1:24 SCALE 'BOOT HILL EXPRESS' CUSTOM CAR KIT FROM MONOGRAM

Mat Irvine: A classic custom car kit from the days of hippies and flower power, now a 1:24 scale reissue from Monogram.


Boot Hill Express was created by Ray Farhner, a US custom car designer and builder who ran the Farhner Custom Shop in Independence, Missouri, until his death in 2005. He built a number of custom cars for the show circuit, but the best known has to be the Boot Hill Express, and now Monogram has reissued the kit, first produced in 1967. Box-art for this (below) showed the real 'wild hearse' vehicle in a Wild West town setting, with designer Ray Farhner dressed in suitably western gear.

The real thing was based around a horse-drawn hearse of 1850 vintage, built by Cunningham of New York. But Ray ditched the original equine motive power, replacing it with a 426cu in (7 litres) Chrysler Hemi V8 engine with Hilborn fuel-injection, generating 450hp, running through a Chrysler A-727 TorqueFlite three-speed automatic transmission, all controlled by push-buttons.

The mechanical layout included a tubular straight front axle, steering from a VW Beetle, and suspension that used a transverse-leaf spring. At the driven rear end, there was a differential and axle from a 1948 Ford, complete with drum brakes.

All this is faithfully reproduced in the Monogram kit, which consists of 93 parts in white, chromed, and clear plastic, plus skinny tyres for the front, and drag slicks for the rear. Previous issues have been moulded in a variety of shades, including yellow, but white is the best colour for any model kit if you intend to paint it.

To complete the theme, Monogram supplies a 'wood tombstone style nameplate (below) plus a skeleton figure wearing a 10 gallon hat, and toting a six-gun in a holster.

Supplying a skeleton figure was a very ‘sixties’ thing with American custom car kits. There are over half a dozen examples of this, mostly from Monogram, though MPC and Pyro also got into the act.

The Boot Hill Express is a natural to place in a suitable setting. Here I built a simple wood base, planted with cacti from the Woodlands Scenics ‘Scene-A-Rama’ and Pegasus Hobbies sets, finished off with a mixture of fine sand, rocks and stones. The latter are also from Woodland Scenics, and marketed principally for use as ballast for model railroad tracks. But of course they are adaptable for use anywhere you need such scenic additions.

BOOT HILL EXPRESS SCALE STATS
Scale: 1:24
Parts count: 93
Assembled length: 159mm (6.25in)
Maker reference: 4999

Note: Fahrner's custom vehicle is known variously as ‘Boot Hill Express’ and ‘Boothill Express’. I have used it as stated on the kit box, but some sources - for example, the website Kustomrama, regarded as the wiki of custom cars - uses the latter.

Review kit courtesy Revell-Monogram.

Monogram kits here.

INCOMING: 1:72 SCALE IRAN STEALTH HOAX-JET

David Jefferis: In February 2013, Iran revealed a so-called ‘stealth’ fighter plane, the Qaher 313 Conqueror. And now we have Fantastic Plastic revealing its 1:72 scale model of what proved to be a ground-hugger hoax-jet.

In the words of Fantastic Plastic: “What makes the Qaher 313 truly ‘fantastic’ is that it's an obvious hoax. Within hours of the plane's debut, aviation experts throughout the world were branding it a crude fraud. The plane was too small, the cockpit too confining and its controls too simple.

“Even its clear cockpit canopy (above) was so distorted it would give any pilot instant vertigo. The plane looked more suited to serve as a movie prop than a front-line combat fighter. To answer its critics, Iran quickly issued a photograph of the Qaher 313 in flight - a photo (below) that within hours was shown to be a crude Photoshop!”

So hats off to Fantastic Plastic for coming up with a kit of this weird and wonderful design - let’s call it a modern version of Luftwaffe 1946, aka a promotional ‘super-weapon’ aspiration for the regime in Iran.

The 1:72 scale resin kit has been mastered by Alfred Wong, and cast by Mana Studios. Decals are made by the excellent Canadian outfit, JBOT. The Qaher 313 has a total of 20 components, including the landing gear and a transparent vac-form canopy. For the pitot probe, it'll be best to heat and stretch a length of sprue or runner from the spares box.

As for painting, you can stick to the presentation grey scheme, though feel free to choose more or less what you like, instead. A simple F-22-style silver-grey would look convincing, or you could go for a high-tech camo-style pattern, spraying satin-metallic shades of desert tan, brown and earth. A good place to find these is in an auto-spares store, where aerosol cans are racked in a kaleidoscope of colours.

Summation
The Qaher 313 may have been a fraud and a near-total PR fail, but it stands as a fascinating example of the lengths to which a regime may go in order to gain political brownie points. As such, the Fantastic Plastic Qaher 313 ought to be on a shelf-top stealth fighter fleet, if only as a good conversation piece, when you can point out that this plastic kit should fly about as well as the full-size original.

QAHER SCALE STATS
Scale: 1:72
Components: 19 resin, 1 vac-form canopy
Pattern: Alfred Wong
Casting: Mana Studios
Decals: JBOT
Pilot figure: Included
Assembled length: 152mm (6in)

JBOT decals here.

Fantastic Plastic here.

More stealth stuff at SMN here.

SALUTE TO LEGENDARY MONKEEMOBILE CUSTOM CAR DESIGNER DEAN JEFFRIES

Mat Irvine: Dean Jeffries, the famed American car customizer, died aged 80 earlier this month, May 5, 2013. He was probably best known as the designer and builder of the Monkeemobile, stylish wheels for the 1960s pop-band, The Monkees. And here it is again in 2013, a 1:25 scale kit re-released by Round 2 Models.

The Monkeemobile was produced originally by MPC in 1967 (above) but it’s a model that has been reissued a few times since then, the last being in 2000, under the AMT name. This latest 2013 release restores the original box-art or, to be more accurate, ‘almost’ the original box-art.

The 1967 box (above) featured the four group members (dubbed at the time, 'America's answer to The Beatles') from left: Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and lead singer and heart-throb Davy Jones, who died in February 2012.

However, rights for their likenesses could not be obtained this time around, so the box-art now features musical notation instead of photos of The Monkees.

The kit itself is the same as the first issue. In the box there are 73 components, moulded in white, chrome, clear and red tinted plastic, plus four vinyl tyres. The car is actually a stretched Pontiac GTO that when assembled, measures some 234mm (9.1in) long.

As for the real Monkeemobile, there were actually two of them, one built for use on the popular TV series, the other for touring the custom car show circuit. Apart from his design work, Jeffries also worked as driver and co-ordinator for stunt scenes in many movies.

Amongst his other creations were the Black Beauty, transport for The Green Hornet, and the Moon Buggy (below) from the James Bond film, ‘Diamonds Are Forever. Others included the futuristic Landmaster for the movie, ‘Damnation Alley’ and vehicles for ‘Logan’s Run’.

Moon Buggy for James Bond (above) and air-cushion vehicle for Logan's Run (below).

A Mantaray custom car was planned as an MPC kit, but never got further than the ideas stage, and was never produced. However, you could have got a 1:24 scale slot-car version from Japanese company, Nichimo.

I took the Monkeemobile pictures (below) at the 2011 London Film and Comic Convention. This is one of the newer replica cars, as more have been built since the first two, though not necessarily by Dean Jeffries. Even so, these pix should provide useful reference for a detailed buildup from the 2013 kit.

And here are some Dean Jeffries pix, giving some idea of what he worked on, when he was away from the Monkeemobile.

Sample kit courtesy Round 2 Models.

DEADLY MISSILE ARSENAL: 1:144 SCALE COLD WAR NUCLEAR KILLERS FROM MONOGRAM

Mat Irvine: A newly-reissued Cold War missile set from Monogram, featuring 20 missiles from the opposing forces, all to the same 1:144 scale.


This latest reissue kit dates from 1985, a time when, although the Cold War was approaching its end, the USA and USSR still had vast stockpiles of missiles. Reflecting this, the kit features nine missiles from the USA and 11 from the USSR.

This is the third missile set Monogram has made over the years. The first, the US Missile Arsenal, was issued as long ago as 1958. This was modified as the US Space Missiles set in 1969, itself reissued in Monogram’s Heritage Edition in 1983. Both sets were in the larger, though non-standard, 1:128 scale.

The 1985 set (above) on which this latest reissue is based had no tooling connections with the earlier sets, and was titled US and USSR Missile Display. It was reissued in SSP (Selected Subjects Program) Phase 4, in 1993. Now in 2013, this latest reissue has modified box-art and an adjusted name, the ‘US’ becoming ‘USA’.

It’s an impressive kit to build and display, though not so much if you like lots of components. It has just 45 parts in all, about the bare minimum that you would need to build all those missiles, as well as a display base and decal sheet. The base measures 323mm (12.75in) across, divided into USA at left, USSR on the right.

For the USA (below) you get the land-based Titan II, Minuteman III, Peacemaker and Pershing II. Then there are the sea-launched Polaris A3, Poseidon and Trident. A pair of cruise missiles are included, the ALCM (Air Launched Cruise Missile) and sea-launched Tomahawk.

The Soviet contributions to the set (below) are listed by their US Department of Defense designations, consisting of ‘SS’ plus a NATO codename. These are the SS-18 Satan, SS-4 Sandal, SS-13 Savage, SS-17 Spanker, SS-19 Stiletto and SS-20 Saber. Sea-launched missiles are the SS-N-8 Sawfly, SS-N-17 Snipe, SS-N-18 Stingray, plus the air-launched AS-6 Kingfish.

The construction of each missile model is by its very nature fairly simple, and each, bar one, consists of just two halves. This applies even to the Titan II which could have had separate engines, though an exception is the SS-18 which has four separate parts for the sustainer engines. However, each missile can be individualised with varying paint schemes and the odd decal. The colouring ends up with US missiles being mostly white, Soviet missiles mainly green or grey. There is one vice-versa however - the Soviet Kingfish can be finished in white, the two American cruise missiles painted grey.

For the record, most of the Soviet missiles are surface-to-surface types, so have the logical ‘SS’ designation. The SS-N-X series are sea-launched equivalents, while the AS-6 Kingfish is air-to-surface.

The SS-4 Sandal has the Soviet R-12 title, and was a development from the SS-3 Shyster, a missile not that far removed from the German V-2 rocket, of which both the Soviets and Americans got large numbers as spoils of war, after the defeat of Germany in 1945.

The SS-13 Savage (Soviet RT-2) is comparable to the US Minuteman, though with an open-truss inter-stage section, an arrangement also seen in the Vostok/Soyuz A-type space launcher.

Summation
A particularly interesting 1:144 scale Monogram reissue - the Cold War is now history, and the missiles are part of that. The assembled model looks extremely impressive on the display shelf, and while we could ask for more detail, the nuclear aggression represented here makes for fascinating viewing.

CALLING ON ALIENS? 1:48 SCALE VOYAGER SPACEPROBE FROM HASEGAWA

Mat Irvine: It’s perhaps a slightly odd decision for Hasegawa to model a spaceprobe that is more than 35 years old… but let us be pleased the company did, as it is a very interesting kit for any space enthusiast.


Two Voyager craft were launched in 1977, their mission to study the outer gas giant planets of the Solar System. Initially these were just Jupiter and Saturn, but Voyager 2 was redirected in mid-flight to go on to encounter Uranus and Neptune as well.

Currently the Voyagers are the most travelled objects to leave planet Earth, with Voyager 1 now some 18.5 billion km (12bn miles) from the Sun, far beyond the planets in the distant area known as the heliosphere.

Just over 80 parts make up the Hasegawa kit, which measures some 325mm (13in) to the end of the magnetometer boom. The components are supplied on two black plastic runners, plus one in white and one gold-plated for the onboard ‘Golden Record’ message disc carried by each craft ‘just in case’ a future civilisation encounters either of them. This runner also has one other part, of which more later. Last thing is a translucent blue stand (above) like those supplied with Hasegawa’s popular Egg Craft series.

The Voyagers are deep-space craft with no use for streamlining, so booms and equipment protrude all over the place from the central bus. Most distinctive is the long magnetometer boom that carries the sensors out and away from the main equipment.

The boom is actually a spiral device, spun out from a canister as the craft slowly rotates. It is the sort of thing that is impracticable to mould in injection styrene, but Hasegawa has had to go this route - with a bit of judicious painting it can be made to look reasonably accurate. 

But of course photo-etch parts would be better, and these are available from LVM Studios in the Netherlands. Leon van Munster’s additions include the magnetometer and science platform booms. These greatly enhance the look of the finished model, and are incorporated in the picture below.

Incidentally, the ‘twist’ built into Hasegawa’s styrene components is correct - to reproduce it with the LVM photo-etch equivalent, all you do is take the ends and twist gently.

Here, I have painted the base to resemble Uranus, one of the fly-by target planets. Oh, and one more thing - the other part on the gold-plated runner? It’s a small alien figure!

Review kit courtesy Hobby Link Japan.

Thanks to Leon van Munster at LVM Studios for the photo-etch boom sample.

Hasegawa Voyager kit available here.

INCOMING: TAMIYA F-4U 'BIRDCAGE' CORSAIR

Fans of big 1:32 scale will be pleased with the latest from Tamiya, due on display at the Shizuoka show in Japan in a few days time.


The F4U-1 Corsair, nicknamed 'Birdcage', was a big step on the way to the aircraft's final position as finest carrier fighter of World War II. It earned the nickname for the complex canopy framing, which had the unfortunate side-effect of severely interfering with the pilot's all-round vision. Once this was remedied by a frameless blown perspex canopy, the Corsair's place as a successful combat machine was assured.

As for Tamiya's kit, we don't have too many details yet, but these cgi development drawings are enough to whet our appetites for the real thing.

Looks like there will be plenty of detail in the cranked wing, with landing gear, flaps, and wing-fold mechanism all being featured. Mind you, Tamiya's smaller 1:48 Corsair is already an excellent kit, so we expect this new one to be a knockout. When assembled, the 1:32 Corsair should be pleasingly substantial, with a wingspan of some 391mm (15.4in).

The early development XF4U-1 aircraft (below) had little of the visual finesse shown by production machines. The high dorsal spine gave it a totally different look to the final design.

Massive propeller shows clearly (below) as a Corsair powers up for a carrier takeoff in the Pacific Theatre.

Another mission ends safely as a Corsair successfully catches the wire during a carrier landing.

Corsairs of various types and scales here, including the Tamiya 1:48 scale kit, which includes a nicely moulded motor tug.