Master Modeler: Creating the Tamiya Style

The blue and red star logo of Tamiya is now recognized internationally as the mark of model kits of unrivalled quality and precision. It was not always so. In the 1950s Shunsaku Tamiya joined the family firm-a debt-ridden lumber business in an air-raid flattened city. He started manufacturing wooden models-only to have that business wiped out by the arrival of plastic model kits imported from America. This autobiography shows how he responded to that challenge, successfully switching from wood to plastic before producing a series of hit products-1/12 formula one cars, slot racing cars, military miniature tanks, warships, radio control and 4-wheel-drive cars-that continues uninterrupted to this day.
Model maker, craftsman, photographer, machinist and accidental businessman-this book is the self-portrait of a man whose energy, curiosity and love of perfection created a new standard in modelling and gave pleasure to millions of fans the world over.

SHUNSAKU TAMIYA is president of Tamiya, the world's foremost model manufacturer. Now in his late sixties, he started working in the world of models almost fifty years ago. He has set new standards of quality for plastic models and personally invented several entirely new genres. Endlessly curious, full of boundless energy, and a straight-speaker with a wonderfully down-to-earth sense of humor, the author completely capsizes the idea that a successful businessman has to be a bore: but then he is not a businessman, but a craftsman and an artist.