Seriously?

Just walking past the sci-fi section in my favourite model shop last week - yes, there is still the odd one! - I noticed this.

I was instantly struck by the unusual design.  Not your predictable over-exposed Star Wars  or tired Star Trek movie-related kit, but a strange looking ship I had never seen the likes of before. A quick rifle through the box revealed large, well-detailed parts, four paint schemes, a very nice sheet of decals and a big big engine!

There was also a dvd, which promised a virtual tour and a bit more info.  From what I can gather (I do not speak Japanese too often) it seems to belong to the anime genre, and is an anti-gravity raider in 1/20 scale.

The big attraction for me is that you can interpret it any way you want.  No-one can criticise the RLM shade you have used, or correct your allocation of rivets.   I can please myself!  It's a genuinely exhilarating thought.

If you have built this model, or know more about its origins, do comment here, I'd like to know more.

Coming back down to earth, here is Italeri's new tool Wessex UH-5 in 1/48 scale.  It's a nice kit, four colour schemes to choose from and not a bad price.  No anti-grav capabilities but it looks good.  So many kits, so little time.

Blasts from a Non-Digital Past

The current Luftwaffe project I'm working on has led me to look up some of my older reference books. I tend to build more Japanese aircraft than German, so I had to visit some dusty, neglected bookshelves. It was here I found a couple of old photo albums containing photos of models I had built in a previous existence, when we owned two model shops. Most of them were commission pieces, or magazine reviews, and I had forgotten just how many kits I have built over the last twenty years, and how diverse they have been! Here are some photos of a few of them - taken on a 35mm camera long before digital came within the range of a modest model builder...