Maybe it's International Space Station Alpha from 1995?

A few weeks ago I bought a copy of Airfix Model World's special issue Scale Modelling Real Space, and Vince was telling me he picked one up yesterday. It's an excellent bookazine, and I especially enjoyed the lead article on building Revell's 1/144 scale International Space Station. It' a real eye-opener to me about what's involved in building a more-or-less accurate version of ISS. There're lots of after market components, and it seems like every piece of the kit had to have some special work done.

After all that work, the resulting model is quite fine. I only had one minor quibble, the robotic manipulator on the model's Japanese module shouldn't have a Canada logo on it as it isn't a Canadian product.

The author mentions that so much custom work had to be done because the kit wasn't that accurate in comparison to the space station. I took a look my kit, which I think I bought around 2005, maybe a year or so after I had returned to model making, to see what could be learned regarding sources. Not much it turns out. The instructions have a 2000 copyright, and given that date, I think the kit might be more reflective of a mid-90's International Space Station Alpha version of ISS. That stapled reference guide up in the photo's lower right corner is a summary of the ISS as it was envisioned by the time of NASA's 19 March 1995 Incremental Design Review. So it could be that the kit is actually a better representation of an earlier stage in ISS's development than how it exists today. I haven't made a 1-to-1 comparison of the kit's parts against the review document, but the box top and cover image on the design review package are tantalizingly close.

Grumping aside, the ISS article, and the bookazine overall, are excellent and well worth a look.