'WAR OF THE WORLDS' SCI-FI INVASION FEATURES IN MODEL RAIL LAYOUT

THIS LAYOUT COMBINES traditional model rail construction with a dash of science fiction. The Edwardian sci-fi story War of the Worlds by HG Wells makes for an interesting, and very different, diorama setting.

TWO MODEL KIT NAMES HOLD HANDS: MOEBIUS JOINS PEGASUS

KIT-MAKER MOEBIUS MODELS has linked with Pegasus Hobbies, another company that releases many science fiction and fantasy subjects.

VISIT TO THE PEGASUS HOBBIES MEGASTORE

PEGASUS HOBBIES is billed as the largest hobby store in southern California (SoCal), and having walked all the aisles, I can confirm the statement is true.

FLYING HORSE AT iHOBBY EXPO 2014 - PEGASUS HOBBIES REVEALS SCI-FI KITS

Pegasus Hobbies continues with its eclectic range of kits, expanding on a range of subjects that includes plenty of science-fiction kits, many of them original Pegasus designs.

CLOUD OF KITS FLY IN FROM PEGASUS

Mat Irvine reports from iHobby Expo:

Continuing my look at the new goodies on show at iHobby, this time I'm inspecting Pegasus Hobbies, a company that started off by making glitzy accessories for car modellers, an aspect it still does, but that now also makes aircraft and military models, and is best known for its science-fiction kits.

DANGER - THE MARTIANS ARE COMING!

A MAT IRVINE REVIEW
The HG Wells story The Wars of the Worlds always seems to draw attention, even if various movie remakes have shifted the location away from the English original. Although the George Pal version of 1953 was about the furthest removed from Wells’s Victorian settings, it arguably remains the most well known (notwithstanding the 2005 Stephen Spielberg movie, set in New Jersey) especially when it comes to the shape of the Martian war machines. There have never been any mainstream model kits of these in traditional plastic until now - and they have come from what is a relatively new company

Only a few years ago, Pegasus Hobbies was producing a few parts for car modellers and some wargaming accessories, but now it has grown to include a range of traditional construction kits, including some new science fiction subjects. We mentioned the Pegasus Hobbies Apollo 27 on SMN recently, and now we look at three Pegasus war machine models.

There are two copper-chromed war machines to 1:48 scale, each spanning some 280 mm (11 in) across. One is a kit, the other pre-built ‘with sounds’. In much smaller 1:144 scale you get the complete 203 mm (8 in) long mini diorama shown in the pictures above. This one is a simple kit, almost snap together, though some parts do benefit from glue and it needs a bit of care with the paint.

Prominent features of the George Pal war machine are the ‘green glowing’ nose and wingtips, here supplied in clear plastic. For best effect, you need to apply transparent green paint, which is available from many paint companies. The main body is a copper shade. The diorama depicts a pair of them attacking two Sherman tanks - not badly done considering their size - and one of the tanks is shown getting socked by a blast from a Martian ‘death ray’.

A neatly done base completes the set-up, the only oddity being that the war machine supports are moulded in opaque plastic, so they show up. Given that clear plastic is used anyway for other parts, it seems a shame they weren’t supplied in clear. However, on the model I constructed for the pictures above, they’ve been replaced with clear acrylic rod so they blend in to the background slightly better.

Visit Pegasus Hobbies here.

APOLLO 11 ANNIVERSARY ON MONDAY - BUT APOLLO 27 IS WHAT COULD HAVE COME AFTERWARDS

‘What if’ scenarios are a favourite with many modellers, especially the ‘Luftwaffe 1946’ brigade (SMN is what-if central, so the plea here is guilty, m’lud), so when Pegasus Hobbies brings to market a 1:72 scale Apollo 27 model, it’s a max-interest event.

The Apollo 27 is a good size model, scaling out at some 254 mm (10 in) high when sitting on its outriggers, pointed at the great beyond. A neat bubble canopy reveals the pilot-astronaut and all-in-all the A27 is well worth adding to your collection, especially so because you can display it with any current-generation 1:72 models.

So far as styling goes, Apollo 27 is perhaps a little retro, owing more perhaps to rocket designs of the 1950s era than those of the post-Apollo 11 age. But that’s carping - the idea is ace, the execution OK, the choice of scale top. All aerospace fans should have one!

Visit Pegasus Hobbies here, and UK online supplier Frontier Models here.

UFO INVASION GROUP HEADING TO PLANET EARTH?

Now that summer’s nearly here, the UFO spotting season is well underway. And with news that massed groups of mystery lights were spotted over England and Europe this week, perhaps it’s time to wonder again at what goes on at Area 51, in Nevada.

Pegasus Hobbies' nice 1:72 kit envisages one possible answer - maybe the recent UFOs were squadrons of circular flying craft that were built here on terra firma, purportedly reverse-engineered from a mystery UFO that crashed many years ago. One mechanical engineer even claimed to have work on a ‘flying disc simulator’, communicating with an alien being called J-Rod.

Ah well, here at SMN Towers, we’ll just have to stick with the Pegasus kit here.

The London Daily Mail has a good feature on these recent events here.