A Pair of Dinahs

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, as I said in my post in the chat section I originally intended to do a scratch built Mitsubishi Ki-46 Dinah in 1/600 scale, then my son gave me an Airfix kit of the aircraft in 1/72. And as I said, decisions, decisions. As I couldn't decide I've decided (a decision!) to do both. Here is the kit my son gave me:-

       I won't be doing her in these colours though. Many images of the aircraft show her to be brown or green. I'm not too pedantic of the shades of the colours and I've got both in stock, but which to do, brown or green? Decisions, decisions. Why not do one of each! 🙂 But should the big plane be brown and the small plane green or the other way round? Decisions, decisions. 🤔 I ran this by SWMBO who came up with the brilliant idea of tossing a coin. So heads/brown and tails/green. Or perhaps the other way round? Decis .   .   . Oh shut up Jeff!       I'll decide on Saturday.

 

       As an aside, I think the box art is a little inaccurate regarding actual combat situations. As I've read yesterday the Mitsubishi Ki-46 was designed as a recon aircraft that could fly high and very fast, making interception by enemy fighters very difficult. They carried a lot of fuel but no armour, and only a single rear-firing machine gun for defense. Late in the war some were converted to shoot down B-29 bombers. In this role they carried a pair of 20mm cannon in the nose and an upward-inclined 37mm cannon in the fuselage. Their performance in this role was adequate but only just. The airframe wasn't built to take the recoil of the 37mm and without armour and self-sealing fuel tanks the B-29 gunners shot them out of the sky.

 

       Anyway, enough of me rattling on. Stay safe, and see you Saturday. Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, as you can see I didn't get started until 2PM this afternoon as I was busy this morning.

       I've used my phone (note a very simple flip-phone) for the time because you probably can't see it on the computer screen. The kit looks rather simple, should be easy, what could go wrong?

Do I hear snickering from you other wingy-thingy modelers? What do you know that I don't? 😲

       For entertainment I'm listening to advertisements on You-tube. Annoyingly they get interrupted occasionally by "music". Fortunately these interruptions are of very short duration. At the start of this it was Pink Floyd's 'A Momentary Lapse of Reason' that was interrupting the ads.

 

       The photos aren't very good I'm afraid, a different light than what's over the modelling bench. Although I'm a ship modeler I know a few tricks about making model planes. I just wish I could remember what they are. 🤔 Oh well .   .   .       I've slapped the first coat of paint on the main wings and nearly done the interior of the fuselage. Also the spinners are painted.

       And next to the phone is the wing of the mini Dinah. It's cut, shaped, tapered and given it's dihedral. Those two long white strips of styrene are what I used to do that. I cut a slot down the centre of the wing, ran a bead of glue down the slot and pushed it down between the two strips until the glue set.

       And now it's Nightwish entertaining me. Disappointingly, no ads. 😥  I'll get over it. 🙂

Must go, got things to do. Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, here's the next update.

       Both main wings are glued together, as is the fuselage. I've no idea of the colours of the interiors of Japanese aircraft so I simply used what I had in stock. The aircrew's overalls I'm assuming were leather, ie brown. It's not very evident in the photos but I think they hit the Sake a bit too much before climbing aboard - they're both legless. 😁 The props are done. My yellow had dried up so I used the nearest colour available, deck tan. The fuselage went together quite nicely, hopefully the canopies will too, later.

       On the cutting matt at the nose of Big Dinah are most of the parts for Mini Dinah, the wings, fuselage, tail, stabilizer and top and bottom engine bodies. I just have to cut some prop discs but they can be done later.

       As you can see, a little over 9 hours has been used, but that included time off for tea. (Do I get that time credited?) And right now it's ambient space music keeping me awake.

Thanks for your interest. Got to go. Regards, Jeff.

[Bertie McBoatface]

I remember this boxing from childhood I believe. (My mum threw the decals out while 'tidying up'.)

 

I hope you have better luck!

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, Well I'm certainly not going to achieve the Super Hero option. I've gone just about as far as I can go until paint dries.

       The paint on Big Dinah is taking longer to dry than I hoped and I've got hardly anything else I can do until it does. Plus I'm about ready to crash, I've been going on this for over 14 1/2 hours now (less tea time), nearly 23 hours since I climbed out of bed yesterday. I'm a slow builder at the best of times, now I'm almost paralytic, despite Slade's attempt to keep me awake. So I'll have to complete this in segments later today.

       So it's good night/morning to all, Jeff.

[81-er]

Nice work there, Jeff! Quite impressive seeing the two come together in parallel with the vastly different scales. Excellent music choices too, particularly the Nightwish.

 

James

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, well, I'm back at the bench. I forced my eyelids open with a crow-bar, got up and made breakfast (cereal and coffee) and looked at the models.

 

       Those small light circles in the fuselage apertures I thought yesterday were mounting pins for the cabin floor. Now, due to them lining up with said apertures I think represent cameras. The undercarriage doors gave me a bit of grief last night, not much contact area for the glue so I've reinforced the joins a little with PVA glue. The main wheels were horrible but a bit of sanding made them look better. The wheel hubs and legs, painted last night earlier this morning are still tacky.

       The engine pieces that sit on the above-wing sections on Mini Dinah are too deep due to the thickness of the wing and I can't grip them to sand them thinner so I'm omitting them and building up those sections of engine with PVA glue also.

       Oh well, back to the coal face, supported by a group named "Walk In Darkness". Thanks for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, I've definitely missed the Super Hero deadline but I think I'm still on target for the 24hr build time.

       I've had trouble with the paint. It's getting a bit old and thick, plus I usually like to have a day between coats, obviously not possible in a blitz build. I think what I've done is adequate but it won't win any awards. I managed to get some glue on the rear canopy - put it down to the observer being air sick. Too much Sake before the flight. Although not very visible in the photo Mini Dinah has her 'Rising Sun' spots painted on. Her prop disks are getting glued to the shafts, that's them in the small pegs. The legs of Big Dinah are still a bit tacky, but once the decals are on the legs are getting attached regardless. Big Dinah also has two radio antennae but the fixing holes are too big. I don't want to plug and re-drill at this stage but I might later. In the meantime the antennae can stay off.

       More ambient Space Music coming from the speakers. It's Sunday after all, a day I usually spare from Metal Music etc.     Are well, got to go, both Dinahs are nearly done. Thank you for your interest. Stay safe, and regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, just under 27 hours after starting, 20 hours of build time (including meal times), two Mitsubishi Ki-46 II Dinahs are done. I couldn't complete them in a single session because:

       1. by 4.30 this morning I was like a zombie and wasn't thinking straight   (I finally got to bed at 5.15 this morning)

       2. towards the end I was running out of things to do, and had to wait while paint dried.

     Big Dinah is sitting on a small block because I don't trust the undercarriage at present. She's a bit rough but then aircraft aren't my forte, plus time restrictions prevented me from being too pedantic, considering my slow build speed. I took a couple of close-up photos of Mini Dinah but was appalled at the paint job. As I said above, the paint's old and getting a bit thick. A cement trowel would have applied the paint better than I did with the brush I think. Oh well, I'll hide her at the back of the display cabinet.

     Thank you all for your interest during the Blitz Build. Now I've got more time and less pressure I can check out all your builds here. 🙂 Stay safe, and Regards, Jeff. 

[AdrianMF]

Nice pair! Now, is one smaller, or further away?

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Ngantek]

Great job Jeff, nice to see you do some wingy thingys! I always love your little 600 scale airplanes even if we didn't get to see the 'instructions' this time!

Andy

[ArnoldAmbrose]

4 hours ago, Ngantek said:

I always love your little 600 scale airplanes even if we didn't get to see the 'instructions' this time!

Gidday, I posted them in the chat section, page 2 about 1/3 way down the page, but here they are again.

Although I build them to 1/600 scale I usually work of diagrams at 1/300 or 1/150. It makes it easier to take measurements. The model has a wingspan of 25mm and a length of 18mm.

       Again, thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

[Bertie McBoatface]

They both turned out well I think.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

On 8/28/2022 at 6:19 PM, AdrianMF said:

Nice pair! Now, is one smaller, or further away?

Gidday Adrian, definitely smaller. 🙂 Big Dinah is about 8 times the dimensions of Mini Dinah. Regards, Jeff.