The Modelling News: Review: Euromodelismo #251 review - The second special Birthday English edition

Euromodelismo Magazine’s anniversary issue was actually a double! We looked at the special 250th edition last month but the new Issue #251 is the second half of their celebration and we have read and taken pictures of the mag with some comments to better introduce you before we re-join their party…

Review:

Euromodelismo 251

English Language Special Edition (Also available in Spanish)

88 Pages,

A-4 format

9€ from Euromodelismo directly or good model shops and bookshops

Euromodelismo has for a long time been a mystery to me. Usually packed with beautiful scale models from all corners of modelling - armoured vehicles, aircraft, figures, science fiction, fantasy, automobiles and ships in usually step by step procedures. There is always a fair bit of art involved in the kits they show off and a little “Spanish” style is the order of the day here.

Euromodelismo 251 is available as a special edition in English as well as the normal Spanish edition for their “birthday” double issues. This is a nice window into a magazine that otherwise I would not be able to read and understand and I would have missed out if this was not in my language. It’s great that this is an option this time. Maybe they should continue this?

Each of the modellers in this magazine give their own personal thoughts on the magazine and their own connection with it and their modelling history. It is a nice tie in to this special edition and a good view into their world.

Firstly we look at some more history – last issue we had some of Euromodelismo’s history and we wanted to see more – and this issue investigates the “dark ages” as they call it – the modelling decade of the 1970’s.

This first part of the history of the hobby in Spain by Rodrigo Hernández Cabostalks of the state of the hobby in those years. Featuring a narrative of his own experiences modelling and the growth of the first specialized stores, his experiences with the many contests that have become the norm and the birth of the “Modelismo & Historia” magazine. Some great pictures of memory lane kits are a good companion to the text here.

The first work on display is the 1/35th scale diorama in exhaustive detail – there are eighteen pages in all detailing every detail of Carlos de Diego Vaquerizo’s “After The Blitzkrieg, Poland 1939” diorama. This is a small diorama but all of the information from here could be found in a modelling book it is that in-depth.

Carlos’s shows every detail of from the imagination of the groundwork and display base through to the super detailing of the tiny burnt out AFV with a lot of scratchbuilt interior, to the figure of the boy looking into it and the Germans driving past through to the sassy lady who is hopefully not up for invasion like the rest of the country!

The very dry and dirty work of Miguel Jiménez is second on display with his Egyptian M109 2011 in 1/35th scale from AFV CLUB. This is an example of how you can create interest with different shades, details and nuances when painting a model which is all over one colour.

Although this is a challenge for most Mig takes us through his build, painting and weathering processes with his usual charm. His writing is always good and it is like you are receiving a personal lesson from the master when reading his build reports. There are lots of great hints here for even the best modellers out there.

We look at a dirty Spad next - Juan Villegas Castro’s 1/48^th scale Douglas A-1H Skyraider from Tamiya. Juan shows us how he uses AFV modelling techniques on this aircraft to make a dirtied-up war weary fighter-bomber that looks like it has been flying feet off the ground in Vietnam.

This is more of a step by step article and technically the best put together here with the step by step treatment showing just how he got to the finished article little by little. Propellers, bombs, wing panels, huge drop tanks are shown in isolation before the whole lot was put together. This is a little dark for my taste but gee it’s technically great!

Next is the impressive build inside and out of the World War One vintage Albatros D.V, by Wingnut Wings in 1/32 scale by Chema Martinéz. Being a Wingnut Wings kit this is already an impressive base with which to worked from, but Chema has turned his kit inside out almost gyncalogical view of the kit. He makes all of the parts and paints them – even the ones you will never see with the finished product lithe wooden insides of the fuselage and the engine which looks just amazing.

A lot of masking, shading and layers of red, white and black in different hues have gone into this and the extra details like the shading on the engine’s cowling and demarcation of the different kinds of wood, metal and canvas surfaces and their treatment make this a very special model indeed.

The figure guys are not left out – in this edition we go for the classical age with a 54mm figure of General Armistead, Hidalgo-Beneito figure from Hildago Miniaturas Militares by Luis Gómez Platón.

This figure of the famous Confederate General seen charging into battle is only discussed in a few pages but they are pretty good pages. Problem is that there is too much talk about the man and not enough on the very nice model – I would have liked to have seen more of how he got so nice.

The mix of kit types, the high quality, special guest modellers and the interesting expose’s of how these modellers do their work makes for a helpful magazine and a nice celebration for the second part of Euromodelismo’s birthday. It’s a great thing that this is in English as well as Spanish as it’s one of the better magazines out there and well worth it if you can get one.

Adam Norenberg

Thanks to Accion press for sending this to us to read and review - this edition of Euro Modelismo is available right now from their website..