WE WANT WINGNUT WINGS!

Many good things are coming from New Zealand these days, from luscious scenes from the Lord of the Rings movie saga to the collectible steampunk rayguns offered by the Weta visual-effects outfit.

And now New Zealand has temptations for World War I aeromodellers, with an initial offering of four kits in big 1:32 scale, from Wingnut Wings. WW has released a pair of Brits - SE5a and Bristol F2b - and a pair of Germans - Junkers J1 and LVG CVI - and they do look excellent. SMN’s only spotted one review so far, but the signs look good and we’re looking forward to receiving ours in the post.

Wingnut Wings products are available only by mail order, so don’t expect to see them in your hobby store anytime soon. You can order (free shipping at the time of writing) from Wingnut Wings here at $79.00 USD each, except for the SE5a which is $59.00 USD.

Do take time to look around the Wingnut Wings website - it’s packed with interesting stuff, including details of new releases and resin figures.

Ray guns: Superb Steampunk weapons, ready to off the bug-eyed monsters!

Proof that you don’t need to kitbash to produce a work of wonder comes from US teacher and photographer Cohophoto, who has a tasty photostream on his Flikr site.

For sci-fi lovers, Cohophoto’s “Atomic Disruptor Raygun” is a delight that’s packed with steampunk features for that Victoriana look. The handle comes from an old Super-8 movie camera, with various radio parts used in the rest.

Cohophoto is not alone in his raygun love - in fact, so am I (as with all things science-fictional). There’s a New Zealand outfit called Weta that markets similarly steampunkish visions for collectors. Weta is well known for its cinema effects work on movies such as Lord of the Rings, so it’s no surprise that they can come up with such mouthwatering products for public sale.

They’re not cheap though - the weapon shown is on sale at a (gulp) cool $1399 NZD (£556 GBP).