Reviews of products for scale space and science fiction vehicle models.


Review Author
Matthew Cottrell
Published on
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$99.89

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft

NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) fleet consisted of two modified Boeing 747s. The iconic N905NA, a retired American Airlines 747-100, conducted the Approach and Landing Tests with the Space Shuttle Enterprise in the late 70s, still sporting its natural metal finish with an American Airlines red, white, and blue cheatline. N905NA had a long second career with NASA, finishing its service in fall of 2012 after ferrying Discovery, Enterprise, and Endeavor to their final display locations, and ultimately arriving in Houston, TX, to start a third career as a museum display, eternally ferrying the Space Shuttle replica Independence.

Review Author
Tom Pope
Published on
Company
Revell
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$21.99

Introduction

On March 23, 1965, Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and John W. Young blasted off into space onboard the Gemini 3 capsule atop a Titan II Rocket. Gemini 3 was the first manned Gemini flight, and Grissom and Young made three orbits around the earth and returned to the surface after 4 hours and 52 minutes.

Revell originally captured the spirit of the Gemini program historic event in the 1970s with this great 1/24 scale kit. They rereleased the kit in the 1980s as part of their History Makers series of kits. Now they have rereleased the Gemini kit, with the original artwork on the box, in a Limited Production run.

I would like to thank Revell for returning this great old kit back into production.

Review Author
Tom Pope
Published on
Company
AMT
Scale
1/200
MSRP
$21.99

Introduction

As I sat down to write this review, it was 45 years ago on Sunday, 20 July 1969, at 10:56:15 EDT, that Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. I watched in complete amazement as the Apollo 11 events unfolded on our old black-and-white TV, from launch preparation to splash down and recovery.

As far as I can tell from some quick Internet research, AMT originally released their 1/200 scale Saturn V Rocket (kit # S945, I think) in late 1969 or in 1970. It has been rereleased a couple times since. This same Saturn V Rocket with Apollo Lunar Module kit launched the most recent reissue in March 2014, courtesy of Round 2 Models under the AMT banner. I would like to thank Round 2 for reissuing and providing this great old, new, kit to IPMS/USA for review.

Review Author
Dave Koukol
Published on
Company
Moebius Models
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$59.99

Background

Airing in 1978 and 1979, with a brief return in 1980, the original Battlestar Galactica (BSG) television series laid the foundation for a follow-on series of books, games, and reimagined series of television shows chronicling humanity’s struggle to survive after the Twelve Colonies of human civilization were all but wiped out by the treacherous cybernetic Cylons in an attempt to rid the universe of human life. Despite the limited run of the original TV series, BSG has remained a popular franchise among Sci-Fi fans for three-and-a-half decades.

In honor of the 35th anniversary of the original series (TOS), Moebius Models has released a series of kits depicting craft from the 1978 production, with a 1/32 scale replica of the Cylon Raider as the largest of the pieces.

Review Author
Tom Pope
Published on
Company
Round 2 Models
Scale
1/420
MSRP
$26.99

Introduction

When the space station Deep Space 9 got caught up in the conflict with the Dominion over control of a stable wormhole, one of Starfleet’s responses was to provide support in the shape of the USS Defiant. The Defiant was a new ship design for Starfleet and incorporated new, powerful weapon systems and even a cloaking device. Once the bugs were worked out of the new design, the defiant proved to be a powerful weapon in the fight against the Dominion.

Almost 20 years ago, AMT first released their model kit of the Defiant during the run of TV’s Deep Space 9 series. In January 2014, Round2 rerelease the Defiant under the AMT name. Round2’s re-released Defiant kit, like all those kits from the Star Trek series, are delivered in a sturdy box with colorful new artwork.

I would like to thank Round2/AMT for providing this re-release of Deep Space 9’s, USS Defiant to IPMS USA for review.

Review Author
Tim Hortman
Published on
Company
Moebius Models
Scale
1/4105
MSRP
$84.99

Moebius Models continues to add to their growing line of Battlestar Galactica kits, including issuing some prefinished built up display kits.

Having grown up watching the original Battlestar Galactica, I was thrilled with the modern television series of the past decade. It is great to be a plastic modeler and have kits available from the series – thanks to Moebius Models!

Reviewed here is the Battlestar Galactica 1/4105 Painted and Assembled Display Model.

The kit comes in a sturdy outer sleeve with some nice artwork of the Galactica. The inner box shows the Galactica with a star background and the kit in a plastic cradle. My review sample arrived with one of the main engines separated from the kit, but it was a quick and painless repair.

Review Author
Tim Hortman
Published on
Company
Moebius Models
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$59.99

Moebius Models continues to add to their growing line of Battlestar Galactica kits, this time issuing some prefinished built up display kits.

Having grown up watching the original Battlestar Galactica, I was thrilled with the modern television series of the past decade. It is great to be a plastic modeler and have kits available from the series – thanks to Moebius Models!

Reviewed here is the Battlestar Galactica Viper Mark VII 1/32 painted and assembled display model.

The model comes in a triangle shaped box, which is easy to damage. After opening the outer box, you get a nice inner box which represents the kit in a Galactica launch tube. Certainly one could leave their kit in this inner box and put on display as-is if they so choose.

Review Author
Dave Koukol
Published on
Company
Moebius Models
Scale
1/4105
MSRP
$69.99

Background

Airing in 1978 and 1979, with a brief return in 1980, the original Battlestar Galactica (BSG) television series laid the foundation for a follow-on series of books, games, and reimagined series of television shows chronicling humanity’s struggle to survive after the Twelve Colonies of human civilization were all but wiped out by the treacherous cybernetic Cylons in the attempt to rid the universe of human life. Despite the limited run of the original TV series, BSG has remained a popular franchise among Sci-Fi fans for three-and-a-half decades.

In honor of the 35th anniversary of the original series (TOS), Moebius Models has released a series of kits depicting craft from the 1978 production, with the flagship being Galactica herself.

Review Author
David Wrinkle
Published on
Company
Hasegawa
MSRP
$74.99

Death's shadow rides on solar winds

Sleek, magnificent, deadly. A single look at the Phantom Death Shadow will tell you all you need to know. She's a predator angled and shaped with a single purpose: destruction. Lethal Pulsar cannons in triple mounts sit idle 'til they reduce enemy warships to cosmic dust; the blade ram waits to split hulls and spill crews and cargoes to the cold, black emptiness of space. She's a piece of lethal art that deserves a spot in your display case. Kit features 2 Cosmo Wing fighters and display stand.

Review Author
Dick Montgomery
Published on
Company
Round 2 Models
Scale
1/100
MSRP
$25.00

Last released in 1970 by MPC, Round2 has re-issued this classic kit. You may remember that the original MPC kit had parts for the flying version. I remember the cardboard tube for the central rocket cylinder used to hold a small rocket motor, thinking that the plastic parts would not survive more than just one launch. I never put that to the test and I still have that original 1970 MPC kit sitting in my display case.

The Round2 release does not have those parts for a flying model, although the launch rail brackets are still present. There are some other items still in the box from its “flying” days but they can be ignored.

During this project I did not fill seams and I did not conduct any research to achieve an accurate paint scheme. I sanded down the more obvious “steps” during assembly, and chose a very basic White/Gray paint scheme, painting some Vostok components to make them pop out a bit in the images accompanying this review.