Eaglemoss’ Star Trek Federation Yeager Class Starship – USS Yeager NCC-65674. Like its predecessors, expect it to come with a handsome, full-color collector magazine.
Its beginning to look as if Eaglemoss views a black hole as nothing more than a well it can keep priming to churn out an ever staggering array of Star Trek products. While we have no problem with this strategy, we can only wonder how long they can continue to maintain this course in the Neutral Zone, returning to Star Base only when the well has finally run dry.
Anyway, the 122nd starship in their standard-sized Star Trek range was unveiled yesterday: a Yeager class starship named, rather appropriately, the USS Yeager, no doubt paying homage to USAF test pilot, General Chuck Yeager. We’ve heard that the series has been extended to 160 starships, meaning another trip to Ikea just to obtain more display cabinets may be in order.
We’ve also learned that their newly minted Star Trek Discovery collection will include several over-sized starships, much like their Star Trek XL collection. Typically, these ships measure around 9-inches in length and come with a bit more detail than their lilliputian counterparts. Frankly, if you’re looking to collect every single ship in the Eaglemoss Star Trek universe, expect to lay out several hundred bucks each month just to keep up.
It may be cold outside but its never been hotter at The Motor Pool! From now until Sunday, February 11th, you can take 10% off of any item we have in stock simply by entering our latest coupon code at the bottom of your shopping cart just prior to final checkout. Please enter discount code “TMP175” in the coupon box just prior to final checkout. Note: The following lines are excluded from this promotional offer: Air Force 1, Calibre Wings, Hobby Master, Luft-X and Wings of the Great War. Sale ends midnight, Sunday, February 11th, 2018. May not be combined with any other sales discount.
Modelcollect’s German Jagdpanzer E-100 Heavy Tank Destroyer with 170mm gun – Grey, 1946
Lately, I’m getting the feeling that the only two diecast modelmakers willing to throw the dice and take a chance in this day and age are Hobby Master and Modelcollect. While some of the other leading manufacturers seem to be making the same old, same old, month after month, it seems like these two companies recognize the need for new blood in the hobby and are willing to put their money where their mouth is.
Take Modelcollect. Late last week they announced a bunch of new 1:72 scale diecast military vehicles due out this spring, which will include, among other things, a pair of Jagdpanzer E-100 heavy tank destroyers. Mounting an utterly fearsome 170mm main gun that likely would have outclassed anything the Allies could have fielded late in the war, the latest two heavy tank destroyers will come in a feldgrau (field grey) and a summer camouflage pattern (AS72096 and AS72099 respectively). As part of the same announcement, Modelcollect showed off a new Waffentrager (weapons carrier); this one mounting, of all things, a V-1 buzz bomb (AS72100). Whether or not a V-1 could have been launched from a mobile gun platform is anyone’s guess, seeing as how it needed a launch ramp in the Low Countries to get airborne.
German Jagdpanzer E-100 Heavy Tank Destroyer with 170mm gun – Camouflage, 1946
Now lets get back to the new Jagdpanzers. With such a huge main gun, the vehicle’s superstructure had to be moved aft, located behind both the engine block and driver’s compartment, largely to balance out the weight of the gun and provide some support to it while in transit. From a modelling stand point, therefore, we are going to assume that the vehicle will come with a travel lock for the gun, otherwise it will likely suffer from persistent barrel droop and do no one any good.
Modelcollect’s quartet of 1:72 scale Waffentragers (Weapon Carriers)
The Waffentrager concept was conceived to combine German artillery tractors and Self-Propelled Guns into one vehicle type that would salvage precious resources, like field guns, from the battlefield in the later stages of the war.
Work on the Waffentrager project started in early 1944, being part of the E-series of standardized, next-generation German tanks. Waffentragers (eng; weapon carriers) were intended to merge two types of vehicles used by the German army into one – artillery tractors and self-propelled guns. This new vehicle type would be a mobile, lightly-armored tank destroyer that could both use its cannon itself or, depending on the circumstances, unequip it and hand it over to other units to be used as field artillery. This concept was seen as highly practical by the Germans, given how it not only gave the German army one vehicle for the price of two, but was also saving on vital resources of which Germany suffered a great shortage of in the late stages of the war. Nearly all renown German companies that produced military equipment or vehicles took up the task, resulting in 4 different Waffentrager designs.
The Krupp-Steyr Waffentrager was first drawn up in early 1944. Development was split into two parts; chassis and turret. Steyr developed the chassis, whilst Krupp focused on the turret and cannon development. To keep the costs and required resources to a minimum, Speyr decided to base the chassis of their Waffentrager around their existing RSO artillery tractor and reuse as many parts from it as possible. Krupp on the other hand, reused the same 8,8cm KwK 43 L/71 cannon with which the Tiger II was outfitted, but had to come up with a new turret rotation mechanism to rotate the compact, open-topped turret. The re-usage of existing parts and equipment was put at the forefront during development of the Waffentrager, with the goal to build the most cost-efficient and resource-saving tank.
Nevertheless, Steyr was tasked with building four vehicles for testing and a wooden mockup of the vehicle. After several delays, the Krupp-Steyr Waffentrager was, along two other designs from other companies, tested in late 1944. The fate of the Krupp-Steyr Waffentrager after the testing remains to be determined, but what is clear is that this vehicle never left prototype stage, with a single testing vehicle and one wooden mock-up built.
Modelcollect has a quartet of Waffentrager scheduled to arrive in late January (AS72078, AS72079, AS72082, AS72085), provided they can salvage enough field guns from the diecast battlefield. <g>
Air Force 1’s newsest US Navy Lockheed-Martin F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter – VFA-101 “Grim Reapers,” Eglin Air Force Base [Low-Vis Scheme] will no longer have a blue painted helmetA few years ago, Air Force 1 released a squadron’s worth of 1:72 scale F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, eventually selling out of both the “B” and “C” variants thus leaving collectors high and dry. Happily, the Company has revisited the F-35 hangar, producing another B and now a second C version, sporting new squadron markings and, if you can believe it, the correct helmets for the pilot figures. Will wonders never cease.
Air Force 1’s USMC Lockheed-Martin F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter – VMFAT-501 “Warlords”, Fleet Replacement Squadron, MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina, 2015 [Low-Vis Scheme] will no longer have a blue painted helmet
A “Bloody Nose” Strike would likely be carried out by both ground-based mobile missile launchers and deep strike aircraft such as the B-1B bomber
Reuters reports that Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has amped up the rhetoric while convening a summit in Vancouver, Canada, that basically tells the North Korean regime, “give up your nuclear weapons and ambitions or face the wrath of the western democracies.” According to analysts, the US is weighing an option to initiate a “Bloody Nose” first strike, which would, in effect, attempt to decapitate the North Korean leadership and lay to waste the country’s nuclear arsenal before the North Koreans could take action. The US seems to be taking a bolder stance since Trump took office, suggesting that its own nuclear deterrence capabilities were tested and now deemed up to the task of eliminating, paralyzing or defeating inbound nuclear missile threats aimed at the US mainland and/or its far flung territories in the Pacific Ocean. While high-level discussions are still underway in a last minute effort to defuse the situation, the President, in league with advice offered by the National Security Council, are examining ways that will best bring about an end to the sabre-rattling, while simultaneously working with other nations to tighten the sanctions imposed on North Korea.
Modelcollect’s 1:72 scale M1014 Man Tractor and BGM-109G ground launched cruise missile set, locked, loaded and ready to bear against any would-be opponents.
Perhaps taking a page from today’s headlines, Modelcollect has decided to add several of its multi-vehicle missile launcher kits to its pre-assembled range. Two sets will make the initial cut – a NATO-operated MAN M1014 tractor hauling a BGM-109G missile launcher and a US M983 HEMTT tractor carrying a Pershing II intercontinental missile and its accompanying stand and launcher. No word on pricing or dates of availability just yet but if they succeed at retail, collectors will likely be able to nab other over-sized modern vehicles in the coming months. While other companies are still making the standard fare 1:72 scale vehicles, you can’t help but congratulate Modelcollect for at least thinking outside of the box and offering something a wee bit different.
Modelcollect’s 1:72 scale US M983 Hemtt Tractor With Pershing II Missile Erector Launcher
The box art for the new “100 Years of the RAF” collection has been tweaked a bit to make it stand out a bit more from the standard Corgi packaging
Corgi has announced their Aviation Archive plans for the first half of 2018. No new toolings were shown, and many of the latest offerings left us a little underwhelmed considering some of the subject matter broached by other manufacturers in recent years. Still, the Company plans a new range called “100 Years of the RAF”, which, rather coincidentally, examines some of the more iconic aircraft that have waged war in the service of the Royal Air Force over the past century. Expect all of the new listings to be added to our own Aviation Archive over the next day or so.
UFOologists take note of Luft-X’s 1:72 scale Haunebu 1 with its landing gear retracted, now available and ready for shipping
Looks as if we are ringing in the new year in grand fashioned with loads of hot new products for January. We’ve already taken delivery of the Solido 1:72 scale military vehicles and aircraft that are produced by War Master and now we’ve cleared the landing pad for the Luft-X Haunebu flying saucers. Our distributors report that they will soon be flush with a number of other important deliveries, including the January shipment of Hobby Master products, a bevy of new Modelcollect and Precision Model Art military vehicles and vengeance weapons, a pair of Corgi WWII era aircraft, and a follow-on cache of Eaglemoss sci-fi replicas that include a wide assortment of new Star Trek products. We could also see the first ship in the Alien and Predator line, and get a glimpse of what’s in store from Forces of Valor and Dragon.
Note: Ordinarily I refrain from commenting on the look and feel of products in hand, but in the case of the recently received Luft-X Haunebu, pictured above and below, I thought I’d share my initial impressions. At first glance, the manufacturer did a first-rate job with the packaging and presentation of this rather unique item, which, let’s face it, is an oddity for most military collectors that might prevent them from adding it to their collection. Then there’s the overall weight and appearance of the saucer, which clocks in at almost 4 pounds and looks every bit as good as some of the pictures circulating on the web I know its a bit more expensive than some of the other issues in the Luft-X series, but trust me, its worth every penny, a faithful recreation that could’ve helped to change the air war in the west had it been perfected and built in quantity.
Modelcollect’s P.300 mega tank developed for its Fist of War series
Looking to get as much mileage out of their molds as possible, Modecollect plans to port its soon-to-be-released Landkreuzer P.1000 Ratte mega tank to its Fist of War series. Dubbed “Grendel”, the Panzkampfwagen Ausf A P.300 mega tank is designed to work in conjunction with some of the other recently announced Fist of War sci-fi vehicles, many of which are already available in kit form and likely to be developed as pre-built models. Still no price has been assigned to either the P.1000 or P.300 mega tanks, so the jury is still out concerning where they will end up on the retail price point spectrum.
A second take on their upcoming P.300 mega tank, this one boasting over-sized Schurzen side skirts.
