This is Model Art Magazine’s Imperial Japanese Navy Warships Scalemodel Album. As with the regular Model Art Magazine, this is printed in Japanese with some English subtitles.

This special issue is chock-full of photographs of built scale models. It features ten magnificently built scale models. Some of them are a Yamato in 1/350th, Nagato in 1/350th, and Akagi in 1/350th, as a few examples. Each ship has several pages dedicated to it with a multitude of color photographs for each.

After the main gallery, there is a section devoted to some of the build notes of each model. These are highlighted with black and white photos of the models during their construction.

While the price may seem a little steep for a photo album of built models, if you have an interest in IJN subjects you would find this issue interesting.

I would like to thank Model Art and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this fine magazine.

History

What more can be said about the P-40? The P-40 was made famous by the AVG “Flying Tigers”, but was utilized by almost all of the American allies during World War II. The Warhawk was also used in almost every theater of operation during the war.

Every county involved during the war evaluated captured aircraft in some form or another, even with pressing them into service due to the lack of spare parts, such as the example of his kit.

Kit

This is a Limited Edition kit from Hasegawa, and compliments the rest of Hasegawa’s P-40 line. The kit is produced in light grey plastic. It features recessed panel lines with a minimum of flash.

As with most aircraft kits, you start with the cockpit. When complete, you have a nice representation of a P-40 cockpit. One downside is that there are no seatbelts on the seat. You will have to go aftermarket for these.

According to Dragon Model’s web site, this model represents “a vehicle whose main function was combat supply on land and in water. It could tow an amphibious trailer, or alternatively it could work in tandem with another Panzerfahre as a floating ferry platform capable of carrying a 24-ton load.” However, other than the prototypes, no other vehicles were manufactured. Yet we get a lovely injection-molded kit of this weird vehicle!! The Golden Age of Modeling, indeed!