Mitsubishi Ki-46 III Dinah

Mitsubishi Ki-46 III Type 100 (Dinah)
(AKA Shinshitei, meaning New Command Recon Plane)
(Tamiya 1/48)

by Akio Hasegawa, M.D.

The kit is Tamiya's 1/48 Type 100 Imperial Japanese Army Command Reconnaissance Plane. My primary objective is to make the plane of the 18th Independent Escadrille (flight company) with "Tiger proceeds on 4,000 kilometer's way (in Japanese 1,000 Ri), then returns on the same 4,000 kilometer's way, feeling/thinking his/her cubs" peculiar marking on the vertical tail plane (this fable is originated from China).

Ki-46 was designed by Tomio Kubo (main designer and R and D manager, graduate 1931 of the Aeronautics Section of the Faculty of Engineering of the Tokyo Imperial University) who later became the president and CEO of Mitsubishi Automobile Company in 1973. I started this modeling in Dec 2014, exclusively in the weekend at Hayama's retreat.

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All pictures here are shot by me, a seasoned-pathologist, with digital SLR Nikon D3000 Serial #2001042 with old Nikkor-S 35mm 1:2.8 Serial #380104, i.e., manual focus/manual exposure)

(Crick for English description)
This site is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
(Crick for Japanese description)

Completed Images

With the 18th Independent Escadrille (flight company) at Kankou (in Japanese)/Hankou Airfield, China, in June 1943

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Ki-46 III Dihah (Crick to enlarge),

Chronology
2014.12.14. I started spraying intererior painting of the cockpit with Tamiya Cockpit Green (XF-71).

2015.1.24. Cockpit with crews is almost finished - Photo-1, Photo-2 (enlarged view).

This weekend's achievement

2015.1.31. Cookpit is more finely fabricated. Consulting very minutely reproducted fine art -Photo-1-, additional levers are added to around the front sheet (blue arrows) -Photo-2-, which are made from 0.3mm brass wire with a drop of patty on the tip (red and brown). Trial assembly with a pilot -Photo-3-, -Photo-4-, and without a pilot -Photo-5-, -Photo-6.

This weekend's achievement

2015.3.7. The fuselage is glued - Photo-1 (just before glued-on).

This weekend's achievement

2015.4.11. The landing gear is assembled and glued to wheel well. Wheel legs are white metal parts from Scale Aircraft Conversions, Texas USA - Photo-1 -, which I purchased through eBay. Consulting with the reference book (Ushiosyobou, 1978, No. 2 on the bellow list) - Photo-2 (real thing) -, I add wiring/piping, using 0.3 mm brass line (yellow arrows) - Photo-3.

This weekend's achievement

2015.5.3.-5.5. Fuselage and wings are glued.

This weekend's achievement

2015.6.6.-6.7. Piping is added to the engine, using 0.3 mm brass line - Photo-1, Photo-2

This weekend's achievement

2015.6.13. Tires are painted with care - Photo-1, Photo-2

This weekend's achievement

2015.7.18. Canopy glasses are glued -

This weekend's achievement

2015.8.30. The canopy glasses are masked with 1.0mm tapel, this process is a most bother - patience, patience, patience - in scale-model aircraft hobby - Photo-1, Photo-2, Photo-3.

This weekend's achievement

2015.9.19-22. (Consecutive holidays this year in Nippon) I spray dark brown for internal surface of cockpit frames - Photo-1, then spray gray surfacer to the whole area - Photo-2. After masking with tape and newspaper, I spray IFF orange-yellow (identification friend or foe) to the anterior edge of the main wing - Photo-3, Photo-4, Photo-5. Painting yellow is most difficult task for scale modeller, and I spray thinly again, again, once again.