ModelArt is a high quality Japanese language modeling magazine. This edition is a Japanese AFV Database plastic model guide for Japanese military vehicle kits in 1/35, 1/48, and 1/72-76 scales. The guide shows kits of Japanese vehicles, including AFVs, softskins, and figures. The kits are illustrated as built models or an Out-of-the Box view of the kit parts. The text is in Japanese, but there are many high quality photographs that illustrate the kits. The kits have English titles that give the name of the vehicle, kit manufacturer, scale, and name of the modeler.

The sections of the guide are organized by vehicle type. The start of each section includes a few in-action photos of the real vehicles, and at the end of each section is some modeling tips or a sampling of completed kits.

This is another issue of Eduard’s marvelous 1/144 Spitfire IXe kit. This time you get FOUR Spitfires in the box, with eight possible markings.

I was curious about what the Czech language phrase means. I tried several translation sites, but none of them worked. I finally went to Eduard’s web site and contacted them, asking what Naši se vracejí means. I got an almost immediate answer from Libor Havranek of Eduard support. It means “The boys are back”. Cool. Thanks very much for the info.

Since all 8 of the schemes offered in this kit, and they’re all late WW2 or post war, it makes sense. They’re all Czech nationals who flew Spitfires, either for the RAF or the Czech AF. And Eduard pays homage them.

Brengun has come out with a spiffy idea for making your US Navy 1/144 carrier-based aircraft base look even better. It’s a set of PE tie down anchors for the carrier deck.

The tie downs in this set are the “older” cross style. The newer ones, on newer ships are star type. The original tie down anchors on wooden deck carriers looked kind of like a grating which ran from one side of the deck to the other. I found pictures of these with B-25s tied down on the Hornet for the Doolittle Raid.

When the Navy went to angle deck carriers, they had a steel deck. The tie downs were the cross type. They were painted black, and later yellow. There’s a picture below of me standing on the deck of the USS America in 1996, on the ship’s last cruise. The tie downs are cross type, painted black.

Later carriers used the star type, painted yellow, and later white.