Dinah and Jay Part Two - Building a Classic

Building a Classic: Marusan’s Ki-46-III  

by Mark Smith

Considering its 1961 origins, the Marusan 1/50 scale kit of the Ki-46-III ‘Dinah’ captured the airplane's lovely lines remarkably. It was a pace-setter, as in comparison most contemporary models of Japanese origin were mere approximations of their subjects.  When Tamiya released their 1/48 scale Ki-46-III in 1996, it was streets better of course, and a lot more fun to build.  The first time I took the Marusan Ki-46 to a model show at St. Louis in 1982 I was confident that at least I’d be bringing something many had never seen built.  When I went to find the right table for the model, Roscoe Creed had already shown up with the same kit beautifully built, and to boot, it was a Dinah in brown over gray, in 81st Sentai markings.  I talked to him briefly, and he admitted traveling there with the same thought.  So much for assumptions.

I remember a few details about it. It had been needing repair for a long time, but I finally got it back in one piece and, like the old Tamiya Myrt model I recently showed here recently, getting good photos of it for the first time brought back some of the building experience.  For the top surfaces I used a Humbrol paint color of those days, N17, which had been altered very slightly but I don't remember how. (N17 Brown was an IJN color in the Humbrol Authentics range available in the 1980s). The lower surface was Humbrol A/N2 Grey from the same range. All markings were masked and sprayed with Pactra paints. The Mattel Vac-U-Form toy provided thinner parts for landing gear doors and under-cowling air-scoops. 

The kit portrays an early -III with a single external exhaust pipe for each engine, which greatly limits markings choices. The separate cowl flap pieces in the kit, however, made updating it to a later version easier. By vac-forming them and cutting each flap separately they could be mounted in the opened position; whilst the thrust exhausts of the later model were made from sheet plastic. 

The windows were cut from clear acetate, and all other transparencies in the kit, though ‘Monogram-nice’, were re-created by vac-forming them.  This really made a difference for the nose landing light, for which a mold was made and vac-formed. The kit's raised panel lines provided nice guides to re-scribe them, necessary because the fit of parts in places left a lot to be desired. The Monogram 1/48 Zero provided the prop spinners, with prop blades grafted on from . . something. This does not really convince, but looks better to me than the kit parts. The kit’s engines were poor as well, and replaced with ones from a Nichimo Ki-51 Sonia kit.  The tailwheel unit was scratch built. 

Unless it shows a replacement aircraft with identical markings, a blurry photo seems to show that this particular aircraft of the 17th Dokoritsu Hiko Chutai was eventually converted to a fighter configuration with a 20mm cannon mounted obliquely on the spine, between the crew stations.  I didn't know this in 1981, working from the color side view painting in the Maru Mechanic book on the type which showed no weapon. But it couldn't have looked too different before the conversion. There are photos of unarmed recon Dinahs with the cut-down antenna mast modification as seen on the model. In any case, it was a necessary step for mounting a weapon directly behind. The antenna aerial is a casualty.

When I started this, I knew the crew stations here could be the key to making the model I imagined. My influences here were two modelers, Raymond Waddey, met around 1969 while in high school, and Adrian Evans, whom I came to know after returning home from college. Unlike me, both were true artists with a brush or a pencil; they had that flourish. To a teenager’s ‘How do you do this?!’ questions, Ray gave thoughtful answers. A couple of times he even brought materials to the chapter meetings and showed me how he did things. He helped me find a Mattel Vac-U-Form machine, and gave me some quality Grumbacher brushes (when he saw mine!) which I only wore out over years.  His models were all brush painted, which set them apart, but he had a method for avoiding brush strokes and blending colors I’ve never seen equaled. He was squared-away Air Force, crew cut and all. Ray later made a name as an aviation artist. I always liked his three-dimensional art best, though! He worked in 1/72, and worked wonders on old Airfix kits like the Blenheim and Hampden. He had the Pilot’s Notes for many of this subjects, all of them, and tried to include all the cabin appointments they illustrated. Along with sheet plastic, I think he worked with stiff paper to create odd angles and scale edges.

This Dinah model, however, came much later, and was particularly inspired by the work of Adrian Evans, a fine Dallas jeweler and goldsmith whose fourteen-carat work was created through ‘lost wax casting.’ Many of the tools and techniques of his jewelry work translated beautifully to plastic modeling. Watching him work at a jeweler’s bench, his eye and his hand were on great terms. If a customer wasn’t exactly sure what they wanted, Adrian would draw it until they were.  Not long after I finished this model, he had said, ‘you could be a jeweler if you wanted,’ and soon after he took me in as an apprentice in his shop, ‘The Goldbrick’, where I learned enough to eventually make my way as a goldsmith and stone setter, though never a custom jeweler in Adrian’s fashion. Like Ray, Adrian was glad to share his techniques, and always keen to try new ones, though much of it boiled down to hard work - staying with it, a bit at a time, until an assembly was built and fitted. 

The sprawling Crown Hobby and Toy was right across Preston Avenue from his shop.  Some days neither of us got much done by going over to Crown so that they wouldn’t either. (The Goldbrick was aptly named!) Many Texas aircraft modelers were either first inspired or newly inspired by Adrian's aircraft on display in the big showcase at Crown; among many quarter-scale masterpieces, the Fujimi A-6 Intruder, Lindberg F-11F Tiger, and his Aurora A-7 Corsair II, with its hand-painted snake on the tail for VA-86 “Sidewinders” were favorites and very strong ‘maybe I could do that’ magnets. 

I’ve lost touch with both men, though I’ve tried to find them. In any case, thanks Ray, and thanks Adrian, you are missed but your kindness is always remembered.

With very special thanks to Mark for sharing these images of his strikingly beautiful Marusan Dinah build - the painted markings are superb -  and the fascinating back story anecdotes of personalities and places. Allowing for scale the khaki brown finish is uncannily close to the colour cited by Noburo Shimoune as being factory applied to both the late production Ki-46-III and Ki-67.

Image credit: All model photos © 2023 Mark Smith; Box art via Web

Dinah and Jay by Mark Smith and Dennis Naylor - Part One

AoJ Texas correspondent Mark Smith takes us on another enchanting trip down memory lane for a nostalgic, two-part remembrance of the Marusan 1/50 scale Ki-46-III kit of 1961 and modelling pioneer and author the late Jay Dial, with memories of him by Dennis Naylor. Over to Mark then:-

'“The Iron Dog.  A disheartening description for any aircraft designer to hear applied to his creation…”  When I think of the late Jay Frank Dial, this remark that opens his 1967 Aircraft Profile on Larry Bell’s sleek P-39 is usually not far behind.  It reflects the salty nature that marked his style as a writer and person.  While his subject was the technical and historical, the men who designed and flew the machines featured prominently.  Jay and David Aiken were members of IPMS North Central Texas (IPMS-USA’s founding chapter), which met monthly at the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Dallas. They were the first people I remember meeting who shared my passion for Japanese aircraft of WWII.  Each was kind to share reference material for model projects – and I was only one of many to benefit from their generosity.  Sadly, both are gone now. 

Marusan 1961

'Jay had a house in Arlington, David an apartment in Irving.  The most difficult part of each visit was finding a place to sit!  Each was an Aladdin’s cave of sorts, and that passion had overtaken almost all available space.  In the late sixties and early seventies, information on our beloved subject was almost always in Japanese: books, magazines, and photocopies I couldn’t read. The color gatefolds in Koku-Fan, Cyclone, and Aviation Journal, sometimes accompanied by a smaller page of color side views, seemed quite exotic in those days.  Jay somehow had a pretty complete collection of most of these magazines he’d begun collecting in the fifties, and some Japanese pen-friends who could offer selected translations and memories.  He introduced David to some of them, as I recall.  As a fairly new enthusiast I was typical; I wanted some hard and fast answers so I could accurately paint models - ha! I wanted a little more certainty about some things, but certainty was seldom on offer.  Both Jay and David certainly had a cryptic side, but looking back, much of that mirrored the hesitancy of their own Japanese sources to serve up simple dogma on the subject.  Jay was the first person to suggest to me that Japanese perceptions and descriptions of colors could differ notably from Western ones.

'Jay Dial’s seminal 1964 book, 'United States Camouflage World War II' (shown above), self-produced and published, was an early authority for many on that subject, well worth getting today if one can be found.  It included color paint chips inside each cover that, carefully overseen by Jay throughout, nevertheless proved the most trouble and greatest expense of the project.  Both his research and the production of those charts had assured him that the subject of aircraft colors involves untold vagaries and that color standards, at best, are only that: standards that in practice could yield remarkable variations.  

Marusan 1963

'Jay was also a 1/48 scratch builder who produced some beautiful work.  He showed me the model of Walker ‘Bud’ Mahurin’s P-47, “Pride of Atlantic City N.J.” which he had built out of basswood to present to the pilot, quite fine.  He built two; the first one was stolen (at a model show, as I recall!), so he did it again.  Looking at the second one shortly before its delivery, I admired the hand-carved propeller and sleek razorback fuselage.  I asked “Where do you start?” and received his all-purpose answer, “You just carve away everything that doesn’t look like a P-47”.  Pressed further, he said, “Study lots of photos and find the best drawings.  Start from there”. 

Marusan 1967

'He was frankly a little disdainful of plastic models.  But he must have not have been immune to them, for he had many, with a special weakness for Japanese kits.  There I saw the Okamoto Ki-115, the Otaki 1/90 Lily and 1/40 Judy, among other rarities.  Like the magazines and books, they were not organized in any discernible fashion, but he knew where everything was.  If not in sight, he knew what it lay beneath.  Jay was in a wheelchair, however.  If he couldn’t reach it with his trigger-handled grabber, access to most items might depend upon the next visitor.  There at his house I first spied the box-end of the Marusan 1/50 kit of the Ki-46-III Dinah.  Gold!  Gold I’d only heard about.  Having asked permission, I made it through a tunnel of kits and magazines without upset of either, and fished it out.  And I began to covet.  After managing the words, “Is there any way that…” he cut me off at the pass.  “Oh! – it’s not for sale or trade,” he said, eyes brightening and smiling now, relishing the moment.  With that voice, the goatee, dark eyes, and iron grey hair, he would have made a fine Mephistopheles in Goethe’s Faust. "Which is a shame, as it’s a very accurate kit". There for a moment I’d thought he might have pity on me for my youth, a common misconception among the young.  “It was designed by Kikuo Hashimoto, after his own drawings".

Fuji Issue 1960s

Fuji Issue 1969

'When I finally found one for myself at a model show, it was in different guise, under the UPC label (heading image).  A little flash was all that distinguished the difference.  I built it during most of 1981, with an excellent (Bunrin do) FAOW (FamousAircraft of the World) title and the 1978 Maru Mechanic already available then, which between them portrayed most detail areas that might interest modelers.  Time has been a little unkind to the finished model.  In the last ten years, the wings have started bowing upwards, from the engines out, and through several house moves, a few things have been knocked out of alignment; the same for me though.

UPC First Issue 1965

'Bud Mahurin lived to be 92, passing away in 2010.  I’ll bet the P-47D Thunderbolt Jay Dial made for him proved more durable over the years than my delicate Dinah – one of the reasons Jay liked to work in basswood and metal wherever possible.  That model wasn’t for sale or trade either.  It was a gift, one of admiration, built twice out of necessity.  I hope someone still has it, and it’s in a place it can be seen and appreciated.  

Sunny Issue (ex-Fuji) 1975 

Arc En Ciel Issue (Korea) 1985

'I was troubled by the fact that when writing this, I could not find one single obituary for Jay Dial in an online search, and could only find his dates (1936-2007) in U.S. Social Security records which tell me he was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Otherwise, my searches mentioned 'Jay Frank Dial' only in relation to copies of his books for sale on various sites.  He was quite a character – how could he be forgotten so quickly?  I wrote to a mutual friend, Dennis Naylor, as I thought he had known Jay better than I.  I didn't realize how much.  Dennis had met Jay a decade earlier as well.  With his permission, it seemed appropriate to close below with the memories Dennis kindly provided:-'  

"Ah, Jay Frank Dial. He was indeed a pivotal figure in local model building history. I met him in the late 50's at Edgar Seay’s MAL Hobby Shop in Irving, Texas. At that time, we didn't see anyone in a wheelchair.  He and Charlie Thompson were the main figures in my taking up model building. Dial was famous for his camo book and 1/72 Corsair vac canopy set that allowed the builder an option to build the birdcage version. If I recall, the canopies were a whopping 25 cents, post included. I couldn't wait for mine to arrive and mounted one asap on the old Hawk kit. Badly. He was a true fan of the F4U (and authored the excellent Profile No. 150 on F4U-4 to F4U-7), and taught me the various cowl ring differences between variants, how to make a dash 2 (with 5 guns!), the clipped span RN types and why they existed at all, that one elevator worked on the right OR left sides, and a million other bits of trivia. He used to call me and without a hello, say something like "what is a Digby?" or "what is a Tarpon?", to which one was to reply ‘B-18’ or ‘TBF’ instantly. I visited him often and we talked aviation and models.

In 1964 Yasuo Oishi published one of the early English language books on  the subject of Japanese colors in collaboration with Dale Norman Flanagan

"He was pals with David Aiken and many others gone today: Lamar Kemp, Jim Sage, Gordon Stevens, Ed Seay, Tom Mitchell, Charlie Thompson, John Pidler, Yasuo Oishi, Bob Davies, Ray Beall, Russ Manning, Tom Ward and a horde of others critically important to the hobby and its growth. All were pals of Dial as well.

"He was a Colonel in the Confederate Air Force, and was very proud of his role in overseeing the "Sea Search" scheme applied to their C-47, and a major figure in the Texas Aviation Historical Society (TAHS) that met monthly at the Republic Bank in downtown Dallas.  Jim Sage brought the first Frog color series kits to these meetings. Talk about exotic!  MS406, Folgore, D.XXI, Baltimore, and other fantastic types. Astounding times for a whelp like me. Sadly, we grew apart over time. Firstly, cars and girls took all the time I could spare in my mid 60s teens. Then Kathy and I married, and the kids followed; jobs and careers required more time and effort. In the days before the American Disabilities Act, his life had to have been a special kind of Hell sometimes. Yet I never heard him complain or whine. I miss him.  

"In closing, I have little physical things or photos from many of my departed pals. He gave Kathy a SAAB J29 he had built as a kid. But when I went to an airliner show earlier this year. Kathy found a copy of the old Aero hardback 'Italian Civil and Military Aircraft'. I told her I already had it, but when she pointed out "this one was Dial's", I bought it on the spot.  It's now a treasure here in my collection of weirdness." - Dennis Naylor 

With special thanks to Mark Smith and Dennis Naylor for sharing these interesting reminiscences.

Image credit: Box art editor persoial collection or via web; Book covers editor

Kawasaki Ki-100 in 1/48 by Michael Thurow

Michael Thurow has kindly shared images and details of another of his excellently built and improved classic Otaki 1/48 kits, this time the bubbletop Kawasaki Ki-100. Over to Michael then.  

Celebrating Otaki's Ki-100

by Michael Thurow

Did I mention that I enjoy exploiting vintage kits? Otaki are among my favourites, motivated in some way by the considerable number of Japanese models which I bought in the seventies and eighties when only a few brands were available. Another, more heroic reason is my penchant for challenging projects. And so I've started a decade ago to refurbish antiques that I built in those years, like the Ki-61-I Hei of my last post here.

This Ki-100-I Otsu from 1974, however, comes from my stash of 'new' kits. As it happened I acquired it twice, the second one around 1995, as an Arii relaunch. I was misbelieving that the one in my possession was a Ki-100-I Ko with the high-back fuselage. Now I had a couple of outdated kits (I wished one at least were from Hasegawa), so latterly I decided to take them on. It proved to be an unwarranted providence that I had two of those kits!

My subject is a Go shiki sentoki of the 111th Hiko Sentai established at the Akeno Training Air Division, so enticingly portrayed in Nick's 'Ki-61 and Ki-100 Aces'. It's possibly c/n 16280 flown by Lt Mamoru Tatsuda of the 2nd Daitai.

Like all kits, Otaki products have good and bad features, and this is exactly the case with this one. Overall dimensions are accurate, and their classic rendition of engraved panel lines and rivets appears to be more or less in the right place. Some proportions of the fuselage are miscarried, however, as are the nose profile and the wheel wells. This is where my duplicate kit comes in. The next picture indicates some modifications - for those with an asterisk* I cannibalised secondary parts.

For other areas I used aftermarket items to upgrade the model (engine, cockpit, wing racks, landing flaps, gear doors, canopy) ...

... and added a few scratch improvements like the wing roots, wheel wells and landing light.

Not only were the various modifications quite demanding but also the complex tail markings which are largely home-made. I struggled with the Sora iro Blue # 34 as described by Nick. Finally I resorted to Tamiya X-14 Sky Blue which I toned down with a thin medium grey overspray. For Olive-brown # 7 Colourcoats ACJ22 Ohryoku nana go shoku is an excellent choice. It has a rich volume and covers and dilutes very well.

I hope my efforts make this classic kit look 40 years younger (I wish it were true for me, too...)

Michael

References

KAWASAKI ARMY TYPE 5 FIGHTER, FAMOUS AIRPLANES OF THE WORLD NO.23, TOKYO, 1990

KAWASAKI ARMY TYPE 3 "HIEN" & TYPE 5 FIGHTER, MECHANIC OF WORLD AIRCRAFT 2, JAPAN, 1994

I.J. ARMY KAWASAKI TYPE 3 & 5 FIGHTER, MODEL ART NO.428, TOKYO, 1994

JAPANESE AIRCRAFT INTERIORS 1940-1945, ROBERT C. MIKESH, MONOGRAM AVIATION PUBLICATIONS, STURBRIDGE 2000 KAWASAKI KI-100 GOSHIKI-SEN, AERO DETAIL 32, GIUSEPPE PICARELLA, TOKYO, 2009

KAWASAKI KI-61 HIEN / KI-100, KAGERO MONOGRAPH 18, LESZEK A. WIELICZKO, LUBLIN, 2014

KI-61 AND KI-100 ACES, NICHOLAS MILLMAN, OXFORD, 2015

With special thanks to Michael for providing this article and images of his build.

Image credit: Article box art by Rikyu Watanabe © 1980 Otaki Model Toy Mfg Co.; All model photos © 2023 Michael Thurow; Ki-100 photo via author's article 

Ki-43-III Ko in 1/48 by Francesco Borraccino

Francesco Borraccino has made this model of a Nakajima Ki-43-III Ko from the Fine Molds 1/48 scale kit, representing an aircraft of No. 39 Kyōiku Hikō-tai (教育 飛行隊 - Instructional Air Unit),  a fighter training unit based at Yokoshiba, Japan from the end of July, 1944. This unit was equipped with a variety of aircraft including the Ki-79 advanced trainer and Type 3 Ki-61 fighters.

Francesco describes the Fine Molds kit as not a 'shake and bake' experience but believes an average modeller should be able to build it without problems. He riveted the completed model using FAOW drawings for reference. Some details were scratch built such as copper wire spark plug cables to the engine, lead wire and stretched sprue for the landing gear hydraulic cables, but he also added aftermarket generic Eduard JAAF seat belts and a Yahu instrument panel.

He felt his real challenge was trying to nail the correct shade of paint for the Tachikawa factory finish to emphasise its brown tone. Eventually he settled on a mix of Gunze paints - H70 RLM 02 + H81 Khaki + H84 Mahogany + H421 RLM 81. For the under surface colour he mixed Tamiya paints XF52 Flat Earth + XF55 Deck Tan based on the description of Mr Noburo Shimoune in a 1968 Koku Joho magazine supplement, reported here in February 2009 as follows: 'I want to say that the underside colour was gray, but it was not Nezumi-iro (rat or mouse colour). Rather it was a colour similar to the top colour but lightened with white.' In 2004 an extant sample of this paint was compared as close to FS 36405 Gray. 

The prop and spinner were painted with a mix of Gunze H302 Green FS 34092 with a drop of H53 Neutral Gray but Francesco considers it a little bit lighter. He painted the cockpit grey green and added light weathering effects using oils, pigments and pastels with reference to photos.

All the markings were painted on using masks except the unit insignia decal which unfortunately broke up and had to be repaired at best endeavour. The insignia represented the numbers '3' and '9' said to be in the form of a swallow.  

Wheel wells were finished aotake. According to Mr Shimoune's description 'The landing gear wells were totally painted in blue anti-corrosive primer. The commercially available Humbrol metallic blue is a close colour.' although Francesco noted several models of this Hayabusa variant with aluminum painted or bare metal wells. Francesco used the new Mr Paint formula for aotake which he considered better than the old one, that being too dark and too blue.

Tachikawa had begun manufacture of the Ki-43-II in May 1943 and began manufacture of the Ki-43-III Ko in parallel from July 1944, based on Nakajima engineering, ceasing II production in September of that year and continuing III Ko production until August 1945 with a total of 1,727 produced. In 1944 Tachikawa Hikoki KK, founded in 1924, was responsible for the manufacture of about nine per cent of Japanese aircraft and operated plants at Tachikawa, Okayama and Kofu, the latter two being small assembly factories. Despite an air attack in February 1945 the Tachikawa plant was ordered to remain in production, only obtaining permission for dispersal arrangements in May 1945. As a result the building of two forest sheltered and semi-underground and underground plants at Ogose and Ninasaki resopectively were started but were not completed by August 1945 and dispersals were made to breweries, spinning mills and even private houses. The February 1945 attack by USN aircraft impacted Oscar production with 40% of the wing spar jigs, 90% of the welding equipment and 30% of the main wing assembly jigs destroyed, but even so 90 Oscars were manufactured that month, representing 85% of production the previous month, and the following month 155 aircraft were manufactured representing a  47% increase on the January total. B-29 attacks were made on 4 April, 24 April and 10 July 1945 with the 24 April attack being the most destructive and the 10 July attack causing negligible damage. Despite the attacks production continued with 70  Oscars manufactured during April, 120 in May, 93 in June, 80 in July and 35 in August.

Build Pics

With special thanks to Francesco for sharing these images and details with Aviation of Japan. 

Image credit: All © 2023 Francesco Borraccino