Wooohooo, were'd you dig up that relic? That was a while ago!
Ya know, I wrote the article in Japanese, and never got around to translating it into English (not even for dear ol' Mom and Dad!).
That column is called
Watashi no Kessaku (My Masterpiece).
I just wrote about how as a child growing up in Southeast Georgia, I had never heard of Tamiya, until one day I came across a kit in Savannah, Georgia, and my modelling life was changed forever. I mentioned how impressed I was as a lad with the big ol' 1/25 Tiger I, and how I built one at age thirteen or so and then another almost 30 years later. I expected them to use the pix I sent of my Tiger I for the article, but they chose my M-41 pix instead, for whatever reasons. I didn't even mention it in the article!
I also mentioned my color blindess and the special challenges that presents to modelling.
Embarassingly, I also mentioned my next project was Tamiya's Tiger II (Porsche) modified to represent the Tiger II at The Tank Museum at Bovington in the mid-80's...a project that I've yet to finish!!
Anyway, that's about all the article says...of course, since it was comissioned for a Tamiya Magazine, I went on a bit about that great Tamiya quality and whatnot, all things that I truly do believe in. I was really flattered to be asked to write such an article, but I kinda had to scramble for a Tamiya kit I had finished recently that I would consider to be one of my "masterpieces," though. When they asked me, I was on Dragon roll!! All I had available here in Japan was My Tiger I and M-41. The other 1/25 Tamiya models I had built just weren't up to snuff for the article, in my opinion.
Tim, thanks for reminding me about that article, and humble thanks for posting it here!