How to read a model kit box and instructions: Japanese and European markings

When you buy models from abroad, the box may arrive in Japanese, German or English. If you can't read it, the usual result is that something is missing: you assumed glue and paint were in the box and they weren't, or you assumed a new tool and got an old mould reissued. This article covers four things: what a box or product page shows, what you have to buy separately, the edition labels, and how to read the instruction sheet. It relies only on the manufacturers' own pages and instructions.

First, the scope. This article looks at Japanese and European makers' pages. Chinese makers' boxes were not read one by one, so they are not covered here. Box layouts differ from maker to maker, and every example below comes from one specific product page or instruction sheet. None of it can be taken as "all makers do this".

What the box and product page show

Airfix has a page on its website devoted to its own boxes. It lists eight elements: a history note, flying hours, a skill level (1 to 4), a paint chart, colour schemes, decals, the product number and the scale ¹. Its paint chart gives suggestions in Humbrol paints ¹.

Other makers have no such page, but their product pages show similar fields. The table below lists what could be read on a few specific pages:

Makers name these things differently, and not all of them list the same things. Age is one example: Bandai and Kotobukiya write 対象年齢, while Revell uses an icon bar. To compare sizes, fields like 全長 (overall length) or 完成時の全長 (length when finished) are more reliable than the scale alone. The scale pitfalls are covered in "Scale model scales".

Product numbers and barcodes

A product number is each maker's own code. Airfix product numbers start with A, and the first two digits stand for the series, so A04105 belongs to series 4 ¹. Revell's pages call it Art. Nr. ⁷, and Kotobukiya calls it 品番 ⁴.

Japan's JAN code has 13 digits, is compatible with EAN, and starts with 49 or 45 ⁸. The JAN code on the Aoshima page begins 4905083 ², and the コード on the Hasegawa page is 4967834211711 ³. Both start with 49, which matches the description above. The official pages don't say where on the box the barcode is printed, so this article doesn't cover its position.

What to buy separately: glue, paint, tools

This is the point where beginners most often lose out. Makers word it differently on the box or product page:

Two things to watch. First, not every product page carries this sentence. The Tamiya 37195 and Bandai ENTRY GRADE pages examined here have nothing like 接着剤別売 (adhesive sold separately) ⁶⁵. Silence is not the same as "not needed", so judge for yourself whether the kit needs glue and paint. Second, check whether the kit is snap-fit or cement-type. Hasegawa's website sorts beginner kits into three steps: 「ステップ1：接着剤不要」 (Step 1: no adhesive needed), 「ステップ2：接着剤必要」 (Step 2: adhesive needed) and 「ステップ3：本格モデル」 (Step 3: full-scale model) ³. At Revell, Level 1 is a snap-fit kit that needs no glue, and Level 2 involves basic gluing ⁷.

*Figure 1: An instruction booklet with separately bought plastic cement, paint and brushes (the booklet is Revell's Ju 52). Photo: Auge=mit, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.*

Edition labels: new tool, reissue, limited

Three terms are easy to mix up. One premise first: on makers' pages these are product labels, and no official page defines them across the board. Only the parts with an official basis are listed below.

• 新金型 (new tool): Hasegawa's product page tags the AE86 with 新金型, and the body text says 「完全新金型で再現」 (reproduced with an entirely new mould) ³.
• 再販 (reissue): on Hasegawa's monthly new-products page, each product is preceded by its scale and product type, reissues carry a separate 再販 tag, and the product number stays the same as before ¹⁰.
• 定番, 特別販売, 特別企画 and 限定: Tamiya has a page that defines them. 定番 is 「全国の模型店で販売されており、継続的に生産を行っている製品」 (products sold in model shops nationwide and in continuous production). 特別販売 means products that were out of production are made again specially, not on a continuing basis. 特別企画 means a product is made again after an interval following its first production run. 限定 means limited in quantity or period, and 「再生産は行われない」 (no reproduction takes place) ¹¹. The classification is shown at the top of each product page, though some older products that are out of production have no label ¹¹.
• 初回発売月 and 発売月: Kotobukiya's product page lists these two separately ⁴.
• Europe: the Revell Gloster Meteor page has "First Edition" in the product name, and says 「Limitiert auf nur 3000 Exemplare」 (limited to only 3,000 copies) and 「New Tool」 (a newly developed kit) ¹². This is what one product's page says. No official explanation of what "Limited Edition" means at other makers was found here, so don't infer it from this one.

The upshot: the same word can mean different things at different makers, so go by how that maker writes it on its own pages.

How to read the instructions

Instruction layouts also vary by maker. Eduard's Spitfire Mk.Ia 1/72 instructions run to 20 pages, and their structure is a useful reference ¹³:

• The opening has notes in five languages (English, Czech, German, French, Japanese) ¹³.
• Then comes a row of symbols, such as OPTIONAL, BEND, SAND and REMOVE ¹³.
• Next are the parts diagrams arranged by sprue letter, with a separate mark for parts you won't use ¹³.
• A colour chart, matched to paint brand numbers. This one uses the H and C numbers of GSi Creos (GUNZE) ¹³.
• The step pages. Each step has part numbers, colour numbers beside the areas to paint, and boxes showing which colour schemes the step applies to ¹³.
• The colour scheme pages. Each scheme has a history note and multi-view drawings, and the numbers on the views are decal numbers ¹³.
• The last page marks the positions of the small decals ¹³.

A few points:

• A colour number is one paint maker's code and is not universal. Eduard's colour chart uses Gunze numbers ¹³, Airfix recommends Humbrol ¹, Tamiya's product page lists 「使用する主なタミヤカラー」 (main Tamiya colours used) ⁶, and the Italeri page gives US Federal Standard F.S. numbers besides its own paint numbers ¹⁴. If you use another maker's paint, you have to find the matching colours yourself.
• The colours on the box may differ from the instructions. Revell says in its FAQ that the colours on the packaging are the base paint scheme, and that detailed colour advice is in the instructions ⁷.
• The instructions may have an updated version. Eduard's instructions tell you to check the website for the latest version ¹³.
• Multilingual instructions: the Revell Gloster Meteor page says delivery includes 「Bebilderte, mehrsprachige Bauanleitung」, an illustrated multilingual instruction booklet ¹². Eduard's notes are also given in five languages side by side ¹³.

*Figure 2: A page of Airfix T-34 instructions. The circled numbers and small boxes in the step drawings refer to parts and colour schemes. Photo: TheRustler45, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.*

*Figure 3: An open box, with the sprues bagged separately and the decal sheet set aside (a Bandai kit). Photo: Gravis, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.*

Skill levels

Airfix rates difficulty from 1 to 4 on the box. Its website says that the higher the level, the more parts there usually are and the harder the build ¹. Revell has a Level system too: Level 1 is a snap-fit kit that needs no glue, and Level 2 needs basic gluing ⁷. Each maker's levels follow its own standard and are not interchangeable. For more detail, see "Plastic model kits for beginners".