A US NAVY STARSHIP PROJECT FOR SCI-FI KIT-BASHERS

Mat Irvine's Smallspace 6 model show blew the weeds off similar events yesterday. Until next year, how about a look at this concept. We're looking at our existing Star Trek miniatures, thinking of ways to customise them!

WHY YOU CANNOT MAKE STAR TREK MODELS ALL TO THE SAME SCALE

WE'RE HUGE FANS OF CONSTANT SCALE MODELLING. It's the only way to be able to accurately compare different subjects.

WHEN MOVIES USED SCALE MODELS INSTEAD OF COMPUTERS

The US movie effects company ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) is coming up to its 40th birthday, due in May 2015. Formed in May 1975 by George Lucas, ILM has made groundbreaking special effects (SFX) for many big-name movies, including the scenes from Star Trek: Heart of Darkness seen in the video above.

NEW LOOK FOR SCALE MODEL NEWS

Watch out for a fresh new look at Scale Model News, due very soon.

INDUSTRIA MECHANIKA: HOME OF SCI-FI'S FINEST CONCEPT KITS WITH A DIFFERENCE

It's good to return to our friends at Industria Mechanika, purveyors of original science-fiction models that are a world away from standard-issue Star Wars and Star Trek.

“WE’RE AT WARP 9.6 CAPTAIN: THE ENGINES CANNA TAKE IT ANY MORE!” “WRONG SHIP SCOTTIE: THIS IS A ROMULAN WARBIRD!”

Star Trek lives with an interesting fortnightly, ‘The Official Starships Collection’ from partwork publisher, Eaglemoss.

‘2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY’ IN DETAIL - GREAT DETAIL

MAT IRVINE REPORTS

Ask any film enthusiast, and probably many non-enthusiasts, to name the best science-fiction movie of all time, and you will probably get 9 out of 10 voting for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. For all those fans - and for space modellers too - comes the new book, 2001: The Lost Science by Adam K. Johnson.

STAR TREK USS ENTERPRISE AT WONDERFEST 2012

REPORT BY MAT IRVINE:

Here I continue my review of the 2012 WonderFest science-fiction and fantasy show, held at the end of May in Louisville, Kentucky - and take a close look at the test shot (above) of the huge 1:350 scale USS Enterprise due for release soon.

THE WONDER OF WONDERFEST

SMN EVENTER BY MAT IRVINE

Each year sees the Crown Plaza Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, transformed into WonderFest - an event that presents all that’s wonderful in science-fiction, fantasy and horror model-making. WonderFest 2013 was held a couple of months ago, over the weekend of May 25-27, and your occasional SMN writer attended the show as a first-time guest. 

INCOMING - STAR TREK FANS STAND BY FOR NEW MOVIE COLLECTIBLES

SMN REPORT:

The collectibles industry is on the march, aiming to sign up for tie-ins to the next Star Trek movie. The 2009 Star Trek reboot by director J.J. Abrams breathed new life into the franchise, so it’s great to hear that licensing deals are already slotting into place.

SPACEX LAUNCHES DRAGON TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

SMN REPORT:

News that the US company SpaceX successfully launched its Dragon space capsule, which is now on course for a test rendezvous with the ISS International Space Station makes us smile. And of course, it opens the door to the model-making wish-list.

ROUND 2 TAKES OVER AMT, POLAR LIGHTS, MPC - BEATLES, STAR TREK KITS IN 2012

SMN report:

The Round 2 model company recently acquired all rights to the leading model kit brands AMT, MPC and Polar Lights from Tomy, the Japanese toy, merchandise and entertainment name.

STAR TREK KITS ON MARK-DOWN SALE THIS WEEK AT FANTASTIC PLASTIC

SMN report:

We’re a bit tardy with this info, but there’s still time to bag a bargain. Fantastic Plastic, which styles itself as: “The Virtual Museum of Flying Wonders!” certainly gets our vote for creating and marketing the widest range of rare and odd machinery, both real and fictional.

There’s plenty to choose from in the sale, though as we’re in Star Trek mode just now, there are three kits that look particularly interesting.

STAR TREK FROM REVELL - TEST SHOTS OF FEDERATION AND KLINGON STARSHIPS

SMN report:

Like Star Wars, the Star Trek universe just keeps rolling on, with new movies, collectibles, and now, more scale models from Revell. Due to hit the stores shortly are these two fine spacecraft models, both to 1:600 scale, making them a decent size when constructed, and - interestingly - to a scale that means they are common with a great many ocean-going ship models, though sad to say, not Revell’s own USS Enterprise aircraft carriers, which are to 1:720 and 1:1200 scales.

RORY McLEISH - SCI-FI GENIUS AND KITBASHER’S INSPIRATION

Scots-born Rory McLeish spent much of his childhood sketching, painting, building plastic model kits and sculpting dinosaurs out of Plasticine. But these days, he uses different model skills, using computer software to create amazing worlds of fantasy. 

Thunderbirds are Go
Rory’s early influences included the likes of Gerry Anderson (of Thunderbirds fame) and this led eventually to his present role in conceptual work for commercials and feature films. All of which brings things round full-circle, because although computers are used for the CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) content of so many movies, the plastic kit manufacturers now bring many of those creations to ‘reality’ by making kits of them - which is terrific news for science fiction fans.

Star Trek Nemesis
Among the many McLeish screen commissions was to work on the Scimitar spacecraft used in the movie Star Trek Nemesis, which you can see in the YouTube clip shown above. And of course, Star Trek modelmakers are served pretty well by the kit industry, as you can see from the selection shown via the links below. Which one of these is SMN’s selection for afficionados? Hmmm, it’s hard to say - we want ’em all!

Kit-bashing
Meantime, if you don’t want to buy ‘yet another’ Star Trek or Star Wars kit or collectible, then Rory’s concepts open the door to some serious kitbashing possibilities. As you can see from the samples shown above, there’s a galaxy-full of possibilities for those of us (including this writer) who love make real models from fantastic dreams.

Visit Rory McLeish here.

Browse among some Star Trek kits here and here.

SUPER-TINY STARSHIP ENTERPRISE FROM THE STAR TREK UNIVERSE

Over on our sister site Starcruzer, there's a glimpse at what has to be the smallest model ever made, less than one billionth the size of the real thing - even if 'real' is a fictional creation.

Two Japanese researchers used high-tech ion-beam equipment to make a nanoscale model that's more than a little smaller than the rather attractive Round 2 Polar Lights item we show above that you can make yourself.

Visit Starcruzer to read more here.

View a range of Star Trek models here, though note that some Star Wars items have sneaked in!

BARBIE DOLL HITS MIDDLE AGE WITH HER 51st BIRTHDAY TODAY

David Jefferis reports
Every teen girl’s favourite, the Barbie doll, first went on sale on March 9, 1959, and shows no sign of slowing down in the 21st century, through a constant series of reinventions to keep her up to date with the latest fashions.

Of more significance to us model fans is that Barbie opened the door to non-girlie ‘male dolls’ such as Action Man, and through him to today’s host of science fiction miniatures, from Terminator robots to Star Trek aliens. And of course, the she-doll is so popular that real-world marketeers have produced a host of tie-ins over the years. For example, last year’s 50th birthday saw a totally cutified and chrome-laden blush-rose Fiat 500 (top picture).

The Fiat 500 is a terrific designer-look car, and model manufacturers seem to be queueing up to produce miniature versions. One of the newer names is Mondo Motors, a diecast company based on the outskirts of Alba, in north-west Italy. Mondo produces both ready-made and kit-versions of the 500, including the variations shown in the pix above. Mondo produces in all the popular scales - 1:18, 1:24, 1:32, 1:43, 1:64 - so there’s likely to be a 500 to the size you want somewhere. Mondo also produces an older style of 500, the original Cinquecento (bottom pic). This was a car so small that when my friend Kate used to give me a lift down the trendy King’s Road in London, my head pushed up the canvas roof into a dome-shape! Luckily in fine weather, the canvas rolled back, so the only danger then was a suntan and eyeball contact with the micro-skirted Chelsea chicks...

So far as accuracy goes, Mondo vehicles are sold primarily into the toy market, rather than as out-and-out scale models. Even so, they are mostly well up to the standards of better-known makers, such as Bburago. There’s a 1:18 scale Mondo metal-kit on the SMN model bench right now - we’re currently stripping off the paint to bare metal, ready for a Mad Max-style post-nuclear external finish. We’ll be adding suitable detail, such as weapons and sensors, plus appropriate battle damage and radiation-scarring too. With luck the project will turn into a sci-fi delight. We’ll show the MM 500 off when she’s ready.

Visit Mondo Motors here.

The Mondo Motors range, including the Fiat 500, is available to buy here.

UNIQUE HALLMARK CHRISTMAS KEEPSAKE ORNAMENTS OFFER SOUND AND LIGHT

Christmas is coming, and for those living in the US at least, it’s also time for the Hallmark Corporation’s annual Keepsake Ornaments to decorate the tree. Hallmark’s early Keepsake offerings (the line started in 1973) included Santas, fairies, elves, polar bears and the like. But today Keepsake subjects range across the spectrum.

Still, that’s good for us model fans, as Hallmark includes items that are much more interesting than a bunch of mere elves. 2009 includes sci-fi offerings such as the speaking Robby the Robot from the movie Forbidden Planet as featured by Mat Irvine in our video above. The picture shows another movie tie-in, the Ecto-1 Cadillac from Ghostbusters, to roughly 1:50 scale. It too has a good quality sound chip, this time with an excellent rendering of the Ghostbusters musical theme.

Earlier Hallmarks have included spacecraft and characters from Star Trek and Star Wars. You knew Christmas was changing forever when you were presented, not with a festive Santa, but a laser-firing Klingon Cruiser! Hallmark's earthbound styles of transportation currently include both American pickup trucks and classic American cars. Although the scales are not stated, they are pretty detailed representations.

Robby the Robot is in the ‘Nostalgia and Fun’ section of Hallmark’s Keepsake Ornaments site here.

To give you a feel for prices on older items, there’s a collectible Star Trek shuttlecraft on eBay here.

There are other collectible Forbidden Planet items to look at here, and Ghostbusters stuff here.