MARTIN SEAMASTER - SLEEK FLYING BOAT JET BOMBER

HERE IS A SLEEK AIRCRAFT of interest to classic kit collectors and builders. The Martin Seamaster was one of the best-looking bombers ever made, even if it didn't have a long career.

1914 RENAULT TAXI TO 1:35 SCALE FROM MACH 2 MODELS OF FRANCE

Here’s a neat little item that was first displayed at the 2014 Scale Model World show in Telford, UK. The 1:35 scale Taxi de la Marne was released by French manufacturer Mach 2, to commemorate the centenary of World War I.

ANOTHER BLAST FROM THE PAST: ROUND 2 RE-RELEASE SOVIET-ERA VOSTOK SPACE LAUNCHER TO 1:100 SCALE

This is a 1:100 scale model of the classic Soviet A-Type launcher in its best-known Vostok version, as used to launch Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, on April 4, 1961. This time, the MPC kit comes as a Round 2 re-release.

1:72 SCALE VOSTOK FROM FRENCH KIT MAKER MACH 2

Mat Irvine looks back:

Although the 50th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight was on April 12, true space fans celebrate the achievement all year round. Well, that’s my excuse for looking at this kit in September!

APPROACHING TOUCHDOWN - AIRFIX 1:72 SCALE VICKERS VALIANT V-BOMBER

SMN report

The Airfix 2011 catalogue promised the Valiant earlier this year (SMN story here), and the 1:72 scale kit is now coming in to land, with general sales expected around May 10. The subject is the four-engine Vickers-Armstrong Valiant jet bomber, developed after World War II to counter the Soviet threat in the early days of the Cold War. The swept-wing Valiant was the first design to fly of the ‘V-Force’, three British bombers designed to penetrate Soviet airspace and deliver nuclear weapons in the event of the Cold War turning hot. 

In the model world, there has been little shortage of the other two V-bombers, the dramatic-looking Handley-Page Victor, and the big-delta Avro Vulcan, but the comparatively no-frills Valiant has been something of a Cinderella. Still, here we are now with what looks a very interesting kit indeed.

Prototype Valiant about to land at the UK Farnborough Air Show, 1951.