Who made this ID?

[grwebster]

I acquired this aluminum ID thinking it was perhaps part of a wartime Japanese series. I have never seen any ID models from Japan and have no idea if this could be one or not.

[BWBrown]

What does it say on the wing? I can't read it from your photo. Must be my failing eyesight! Japanese models were in metric scales. I have 40+ ship models from them, but only 5 plane models. These appear to be in scales of 1/40, 1/50, and 1/75. Obviously, this is too small a sample from which to draw conclusions about their overall effort. The Japanese did do models in both wood and metal. I need to know the size of the model, and details of any other salient characteristics, before I can proffer an opinion. Lemme know!

[grwebster]

the photo came from the album stored on my computer so I can not tell you what it says- next trip to USA I will send it along
Can you post pics of those Jap IDs you have.

[ramseyd]

Bryan,
It says 197 or 192 or 19Z TOR HOR/B or 8 or 3. I ended up with this through one of GR's Auctions sales. It has no rust, but feels a little heavy for Aluminum, although I guess it could be. Wingspan is 12 1/2 inches, length is 8 7/16 inches. Dennis

[BWBrown]

Hi Dennis -
I don't know what to tell you. I only have 4 Japanese models in metal, so that's hardly a sample from which to draw any conclusions. I can say that all 4 were painted in full camouflage colors originally, with kanji characters and hinomarus. One has a tiny anchor stamped on the bottom, and one has the number 621 stamped on the bottom. None were ever black, and none have any English characters on them. This doesn't mean your strange beast isn't Japanese in origin. It just means it is not a stylistic match with mine. If you could identify the plane that the model represents, perhaps the characters on the bottom might make some sense. Let me know if you learn anything. I'll give it some more thought and see if any other ideas come to mind.
Cheers! -- Bryan