Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah **FINISHED**

Discussion and the builds for the SMW 2012 CBK display.

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Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah **FINISHED**

Post by JamesPerrin »

I got the other Roy Cross book for Christmas flicking through it quickly become obvious which box art I was going to build this year. The Dinah is a pretty little aircraft of which I know very little other than it was a fast recon machine. Roy's dramatic scene bring some excitement and urgency to what may be seen as a more sedate subject. It's got a tiger on the tail in case you are still not sold!

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Thanks to TimJ who picked this up at Cosford but offered to sell it on to me. It's great that this has the correct artwork on the box. Despite the old boxing the kit it of an even older vintage and it looks like the moulds had already started to suffer (of course someone could have put newer plastic in and older box :roll:)

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The interior is basic as you would expect I won't do too much in here as the thick heavily glazed transparencies will render it futile. Note though they have moulded some rudimentary cameras on the underside of the floor. I cut back the wide tabs that would hold the clear parts right back apart from the corners.

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I've mainly been cleaning up the other parts. One of the spinners was badly swollen around the middle an I was glad I cut cut the props off so I could go at it with a coarse sanding stick. The other job was to separate the flap from the lower wing halves, so they could be lowered as in the picture.

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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

Post by JamesPerrin »

Well I got the bench free of a few builds now and so it's time to return this. A little work has been done on interior which I'll post about a later date. Tonight I've been working on the wheels and undercarriage. Firstly the spoked wheels have flush disk covers, this was done by sanding down the hubs. Next the solid scissor links were removed and replace with some scratched examples.

Before and after:

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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

Post by JamesPerrin »

I believe it's meant to be a pale grey but the box art looks off white. I many use the appropriate grey and then lighten/fade it. I'm sure it would bleach in the hot sun.
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

Post by SJPONeill »

Maybe a very light grey but it looks white on the box-art - I could never figure out why when I was a boy because everybody knows that there's no snow in the Pacific...
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

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I had spent quick a bit of time cleaning up the awful state that the spinners were in. Luckily I could remove the props as blurred ones would be added later. However these are very rounded and on looking at photos of the different marks these appear to have been introduced later on the K-46 III. The Ki-46 II which I believe the kit represents has more pointy spinners, if we check the box art we see that Mr Cross got this correct!

A rummage in the spares box turned up some Airfix F-4 drop tanks that had the right profile.

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While the spares box was out I also located a couple of Matchbox WWII pilots (right) who were a little more human than Airfix's efforts (left)

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Here is were I'd got to with the fuselage before I closed it up.

A - the nose light should point forward rather than down. This was cut and filed open and then boxed in with card.

B - the IP was miles away from the pilot. I therefore made a new one and added dashboard. A small head rest was added for the pilots comfort.

C - the rear canopy sat too low so some shims of card have been used to make it flush with the line of the roof. This aircraft has very nice lines so it's worth trying to have them flow uninterrupted.

You can also see the cameras which I've just painted black in the lower fuselage.
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

Post by Dirkpitt289 »

That's a nice "classic" looking kit. I look forward to seeing how this turns out. Some of you guys are just magic with these old kits
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

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I finally return to the bench proper. The nights are now drawing in and the sun and has gone down by the time I sit down.

First job was to paint up my two substitute pilots as members of the Japanese airforce. This was mainly achieved by painting on the significant padded looking life-savers and choosing suitable colours.

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They jumped aboard as soon as they were ready (the airfield's under attack you know) and I added the glazing using tube glue as they were a few tiny gaps here and there. I had got the fuselage together, filled and sanded before my break from the bench.

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Another small improvement was to the scoop intakes under the cowlings. These are moulded as shallow U shapes, so a thin piece of card boxes the shape in and improves them greatly.

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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

Post by JamesPerrin »

Brews wrote:You've seen the Dinah at Cosford, then, James?
Yes at the model show earlier this year and took plenty of pics, though it is a different mark eg has the rounder spinners. The box art is my main guide though.

Next decision is on the colour. I believe it's meant to be pale grey but in the box art it's almost white. I'm thinking of over spraying a suitable grey (suggestions?) with off white esp. the upper surfaces.
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

Post by beany »

Brews wrote:IJA Grey is Tamiya XF-14. It's a pale grey-green, like Sky Type S.
Tricky one this as normally I would have said exactly what Brews has just said, however, if it were me, the box art looks white/ very light grey, so that's what I'd do it, choosing to accurately reproduce the box art rather than "knowing" what it should really be. Up to you at the end of the day James - gonna look GOOD whichever you go for.

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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

Post by JamesPerrin »

Thanks for the input chaps. I'll use the a similar to hue to what Brews has suggested by a much lighter tone.
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

Post by JamesPerrin »

Short but productive potter tonight.

I've decided to build the two attacking Corsairs and the other escaping Dinah.

I located some line drawings and scaled them to the correct size - this was all done to the nearest 0.5cm.

For the fuselages I'll use sprue of the correct diameter. Since I had sprue to hand that matched the smallest Corsair I started there. Keeping it 'attached' at the cowling I marked out the length on the sprue and where things tampered, then whittled and sanded the tail to shape. A shim of card was added for the cockpit and spine. I cut out the shapes for the wings and tail and stuck them to card (in the end I used thinner card for the tail than the wings).

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I cut a notch for the single piece wing, into which I had added the distinctive gull wing. The fuselage was then cut from the rest of the sprue and and the flying surfaces attached with superglue.

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The larger Corsair will be created used the same technique, the Dinah needs a bit more shaping and also has the nacelles to deal with too.
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

Post by Clashcityrocker »

What the mind can conceive the hand will achieve. Fabulous work.

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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

Post by Jagewa »

Hey that's great scratching James.
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

Post by Dirkpitt289 »

now that's some fancy scratch work you got going on there James. Very very impressive!
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Dinah

Post by wbk666 »

well thats little lol
great work on both that and the dinah.
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