In a recent email, Humanoido sent a link to:http://fantastic-plastic.com/index.html
"Fantastic Plastic" is a scale modeling site that celebrates the weird, the wonderful, the odd, the radical, the exotic and the just plain cool aircraft and spacecraft model kits produced in styrene (and resin) over the last 70-plus years. From bizarre World War II-era "Luft '46" project planes to the latest science fiction concepts, here is a chronicle of Man's highest aspirations as expressed through his flying machines, both real and imagined.
Before I found Model Rocketry, I assembled many plastic models. This website shows the ones I never got around to buy and build.
Check out the "Spacecraft and Missiles" and "Science Fiction" for some build inspiration.
Here's a few I remember putting together way back . . .
When I visited Fantastic Plastic about a year ago they had a limited selection and were out of stock on many items. Now, however, they have a wide selection, especially with the addition of the Unicraft line.
ReplyDeleteAnother site for vintage and OOP plastic models is Rare Plane Detective. Very reasonable prices ( as opposed to "collectible" prices).
Thanks to your post I was able to pick up some interesting models and spent quite a bit of...uhh...
Damn you, Michielssen! ;)
Not too long ago Round 2 reissued the old Lindberg "U.S. Moon Ship" model kit
ReplyDeletehttp://round2corp.com/product/u-s-moon-ship/
I'm guessing (by the general layout) that it was (loosely) based on the Von Braun moon lander craft:
http://www.astronautix.com/v/vonbraunlunarlander.html
speaking of the Von Braun moon lander...
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LNGKVD
Speaking of Pegasus Hobby some SF kits that could be of interest to some folks would be the:
Luna Rocketship
Rocketship X-M
Cosmostrator
Space Ark (from When the Worlds Collide)
Apollo 27 Rocket
Mercury 9 Rocket
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0097p?P=SM&CATEGORY=&MANUFACTURER=PGH
A number of years ago Glencoe ( http://www.glencoemodels.com/ ) reissued the old kit of the Disney Moonliner (but named Mars Liner due to licensing issues) with a decal sheet that featured some seemingly odd things:
* The fictitious air/spaceline "FASTWAYS" name was printed on a curve (as if it should go around the nose), but it was far too long to fit the nose (but if you trim away about half the letters it would fit)
* Ship name was "Marsliner Moonbeam" was also a bit too long to fit (similarly could be resolved by a bit of trimming)
Naoto,
DeleteI found out after reading a review of the Glencoe Mars Liner at Hobbylinc that the Fastway decal could be trimmed to TWA, which was on the original Disney Moonliner. Thus avoiding any trademark infringement. Cheers.
P.S. Now that I think of it, you could also trim "Marsliner Moonbeam" to "Moonliner" as well.
Deleteguess what I was meaning by trimming the decals?
DeleteOne of the challenges in the assembly of the Moonliner kit has to do with the way the airframe was divided -- it was split lengthwise into three sections. Some folks have described the kit as "putty monster" in reference to the difficulty in dealing with the seams on the model.
DeleteAs for the needing to alter some kit decals, it's sort of reminiscent of what you'd get in model aeroplane kits (more specifically aircraft used by Nazis) made for European market (e.g. illegal to have the swastika in Germany).
Hey Chris,
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of plastic models, and knowing how you like them goonies, thought you might get a chuckle from this page I ran across today:
http://www.hasegawausa.com/aircraft_egg.html
It's the model plane answer to the model rocket goonie: egg planes! I especially got a kick out of the shuttle/747 combo. The shuttle is just as big as the 747! Hmmm... I may have to start another collection. But I still have my goonie clone parts in the build pile. Oh well... (BTW prices for these are much cheaper at Hobbylinc, just FYI). Cheers!
I've heard discussion somewhere about the Hasegawa Eggplane shuttle being used in plastic model conversion (flying on 13mm motor). I'm guessing one possible configuration would be to have a trailing boom with fins on the end (sort of like a fireworks rocket).
Delete... and to go off on another tangent regarding eggs and model rockets -- check out an alternate use for egg capsule on the rightmost column on the first page of the Jan 1973 Enerjet newsletter:
http://oldrocketplans.com/pubs/Enerjet/1-73/Jan_1973.pdf
.. and let's not forget that there was a real-life "eggplane" -- the McDonnell XF-85 Goblin
Deletehttp://www.boeing.com/history/products/xf-85-goblin.page
To BAR and Naoto,
DeleteI've seen the Egg Planes before a few years back, thought they were pretty cool. I didn't know how many are in the collection now!
FYI -- normally model kits are described as "kumitate" (pronounced "koo-mee-tah-teh") which means something that is assembled -- but the Eggplane series is described as "umitate" (pronounced "oo-mee-tah-teh") which means "freshly laid" (i.e. as in an egg).
DeleteOne amusing gag with the eggplane kits connected to Macross (an anime - one of the three unrelated series that were mixed together to be broadcast as "Robotech" in the USA) is that the boxart is done in the same style as the "normal" kit (i.e. the pose and background are the same -- only the aircraft is egg-shaped). Not only that, but it was drawn by the SAME artist (Hidetaka Tenjin) that created the boxart for the "normal" version kit. The illustrator has also published some artbooks (you'll see some of the boxart that he illustrated in these books)
https://hlj.com/product/KOB90124
https://hlj.com/product/KOB90181
https://hlj.com/product/KOB90215
Several years ago, Hasegawa changed the boxart to include a mascot character - a cute girl (the box does have disclaimer that the girl depicted on the box is NOT included). The illustrations were done by artist Takashi Fujisawa. The Japanese-language website shows the boxart:
http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/item/chara/th/
Collectively known as "tamago girls" (tamago="egg"):
Amy McDonnell - (American) she is the blonde girl
Rei Hazumi - (Japanese) she's the brunette
Claire Frost - (German) she's the petite girl with purple hair
Due to their popularity, the girls have appeared not only boxart but also decal sheets:
http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/sp352/
Recently announced were kits which DO include figures of the girls:
http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/sp356/
http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/sp360/