1:25 SCALE AMT PHANTOM VAN KIT - OR IS IT A VANTOM?

KIT REVIEW BY MAT IRVINE
If any decade turned the van from commercial vehicle to a statement of cool, it was the 1970s. Until then, the humble panel truck was most likely seen carrying building materials, making store deliveries, or toting tools-of-the-trade. But in the 1970s, vans were tricked out with custom paint jobs, sound systems, maybe a kitchenette, even - if you were lucky - a double bed. And now in 2012, comes a Round 2 Models reissue of such a custom creation, the AMT 1:25 scale Ford Econoline Phantom van.

New name
Examine the box-tops to see an obvious change to the new kit, and that’s its name. The 1970s original was called the ‘Vantom’, a play on the words, ‘phantom’ and ‘van’ to impart a suitably spooky character. This time round, it’s called the Phantom, as apparently the name Vantom is being used by Mattel. But the rest of the kit is the same, with options to build it stock or as a mild custom, with spooky decals provided.

Custom options
Most kits of this era were reasonably simple in construction, and this is no different. It includes engine and chassis, interior and bodywork, with custom options really restricted to changes of wheels and seats, and mild treatments to the front grille. Three optional inset windows are supplied, named gemstone, teardrop and freestyle. Here, as with many Round 2 AMT/MPC reissues, windows are supplied in two tints, clear and dark smoke.

Graveyard green
I finished the review kit with most of the custom options, and finished it in a suitably dark ‘graveyard metallic green’, actually a Testors shade. The side panel decals feature a midnight graveyard decal. So it’s not difficult to end up with a variation on a theme of the Ghostbusters ECTO 1, Scooby Doo Mystery Machine, or the Munsters Koach.

In the box
Parts number around the 150 mark, with components moulded in white (a change from the usual light grey) and chrome, with black for the soft tyres. The finished 1:25 scale model measures some 185 mm (7.25 in) in length. Note (below) I sprayed the chassis in a suitable purple custom finish.

Story of the custom van
Early custom vans set the scene for style - the exterior would be painted in far more exotic colours than stock, and adorned with wild graphics. Add wide mag-alloy wheels, with tyres to match and the looks were complete. In the engine compartment, you could hot up the mill (engine) by 100 hp, and you were then in business with an archetypal day van of the ‘stylish seventies.’ In this kit, the engine compartment has been simplified somewhat, but the basics are all there.

Model companies catch the trend
Model companies were not slow to latch onto this and many kits appeared of the two best-known US vans, the Ford Econoline and the Chevrolet 20. GMC and Dodge also made vans, and kits of all these have been in and out of the model catalogues ever since the 1970s, though most AMT kits have featured Ford and Chevys. Many kits have supplied parts for stock, custom, and even occasionally a racing option. Four of the original US ‘Big Five’ kit companies - AMT, Monogram, MPC, Revell - produced vans in various formats, though oddly, Jo-Han never made one.

Summation
Neat reissue of a classic 1:25 scale kit - a must-build for all van enthusiasts.


Visit AMT at Round 2 models here. Thanks to Round 2 LLC for the review kit.

Plenty of AMT kits here, including a 1:25 scale ECTO-1 from Ghostbusters.

AOSHIMA H-IIB SPACE LAUNCHER KIT

ROCKET REVIEW BY MAT IRVINE

Give that the H-IIB launch rocket is the mainstay of Japan’s satellite launch industry it’s somewhat surprising that there has been no kit of it before - this kit from Aoshima is a first.

Small scale

The H-IIB is number four in the Aoshima ‘Space Craft Series’, and is produced in a small 1:350 scale. Even so, the kit still makes up into a comprehensive model with several interesting features. The pic above shows H-IIB with clear sections. Inside these are the rocket stage and H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV).

Clear and white runners, as supplied in bags. Note the small decal sheet in the clear bag on the right. Only two components - the third stage and payload shroud - are moulded in both white and clear plastic. 

What’s in the box?

You get two runners, one in white styrene with 34 parts, the other in clear with 22, and you can build up the rocket to be displayed in four ways. The H-IIB is not a difficult kit to build, and it’s likely you’ll have more difficulty deciding which way it will be displayed than actually building it. 

Paint choices

However, the paint scheme is slightly more taxing. Aoshima recommends Gunze Sangyo paint, which although available in the West, are less common than Humbrol, Testors, Revell-Germany, or even Aoshima’s Japanese stablemate, Tamiya. Because of this some compromises were made, and in the end I used colours from the Testors range, including Competition Orange and Metallic Platinum. Humbrol was used for Satin Black.

The box side panel (below) shows some of the display options.

Multi-finish launcher

The rocket is finished in mainly white, orange and gold, though two other shades are needed - black, and a dark coppery-orange. This affects mostly the main rocket structure, while the four strap-on boosters are fortunately plain white - it’s easiest to leave these off and paint them separately. The H-IIB’s third stage and payload components are supplied in clear plastic as well as white, so you can build these up without paint.

Another display option (below) holds the rocket at an angle, traditionally the sort of attitude you see used for model aircraft stands.

H-II Transfer Vehicle

The clear parts can then take the HTV, used Japan’s JAXA Space Agency to resupply the International Space Station. The illustrations also indicate that the HTV and its orbital rocket stage can be displayed separately - so maybe making for a fifth option!

Exhaust flame stand

So the Aoshima H-IIB model can be displayed in three basic ways, plus variations.  It can be set on the supplied base, standing vertically. Or it can be mounted on the additional stand that displays the rocket at approximately 10 percent from the horizontal. And  thirdly, and perhaps the most interestingly, the H-IIB can be displayed atop a simulated lift-off rocket blast exhaust liftoff (above), and this option is built up from many of the supplied clear parts. These obviously need colouring with suitable ‘rocket exhaust’ effects, and clear paints are the best here, with both Humbrol and Tamiya making examples in their respective tinlets and bottles. Some colours are also available in Testors clear ranges, including aerosols.

Bigger kit please

In all, this is an intriguing model, and my only comment really is that it’s a pity that Aoshima couldn’t have made the kit bigger - it measures just 160 mm (6.25 in) long. It would be so impressive in the far more common 1:144 space launcher scale.

Thanks to Hobby Link Japan for the review kit.

More rocketry available here.

  

FUJIMI ‘BLADE RUNNER’ SPINNER - BUILDUP REPORT

Mat Irvine update:

After my initial report on Fujimi’s surprise release of the 1:24 scale Spinner Police Car from the classic science-fiction movie Blade Runner, here’s how I worked to complete the model.

Hard to find details

Frankly, one major problem was finding enough references, to check details when building the model. The obvious starting point might be the movie itself, but a glance at Blade Runner makes you realise that the future-view of Ridley Scott (and of author Philip K. Dick, for that matter) is pretty dank and dismal. Most Spinner shots show a cityscape shrouded in smog and rain, so trying to ascertain details direct from the movie is not worth the bother - frankly, forget it! There is however logical reasoning in that if this is how Spinners appear on-screen, it’s how they should be depicted, but even here one has to start somewhere.

Magazines to the rescue

Given the popularity of Blade Runner, I would have thought that details would be everywhere, from publications of the time and online, but it isn’t so. Fortunately, two revered publications from 1982 - Cinefantastique and Cinefex - did show such details. Cinefantastique’s double-issue, Vol 12, Numbers 5 and 6, and Issue 9 of Cinefex contained features that helped with my build considerably.

Shot in Los Angeles

Even so, there are areas of debate, even down to the main exterior colour. Yes, it’s ‘blue’ but what shade, exactly? The few colour photos that exist of the full-size car, (there were a number of miniatures) tend to show it as a fairly light blue, but the movie shots indicate it was darker, in fact more how you’d expect a police car to look! In fact, the differences in shade are almost certainly down to where the movie was made, not at a UK film studio, where many sci-fi movies of the time were shot, but in Los Angeles, where the sunshine is - most of the time - pretty bright, which was almost certainly the reason for the washed-out blue, when the car was photographed outside. Consequently, I chose Testors Dark Blue enamel, though other model paint companies have similar shades.

Two sci-fi movies

You can choose between ground or flight modes for this 1:24 scale Fujimi Spinner, though as the differences are purely down to the front wheel and cover positions, it’s possible to let the model be convertible, one to the other. Fujimi does not supply a display stand with the Spinner kit, which is a pity if you want it in flight mode - the Aoshima DeLorean from Back To The Future II (BttFII) rightly comes with one. Incidentally, there is a connection between these two movies - in the Town Square shots of BttFII, you can spot a Spinner and a number of other futuristic movie cars that were used to fill parking slots!

Ground to flight mode

The two items that move when a Spinner translates from ground to flight mode are the front wheels, which fit higher up, and the covers, which swing through 90 degrees. The Spinner’s underside is finished in the same blue. Note the ventral viewports for the police aboard to see the ground below their feet, and the onboard lights for illumination at night.

Gene Winfield’s Spinner

Cinefantastique page featuring an actual 1:1 scale Spinner, built by car customizer Gene Winfield. Note the photo at the bottom shows the washed-out light blue, and how clean the vehicle is - the exterior detailing, decals, and dirt, had yet to be added!

Mr J note:

The website Starship Modeler has a detailed look at this Fujimi kit, together with some brickbats and bouquets, so you might wish to go over and have a look. Mind you, good or bad, this is the only injection-moulded plastic kit to this scale...

Spinner and Blade Runner stuff here.

Previous SMN Spinner articles here and here.

Starship Modeler here.

Cinefantastique here.

Cinefex here.

Thanks to Hobby Link Japan who supplied the review kit.

RETRO-STYLE 1:25 SCALE REVELL CHEVROLET SSR

A MAT IRVINE REVIEW
Retro is ‘in’, especially when it comes to cars designed with the past in mind. In the US, it started with Chrysler’s Plymouth Prowler and PT Cruiser, then rival GM took up the challenge and created the Chevrolet HHR (Heritage High Roof) and SSR (Super Sport Roadster) convertible pickup. SSRs were made between 2003 and 2006, although sales were not as high as GM hoped for. The chunky but more practical HHR is currently still in production, though it hasn’t yet been kitted. However, Revell has produced a very nice 1:25 scale model of the SSR.

The Revell SSR is moulded in white, grey and black plastic, plus clear and transparent red, and a chrome-plated runner for those shiny retro parts. The kit is new-style in the accurate way it goes together, and even comes with the interior tub tucked into the bodyshell to show its final position - though that could equally be just for ease of packing!

These vehicles really need to be finished in some distinctive colour, but the SSR’s plans say only ‘red’. For the model shown here, I opted for a Testors enamel spray, Sunburst, which looks more or less as the name, a very bright reddish-orange. The shade was originally one of the ‘Colors by Boyd’ range, but these have now been incorporated into the ‘Car & Truck Enamel Paint’ range. The SSR has optional decals for pinstripes or white panels, though these were not applied to this particular model.

So far as working features go, the real SSR has an electric roof that folds into the trunk when the driver wants to let the sunshine in. The kit is non-working in that respect - the hardtop doesn’t fold, but you can remove it and pretend it is stored! All in all, The Revell SSR is a nice little kit that assembles well, and looks pretty much like the real thing.

Talking of the SSR’s folding roof, I’ll do a piece soon on a splendid piece of retro-Americana, Ford’s extravagant Skyliner of the late 1950s, in which the whole hardtop - for what was a full-size sedan - retracted into the trunk, at which point it left virtually no space for luggage (but who cares...). Revell made a working model of the Skyliner way back, which actually had a working retractable roof. Those were the days!

You can buy the Chevy SSR at model stores and online suppliers, including Amazon here.

You can see the Testors huge paint range here.

A NEW TAKE ON THE ’57 CHEVY FROM REVELL

A MAT IRVINE REVIEW
One of the most popular American cars ever made was the 1957 Chevrolet. The US ‘Big Four’ in the model car field - AMT, Monogram, MPC and Revell - have each made their own kits of the ’57, some dating from decades ago, which have been issued, reissued, and modified over the years. So why has Revell come up with a brand-new 1:25 scale 1957 Chevy kit? It’s mainly because previous models have featured the top-end Bel Air version; this new one is the exact opposite, the entry-level 150 Utility Sedan.

The 150 was more the sort of car you would take racing, rather than the top-of-the-range Bel Air, and it was also the cheaper model that Joe Public would drive, and was often used by travelling salesmen with the back seat removed, to leave more room for samples.

This Revell 2’n1 kit comes with optional parts that allow either stock or race-ready versions to be built, the racer dubbed ‘Black Widow’, reflecting a popular showroom scheme of mostly black with white rear quarter-panels and trunk (‘boot’ to UK readers). Among the changes made by Chevrolet for the Black Widow were to install a 233 cu in fuel-injection engine, add an internal roll bar, leave off the wheel embellishers and wipers, and fitting covers over the headlamps - and these parts are supplied by Revell for the kit, as is the simple racing numbers scheme.

Modern model touches include decals for the interior door panels and seat patterns, and separate chrome-plated door handles - in earlier years these were usually moulded into the bodywork. The ‘V’ emblem Chevy used at that time can either be applied as a decal along with the word ‘Chevrolet’, or they are supplied as separate chromed parts.

The interior of the model I built for this review was finished in Humbrol paints, mostly shades of grey. For the exterior, I used Testors spray paints - Classic White for the white bits, and the new black lacquer for the, well, you can probably work that out. When these coats were thoroughly dry, the whole car was finished off with Testors High Gloss Clear.


Visit Revell-Monogram here.

Visit Humbrol here.

Visit Testors here.

TESTORS 1:43 SCALE HELICOPTER TRIO

Scale has long been a bone of contention for this exactoid modeller. The world of diecast vehicles exists largely at railway scales - 00, H0, S - or larger - 1:43, 1:24, 1:18. Bearing in mind the multitude of 1:43 vehicles available, it never fails to amaze me how little there is by way of compatible-scale replicas of other types of transportation.

So when Testors decides to include in its range not one, but three diecast helicopters at 1:43 scale, I’m more than interested. And interesting these helos are, especially the biggie of the three, a CH-149 Cormorant, which is the Canadian Armed Forces version of the Anglo-Italian AgustaWestland EW101.

These big helos trundle regularly across the sky right in front of my hilltop office, near Oxford, UK. They are noisy beasts, with three engines that give out a throaty roar. Not that I mind of course, as having a ringside seat to watch hedge-hopper nap-of-the-earth training flights always gives me a big buzz.

Testors’ other 1:43 helos are a US Coast Guard Agusta-Bell MH-68A and a Bell UH-1D in New York City Police colours. All are pre-painted, and assembly (the Cormorant has just 16 parts) is by screw-and-glue. A touch of subtle weathering and a light blowover with satin varnish will turn them from shiny toys to serious models without too much trouble - and of course, open the door to any number of diorama scenes.

These helicopters are available from retail outlets or direct from Testors here.