Moson Model Show ~ Japanese Subjects

Correspondent and contributor Marion Holly from USA has very kindly shared this report and his photographs of Japanese aircraft models displayed at the Moson Model Show held in April at Mosonmagyarovar in Hungary. In his own words then. . .

"The Moson Model Show (MMS) began 20 years ago as a scale model contest organized by the local club in the small Hungarian town of Mosonmagyarovar. Over time it has developed into one of the largest European scale modeling events. This year it was held during the weekend of April 20th through 22nd. 

"There were 2315 models entered in 66 contest categories (1749 models in 2017) by 881 modelers from 35 countries. I’ve always wanted to attend this show. Mosonmagyarovar is only 16 km from the border of my native Slovakia, but in 1996 I had settled in the USA so attending the show became slightly more “challenging”. 

"This year, about 3 weeks before the show I asked myself why wait any longer? It seemed a bit crazy to fly over the pond just for a weekend and the availability of flights was also of concern. But it all worked out and on the Friday morning of April 20th I landed in Vienna.

"Fast forward. It was all just amazing - beautiful summer weather, friendly, English-speaking town folks, peaceful spa town environment, great food, beer. And models of course. I’ve attended several big shows in the US, including Nationals, and abroad (UK, Mexico, Czech Republic) but the quality of the entries seen here was the best so far. As just one example of this, admiring some stunning detail work I accidentally discovered that I was in the junior section! 

"Having been interested in Japanese aviation all my modeling “career” I naturally focused on Japanese subjects and wanted to share pictures of them. There were not too many (relative to the total number of models on display), type selection was not too wide, whilst quality and presentation varied. 

"Artur Domanski’s 1/32 A6M3 Zero (posted at this blog on April 20th) was really nice. I just don’t think that a Zero with cowling removed looks that good. Also I’d debate the camouflage representation - field applied green flaking off as opposed to hasty overspray (in my opinion). 

"The weathering fad is alive and well with Japanese aircraft on top of the list with totally off colour shades and paint chipping to death, for example the 1/48 Seiran and Kyofu dioramas. 

"In two days of intense viewing I was only able to find one JASDF model, the F-104J (but lovely -ed.)! Lack of interest in this “theme” surprises me and I’m planning to return to it soon on this blog (Good! - ed). 

"Do visit the MMS website to see pictures of all the other models. My personal favourites are the 1/72 SM-79 Sparviero from the Italeri kit and a P2V-7 Neptune from the Hasegawa kit - just amazing detail work and finish."  

There appear to be approximately double the number of IJN subjects to IJA subjects. Most subjects being of well-known types except for the Army Type Otsu 1. With special thanks to Mario for sharing these photographs and his report from the show.

Image credits: All photos © 2018 Marion Holly