For those unfamiliar with this magazine, it is to my mind one of the finest general purpose modeling magazines in the world today. It is filled with high quality articles covering the whole gamut of plastic modeling, from aircraft, armor, and ships to sci-fi and figures. The models appearing in these articles are very well built, well photographed, and in color, and the magazine is printed on high quality glossy paper. This issue contains 160 pages and measure 7” x 10”. The modeling articles are interspersed with the odd photo essay, together with numerous advertisements. The one drawback, at least from this reviewer’s perspective, is that it is entirely in Japanese script.

Issue 834, the subject of this review, contains the following:

Pages 4 – 11 is an article covering the 2011 All Japan Plamodel Hobby Show, which took place in October. Lots of photos of the latest upcoming aircraft, motorcycle, car, ship, armor, figure and sci-fi model kits from the world’s manufacturers.

Pages 12-13: a continuing series covering Imperial Japanese Air Force and Navy airplane items. This issue: a machine gun, gun sight, etc.

Pages 15-31: a series of model-building articles covering the Mitsubishi J2M Raiden (Jack), including the new 1/32nd Hasegawa J2M3, plus an interesting article describing the history of injection molded plastic kits of the Raiden.

Pages 32-47: a series of model building articles covering the Kawanishi N1K1/2.

Pages 56-58: a continuing series on modeling the JASDF, this month with a color and b&w photo essay on 2011 F-15 Aggressors.

Pages 60-77, modeling the Hikawa Maru in 1/700th and 1/350th scales, including a 40 photo essay of the preserved vessel.

Pages 90 – 107: four new kit build reviews: 72nd Sword Ki-44-II Tojo; Finemolds 1/48th Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka; Fujimi 1/20th Ferrari F2003-GA Japan Grand Prix; Trumpeter 1/35th German Neubaufahrzeug.

Pages 116 – 128: new kits, accessories, books, announcements.

So there you have it: an amazing magazine, with a ton of interesting feature articles, together with lots of new release info, etc. If you can read Japanese, wonderful. If not, the magazine is still well worth getting hold of. Thanks very much to DragonModels USA for providing the review sample to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review it.