INCOMING - 1:48 SCALE ORBSHIP, 1:35 SCALE TROOPERS ON RELEASE FROM INDUSTRIA MECHANIKA

SMN REPORT:

Industria Mechanika are making a name for original sci-fi and fantasy modelmaking, and here are some of the latest works being prepped for sale.

HUGE HELO - 1:32 SEA LYNX IN SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY MARKINGS

SMN REPORT:

More temptation for you helo fans, in the form of this eye candy from Revell, showing build-up pix of the 1:32 Sea Lynx Mk 88, and very handsome it looks too, especially in the optional anniversary markings shown here.

BIG BOAT FROM REVELL - 1:72 SCALE FLOWER-CLASS CORVETTE

SMN REPORT

For anyone who saw or built the original Matchbox kit, this Revell Platinum Edition must bring back memories. Even better, this 2012 version, due in November, will bring the Flower-class ship to new levels of detail.