The Little World

My daughter visited Japan for a two-week holiday last year. Thoroughly loved the place and will go again. On this first visit I primed her to visit a model shop in Akihabara with instructions to bring me back a small 1:72 model kit of something that we don’t get in Australia. Her choice of whatever she saw.

She visited Tam Tam and bought a unique Academy model, and upon explaining her mission, was given directions to Leonardo’s – a secondhand and out-of-issue model shop some four blocks away. It resulted in three more kits – all of them long out of date but still unbuilt  – and all for bargain prices. The L&S Mitsubishi Dinah was all of 600 Yen…about $ 8.00.

Perfect condition and unopened plastic packet inside. It has a number of unique features:

1. Orange-yellow plastic as befits a Japanese Army trainer of the period.

2.   Delicate parts with minimal flash. Even two little aviators…minimal detail on them.

3.   Excellent clear parts.

4.   A small tube of glue and proof that No.5 loves me.

The instructions are all in Japanese, of course, and it is only the excellent diagrams that save the day.

The decals are good – this kit is 80’s or 90’s, I think, but there is no deterioration in the printing. The black lettering is not shown on any colour call out ir box art and the internet has shown up no examples of it on the originals…so it will be left in abeyance for the present.

Altogether, this is a delightful kit. A pity the maker has long gone out of business, but if I can manage the language barrier, there should be more L&S products at Leonardo’s in Tokyo.