Model Art Modeling Magazine is a Japanese publication that is published monthly. The text is mainly in Japanese with some English subtitles throughout. One feature about these magazines is the high quality of the photographs and the models that are used.

In the December issue of Model Art, they start out with a modeler’s how-to guide. In this section they cover how to replicate wood on WWI aircraft, accenting panel lines (washes), and shading.

The next article covers the 2012 All Japan Plamodel Hobby Show. While there does not seem to be much coverage on built models, they do several pages of new releases. To modelers, it looks like 2013 will be another banner year for new kits in all genres.

Following that is a comparison review of six different Tony fighters in 1/72nd scale. They compare Fine Molds, Hasegawa and RS Models kits.

Eagle Editions has released a 1/32 scale sheet for the pending HK Models B-25 “Strafer” which represent the 345th Bomb Group, the Air Apaches. For those who don’t know, the Air Apaches were a Bomb Group based in New Guinea in WWII who flew the B-25J. They flew missions against shipping, ground emplacements, and flak positions using the B-25 bomber not only for its intended purpose but also for strafing almost anything. One thing they also had was very distinctively marked ships. The tails were marked with stylized Indians and the planes marked as bats, parrots, and many other things with great nose art. A modeler’s dream come true.

HK Models’ B-25J Strafer is reviewed here at http://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/b-25j-strafer . The kit is now arriving in the US and these decals give the builder three markings for this kit:

Scale Aircraft Conversions continues their prolific run at supplying modelers well cast metal gear with this latest offering for the Hasegawa Hs-129 kit which has been freshly released in a winter camouflage screen. The Hs-129 was the WWII Luftwaffe equivalent of the A-10 Warthog. The Hs-129 was small for a 2-engine attack plane with a wingspan of slightly over 46 feet. Consider that a P-51 had a wingspan of 37 feet for only one engine – this was a small plane!