IPMS/USA Book Review: ModelArt Water Line Model Special #31

Model Art

Water Line Model Special # 31 - "Bismarck"

Reviewed By Kenny Loup, IPMS# 42960

MSRP: Approximately $16 USD
Website: www.modelart.jp

As with all of their magazines, Model Art No. 31 is in almost 100% Japanese text. The format is A4 size, and as usual, the printing and reproduction quality is excellent. Water Line Model Special #31 focuses on the German battleship Bismarck. While the main focus is the Bismarck, this issue also includes articles on Aoshima’s 1/350 Kirishima, a beautiful 1/175 scratchbuilt Yamato made out of brass and a Modeling the JMSDF article featuring an Asagiri class destroyer.

The Bismarck portion of the magazine starts off with profiles of the various ships involved in the Bismarck’s historic and tragic first and only sortie. The color profiles include all of the German and Royal Navy ships that sailed on that fateful operation. I wish that I had an English translation of this section as there are several Royal Navy ships wearing very interesting camouflage.

The next article features a build of the new 1/350 Revell Germany Bismarck. This article shows of the beauty and engineering of this fine kit. For those modelers that build in 1/700 scale, the next 11 pages looks to give a review of the different Bismarck kits featured in this smaller scale. This includes the Pit-Road, Aoshima and Dragon kits.

The history of the Bismarck and the Battle of the Denmark Strait is detailed in the next two feature articles. Here, you will find vintage photos of the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen as well as the Royal Navy capital ships that pursued her. There are illustrated maps of the ships movements as the two forces maneuvered on the high seas.

The Bismarck feature wraps up with a rundown of the available waterline kits of all of the ships involved in this historic battle. From destroyers to capital ships to aircraft carriers, the entire line-up is here. And if that was not enough, ModelArt also takes us down memory lane with the vintage Ark Royal and Tribal class destroyer Revell kits.

I highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Thanks to ModelArt and IPMS/USA for the review copy.