Model Art

Water Line Model Special Number 35, Spring 2010

Reviewed By  Scott Hollingshead, IPMS# 34786

MSRP: 1700 YEN (about $17 US) Website: www.modelart.jp Available from: www.dragonmodelsusa.com The Spring 2010 offering from Model Art Modeling Magazine Water Line Series is dedicated to Japanese Navy ships Kongo and Haruna, and focuses on 1/700 scale builds of them. This magazine measures 8 ¼ inches by 11 11/16 inches, and is printed on thick, glossy paper, like the other Model Art productions that I have seen. The production quality is high with this magazine, just as I have found with their other releases, and once again, over half of it is printed in color with black and white pages scattered throughout. Just in case this is the first review of a Model Art magazine that you are reading, understand that the entire magazine is printed in Japanese with only an occasional English subtitle to help guide one along. On opening this issue, you first find a page consisting of four post cards with paintings of the Bismarck, USS Hornet (with Doolittle Raider B-25's on the deck), a Japanese aircraft carrier, and a Japanese battleship. The first article starts on page four, runs to page nine, and covers the new 1/350 scale kit from Aoshima of the Japanese light cruiser Kuma in 1942. This article contains several nice close-up photographs of the various areas on the ship. The main articles begin next with the section titled "[Inspections] Detail of Kongo and Haruna in Pacific War", with the first section going to the Kongo in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October of 1944. This sixteen-page, action packed article shows great detail with the build up of what is hard to believe is only 1/700 scale. Ship modelers who add photoetch details to their projects will either love or hate the amount of metal added to this project, as there is a tremendous amount of it. The next offering is twelve pages worth of the Haruna in 1934 after its second modernization, and again there are plenty of in progress photos showing more detail, and the addition of a more manageable amount of photoetch parts. A twelve-page article begins on page thirty-eight and shows photographs of Fujimi's Kongo and Haruna kits as well as their photoetch sets for these kits. Most of the pages in this article are in black and white, and there are several line drawings of the ships to guide the modeler. Pages fifty-one through four are a foldout with a color print of the Kongo on one side, and 1/350 scale line drawings of the superstructures on the other. Beginning on page fifty-six is an eight-page article on the Kongo in December of 1941 completed with line drawings of the bridge as well as the full ship Starboard and top views. Oddly enough, the following eight-page article is on the Haruna in December of 1941, and this article, like the previous, includes some line drawings of the same items as the Kongo. On page seventy-two, a six-page article on the Kongo in the Battle of the Philippine Sea begins, and like the two preceding articles, this contains some line drawings of the ship. Pages seventy-eight through eighty-three cover the Haruna in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and again there are photographs and line drawings of this ship at this period in time. The final two articles on the Kongo and Haruna are representations of these ships in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October of 1944. The Kongo is covered first in a six-page article that begins on page eighty-four, and the Haruna article runs to page ninety-five. Page ninety-eight is a "New Kit Selection" article on the 1/700 scale Aoshima release of the Japanese aircraft carrier Soryu in 1941. The article that follows has no English whatsoever, but shows more of what I believe to be the Aoshima kit as well as period photos of the Soryu, and some nice line drawings to help any person building this ship. There is plenty of detail packed into this ten-page article. Page 112 is the start of an eight-page article titled "Naval Review of the Imperial Japanese Navy", and this contains some twenty-two photographs with dates as far back as 1869. The final article in this magazine is titled "Revell Archives" and covers the cargo liner M.V. Benledi, and includes a photo of the real ship in its four pages. If you, or someone that you know, have an interest in the Japanese Navy battleships Kongo and Haruna, then this would make a fantastic reference book for you (or for them). Although the magazine is written entirely in Japanese, the great photography and drawings will benefit any model enthusiast looking to add one of these ships to their collection. My thanks to the folks at Model Art and Dragon Models USA for making this issue available for review by the IPMS Reviewers' Corps, and thanks to you for taking the time to read it.