Well, the sabatical has stretched a little further than I thought it would, but at long, long last…and to paraphrase the title of a country-western song…I can finally utter a phrase that I thought would never get here: Thank God and Greyhound, it's done! What's it? "It" is a science fiction model building book that will be available no later than February 2004 and possibly sooner. More details will follow at the appropriate time, so watch this space. Due to the fact that it took me to the 19th of June to finish the book and this column had to be in Internet Modeler's beloved editor's hands by the 20th of June, you can pretty much figure that there ain't gonna be a heckuva lot more to Scaleworld than what you've already read. A little, but not much. Straight from an AMtech (https://www.amtechmodels.com) email that was designed to put a wave of rumors to rest, anyone with an interest in the Curtiss P-40 will find the following to be of interest: "We are doing a completely new 1/48th scale P-40B/C planned for next year. This kit will be new from the ground up, with the same fit and finish that you've come to expect from us from our Ta-183. We will also do an X/YP-37 for the X-Kits by AMtech line." If that ain't enough to get the juices flowing, maybe the following excerpt will: "Mockups of both kits, plus our new tool 1/32 scale announcements (total of six kits) and 1/48th scale (three new tools, not counting the P-40B, and some very cool new versions of other kits) will be displayed at the RCHTA show this September. Prices, release dates, and stock numbers have not yet been determined for any of these kits yet. SO DON'T ASK!!" It's only a little better than a couple of months from the time you're reading this til the RCHTA show, so don't bug AMtech and don't start any more rumors. Just a little patience will be rewarded. Trust me. And as long as we're on the subject of AMtech, their 1/48th scale Hs-123 kit is now available. Yes, it is the old ESCI kit…which was a very nice model to begin with…but AMtech has enhanced it with a Black Box resin cockpit and new parts for an unspatted landing gear. We'll work our way thru the kit next month. Finally, a larger 1/8th scale version of the original Aurora kit of the Incredible Hulk has been released by POLAR LIGHTS (https://www.polarlights.com). Since the movie will be on the big screen by the time you read this, how can you avoid picking up one of these kits? A full review of the kit will be available in next month's Scaleworld. Midnight's creeping ever closer, so this'll have to do for now. See ya'll in August. | |