Model Art Modeling Magazine is a monthly periodical from Japan providing an abundance of modeling subjects in each issue. It doesn’t matter what your modeling focus is, each issue will provide something of interest for you, and more than likely, you’ll find something interesting that you didn’t know you would.

The magazine is published in Japanese, but even if you can’t read Japanese, the photography is fantastic and the old saying “a picture says 1,000 words” is very true. Each issue includes enough “work in progress” photos for even a layman to be able to follow along. The photos of the builds highlight many of the tools, materials, and techniques used by the master builders for each model built. Although I’m sure something is lost in translation, the photos go a long way in explaining the builds visually. Honestly, sometimes I find myself spending as much time looking at the many advertisements as much as I do the work in progress photos.

The main theme of the April issue is the Kawasaki Ki-61 “Hein” (aka Flying Swallow or “Tony”). As such, the cover and most of the articles in the magazine are devoted to the Ki-61, with a few build reviews including the new 1/48 Tamiya version, the 1/72 Aoshima version, the 1/32, 1/48, and 1/72 Hasegawa versions, as well as reviews of the Fine Molds, RS Models, Revell, and others. There’s also a couple articles about the remaining Ki-61 surviving versions.

However, it’s not completely dedicated to the Hein, and as usual, this issue includes build articles and new kit reviews of everything from armor, to ships, to cars, to planes, but one that really caught my eye was the review and build article about Platz 1/12 Bonsai tree model.

The diversity of subjects, combined with the quality of the photography easily makes this publication a highly recommended item.

Thanks to Model Art for making this publication available to IPMS/USA for review.