Model Art Magazine is a monthly magazine that covers aircraft, armor, ships and car modeling. Model Art started releasing magazines in 1966 and has evolved from there over the past forty nine years.

The February issue starts off with a build article of the Zoukei - Mura 1/32 Horten Ho229, IJA/N Airplane Illustrated and a special report from the 2014 Reno National Championship Air Race and Air Show.

The main article this month is a feature of many of the new ship models that have been released in 2014 and 2015. Some of these releases are the Fujimi 1/700 Kaga with 3 stage flight deck, Aoshima 1/700 Kanmusu Light Aircraft Carrier Chitose, Hasegawa 1/450 JMSDF Atago and the Pit Road 1/700 IJN Special Cargo Ship Kashino.

Following their release of the 75mm Pack Howitzer with ¼ ton truck and crew, Bronco has released a British airborne version with a crew of five. When this kit came up for review, I had just finished building Vision’s 75mm Pack Howitzer and thought it would give me an opportunity to compare the two kits. Much to my surprise the Bronco kit is the Vision kit with a new sprue added to detail up the original kit. There are two sets of trails on the pack howitzer. The front trails and the rear trails. Both sets are hollow, with lightening holes on the sides. The hollow front trails house the equilibrator springs and the rear trails are just hollow. Vision released the original kit with a one piece molding of the rear trails, which looked okay but really didn’t represent the hollow trails to well. In the Bronco release you get the entire Vision kit along with a new sprue of parts that better represent the hollow rear trails.

As Gary Hatcher states in the editorial, the dust is settling from the transition in editors and they are striking a balance between modelling, reference and history with modelling having the lead. This edition is chocked full of detailed articles on all types of planes.

The lead article is a test shot build of IBG's RWD 8 PWS by Karl Robinson. The final results are great and as this is their first aircraft, Polish manufacturer IBG comes out strong with this kit and bodes well for the future. Karl shows off his rigging skill as well.

Richard Mason previews Revell of Germany's 1/72 C-54 Skymaster with shots of the sprue and a history of the plane itself. The kit has a full interior and it builds similar to the RoG C-17. The kit looks great and I can't wait to see it show on American shelves.

Ultracast has issued a figure than can be used in Tamiya's 1/32 F4U-1a Corsair and they picked one of my favorite subject, Pappy Boyington. The kit comes in seven well cast tan resin pieces- two arms, two legs, torso, head and chin strap. The castings are excellent with minimal to no mold lines. And the sculpt is by Mike Good and is superb.

I started the build by freeing the pasts from the casting blocks with a razor saw. A few scrapes with the back of a knife and the seams were gone. I added the arms and the legs and had small gaps. I used Squadron white putty to fill in the seams and smoothed with a lacquer thinner. Once dry, I primer with Alclad gray primer.

I started with the flesh which is only the face. I have started using Scale 75 paints and really like them. I built up layers over a base coat and probably over did the creases some. The eyes are meant to be slits like he is looking into the sun and I could got them a little narrow.

Tamiya’s Wildcat has been around for a while and it is an excellent kit. Scale Aircraft Conversion has produced a set of metal landing gear to use on the kit. The set includes all the gear parts including the portions up inside the nose. A new tail wheel is also included. The metal parts are well made and are drop in replacements for the kits parts, but are made of metal. The metal is stiff but retains its malleability. Some cleanup will be needed to free it from the molding sprues and I recommend a razor saw for this work.

Several modelers have asked me “why metal gear”? I agree, that this kit is not particularly heavy and my answer is twofold. First, have you ever lost a part? I have and while you can get the parts for most kits, getting these sturdier parts is much easier and it may be cheaper that the alternative of buying an entire sprue to get a part or two.