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Greetings from Singapore!
The Mitsubishi Ki-46 Hyakushiki
Shitei (Type 100) Command Reconnaissance, Allied codenamed 'Dinah', was one of
the very few machines that were used by both the Imperial Japanese Army Air
Forces and Navy. Considering the rivalry between both services were as intense
as the war with the US, it was quite remarkable that the Dinah found itself
into both. It was a glowing tribute to the design and capabilities of the
Dinah. This was a fast plane that can cover very long distances. The Dinah
virtually flew at will in the early stages of the Pacific War, nothing in the
Allied inventory could catch it. Even with the introduction of the P-51
Mustang and F4U4 Corsair later in the war, the Dinah was still hard to catch.
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I had this kit for some
time now and finally came around to building it. I just loved how the
Dinah looked. Even when stationery, the Dinah looked fast! Out of the box
quality was very good with recessed lines, fine moulding and good quality
overall as expected from Tamiya. The kit fit together without problems
except for the wheel well which had a bloody difficult seam to fill.
I did
some cockpit detailing by adding Eduard IJN Seatbelts and drybrushing the
control dials. I used my wife's draughting and design pens to add some
colors into the cockpit controls. Sure beat having to paint them with a
brush!
Painting was as
recommended by the instructions. The kit depicted 'White-88' from Hiko 10th
Sentai of the 1st Chutai. (somebody explain to me what this means!) Tamiya
paints were used throughout, XF-11 IJN Green for the top and XF-12 IJN Grey for
the bottom fuselage. After paint-chipping by the blade-peeling method, the kit
was sealed by 3 coats of Future. Weathering was done by degrading the paint
quality with the Tamiya Weathering Master 'B' - Snow and Soot. The
panel lines were then highlighted by using a 0.05-tip draughting pen before a fine
spray of Tamiya X-19 Smoke mixed with the XF-11 IJN Green was applied to
accentuate the 'old paint effect'.
Hope you guys liked
it.
Rai
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