SHIZUOKA 2012 - BANDAI YMT-05 HILDOLFR SUPER-TANK

SMN REPORT:

Shizuoka is ground-zero for model robots and mecha of all kinds, and heading the charge from Bandai are Mobile Suit Gundam models and kits, based on a fictional universe that’s been popular since it first hit the stores in 1979. ‘Gunpla’ are Gundam Plastic models, and here’s an especially neat 1:144 scale sci-fi tank kit, the YMT-05 Hildolfr AFV, a deadly weapon named after a son of the Norse god, Odin. 

Gods of Scandinavia

The name Hildolfr means ‘war wolf’ and we calculate that he’s a brother to Thor, the hammer-wielding god currently wowing audiences worldwide in The Avengers movie. Unlike many Gunpla, and other transformer bots, the YMT-05 Hildolfr can change its shape only partially - you can raise and lower the mighty main gun of course, and the artillery turret too, which reveals mobile suit-style torso hardware and manipulator arms, but that’s about it.

Mega-machine

No matter, the fusion-powered YMT-05 is a pretty convincing piece of fictional AFV design that would not look out of place next to current AFVs, though the relatively small scale militates against most diorama ideas. I:144 scale is a long way from military standard 1:35, or even 1:48, unfortunately. However, as created for Gundam, the YMT-05 measures some 35.3 m (116 ft) long, so you still get to complete a model some 245 mm (9.6 in) long and 102 mm (4 in) wide, which is plenty big enough for the average display shelf.

German rail gun

The Hildolfr could go convincingly next to at least one mighty AFV though, and that’s the Fujimi version of the World War II Dora rail gun. This was a monster weapon that didn’t see much use, but is crying out for a kitbash into a fantasy universe - a sort of steampunk-style sci-fi Luftwaffe 1946 'G-Version', perhaps. There have been several SMN articles on the Dora, starting here.  

Summation

All in all, the Bandai YMT-05 Hildolfr is a fine 1:144 scale model for anyone who’s into robots and science-fiction, and especially Gunpla fans. And as Norse mythology fans, the SMN Crew thinks the name is a good one. 

Gunpla kits aplenty here.

Visit Bandai (Japanese) here.

2012 INCOMING - FUJIMI ULTIMATE BOMBER, SLEEK SPORTSTER, ROYAL ROLLS

SMN update:

Fujimi of Japan has some fascinating stuff heading our way, including this 1:144 scale model of a ‘what-if’ design, Japan’s ‘ultimate’ World War II heavy bomber, the Nakajima G10N Fugaku (Mt Fuji) designed with the power and range to attack the US West Coast. It’s interesting that Fujimi should choose this relatively small scale, as there’s a similar-sized model out there already: the Anigrand Craftwork 111-component resin production.

Choice of propellers

But first let’s look at Fujimi’s upcoming offering. It’s more than a little unusual as kits go, as you get not one, but a set of four Fugaku bombers. The kit is an all-new tooling of the six-engine bomber, and the aircraft are not only pre-painted, but are also partly assembled, too. You have a choice of three-blade contra-rotating propellers or single six-bladed props. 

Big bomber, even at 1:144 scale

There’s more - the bomb bay doors and engine cowling gills can be assembled opened or closed, and the Nagaku can be finished off with the landing gear up or down. When finished for display, the bomber will have a wingspan of 410 mm (16.1 in) and a fuselage length of 350 mm (13.8 in). 

Wow, four bombers incoming!

Now whether you actually want four of these is open to question, but with a wingspan that size, just make sure you have the shelf space for a quartet of them, as Fujimi supplies a four-pack boxful. They come pre-painted in different finishes - silver, green, green-brown, and green-grey. We think (but are not sure at the time of writing) that you may be able to buy the aircraft singly, but will have to accept a random marking scheme as part of the deal.

Anigrand resin option

Either way, a very interesting production that deserves to succeed. If you want something more challenging, then there’s the Anigrand resin version (above) to think about. This is fun actually, as Anigrand has the nice habit of including surprise ‘Easter eggs’ with their kits - and this one includes not only the Nakajima Fugaku, but also three ‘secret’ aircraft, representing other projects from the same war years. We’re not sure what they are - anybody with ideas? 

Bomber background

Development work on the Nakajima G10N didn’t start until 1943, which was a major mistake, akin to the last-minute ultimate weapon developments undertaken by Nazi Germany. However, the US capture of Iwo Jima island in February 1944 directly caused the premature cancellation of the bomber. Instead, all possible Japanese manufacturing capacity was devoted to fighter production in a futile attempt to slow Allied air raids. An engine for the Fugaku bomber is on display in Japan, at the Narita Aerospace Museum.

Other neat Fujimi stuff

Here are a couple of automotive items due shortly from Fujimi. The BMW Z4 sports car is a nice machine in real life, and doubtless the same in miniature from Fujimi. It's in GT3 Racing guise, to 1:24 scale. The test shot we show here reveals that Fujimi has carefully modelled the aerodynamic aids sported by the real thing as it roars around the track. Yum - can’t wait!

Rolls-Royce
Away from the performance arena, the 1950 Roll-Royce ceremonial car (note the Japanese royal family emblem) is to 1:43 scale and looks to be a useful collector’s item for anyone after unusual reproductions of this handsome old stager.

Visit Fujimi here.

Fujimi kits available here.

Also available from Hobby Link Japan here.

Visit Anigrand Craftwork here.

SCIENCE-FICTION FEAST FOR 2012 - FUJIMI BRINGS US ‘BLADE RUNNER’ FLYING COP CAR

Mat Irvine reports:

Even after all these years, the model companies can still surprise us, especially when one of them - Fujimi of Japan - recently announced a model kit of a ‘star car’ that appeared in Blade Runner, a famous science-fiction movie first released no less than 30 years ago this June.

Spinner kit release

I’ll talk about Blade Runner shortly, but first of all, what about the model? Well, now the long wait is over, and kits are freely available, opening the box reveals a fully-detailed injection styrene kit of the Spinner, and it’s made to the accepted star car scale of 1:24. However the kit has managed a surprise in not coming from a US company, instead being released by Fujimi, a Japanese company not known for making star cars before.

Component count

Opening the box provides some highly favourable initial reactions. The moulding colour is white, not blue as shown in some pre-production images, which means that you’ll need to spray-paint it all. But that’s no bad thing, as plain white opens the door to easy application of different colour schemes. Fujimi has supplied clear, red and blue transparencies, contributing to a total of just under 100 parts - 70 white, the rest transparent. The kit can be finished in either of the two movie modes, road or flight, the latter being noted purely by the position of the front wheel covers. 

Hazard warning lights

Major mouldings include the floor pan and body shell. The front wheels look pretty accurate, extending as a catamaran-like pair ahead of the main hull. Of particular note are the warning and hazard lights, a small forest of which festoon the roof. These components provide an excellent contribution to the model’s realistic overall appearance. When assembled, the Fujimi Spinner measures 215 mm (8.5 in) long by 90 mm (3.5 in) wide. 

Cartograf decal sheet

Markings made by the specialist Italian decal-maker Cartograf feature various numbers, warnings, and stripes. Fujimi has also added a small photo-etch item with three ‘Spinner’ logos. These look rather like inverted coat hangers and they belong on the doors and rear, though you could also use one as a nameplate on a diorama base, which ought to be easy enough to cobble together for display purposes.

About the movie

When Director Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner hit the cinema screens it gave a distinctive glimpse of a dystopian future, making something of a change from ‘everything will be wonderful’ visions. Mind you, as the movie was based loosely (very loosely, it has it be said) on the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by the unique US novelist Philip K. Dick, you probably shouldn’t have expected anything else. 

From Syd Mead sketch to Gene Winfield reality

As with many movie projects, Blade Runner went through various versions under several producers, and what ended up on screen bore scant resemblance to the original novel. However the main character, Rick Deckard, survives. He’s an ex-cop drafted back on the job, and naturally enough, has a police car to get around in. But the movie is set in 2019 (1992 in the novel!) and the assumption is that cars can fly as well as roll. Enter ace car customizer Gene Winfield, who took futurist-designer Syd Mead’s drawn concepts, and turned them into real vehicles called Spinners. Some of Winfield’s Spinners could be driven, courtesy of Volkswagen flat-four engines, though flight was possible only through special effects (SFX) cinema magic.

Spinners by the dozen

Winfield made around 25 futuristic vehicles for the movie, including four full-size Spinners - two that could be driven, one that could be flown on wires, and a cutaway version for interior shots. Many of the SFX vehicles were destroyed by Warner Bros, but it seems that three Spinners survive - the two driveable machines and the one in flight-mode.

A long wait for the Spinner kit

Spinners may have been just a mode of transport, but soon after the movie was released, they took on a life of their own, and one question was: “When’s the kit due?” Toys and diecasts (above, below) came and went, plus some detailed ready-assembled models and several special-materials kits, including one made out of vinyl, which is fine for figures, but not the most practical material for a solid object such as a car, futuristic or otherwise. But we kit builders who wanted to get down and dirty and actually put something together had to wait... and wait. 

Why did we wait so long?

There’s still the odd reasoning of waiting so long for a kit to be made - maybe it has something to do with Ridley Scott’s sequel, now being planned for likely release in 2013. Of course whether this particular Spinner design will be in it is another matter, as there are other flying vehicles sharing the generic Spinner title. But Syd Mead’s designer visions are not so far off a future reality, and given the movie was set in 2119, we are not that far off that date either!

Thanks to Hobby Link Japan for the sample kit. Visit HLJ here.

Spinners also available here and here.

Original sketchbook showing production concepts for the movie, a must-visit page-flip site for your delectation, here.

Thinking of the dank and dirty, retro-future flavour of the movie, maybe a kitbash-session to futurize a present-day car would pay dividends in creating something suitable for display next to the Fujimi Spinner. So we present a bunch of other Fujimi 1:24 scale car kits here. 

Previous Scale Model News article, showing pre-production information here.

Spinner cgi images courtesy the talented visualizer Sendoa Bergasa. View more of his work here. 

REMEMBER THE HUGE DORA RAILWAY GUN? HERE’S THE MAN WHO MADE THE MASSIVE MASTERPIECE

SMN Report

Mat Irvine recently provided pictures of the huge 1:35 scale Metal Troops Creation Dora German railway gun, on display at the 2008 ModelKraft show. Said Mat: “It's about 4 feet long, maybe 5 - and with 3000 parts it probably counts as the most number of parts in a kit - period.” 

Monster gun builder

We may have featured the Dora but we didn’t know who built it. Now we do, so SMN thanks the builder, Simon Boness, who is wearing the red top in Mat’s picture above, while sitting behind the monster gun is Bob McIntosh.

Impracticable weapons

The Dora was another of Hitler’s weird weapons that diverted resources away from more useful and practical weaponry. No wonder he lost World War II, with creations such as this, or indeed the Me 262 jet fighter, which was far and away the fastest thing in European skies - so Hitler slowed it down by insisting on a bomber version!

Different Doras

As for building the Metal Troops Creation Dora, we say well done Simon: it’s an impressive piece of work. Not forgetting of course, that there are other Doras out there if you don’t have room for the MTC monster. These include the (still large) HobbyBoss version, to 1:72 scale (picture above of HB’s info sheet) and the relatively dinky Fujimi kit to 1:144 scale.  

Thanks to 'abbadom' for the impressive cgi Dora image.

Visit the MTC 1:35 Dora here.

HobbyBoss 1:72 scale kit here.

Review and link to the Fujimi 1:144 scale kit here.

Simon's Bedford Model Club here.

DORA BUILD PIX - A MEGA-KIT REVEALED

SMN Update

The 1:35 scale Dora really is quite something. Mat Irvine spotted the beast a while back and took these pix. In his words: “This was at the 2008 ‘ModelKraft’, which is the large model show run by the UK’s Milton Keynes Scale Model Club in February each year."

About the Dora's builder, Mat adds: "Besides displaying what is one of the largest (mostly) plastic kits ever made, he was running a competition to guess/calculate how many hours it had taken him to build!”

Thanks for the pix Mat - an amazing creation.

Visit the Milton Keynes Scale Model Club here.

Buy the 1:35 Dora here.

The Hobby Boss 1:72 scale kit is here.

A review and link to the Fujimi 1:144 scale kit is here.

APRIL FOOL’S DAY OR WHAT? WORLD’S BIGGEST GUN, WORLD’S BIGGEST KIT

SMN Report

Looks like we have a conclusion to the ‘world’s biggest kit’ discussion, and the answer has to be the model world’s reproduction of a World War II mobile gun that was an extraordinary engineering feat, but in military terms, little more than an expensive joke.
Of the kit, Mat Irvine says: “On reflection, the Italeri boat isn't the largest 1:35 scale kit - that has to go to the Metal Troops Creation Dora German rail gun. It's about 4 feet long, maybe 5 - and with 3000 parts it probably counts as the most number of parts in a kit - period.” 

“I think Italeri will have to be content with "largest 1:35 scale boat kit....”

  

Assembling the full-scale Dora

Now whether you have time to put together those thousands of components is up to you, but the real thing needed considerably more in the way of resources before it was ready to fire even a single shot. A 2000-strong team was required to assemble the gun at its firing site, and a double-row of parallel rail tracks had to be laid there to take the more than 1300-tonne weight of the beast. Dora was aimed by moving it backwards and forwards along the rails, perhaps just a finger-length at a time, to get the precision shooting required to hit a target that was far beyond the horizon.

Shoot to kill

Once assembled, a 250-strong gun crew was needed, all so Dora could lob a 7-tonne shell up to 29 miles (47 km), but at a maximum rate of just two shots an hour, though each shell could punch a 30 ft (10 m) hole into the target zone. This was well before computerized tracking systems were developed, so aiming the monster weapon was very much a suck-it-and-see manual affair, to be followed up by a spotter plane mission to check where each shell had actually landed. 

In all, Dora fired just 48 rounds in anger, and was pretty much a monument to misplaced military effort and energy.

As for building a scale Dora, there is also a 1:72 scale kit available from Hobby Boss, while Fujimi makes a 1:144 version.

Lots of info on the Dora at Vince’s Worthwhile Website here. 

Buy the 1:35 Dora here.

And on eBay here.

The Hobby Boss 1:72 scale kit is here.

A review and link to the Fujimi 1:144 scale kit is here.

FUJIMI F-35B TO 1:72 SCALE

SMN report
No sooner did we do the F-35 piece below, when we ran across the recent Fujimi 1:72 scale F-35B STOVL version. It’s a multi-colour kit, something along the lines of the old Matchbox releases, though it has to be said, Fujimi’s palette is far less alarming than the kaleidoscope of inappropriate shades that Matchbox dreamt up.

A mixed bag from Fujimi
It’s an important product, as it is about the first one that approximates the production-standard machine, though doubtless details will still change between now and squadron service. The engine is moulded in a rich dark metallic shade and has extremely fine detail, so top marks there Fujimi. Less entrancing are the weapons, which are fairly basic - serious model fans will go straight to the bits box or to aftermarket suppliers.

The Fujimi model is becoming available now, from model stores and online suppliers. There’s an in-depth review of what’s in the box, with heaps of closeups and comments for and against, from model maker Drewe Manton here.