STRUCTURAL MODEL KITS - IS THE HASEGAWA 1:16 SCALE SOPWITH CAMEL THE START OF SOMETHING BIG?

News of the 1:16 scale Hasegawa Sopwith Camel makes us wonder if ultra-large scales are on the growth list for future scale models.

TOUCHDOWN: ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF EXCELLENT TAMIYA KIT TECHNOLOGY WITH THE 1:32 SCALE F4U-1 CORSAIR

We reported on the incoming Tamiya F4U-1 Corsair last month, and can now show pictures of an assembled kit, finished to display standards.

INCOMING - REVELL TEST SHOTS OF 1:32 SCALE HEINKEL He 219 UHU

SMN report:

More test shot pix from Revell, with these tasters for the big new 1:32 scale Heinkel He 219 Uhu night fighter. From the look of these pictures, this new kit will be well worth a look when it’s released.

INCOMING - REVELL REVEALS TEST SHOTS OF BIG SEA LYNX HELICOPTER KIT

SMN report:

Here’s a hugely interesting kit, and it’s coming our way after the summer. The Revell Sea Lynx Mk.88, optionally a HAS Mk.3, will be produced to big 1:32 scale, making it a must-build for helo fans.

NEW REVELL HEINKEL He 111 - PICTURE GALLERY RELEASED

SMN report
Revell's 1:32 scale Heinkel He111 looks an attractive build, as these newly released pictures of an assembled and painted kit show. And answering the question posed the last time we looked at this kit, yes 1:32 scale does seem to be the new 1:48, at least in terms of offering that bit more detail and size. All we need now is some backup with figures and equipment to make large-scale dioramas a real pleasure to build.

75th ANNIVERSARY SALUTE TO THE SPITFIRE

David Jefferis looks at the aircraft and two excellent kits

Today’s the day, 75 years ago, when the Spitfire took to the skies on its maiden flight. The designer, RJ Mitchell, had already built up experience with high-speed aircraft through his Schneider Trophy seaplane racers, and for the Spitfire, Mitchell sketched a design with unusual elliptical wings that could be armed with no less than eight machine guns. There was a closed cockpit, with oxygen supply for the pilot at high altitude, and a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine that made it faster than any other British aircraft.

ANOTHER BIG JET FROM REVELL WITH A 1:32 SCALE RED ARROWS HAWK

David Jefferis reports
The BAe Systems Hawk is one of the best known jet trainers, and the Red Arrows one of the world’s top aerobatic teams, so it’s great to see a new-tool kit of the two-seater on sale. The Hawk is not a large aircraft, but at 1:32 scale the wings span 294 mm (11.6 in) and the fuselage is some 368 mm (14.5 in) long, so the benefits of sheer size are clear. There are 158 components in the kit, including the ventral tank carrying the diesel fuel used by the smoke system. As a vet of many a Reds display, I reckon they use more smoke during a show than any other team I’ve seen - in Guernsey one year, a vast mist of the stuff wafted across the crowd in a multi-coloured haze, but everyone loved it!

LITTLE AND LARGE TYPHOONS INCOMING - REVELL PROVIDES 1:32 AND 1:144 OPTIONS.

SMN report

The big, 349 mm (13.7 in) wingspan 1:32 scale Eurofighter Typhoon is an imposing beast when you open up the box. It’s got 391 parts, a fuselage length just short of 500 mm (19.7 in), and it’s a completely new mould, with decent surface details and recessed panel lines. The level of detail rivals Revell’s other big-scale kits, with an 11-piece ejector seat, moveable canards,  jet nozzles in two configurations, detailed air brake, landing gear and bay, plus separate ailerons, flaps and rudder. 

This Typhoon is ready for combat

ECM pods are provided, as are the in-flight refuelling probe optionally extended or retracted, and two drop tanks. Revell has really gone to town with the weapons fit, with a total of 14 missiles ready for bear - four Meteors, four AMRAAMs, two Sidewinders, two IRIS-Ts, and finally a brace of ASRAAMs for the RAF version. There's also a maintenance stand with supports and suspension points to display one of the two EJ200 engines. Decals for the German Luftwaffe and British RAF round out the kit.

GIANT-SIZE REVELL HEINKEL He 111 - DOES THIS MEAN 1:32 SCALE IS THE NEW 1:48?

The Revell He 111 is a BIG bomber in 1:32 scale, and joins the ever-growing ranks of kits in this scale. Whether 1:32 will ever replace 1:48 is a moot point, but it is not too far from the widespread military 1:35 scale, and there are plenty of cars out there too, including Scalextric slot racers, which get more attention to detail and so more model-like (rather than toy-like) with each succeeding year.

What’s the He 111 kit like?

The pictures (courtesy Revell) reveal an attractive model of this World War II medium bomber, with plenty of detail, which looks particularly neat in and around the nose glazing zone. Once assembled, the seams are filled, paint applied, and weathering completed, this could well be the biggest and best He 111 available. It’s good to see tyre and undercarriage detail so carefully attended to, and the bomb bay looks to be particularly well done. In this large scale, it’s fair to say that diorama fans in particular might want (even expect) a pair of detailed engines and more in the way of fuselage interior to be part of the package - in fact (just to dream) how good it would be to see a cutaway version of this kit, along the lines of the U-2540 sub we looked at the other day. Ah well, a future plan perhaps!

REVELL ARADO 196 FLOATPLANE TO 1:32 SCALE

Revell’s Arado 196 armed-reconnaissance floatplane (or seaplane, as you wish) is a fine kit of an unusual subject, for water-based aircraft are not exactly cramming the model stores. No matter, Revell has really gone to town with this one and given us a BIG 1:32 scale kit. Even a two-seater like the Arado comes out a good size at this scale - the wingspan is 393 mm (15.5 in), and 192 components make for a very complete build.

Detailed kit and options

Among the features are neatly-scribed recessed panel lines, excellent detail to the front cockpit and similarly careful treatment to the rear gunner’s station, with its machine gun mount and ammo magazine.

Revell offers various options, such as assembling the wings in flight or folded positions, optional propeller types, decals for two versions and much more besides. The ailerons and air brakes are separate components.

Kriegsmarine service

As for the real thing, it first flew in May 1937, followed by service entry with the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) in November the following year. It was a good handler and popular with its crews - and as the standard armed-recon aircraft, was used across all German naval theatres during World War II. There seems to be no agreement on actual numbers built: we’ve seen figures ranging from 435 to 541, so take your pick. Whatever, it was a tidy-handling, successful package that took catapult launches and craned-up sea recoveries in its stride. Nominally a two-seater, there was room for extra bods to cram themselves in when occasion demanded, such as impromptu air-sea rescues and delivery of personnel.

Request please

The Revell kit makes a good comparison with the smaller Airfix 1:72 and Tamiya 1:48 offerings - old or new, they each show off well the fine lines of the Arado design. Let’s hope that with this kit, Revell follows the excellent example of Italeri in offering a complementary kit of well-sculpted personnel, and maybe some equipment as well - howzabout a launch-ready catapult, Revell?

  

See the Revell Arado 196 kit here.

And other Arado kits here.

The pictures show:

1-4  Revell Arado 196, assembled and painted.

5  Kriegsmarine engineers servicing an Arado 196 on the water.

6  Arado 196 ready for catapult launch from the battlecruiser Gneisenau. 

AOSHIMA HAYABUSA SPACEPROBE BACK ON SALE

Mat Irvine reports
Recently I looked at the Aoshima 1:32 scale Hayabusa spaceprobe kit, but had to add the rider that as soon as it was issued, it appeared to have been withdrawn. This was a great shame for, as I said then, conventional injection kits of satellites and spaceprobes - as against rockets and manned spaceflight - were extremely few and far between.

Hayabusa in the shops
But it’s now it's back, as reported by Hobby Link Japan, the company that had kindly supplied the sample kit. So for those of you who missed it first time around, you now have a second chance to experience this detailed kit, from the neatly-engraved solar panels and sensors to the thruster engines and antenna dish.

Interesting stand
The asteroid-shaped stand is a bonus too, with the tiny Minerva sub-satellite shown landed on the surface, though this was an event which did not succeed on the mission itself. The stand's shape echoes that of Hayabusa’s target, asteroid Itokawa, a chunk of space rock some 535 m (1755 ft) long.

I built the kit  ‘straight out of the box’, and the pictures show it with just paint, and I covered the bus (the main body of the craft) in gold foil to represent the protective thermal blankets/micro-meteorite coverings. The iridescent look of the panels was achieved by spraying translucent House of Kolor Tru-blue pearl over a bottom coat of silver. It’s a type of paint really intended for painting model cars, but works well for this purpose. The probe's high-gain antenna looks good overall, although the limits of injection moulding mean the real appearance, which is actually a mesh, can only be approximated in this scale.

You can buy Hayabusa from Hobby Link Japan, who supplied the kit used in my build. The HLJ site is here where you can also see a video that shows the probe's meteoric re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.

Other space models, both fact and fiction, are available here.

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1  General view of the Aoshima Hayabusa assembled kit.
2  Solar panels are neatly engraved.
3  High-gain antenna is positioned atop the spacecraft bus section.
4  Peanut-shaped stand with nameplate.
5  Itokawa for real, snapped by Hayabusa on close approach. Picture courtesy the Japanese Space Agency JAXA.

SPACE MODELLERS FORM A LINE HERE - AND NAME IT ‘F’ FOR FRUSTRATION

Mat Irvine reports
Just over two months ago, on June 13, 2010, the Japanese spaceprobe Hayabusa (original name MUSES-C) returned a small sample container back to Earth. Having spent seven years in space - three more than planned - Hayabusa had finally completed its unique task, to rendezvous with the asteroid Itokawa, hover there, grab a soil sample and return it to Earth.

Hayabusa mission doubts
The spaceprobe appears to have done most of these tasks, though there is still some doubt as to whether the return samples (the container landed in the Australian outback, near Woomera) are actually from the asteroid. However, overall it was still an amazing mission.

Hayabusa model kit
Also rather amazing is the fact that the Hayabusa mission inspired Aoshima to make a kit, even more so as this is only the fifth (that’s right - number five) unmanned spacecraft ever to have been made as a conventional plastic kit! I do have to add the rider that there have been a number of other non-plastic kits, made from resin, card, and photo-etched metal.

Made to 1:32 scale, the Aoshima kit includes a wealth of full-size probe detail, from the central bus, twin solar panels and ion engine to the high-gain antenna dish. You get a stand in the shape of the very oddly shaped asteroid Itokawa, and also included is the tiny - very tiny - sub-probe Minerva that was suppose to land on Itokawa, though sad to say, this part of the mission failed. Minerva could almost be made as a 1:1 scale kit - it was just 100 mm (3.94 in) tall, and 120 mm (4.72 in) in diameter!

Hayabusa kit cancelled.
But perhaps the oddest thing about the kit is that Aoshima proudly states on the box ‘Space Craft Series 1’ - indicating more to follow - yet almost immediately discontinued the kit! Aoshima usually reintroduces its models at a later date though, so let’s hope it happens in this case.

It’s frustrating, but some kits may still be available. The Hayabusa featured in my pictures above was kindly supplied by Hobby Link Japan, so it’s worth having a look here, where you can also see a video and model shots.

Other space models, both fact and fiction, are available here.

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1  Box top also shows the older MUSES-C name, derived from Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft C. Incidentally, Hayabusa is Japanese for Peregrine Falcon, and is also the name for the superfast and highly desirable Suzuki motorbike.
2  Photos of the built model on the side of the box.
3  The parts: note the peanut-shaped stand, representing the oddly-shaped asteroid Itokawa.
4  CGI rendering of Hayabusa in hover mode above the asteroid surface.

REVELL 1:32 SCALE SUPER CUB - KING OF ROUGH-STRIP TAKEOFFS

Here’s a ‘different’ kit for you to try, a 1:32 scale model of one of aviation’s classics: the Piper PA-18 Super Cub. This is a two-seater bushplane that first flew in 1949, with a short-field performance that enables takeoffs to be achieved in only 70 m (200 ft) or so - and with a strong headwind, even less. It’s actually possible to hover in a Super Cub if the headwind is more than about 56 km/h (35 mph)! Production stopped at Piper in the early 1990s, but various independent manufacturers still make variations on the original design. The three short video clips give you an idea of the simply amazing performance of the little machine, especially when it’s fitted with big, fat, tundra tyres.

The new-tool Revell kit is packed with detail, and comes with three sets of decals, enabling you to model two civil versions (British and German) and a German military machine. At big 1:32 scale, even a small aircraft like the Super Cub has a decent assembled wingspan of 338 mm (13.3 in), and would look terrific in a diorama setting - its sports-recreation credentials make it suitable to be seen next to one of the latest Scalextric racing cars, any of which look terrific when they have been tweaked and weathered appropriately. Or you could go the bushplane route and feature a battered pickup truck instead.

Inside the nose, the four-cylinder Lycoming engine has been modelled quite accurately (though it would benefit from some careful extra detailing) and has wide-opening access panels that allow you to show off what’s going on in there. The instruments and seats look good too, with the full-harness belts neatly sculpted. The Super Cub has a metal structure covered with fabric, and the texture of this is well produced in the model - the fabric looks just right, especially when it’s been spray-painted. The 92-part Revell kit is a neat model of a not-so-usual subject and is available now.

Super Cub pictures courtesy Revell.

Videos courtesy YouTube.

Visit Revell here.

View the 1/32 Piper PA-18 Super Cub