Model Art

Panzer Graph! Issue 5, Summer 2006, D-Day

Reviewed By  Andrew Birkbeck, IPMS# 27087

MSRP: $20-$38 This is the second Panzer Graph! I have reviewed for IPMS USA and once again I will say: if this magazine were in English, it would be fantastic! Sadly for those among us who aren't able to read Japanese, the magazine is much less useful, and frustratingly so, as going by the pictures and what English there is in the magazine, it would have been a great read. The format is A4, with stiff card covers, containing 148 pages printed on high quality paper. The title of this issue appears to be D-Day and inside the magazine the reader will indeed find a number of D-Day related articles, although not exclusively so. The first article in the magazine is one on building Tamiya's French Char 1B converted into a Flammpanzer as used by the Germans in Occupied France. B&W photos of the real vehicle, excellent color photos of the model under construction and in its finished guise, plus text (all Japanese). Following this is a two page graphic detailing the military strengths along the D-Day beaches and in the air, both Allied and German. Next is an 8 page color article going over the construction of a very nice Atlantic Wall gun emplacement, including a 20 photo "tour" of the beaches as they are today. Then comes a very complex and highly detailed 1/700 diorama depicting ships just off shore of one of the landing beaches, using various Sky Wave kits. This diorama is complete with 7 "floating" barrage balloons overhead! Following this article comes one on the various D-Day "Funnies", specialized engineering and assault vehicles designed by the Allies to help with various specialized tasks employed by the British 79th Armoured Division. These are all depicted in drawings showing the vehicles themselves, along with schematics showing how the vehicles were employed on the battlefield (or battlebeach!). Included in this article is the scratch building of a 1/35th British Centaur Dozer. A third of the way through the magazine comes one of the true "gems" of this magazine, a diorama depicting a scene similar to the one from the movie "The Longest Day". If you know this movie, you will remember the scene where an Airborne trooper drifts down out of the sky, only to land awkwardly through the roof of a green house. This amazing 1/35th diorama consists of multiple troopers, and is completely scratch built, including farm house, green house, all the figures (troopers, farmers, farm animals etc). Most amazingly, the diorama depicts the trooper just hitting the greenhouse roof, with his parachute still fully deployed above him! The article shows how this was achieved using a CAD milling machine to make a mold from which to vacuform the parachute canopy. Killer stuff, with over 100 color photos backing up the (all Japanese) text. A second fabulous diorama depicts Trumpeter's massive 1/35th scale BR52 Kriegslokomotive in French railway livery, wrecked on the tracks together with two wagons containing flak guns. Despite the use of the Trumpeter kit, there is plenty of scratch built details. A massive tour de force. Ever wanted to know how to scratch build cows? French thatched farm cottages? British paratroopers? There are a number of different articles showing you how in this magazine. Also an article depicting all the gear, from weapons, to uniforms, to boots, that an 82nd Airborne trooper would have parachuted into France wearing. And an article on some Japanese fellow who owns his own 1/1 German Flak 37 AA gun, depicted sitting outside his tiny apartment building! Over 100 color photos are included in this article! Finally there are the usual short book reviews, model reviews, plus various pages showing advertisements for Japanese hobby shops, as well as a multi paged article on the history of Japanese armor kit production. This looks very interesting but again is "all in Japanese". There is also multi-page coverage of various Japanese model shows. Non-Japanese content? Two pages give English summaries of four of the main articles in the magazine. Why only four, and why these specific four I haven't a clue. And then there are another two pages in English devoted to an "interview with a modeler", Spanish modeler Luciano Rodriguez, who apparently lives in the Canary Islands! As with many translations from Japanese to English, these are at best adequate. So there you have it. The magazine retails in Japan for $20 US equivalent, but I have seen it at my local hobby store for $38. The production qualities of Panzer Graph! are first rate, some of the best I have seen for any hobby "magazine". And the articles themselves look fascinating, which is why I am so frustrated that I can't read virtually any of it. My fault I suppose for declining to take Japanese during high school and university when it was offered to me! Recommended to those who get a lot out of glossy photographs of models and who have the cash to spend $20 to $38 on a magazine they probably can't read.

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