Looks spiffy.This is entirely different from the Testors kits from decades ago; a number of improvements are apparent. Recessed panel lines and separate engines with considerable internal detail are major improvements.
I haven’t heard if they are doing a YF-12A or A-12; conversion kits would be a chore.
As a followup to the large-scale Tirpitz model, if you want a 1/20 scale X-15A-2, these folks can hook you up:
It looks nice, it’s certainly detailed (I haven’t rivet-counted to assure that it’s *accurately* detailed). It’s just… a little pricey.
If they sell out, I might reconsider my abandoned 1/24 X-20 Dyna Soar…
Those people are wrong. This 1/100 scale model of the German schlachtschiff Tirpitz is loaded to the gills with lights, smoke, sound and moving parts. It’s clearly a labor love, or at least of obsession. (Note: the video is over sixteen minutes long, but it seems to crap out just before 8 minutes)
Imagine if the pizza shop robber had decided to take up building model ships rather than robbing pizza shops. He might have avoided taking a bullet to the face and becoming a laughingstock for the whole human race. I hesitate to guess what this Tirpitz model might sell for if the builder was of a mind to sell it; certainly far more than robbing restaurants would ever net.
Well… maybe some of us. Not me, but maybe somebody.
By hiding the shuttles and simplifying a number of the components, my system was just able to render the complete vehicle. Huzzah!
The modelling is nearly complete. Unfortunately, the fully assembled version of the CAD model is so complex that none of my computers would even attempt to render or shade it; all I seem to be able to get are wireframe images. That’s what I get for being poor, I suppose. The shuttles are themselves each as complex as many of the CAD models I’ve made.
Just a few months ago in February or so, I mentioned that I was working on a model of the “IXS Enterprise” warp drive ship for Fantastic Plastic. Currently planned for 1/288 scale, this is the most data-intensive model I’ve done so far… as shown below with only one of the two rings in place, the model is well over half a gigabyte, and my computer just laughs at me when I tell it to render the thing. The model nears completion; some “kitification” is needed on some parts and the two shuttles don’t exist yet.
In related matters, FP has released the model of the “Super Nexus” I CADded up a few years ago:
And the Convair “landing boat:”
And the Soviet LOK spacecraft:
That last one is of course in scale with the Soviet LK lunar lander I did for FP a while back:
Christmas is coming.
A film made circa 1965 by Con Pederson of Graphic Films for the USAF. It depicts the future of space operations as seen from the mid-1960’s, before the optimism about space came crashing down after Johnson cancelled Saturn V production in 1968. Pederson influenced Kubrick’s work on “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and that is visible in this film… the failure of the AE-35 unit is clearly seen, as is a rather chunky space pod prototype.
Even if you have zero interest in “The Mandalorian” or in cosplay, or prop helmets, or painting models, there is a “WTF” moment in this video that is worth noticing: what happens when an “affordable” Hasbro helmet is hit with a coat of cheap clearcoat from a rattlecan.
Wow.
Moebius Models was showing some new product at the recent IPMS National Convention in Las Vegas. The big news is an all new 2001 Space Clipper. The new model will be approximately 29 inches long and 1:72 scale. It is an all new, accurate version of the spacecraft, based on all the latest information and research. The kit will include a passenger cabin and cockpit. It will not include Pan Am decals. Final price has not been set, but is expect to be between $150 and $200.
Also forthcoming is a 1/350 scale Space Clipper and a 1/48 scale Aries Ib.
So long, bank account…