We had a great opportunity to speak with Mr. Hideyuki Shigeta, the President of Zoukei-Mura, Inc. I gave Mr. Shigeta a few questions I thought our IPMS members would be interested in knowing.
I asked him to speak about how he got started with scale modeling, and what inspired him to start his company. Mr. Shigeta started in the hobby industry with a shop selling aircraft models, but later saw much success by catering to the Japanese market of animation models. He maintained his love of aviation subjects and branched out into aircraft models again as soon as he could; and of course we’ve seen the excellent 1/32 scale line of models as a result.
I also asked Mr. Shigeta to speak towards how he decides on new subjects, and he said that he was interested in just about any aircraft from the 1930′s to the present, as long as it was unique and not commonly available as a model kit. His goal is to build as much detail as possible into all of his kits, so the experience for the modeler is similar to literally building the aircraft in miniature.
As far as the IPMS Convention and it’s attendees are concerned, Mr. Shigeta enjoys the company of fellow modelers, and appreciates the passion shown by the modelers attending the show. He enjoys the shared experience and likes the fact that so many modelers appreciate the detail that’s found in Zoukei-Mura’s line of model kits.
When speaking about the future, Mr. Shigeta was excited to share that not only were they releasing the new 1/32 scale He-219A, they were also planning to release a number of brand-new 1/48 scale aircraft, such as the Shinden and Ta152. These 1/48 scale models emulate their 1/32 counterparts by being very highly detailed kits, and we can look forward to seeing them in the near future. Mr. Shigeta says that his dream is to be able to make similarly detailed models in a variety of scales, so maybe some day we’ll see a 1/72 scale Shinden with the same wonderful detail found on Zoukei-Mura’s 1/32 scale offerings.
Below is a video of the interview of Mr. Hideyuki Shigeta, President of Zoukei-Mura, Inc.
