If you are as old as I, you remember the original Battlestar Gallactica series with Lorne Green and Dirk Benedict. Well, when the Sci-Fi Channel reimagined the Battlestar Gallactica series, there were some changes that upset some potential fans, myself included. One was that Starbuck, Benedict’s character, was now a woman and that was just the beginning. I didn’t watch the series when it first came out and now I regret it. I’ve since bought the series on DVD and have taken a liking to it. If you can just forget the old series, and it is easy to do, then you will absolutely love the new series.

This is the 3rd issue of this magazine I have had the privilege to review and it is undoubtedly my favorite one to date. Why, you ask? Well, not only did I like almost every subject in this issue, but mainly because of 3 very awesome dioramas. But, more on those later.

First off, a pet peeve of mine is articles that continue through 2 or more issues. Problem is, you may miss an issue with the conclusion or even start of a project or, as in this instance, an article may not continue in the next issue. This is spelled out in the editorial that two of the articles I covered part I of in Issue 23 were held up for production issues but should appear in issue 25. I did appreciate that Mike took the time to spell this out, as I was a little lost on my first glance through. Oh well, these things happen but the stories in this issue more than make up for the unfinished stories.

Volume 24 contains a whopping 15 articles in its 100 pages, all about modeling projects.

The early 1960’s were characterized, in large part, by the “Space Race” between the United States and the Soviet Union to place a man in orbit, with an end goal of a manned lunar landing. Struggling to keep pace with the Soviets in those early years, the United States ultimately forged ahead, leveraging every asset at its disposal. One such asset was the Redstone rocket. Originally designed as a weapons delivery platform, the liquid-fueled Redstone was more stable and reliable than its early solid-fueled counterparts, thus making it a preferred launch vehicle for placing America’s first astronauts into space, although not into orbit. Redstone supported two manned suborbital missions in 1961 – Freedom 7, piloted by Alan Shepard, and Liberty 7, piloted by Gus Grissom – prior to the introduction of the more powerful orbit-capable Atlas rocket.

This is the second volume of this magazine I have read since they changed to a quarterly format and I do like the amount of detail crammed into it. This issue is made up of 13 articles focusing on kit builds, scratchbuilds, and other fun stuff, so let’s get to it.

The first two builds are Bat-related kits by Polar Lights. These are the 1/25th scale Batboat from the old TV series and the 1/32nd scale Batmobile from the same show. These are basic, no frills builds resulting in two smart-looking vehicles.

Next up is a new kit from Pegasus of Uncle Martin and his Spaceship. For those of you too young to remember, this is based on the My Favorite Martian TV show. This starts with some history regarding the kit development and behind the scenes info from the show. This is followed by a full build of the kit. The 1/18th scale kit builds up nicely and includes a figure of Uncle Martin which has a very good resemblance to actor Ray Walston.

The H.IIB Launch Vehicle by Aoshima is a great little kit. When mounted on the display base provided in the kit, the model measures just shy of 6 inches in height. The display base has a small footprint, measuring about 2 inches by 4 inches. The completed project will not consume much volume in your model display case.

While the space required for display of the H-II is very small, the eye appeal of the finished model is quite large. The color scheme is dramatic, as is the shape of the vehicle and payload shroud.

The H-II features four SRBs attached to the main rocket body, with a payload shroud topping off the full stack. The rocket nozzles are molded as single pieces while the SRBs, payload shroud, and main rocket body are molded in “right/left” halves.