Model Art Profile #12 Mitsubishi A6M Zero Fighter

MODEL ART just released their very new book in their "Profile" series, Model Art #847, PROFILE #12. It's the first part on the Mitsubishi A6M Zero and covers: A6M2, A6M2b, A6M2-N and A6M2-K. The whole book is put together by Nohara Shigeru although in the first part there are beautiful illustrations and very helpful captions by Sato Shigeo & Kunihiko.

The publication is of the same size and paper quality with the rest of the series, it has 156 pages, 41 b/w photos, 85 colour photos, 80+ colour illustrations by Nohara Shigeru and 10 pages full of colour illustrations by Sato-san. It's written in Japanese but English translations are included in the end.

Overall: The book was scheduled to come out on the 25th of May but hit the book stands earlier in time for the Shizuoka Hobby Show. It's not bad but personally I regret I bought it. To start with of the 66 colour profiles by Nohara, 47 were featured in his older and admittedly far better "Zero Fighter Illustrated" by Green Arrow, with very very few changes. ALL the vintage photos have been featured in other publications, FAOWs #5 &#55 for example. There is not even one that appears for the first time. The majority of the colour photos are of models. Drawings from the Zero maintenance manual have been included before in the Green Arrow book or other publications. 

So, this book obviously aims for the modellers, especially those who just start and can't find any of the older publications on the Zero. On the other hand it's much worse than the older ones. It's bad regarding the number of vintage photos compared to the FAOWs and average regarding detail coverage compared to the Green Arrow. Considering that these Model Art publications come out only once (there are no reprints) my impression is that Nohara put together a book with older material to sell to younger modellers until this one too is sold-out and a new one rehashing the same material comes out.

The only reasons to purchase this book are if you don't have any of the older publications or for the brilliant illustrations by Sato-san which have been featured in Model Art magazine monthly issues. 

Mildly recommended only to new modellers.

The book is available through our site. Price is $US40.00 INCLUDING postage by SAL. Send us an email if you are interested.