Importance and Difficulties
of Outlines
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all rights reserved, Model Graphix magazine Japan ---
----Once you
had a team system going, I guess you took charge of body outlines, Kiya-san?
Yes, that’s right. I drew the outlines for passing to mold
manufacture, and I had others on staff design the interiors and engines in pace
with that.
----Those
outline blueprints, of course, included tires, right?
Of course.
Tires are always a bother… Where
you put the wheel centers changes the impression that a car makes
considerably. But the tires don’t
squeeze down under their own weight, as they do on real cars. Even though they’re made of rubber.
----Still, they’re
one of the three most important points with car models, where you have to be
picky.
That’s true. You really have to be mindful of the
tires. But it’s always been that way.
----It’s
surprising the number of people who consider themselves car model lovers, and don’t
notice that. If you don’t take the tires’
natural deformation into account, and make adjustments while designing, you
wind up with a horrendous waist height.
Yeah, a lot of people don’t worry about
that. These days on average, all model
manufacturers have become better, but in the old days, there were a lot of
waist-high cars.
----But, even
with the streamlining you had with the team systems, surely there were people
who could draw blueprints for the outlines…?
Um, we didn’t get many. Of course, I had some people drawing them,
but I’d always have to do some retouching, and it was like “It’d be faster for
me to just draw everything out from the start”.
But, that’s not the way it should be.
----Yeah, it
really shouldn’t have to be that way. I
mean, if you got into a car accident or became seriously ill, Kiya-san, you
wouldn’t be able to maintain quality.
Exactly!
Yes, yes, that’s right… You can have
someone fudge the interiors a bit, but you really can’t do that with the
outlines.
----So then,
you were waiting for a new outlines manager like Sugiura-san (see page 22, page
36 [not shown]) to enter the company.
Yes I was.
I saw the car model designs that Sugiura-san had his hand in, when he
out-sourced for us, and I thought “This guy can draw car outlines can’t he, he’s
got artistic taste!” Then I thought “Maybe
he can work with us at Tamiya”.
Then just about that time, the design
office Sugiura-san was in was about to be disbanded, so I called Sugiura-san,
and had him come to Tamiya as a contract worker first.
----So after
Sugiura-san entered Tamiya, there were two people working on outline
blueprints?
That’s right. Everyone has their preferences and things
they’re suited or unsuited to… But, the
period we worked together wasn’t that long.
That is, about that time I was being asked
to do all kinds of things. Creating
projects… For example, making
arrangements to research and design everything from airplane models to ship
models.
----Ah, I’m
pretty certain you were in charge of the 1/32 McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike
Eagle (sales date: June ’93), Kiya-san.
That’s right. I went all the way to the Seymour Johnson US Air
Force Base to research that one… To be
honest, I really didn’t know why I was doing that. On the other hand, I was designing the 1/12
Ferrari 641/2 and others too, so things seemed mixed up… But with the Ferrari 641/2, I thought “I’m
never giving this to anyone!” and drew out the design blueprints myself.
----But, perhaps
the company had some motive, for taking the stance where they wanted you to have
total production control over some Tamiya products?
Um.., no, it wasn’t like that. When people were saying “Who’ll be in charge
of the 1/32 Eagle?”, I was about to go into a tank crew. Tanks and airplanes are so completely different
from each other, and someone just said “Well why not have it done under Kiya’s
direction, he likes airplanes”.
And, well, you know, the Eagle was
fun. I remember that Revell had a 1/32
Strike Eagle at the time, and the angle of their ancillaries pylon just wasn’t
designed quite right, and I was wondering how to fix the problem… I was thinking “Ah, right, I can use a slide
mold here and have the angle set beforehand” or “Could this be done by
injection molding the body in one piece?”, and actively pursuing things you
couldn’t usually get away with in the world of airplane models.
So we had a rhythm going like that, and in
those days I was leaving a lot of the car models up to Sugiura-san.
----So that was
also your indication of “How much trust I can place in Sugiura-san”, right.
Well, not 100% trust of course. I’m the kinds of person that always complains
about something (laughs). But, when I
do, it’s like “Let’s do it a little more like this”, and it means that with a
person like Sugiura-san, the refinement will be done properly.