Model Art

Model Art Model Magazine

No. 702 - April 2006

Reviewed By Charles Landrum, #26328

While I have heard of Model Art Modeling Magazine, I have never had a chance to thumb through one until now. I enjoy the British and French model magazines, so I thought I would expand my horizons and look to see what Japanese modelers look forward to every month. Model Art is a general model magazine that is designed to appeal to a broad range of modelers, similar to Fine Scale Modeler. It is thick, 156 pages, and similar to National Geographic in size. The magazine is a combination of color and black and white and is printed on high quality paper.

The theme of this issue is modeling the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force, and there are numerous articles on the subject. Included is the nicely detailed diorama featured on the cover and an even better article on a built from scratch, cutaway model of a Kongo Class Aegis Destroyer. Other significant articles in the magazine include:

• Modeling Imperial Japanese Destroyers in 1/700

• Modeling an Owl figure

• A two-page color monograph farewell to the F-1 jet.

• Two pages of detailed illustrations of the Zero fighter

• Building the Hasegawa 1/32 Stuka “Kanonenvogel’

• Building the Academy 1/72 SB2C-4 Helldiver

• Preview of the Tamiya Puegot 307 WRC

• Preview of a kit of the Mazda RX-7 FC3S 1989

• Trumpeter’s 1/35 SA-6 Gainful

• Eduard’s 1/35 Jagdpanzer 38 Hetzer

• 1/43 F-1 Racer from 1969

• Aki Resin for 1/72 Sea Fury

In addition to the articles, like most hobby magazines it has industry news with tantalizing previews of new releases of kits, aftermarket accessories, and tools. Some of the companies producing accessories mention in the magazine must limit themselves to the Japanese market, because I had never heard of them before.  It also has a multitude of ads for hobby shops and manufacturers. The hobby shops look fascinating and I am sure would be a challenge to hunt down.

The biggest challenge I had in conducting the review was that Model Art is printed only in Japanese. So I was able to enjoy the photos, artwork and models but was very frustrated in not being able to understand the techniques used. Still the magazine was fun to look at could be a good source of information. I have included some representative scans of this issue.

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