QUARTER-MILE CONTENDER: DODGE FEVER DRAGSTER PICKUP FROM LINDBERG

EXPERIENCED AUTO modellers may recognise this 1:25 scale kit as a reissue of the classic Dodge A-100, first released by IMC as the Little Red Wagon drag pickup. 

FACTUAL-FUTURISTIC SPACE KIT: LINDBERG PRE-APOLLO US MOON SHIP

The Lindberg factual-futuristic US Moon Ship is a reissue from Round 2. The 1:96 scale spacecraft was released by the original Lindberg company in 1958.

WEIRD AND WONDERFUL VTOL FIGHTER: CONVAIR XFY-1 POGO FROM LINDBERG

We looked at the Aurora Lockheed XFV-1 recently, and here is its sister tailsitter fighter plane, the experimental Convair XFY-1 Pogo, still available as a 1:48 scale kit from classic kit manufacturer, Lindberg.

RIDE OF THE VALKYRIE: MACH 3 NUCLEAR SUPER-BOMBER FROM LINDBERG

This is a Round 2 reissue of an original ‘Lindberg line’ kit, one of the first since the R2 takeover of Lindberg (and Hawk) in 2013.

ROUND 2 TAKES ON CLASSIC KIT BRANDS LINDBERG AND HAWK

NEWS UPDATE FROM MAT IRVINE:
Round 2 Corporation, owner of the AMT, MPC and Polar Lights brands, has just acquired Lindberg and Hawk, both revered names from the early days of plastic kits.

NASA DODGE CHARGER SUPERCAR - BUILT FOR TALKING DOWN ER-2 RESEARCH JET

Weekend read from Mat Irvine:

Here’s an intriguing, and relatively quick, conversion for anyone interested - as I am - in both cars and space. Here the car is a 1:24 scale Lindberg Dodge Charger, while the space connection is actually an aircraft, a Lockheed Martin ER-2 flown by NASA on high-altitude flights on Earth resources and other research missions. I’ll come to the Charger kit shortly, but first some background information.

PT-17 KAYDET BIPLANE TRAINER FROM HOBBY MASTER

SMN report:

Just coming into stores now is Hobby Master’s 1:48 scale Boeing-Stearman PT-17 biplane. The original was widely used during the 1930s and 1940s, with nearly 9800 built in all. After World War II, thousands were released onto the civil market and used for joy-rides, cropdusting and by private sports pilots. The two-seater is still around today, and many remain in flying condition.

STEALTH FIGHTER F-35 LIGHTNING II SOON TO RULE THE SKIES

SMN report
After years of development, and seemingly endless delays and price hikes, the ‘5th generation’ fighter jet from Lockheed Martin, the F-35 Lightning II, has at last been ordered into limited production.

It’s a bit better than recent news that the UK has dropped the F-35 STOVL version in favour of a standard configuration for launching from its as-yet unbuilt Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier. Along with other news that the UK Harrier force is being disbanded, it looks as though the UK is in for an entire decade without carrier-borne air power. Let’s hope it’s not needed.

5G helmet design
Back to the F-35: it’s not been a massive hit with the model companies yet, but the rumour mill indicates that things will improve in 2011, not least with a Lindberg version to 1:32 scale. That’ll be interesting if it happens. Meantime, apart from the old Italeri 1:72 and Panda Models 1:48 offerings there’s so much to wait for. Still, we couldn’t resist showing you the latest in ‘5G’ fighter helmets - Star Wars, eat your heart out, 5G pilots tote serious stuff!

RC Lightning II
However, even if there isn’t yet a really good F-35 injection kit - and no sign of a production-standard machine - there are various radio control scale and semi-scale versions to build and fly. The video (without sounds on our system, but you may have better luck) shows one of the most aerobatic ones available.

Visit one of the RC F-35 suppliers, Esprit Models here.

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1  5G fighter pilot helmet.
2-3  Panda 1:48 scale kit.
4  Cutaway plan of the F-35B, clearly showing the engine and front lift fan arrangement. To design-purists like us, this layout is not a patch on the Harrier’s elegantly simple four-poster exhaust system.

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.