MEGA PRICE-DROP DOCTOR WHO GIFT SETS

The BBC’s Doctor Who is one of TV’s all-time top sci-fi series, and has a world-wide following in the millions. All the better then, for a sale of Doctor Who items at Amazon, which features a pair of gift sets from Airfix at more than 70 percent off the normal price.

These are a little unusual for Doctor Who memorabilia, as most items on sale out there are ready-builts of one sort or another. The Airfix duo Welcome Aboard and Daleks in Manhattan (video clip shown above) include paints, brushes and glue - just right for whiling away a few of these dark November nights. Even better for this reviewer, sound and light effects are included in both sets, which should really bring these dioramas to life. They’re a good size too - at 1:12 scale, the Doctor’s TARDIS* police box measures more than 240 mm (9.5 in) high, while the Dalek is just over 140 mm (5.5 in).

* Just in case you didn’t know, the name for Doctor Who’s blue transporter vehicle is an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension In Space, and it’s based on an old-style British police box. So that’s all right then - IWOOT!

Visit the featured pair, plus other Doctor Who items here.

PRE-CHRISTMAS SALE FROM HORNBY

00 gauge (1:76 scale) train enthusiasts might like to visit the Hornby website, where there are some mouthwatering bargains to be had. SMN’s choice is the ‘Running light’ pack, with a 4-6-2 West Country class loco and tender, two coaches plus a brake van. The quartet comes priced at a mouthwatering one-third off normal, which has to be good for the pocket.

Hornby trains have come on a storm in recent years, and these models are no exception, with fine detail and good slow-speed running from the locomotive. There are many other items in the sale, including lots of buildings and some N gauge (1:148 scale) products.

Incidentally, there’s a downloadable supermarket interior available as a pdf here.

Check out the Hornby bargains here.

THE HAMEX MODEL EXPO - H-MINUS 24 DAYS AND COUNTING...

Here’s a trail for a UK model event later this month. If you’re in reach (there’s a map at the link below), here’s the date for your diary: Sunday, November 29. It’ll be the first - of many we hope - model events that SMN will be co-sponsoring.

HAMEX (Hanslope Model Expo) is masterminded by Mat Irvine, who will be bringing along lots of his BBC Special Effects sci-fi stuff, including the Liberator spacecraft from the classic Blake’s 7 TV series (top pic above), the Doctor Who K-9 robodog (bottom) and much more besides.

HAMEX co-host Paul Fitzmaurice of Little Cars will be there, with a galaxy of tasty tools and accessories for model makers.

David Jefferis (‘Mr J’) of Scale Model News will present the Win-A-Prize competition, plus a fascinating gallery of items from the SMN model vaults, and with luck we’ll be projecting some videos too.

Check out the Hanslope Model Expo here.

Check out Little Cars here.

Mat Irvine’s site is here.

DESTINATION MOON ROCKET FROM FANTASTIC PLASTIC

George Pal’s Destination Moon movie of 1950 was a classic of its kind. The acting was rather indifferent, but it did have a handsome spaceship, the Luna, looking like a sleeked-up version of a World War II German V-2. And that became the style of virtually all sci-fi rockets of that era, streamlined beauties that soared through the midnight depths of space.

If only it had turned out that way - here we are now, 40 years on from the Apollo landings, with a return to the Moon that seems further away than ever. Euro plans include human landing by 2030 at the earliest, while China and India may even end up beating the US back there.

Still all that shouldn’t get in the way of a bit of nostalgia, and that’s the spirit of the 1:288 scale Rocketship Luna kit from Fantastic Plastic. It’s an ultra-simple piece of kit engineering, with just seven parts, including the meteor-pocked lunar surface base. One of these is a rather unpretty prop, to stop the nuclear-powered craft from falling over - it’s odd that the original Luna designers didn’t simply use a triangular pattern for the landing legs, a much more elegant solution.

Sprayed silver to represent the original’s bare-metal finish, and with some careful detailing on the cratered base, plus a little airbrush weathering around the airlock door, rocket exhaust, control surface and landing leg areas, the Luna should make a great addition to a sci-fi model collection.

Visit Fantastic Plastic here.

WEIRD WHEELS - WHY DOES REVELL SUPPLY THEM?

As you may have realised by now, we’re fans of today’s non-cement snap-together kits. For the ham-fisted or time-poor, they’re a great way to assemble a model at the speed of light, yet be able to add some finishing touches - a touch of weathering, say - to turn it into a personalised statement that’s a long way from being a toy.

We’re enthusiasts of Revell’s Easykits, especially the Star Wars hardware. The 1:100 scale aircraft from Revell are reasonable takes on the real thing, if simplified somewhat. The Panavia Tornado IDS (box, top pic) is beautifully pre-finished in Tiger Meet markings, with a tailfin and rudder that form, quite simply, a small work of art. Components are neatly presented on two runners (middle pic), and need only a little fine trimming when twisted off. The clear canopy is supplied separately in its own bag, so there’s no chance of scratches in the box.

So... after all that care and effort producing the rest of the kit, just WHY Revell, do you supply three crummy bits of inaccurate plastic purporting to be the undercarriage of this Euro-attacker? The parts (bottom) bear no relationship to any aircraft flying today, and what’s worse, are supplied as standard issue with other aircraft in the range, such as the bright orange F-4 Phantom II. It’s bizarre!

Of course, assemble this Tornado in cleaned-up flying condition, and it will look just fine, though you’ll have to provide your own stand. Score: Components 7/10, Markings 9/10, Wheels 0/10.

There's a good range of Easykits to inspect here.

TAMIYA SUPERDETAIL SPITFIRE NOW RELEASED

We were talking Spitfires in mid-September, when we saw that Tamiya was showing its brand-new 1:32 scale Mk IXc at the Tokyo Hobby Show. And now the little beauty is officially on release. As the pics above show, the Spit is loaded with mouthwatering detail, in particular the 12-cylinder Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The engine cowling panels are pretty much to scale and to achieve this are just 0.4 mm (0.01 in) thin. You can remove them easily to show off the Faberge jewel-like Merlin that Tamiya has crafted.

There’s also a highly-detailed cockpit and a neat little 16-page booklet, packed with reference pics taken by the Tamiya team when they were researching the model. The aircraft is marked JE-J, which was the Spit flown by Royal Air Force ace James ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, and Tamiya’s sculptors have done a pretty good job in creating a fair likeness of him to 1:32 scale.

The Mk IX is pretty much SMN’s favourite Spitfire, so the Tamiya kit will be given a workout in the near future, if only to check Tamiya’s ‘most accurate yet’ claim.

The Tamiya 1:32 Spitfire will be available from stores and online suppliers very soon. Meantime, if you can’t wait - or would simply like to graze a Spit or three - there’s a tasty lineup for you here.

Pictures courtesy Tamiya.

FORD RACING CAPRI TO 1:43 SCALE FROM CORGI

First off, let’s just say that Corgi has made a decent fist of the Ford Capri Mk3. Shape and proportions are pretty good, with neat detailing to the wheels. The real thing is generally reckoned as the best all-rounder of the Capri series, various models of which were made from 1961 to 1986. The Mk3 in particular was a well-balanced good-looker, and fitted the bill as a Euro-size mini-Mustang pony car. These days it’s reckoned as a collectible classic, though some still run in anger on circuits and dragstrips.

It’s a mystery why Ford let the model die - the Capri really ought to be in its Mk6 or 7 version by now - but there are rumours of a rebirth in a year or two’s time. Come on Ford! And another mystery is Vauxhall/Opel's great-looking Calibra - why did the company drop it so suddenly a dozen years ago?

Rant over, and back to the models. A trawl through SMN’s Vault of Ancient Models revealed the Tamiya 1:24 scale Zakspeed Capri, which was finished with a dinged and dented ‘dirt and grime’ look. The kit was a good one to build with absolutely no fit problems, and a driver figure that looks just right in the cockpit. The kit came complete with a rear-mounted electric motor that can still drive the soft rubber tyres. The real thing had its engine upfront, but at least Tamiya's neat underbelly detail included the bottom of the engine.

The pictures above show:
1 Corgi Capri Mk3, 1976 race winner.
2 Capri powered up for drag meets.
3, 4 SMN’s own Tamiya 1:24 Capri.

Amazon has a range of Capri models here - look out for the original ‘hairdresser style’ Ford Consul Capri from the early 1960s. Amazon has the Corgi model featured above at a small discount.

eBay has some Tamiya Capris on sale here, and there's also an attractive-looking photo-etch detail set from a Belgian seller.