TAMIYA CATALOGUES - PACKED WITH GOOD STUFF

The 2010 Tamiya catalogue is full of goodies, from the state-of-the-art Nizzan 370Z sports car to the 1:32 scale Spitfire, proudly touted by Tamiya as the most-detailed Spit kit kit in the world - which, when you inspect the contents of the box closely, is a claim that’s hard to argue with.

But of course the 2010 catalogue is just the latest of many going back decades, and all of them beautifully designed and printed to top production standards. Indeed, for many years the Tamiya catalogue was a better looking product than many expensive books on similar subjects.

So here for your delectation are just a few of the jackets - and a spread from the 2000 edition - to enjoy.

Visit Tamiya here.

You can buy the 2010 Tamiya catalogue here.

You can also try e-models here.

BARBIE DOLL HITS MIDDLE AGE WITH HER 51st BIRTHDAY TODAY

David Jefferis reports
Every teen girl’s favourite, the Barbie doll, first went on sale on March 9, 1959, and shows no sign of slowing down in the 21st century, through a constant series of reinventions to keep her up to date with the latest fashions.

Of more significance to us model fans is that Barbie opened the door to non-girlie ‘male dolls’ such as Action Man, and through him to today’s host of science fiction miniatures, from Terminator robots to Star Trek aliens. And of course, the she-doll is so popular that real-world marketeers have produced a host of tie-ins over the years. For example, last year’s 50th birthday saw a totally cutified and chrome-laden blush-rose Fiat 500 (top picture).

The Fiat 500 is a terrific designer-look car, and model manufacturers seem to be queueing up to produce miniature versions. One of the newer names is Mondo Motors, a diecast company based on the outskirts of Alba, in north-west Italy. Mondo produces both ready-made and kit-versions of the 500, including the variations shown in the pix above. Mondo produces in all the popular scales - 1:18, 1:24, 1:32, 1:43, 1:64 - so there’s likely to be a 500 to the size you want somewhere. Mondo also produces an older style of 500, the original Cinquecento (bottom pic). This was a car so small that when my friend Kate used to give me a lift down the trendy King’s Road in London, my head pushed up the canvas roof into a dome-shape! Luckily in fine weather, the canvas rolled back, so the only danger then was a suntan and eyeball contact with the micro-skirted Chelsea chicks...

So far as accuracy goes, Mondo vehicles are sold primarily into the toy market, rather than as out-and-out scale models. Even so, they are mostly well up to the standards of better-known makers, such as Bburago. There’s a 1:18 scale Mondo metal-kit on the SMN model bench right now - we’re currently stripping off the paint to bare metal, ready for a Mad Max-style post-nuclear external finish. We’ll be adding suitable detail, such as weapons and sensors, plus appropriate battle damage and radiation-scarring too. With luck the project will turn into a sci-fi delight. We’ll show the MM 500 off when she’s ready.

Visit Mondo Motors here.

The Mondo Motors range, including the Fiat 500, is available to buy here.

PULL THE TABLECLOTH WITH A BMW SUPERBIKE

SMN reports
This live-video stunt should bring a smile to your face - it’s a motorized version of the old snatch-the-tablecloth trick. This time, the equipment is a 1000cc BMW superbike, with a rider who knows how to achieve maximum acceleration without pulling a wheelie or spinning the tyre - to get this trick right needs instant action, with no hanging about.

Which brings us to the subject of superbike kits, something of a Cinderella species compared to the regular flow of aircraft and militaria from the major companies. Still, bikes are available, and Italeri has a a very good range indeed, though - sad to say - no BMWs, probably due to licensing issues.

Among the tastiest items from the Italian maker are the 1:24 scale combo bike-and-truck sets, featuring a superbike hauler with its precious race-winning cargo. Bikes include Honda, Yamaha, and as shown here, Italy’s own ace marque, Ducati.

The truck is a Mercedes-Benz Actros tractor unit, plus a long semi-trailer containing the bike. Assembly is relatively simple, with no real fit and finish problems to worry about. However, it’s well worthwhile giving the whole thing several thin spray coats of matching red, as bare plastic doesn’t really convince. And taking lots of time detailing the interior will pay dividends too. As for the bike, it’s reasonably accurate and comes with a rear-wheel stand, so it won’t fall over when left - something this rider manages to do with the real thing a few times, at the start of each motorcycling season.

When assembled and painted, with the excellent set of Ducati decals applied, this truck and bike duo becomes a superb display set.

Video and pictures courtesy BMW, Italeri.

Italeri trucks and bikes are available from model stores and online suppliers, including a Yamaha version here.

HASEGAWA Ma.K FALKE LIMITED EDITION LASER ANTI-GRAVITY FIGHTER

David Jefferis reports
Science fiction fan alert - here’s a follow-up to the 2009 Hasegawa Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K) Falke release. This one is a limited-edition injection-moulded 1:20 scale sci-fi craft that’s loaded with fine detail, optional decal sets, and various new-tooling features. These include a ventral-location ‘excimer laser gun’, presumably a mega-power version of the ultra-precise lasers used by today’s eye surgeons.

When assembled, the Falke is a good size, measuring 286 mm (11.3 in) long and to a scale that will allow model fans to make dioramas using 1:18 scale diecast cars and equipment. Something like a satin-black model of the futuristic Lamborghini Reventon would make the cut as a diorama partner with the Falke, or maybe even a deeply-modded Batmobile! Hasegawa has included a well detailed cockpit, extra radomes, and a pair of pilots - one in seated ready-to-fly position, the other standing in readiness for a mission. A bunch of service techies would look good - if you’re reading this Hasegawa, let’s have a Ma.K figure set ASAP.

A note on the Ma.K sci-fi universe, which was created by Kow Yokoyama in the 1980s. It's set in the 2800s, with stories revolving around battles between factions aiming to control an Earth recovering from a nuclear conflict - gloomy maybe, but not that unlikely, sad to say.

Pictures courtesy Hasegawa and Hobby Link Japan.

The Hasegawa Ma.K Falke is available from model stores and online suppliers including HLJ here.

Inspect a 1:18 Lamborghini Reventon in gunmetal finish here.

AIRFIX BUCCANEER STRIKE AIRCRAFT TO 1:72 SCALE

David Jefferis reports
Airfix continues its renaissance with this kit of a classic Cold War-era strike aircraft, the British Hawker-Siddeley Buccaneer. Airfix provides us with parts to make three versions of the low-level twin-jet attacker, the S2B, S2D, and the South African export model S50.

The kit has plenty of detail, though thank goodness Airfix no longer features some of the non-working ‘working’ parts of the very first NA39 kit, back in the early days of the company. I well remember the ‘rotary bomb bay’ that was warped, ill-fitting, and that didn’t do the job as advertised!

The present kit features 114 parts, with a wingspan of 185 mm (7.3 in) and length of 267 mm (10.5 in). The undercarriage can be assembled up or down. The Buccaneer comes packed in the now standard, and highly attractive, new-style Airfix box.

The video shows the aircraft and crews of 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force, taking part in the 1978 Exercise Open Gate. This was a NATO exercise aimed at keeping the Straits of Gibraltar open during a possible conflict with Warsaw Pact forces.

Video courtesy Central Office of Information for the Ministry of Defence (RAF).

The Airfix Buccaneeer is available from model stores and online suppliers including Amazon here.

REVELL 1:25 SCALE OLDSMOBILE CUTLASS, CHEVY BEL AIR

Mat Irvine reports
Things changed for the rather staid Oldsmobile auto brand around the mid-1960s, when the ‘442’ package was introduced. Standing for four-speed, four-barrel carburetter, twin exhaust pipes, the 442 bootstrapped Oldsmobile up with Pontiac and other performance names as a car in which you’d be proud to cruise the streets, a V8 engine lazily burbling and bellowing under the long, long hood.

Street cred was improved even more when performance supplier Hurst came up with hairy Olds packages aimed at the drag strip, matching them with street versions, complete with special exterior colour panels.

Now Revell US has released a new-tooling 1:25 scale kit of the 1972 Olds Cutlass 442 in its 2 ’n 1 range, shown in the top three pix above. Revell has supplied the kit in what is becoming the modern style, with one-piece bodywork, full engine detail, chassis with plenty of detail, and various optional parts. The interior is a neatly produced multi-piece assembly with separate side panels, seats and floor - a component breakdown that certainly makes painting easier!

The 2 ’n 1 kit’s versions provide a ‘standard’ 1972 Olds Cutlass 442, or the more interesting Hurst option. In real life, both cars were pretty fast, though the white bodywork and gold panels of the Hurst are more distinctive, and this is the version featured in my model build here. The kit also has parts that allow you to assemble automatic or stick-shift versions, plus alternative transmissions and interior central consoles.

All in all, this is a decent kit of a 1970s street machine. Unfortunately, so far as Oldsmobile itself is concerned, the brand was dropped by General Motors in 2004. The last Olds car, an Alero four-door sedan, rolled off the line on April 29 that year. However, Oldsmobile was one of the longest-serving car marques - when production stopped, it was 107 years Old.

And joining the Revell Cutlass kit in the same scale is the latest in the 2 ’n 1 line, a neat 150-part ’57 Chevrolet Bel Air (bottom pic) that you can build in either stock or street rod form, complete with flame decals and multiple custom options.

These kits are becoming available from model stores and online suppliers.

Visit Revell here.

GERMAN MOON ROCKET 'FRIEDE' FROM FANTASTIC PLASTIC

Here’s another fictional space subject from our friends at Fantastic Plastic. It’s a kit of the rocket Friede from the 1929 Fritz Lang movie Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon). As Fantastic Plastic puts the story:

“In 1927, in the wake of his stunning success with his sci-fi opus Metropolis, German director Fritz Lang decided his next movie would be a sprawling silent melodrama based on mankind's first trip to the Moon. To make his movie as technically accurate as possible, Lang enlisted the aid of already-famous spaceflight cheerleader Willy Ley who, in turn, corralled Romanian-born rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth into the project. The centerpiece of Lang's new feature... was the spaceship Friede (named after the movie's titular character), based on the Modell E rocket from Oberth's treatise Die Rakete”.

The movie was not a great success, coming out as a silent flick just as the first sound movies were hitting the screens, but the Friede did influence one very important young space enthusiast: Wernher von Braun, who went on to develop the V-2 rocket and later, the Saturn moonflight program.

The kit is produced to Fantastic’s usual high resin standards, to a scale of 1:288. There are just 11 pieces, which must make it one of the simplest kits around, but none the worse for all that. For anyone with an interest in science fiction and early spaceflight, it’s a must-have for the collection. You don’t have to finish it in bare-metal shades either - as you can see above, Popular Mechanics magazine chose a splendidly garish yellow-orange for this fictional big bird.

The kit is coming in March from Fantastic Plastic at $70.00 USD plus shipping.

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1 Original movie poster.
2 Three-view plans for the rocket.
3 Parts of the kit, all 11 of them.
4 Magazine jacket shows the rocket at the launch pad. Incidentally, the movie introduced the idea of the countdown to liftoff, a space first.

Visit Fantastic Plastic here.