1:25 SCALE JEEP vs GIANT GODZILLA IN 'INVASION OF ASTRO-MONSTER'

IF YOU LOOK HARD enough, you can usually find an interesting anniversary. And in 2019, Round 2 used the 65th Anniversary of Godzilla, perhaps the most famous of all movie monsters, to add a creature-feature to its list.

AIRFIX INCOMING 2014: D-DAY 70th ANNIVERSARY NEW-TOOL KITS

2014 looks like being a vintage year for Airfix, with a range of new-release and new-tool subjects in various scales. Here we look at some kits designed to partner with the D-Day landings that commenced on June 6, 1944.

SOFT-SKINS - THREE MILITARY VEHICLE KITS FROM ITALERI

REPORT BY MAT IRVINE:

Italy’s home-grown model company, Italeri, is one of those still producing a wide variety of kits. However, as is so often the case in the world of takeovers, it has over the years acquired virtually all its rivals in the country, including Protar and ESCI. These have greatly increased Italeri’s own vehicle catalogue, especially those from ESCI, and has led to a new kit trio ‘of mixed parentage’.

BIG-SCALE FINE MOLDS JEEP

SMN REPORT:

Here’s a tasty variation in big 1:20 scale kits for military modellers - it’s a Fine Molds model of a quarter-ton US Army Jeep, the original 4x4 that was jack-of-all-trades for Allied forces in World War II.

HASEGAWA FOLLOW-ME JEEP IDEAL FOR WWII DIORAMAS

SMN report:

If you like the look of the 1:48 scale Revell B-17G we featured earlier this week, then these items could be just the thing if you’re into dioramas, or simply wish to add a few items to bring some life to a static model.

NEW FUNCTIONALITY FOR SMN SLIDESHOWS

SMN Report:
Scale Model News is expanding again, with the addition of a neat slideshow feature.

It's simple to use - after you click on the 'Read more' button, the rest of the article appears on a new page column. Click on any of the pix in the column and you should get a zoom enlargement on screen. Click on that (or press the right arrow on your keyboard) and you will sequence through the show, pic by pic.

GIANT JEEP - DRAGON 'DESERT RAIDER' TO 1:6 SCALE

Mat Irvine looks at a four-wheeled shelf-filler:

Are kits getting bigger, or is it just my imagination? Or is there a good reason for sheer size? Well, here is a 1:6 scale vehicle that can lay claim to commonsense, for the Dragon SAS 4x4 Desert Raider Jeep is to the same scale as many popular military figures, such as GI Joe and Action Man, and also many of Dragon’s own superbly detailed military figures. This Jeep is not the first biggie from Hong Kong-based Dragon either - others include German vehicles, the Kubelwagen, Schwimmwagen, and Pz Kpfw II AusfB tank.

OBAMA D-DAY TRIBUTE

President Barack Obama led a tribute yesterday to the Allied soldiers who stormed the beaches 65 years ago, to start the invasion of Europe and the end of World War 2.

"Friends and veterans, what we cannot forget – what we must not forget – is that D-Day was a time and a place where the bravery and selflessness of a few was able to change the course of an entire century," Obama said.

One of the machines that helped win the war was the humble Jeep - more than 600,000 of them were built during the war. And here's a nice YouTube video build of an Airfix Jeep, made to 1:72 scale, so suitable for display in a million-and-one aviation dioramas.

Video: Thanks to 'Basic Modelling'