V-2 ROCKET VENGEANCE WEAPON PRODUCED AS BIG-SCALE KIT

Mat Irvine looks at a new model company’s premier release

Despite the number of German V-2 rocket kits that have been made (and, ahem, a comprehensive list can be seen in my book Creating Space), 1:24 is a scale that’s not been used before. It is not a standard scale for military or aircraft models, which tend to be 1:32, 1:35, 1:48 or 1:72. However, 1:24 is one of the main automotive scales, so this new V-2 kit could open the door for those interested in building dioramas, with a whole range of interesting additions.

SPACE IN MINIATURE MODEL REFERENCE GUIDES

Mat Irvine reports
Mike Mackowski is a long-time space modeller and one of the main members of the online Yahoo ‘Space Modelers’ group. Over some years now, Mike has compiled seven hardcopy books especially for modellers on spacecraft topics, including titles for Gemini, Mercury and two volumes on Apollo, one for the Command Service Module and one for the Lunar Module. Now he has produced his first ‘Tech Report’, a series intended to be shorter and to be available only as a download, thus having the advantage that they can be in colour.

Skylab details
Tech Report #1.0 (TR1) is on Skylab, prompted by Mike’s particular interest in America’s first space station. Mike worked for a time at McDonnell Douglas in St Louis, where Skylab’s airlock module was built. Previously he had spent time as a student at NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where the Skylab trainer was housed. He was also at Marshall when Skylab was actually launched in 1973.

What’s in the TR1 pdf
TR1 contains images of the actual Skylab (perhaps surprisingly, not that many were taken) and many drawings showing schematics of what was a very complex object, especially when it came to the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) that once in orbit, had to rotate 90 degrees from its stowed launch position.

Making a 1:96 scale Skylab
TR1’s end-section has details of Skylab models that have been available (not many) with reference to my own Creating Space book, and then a chapter on modelling a Skylab in 1:96 scale. In all, you get 22 pages as a pdf download, well worth the asking price of $6.00 USD.

Visit Yahoo Space Modelers group here.

For Tech Report #1.0 and previous books, check out Space in Miniature here.

See Creating Space here.

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1  TR1 download cover.
2-3  Space in Miniature hardcopy covers.
4  Mike Mackowski (left) with Mat Irvine at the 2002 US IPMS Nationals held at Virginia Beach, US.
5  Logo for the Yahoo Space Modelers group.

MARS PROBE KIT FROM LINDBERG

BY MAT IRVINE

Recent news that the Russians have delayed the launch of their latest Mars probe made me think about a Mars Probe kit from that old-stager of the US model scene, Lindberg.

Though its glory days were many years ago, Lindberg never really went away, though it has certainly had its ups and downs. Currently, a very wide-ranging list includes kits from the original ‘Lindberg Line’, along with companies Lindberg acquired along the way, such as Hawk and IMC.

But if we go back to the 1950s, Lindberg was in at the dawn of the Space Age, with four kits of ‘factual futuristic’ rockets and spacecraft, based on designs from science-luminaries of the time, such as Wernher von Braun, Willy Ley and the space artist Chesley Bonestell. Four kits were issued in 1958: a wheel-shaped Space Station, a Moonship, and two versions of a winged Transport Rocket - one carrying a crewed delta-wing shuttlecraft, the other carrying a satellite.

These kits were reissued in 1970, this time as the Mars Probe series, and again in 1977 as the Star Probe series, though the satellite launcher was absent that time round.

Now, almost 40 years on, the satellite-carrying Mars Probe kit has been reissued. It’s a nice kit of a concept for a Mars-orbit relay satellite, with some parts moulded in clear plastic so you can see the internal parts. There’s a mystery bonus too - the instruction leaflet doesn’t mention it, but you also get a complete winged shuttlecraft from the ‘other’ kit, so that you can build two models if you want - just swap the upper stages over!

This raises an intriguing point - until now, I’d assumed the scale of the two kits to be the same. Lindberg says 1:200, (perhaps taken from the listing in my Creating Space book), but on reflection there would be a vast difference in size between a winged shuttlecraft with crew aboard, and a far smaller satellite - if they were to the same scale, the satellite would have the unlikely diameter of some 46 m (150 ft)! So a rethink of scales is necessary - the shuttle can remain at 1:200 scale, but a satellite scale of 1:32 seems more reasonable.

The pictures show, top to bottom:

1 Original kit from the 1950s.

2 New box 2009.

3 Winged shuttlecraft and satellite, with launcher.

4 Satellite atop launcher. It stands some 330 mm (13 in) high.

You can buy the Lindbergh Mars Probe here, and my Creating Space book here.

Visit Lindberg here.