SPRINT INTO SPACE WITH THE AOSHIMA 1:200 SCALE EPSILON LAUNCH ROCKET

Aoshima seems to be the only kit company coming up with regular brand new items in the real-space field. This one is the tenth in its Space Craft Series, and features the Epsilon, Japan’s latest launch rocket.

1:350 SCALE AOSHIMA H-IIB LAUNCH VEHICLE WITH MOVABLE LAUNCHER

Mat Irvine reports
Aoshima has added to its growing series of spacecraft models, with a modified HIIB space launcher kit, which now includes a movable launcher, similar to the NASA Crawler Transporter that took Saturn rockets and Space Shuttles to their launch pads.

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.

LAND OF THE RISING SPACE LAUNCHERS - OHSUMI SATELLITE AND LAMBDA ROCKET FROM AOSHIMA

REPORT: MAT IRVINE

Following Aoshima’s 1:350 scale H-IIB launch vehicle, the company has come up with another Japanese launcher, the four-stage Lambda L-4S. This fired Japan’s first satellite into orbit in 1970, the Ohsumi 5, making Japan the fifth country to launch its own satellite with its own rocket. 

AOSHIMA H-IIB SPACE LAUNCHER KIT

ROCKET REVIEW BY MAT IRVINE

Give that the H-IIB launch rocket is the mainstay of Japan’s satellite launch industry it’s somewhat surprising that there has been no kit of it before - this kit from Aoshima is a first.

MOON GODDESS TAKES FLIGHT - AOSHIMA KAGUYA-SELENE MOON PROBE KIT

SMN update from Mat Irvine:

The Japanese kit company Aoshima continues to surprise us with brand-new kits in a growing range of satellites and space probes. 

FUJIMI ‘BLADE RUNNER’ SPINNER - BUILDUP REPORT

Mat Irvine update:

After my initial report on Fujimi’s surprise release of the 1:24 scale Spinner Police Car from the classic science-fiction movie Blade Runner, here’s how I worked to complete the model.

THE FLIGHT OF IKAROS, A SOLAR-SAIL SPACECRAFT

That’s the problem with space model kits says Mat Irvine: like buses, you wait years for one, then three come along, all at once! As I’ve said before, of the three main types of ‘space’ kits - rockets, crewed spacecraft, uncrewed satellites and probes - the last is the poor relation by far. Until recently, styrene-injection satellite kits numbered precisely three, with a few more available in other materials.

LAST LANDING - SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS RETURNS TO EARTH

It’s the end of the space trucking era, says David Jefferis:

Forty two years after Armstrong and Aldrin stepped onto the Moon’s surface, it was touchdown for the Space Shuttle Atlantis, and the last-ever mission for the most complex spacecraft system ever built. There’s moaning and groaning by the bucketload, with headlines claiming the end of the US space program, but the reality is that the Shuttle, whatever its merits, represented a retreat from the Moon and true space exploration. For the Shuttle was a space truck to Earth orbit, and no further. Let’s hope that privateer companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, fulfill their ambitions and take humans onward and outward, to explore the High Frontier.

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.

'TOP GUN' MOVIE REVISITED - KAWASAKI NINJA MOTORBIKE KIT FROM AOSHIMA

 

Mat Irvine reports
One of the biggest movies of 1986 was Top Gun, with Tom Cruise playing Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (as plotted, the call sign was one he took literally) at the US Navy’s Fighter Weapons School. The video should give you a reminder of the movie's plot, people, and of course, the planes.

Top Gun is back
Given that the storyline was very aircraft-intense, it was a natural for the model companies and both Airfix and Testors issued a number of kits for aircraft featured in the film. Well, that was back in the 1980s - but now in 2010, we have a new Top Gun kit! Aoshima has taken its Kawasaki GPZ9000R Ninja motorbike kit and modified it to represent the one Maverick rode in the movie.

New detail parts for Top Gun superbike
The basic kit has been in the Aoshima list for some time, but this model has new front forks and rear swing-arms, new wheels and new rear-view mirrors. The decals also reflect the version seen in the movie, including the “No Wussys” sign! The kit is moulded mostly in black, with two satin-plated and one chrome-plated runners plus one in clear plastic. Besides the vinyl tyres, some vinyl tuning and hoses are also supplied, which is a good thing as the kit is to a large 1:12 scale.

It’s an intriguing release, but does sort of make you wonder slightly - what else could suddenly appear from the world of quarter-century old movies?

The Aoshima Kawasaki Ninja was kindly supplied by Models for Sale, who can supply this bike plus others here.

THE BONNEVILLE RUN

A MAT IRVINE REVIEW
The range of cars you can get in kit form is pretty wide - sports, rally, custom, funny, NASCAR, Formula One, American, Japanese, German, French, Italian, British and many more besides. But one kit zone that’s conspicuous by its near total absence is Land Speed Record (LSR) cars, especially if you want them in 1:24/1:25 scale. Smaller sizes, particularly in 1:43 ‘diecast’ scale are better served, but larger models can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

In 1:24/25 scale there is only one LSR subject available, Revell’s Mickey Thompson Challenger 1. Merit did Donald Campbell’s Bluebird, though that was more like 1:30 scale. Doyusha made Spirit of America in 1:32, and MPC were going to make the Budweiser Rocket. That would have been to 1:25 scale, but in the end it was a no-show. Add the Summers Brothers’ Goldenrod (it was the wheel-driven LSR holder from 1965-1991) as a solid-resin kit in 1:25 scale from Jimmy Flintstone, and... that’s almost it!

However, there is one more - Aoshima’s 2006 kit of the Mazda RX-7, as tuned by the Racing Beat tuning company (note the way Aoshima has used the name on the box to promo the kit). This RX-7 ran at Bonneville in 1986 in the C-GT class for Grand Touring Cars, and was a project by the American enthusiast magazine Car and Driver. The ‘Don Sherman’ named on the window glass was the magazine’s editor at the time. A Google search when I was writing this piece bought up the December 1986 issue of Car and Driver that featured the run, and also where a copy was for sale from an online dealer.

The Aoshima kit matches the real colour scheme pretty closely - usually no two schemes are identical race to race. However, the only decals missing are, oddly enough, the actual Car and Driver ones! There are also some compromises to the kit itself. Aoshima already produced the Mazda RX-7 in various forms, so this is a standard road car, with just enough extra parts added to turn it into the Bonneville racer. The body exterior is mostly fine, but the underside and general chassis are wrong - my advice is to paint the underparts black and forget about the issue. Lastly, although the interior has the left-hand-drive set-up, it lacks racing instruments and roll-cage - but you do get the specially-made Goodyear tyres.

Overall though, the Aoshima RX-7 is worth the effort, and as you can see from the pictures, looks pretty good set against the actual Car and Driver issue I purchased for the shot.

The Racing Beat RX-7 is available from online supplier Models for Sale here.

Visit Aoshima here.