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1/32 Hasegawa Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden 'Jack'


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14 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

[...] my understanding is that Sword kits can be rather... challenging, not to put too fine a point on it?

They can but nothing you couldn't deal with.

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On 3/4/2018 at 8:04 AM, ModellerUK said:

Looking great so far! I too delved into the 1/32 scale as they are much easier to paint (cockpits) and have much more detail to add so they ‘come alive’ more. 

 

Thanks mate :) I'm not sure I can be converted to larger scale kits, they have their benefits, as you note, but also are more complicated to construct and could be problematic for storage/display...

 

On 3/4/2018 at 8:15 AM, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

That's looking super Stu.

 

Thanks boss :D

 

I got the cannons and their fairings fitted - the process was not particularly easy as there didn't seem to be any positive position for the cannon barrels (compicated by the fact that they need to be angled upwards four degrees, according to the instructions) and the fairings didn't seem to fit very well either, the outer fairings requiring a bit of filler at the inboard edges. Still I got there in the end:

 

DSCN6966.jpg

 

I started on the undercarriage, assembling and painting the tyres:

 

DSCN6967.jpg

 

Soz about the fuzzy. I masked the clear parts with the Maketar masks and re-fuelled the airbrush with Cowl Blue-Black to paint the interior framing colour onto them:

 

DSCN6960.jpg

 

... and then some IJN Interior Green on the internal armour-glass panel:

 

DSCN6962.jpg

 

Since this will be enclosed I didn't need to keep the mask on this part so I couldn't resist whipping it off at the earliest opportunity:

 

DSCN6964.jpg

 

Onwards with the undercarriage next...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you Matteo :)

 

I assembled the undercarriage members:

 

DSCN6969.jpg

 

The gear covers are just tacked on for priming and the initial coat of underside grey and will be removed for the more detailed painting of the gear leg/oleo later...

 

In between doing that I made up the reflector gunsight - Hasegawa offer two different types but leave it up to you to decide which to use (in fairness you are unlikely to be pulled up on it if you use the wrong one anyway); I went with the Type 98 sight:

 

DSCN6973.jpg

 

Both the reflector glass and the flip-up sunshade are provided as clear parts - I painted the sunshade with Tamiya Clear Green,  though most of the preserved examples I saw on a quick internet search had brown-glass shades; I could have used Tamiya Clear Smoke to represent that but I liked the green better. I also painted a little thinned clear green around the edge of the clear glass lens to give it a more 'glassy' look though it is less realistic as in reality the glass plate was thin enough not to have a coloured tint to it that thicker glass might show.

 

Once I had done that I did a job I hadn't really been looking forward to: Hasegawa provide the engine cowling as a one-piece slide moulded part which is very nice, but it is for the early Raiden with the two cowl machine-guns and they give you two plugs to fill in the holes for these guns as the J2M3 had four wing cannons instead of the two wing cannons and two cowl MGs. The cowling is on it's own sprue, the only part on there, I presume it would be an expense but I really don't know why they didn't make a different cowling for the J2M3 and later versions; I'm a very lazy man and I don't really like filling and sanding so my greivance here is presumably clear? Anyway I did it:

 

DSCN6975.jpg

 

The blackish bits are just where I slapped on some acrylic paint to check for smoothness. 

 

With that out of the way I gave it a quick test fit to get an impression of what sort of size and appearance it will have later:

 

DSCN6976.jpg

 

Actually I do like that, 1/32 is quite a hefty scale and I don't think I'll make a habit of it, but it is quite imressively large.

 

I de-sprued all the engine parts and assembled them as much as could be done prior to painting the various colours, mostly silver/gunmetal/exhaust colour:

 

DSCN6978.jpg

 

Aside from the cooling fan bottom right and the stubs of the exhaust on the upper left, I have a feeling none of this will be visible.

 

Anyway that's where I am now, I hope to get a little more done later today... 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

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Thanks Dennis :)

 

I painted up the engine parts: the front cooling fan and intake and the push-rods(?) in Vallejo Metal Color 'Duralumin', the cylinders in Mr. Metal Color Iron (given to me at Telford as a present - thank you Ced!) and the exhausts in Tamiya Dark Iron. The Duralumin parts came out so smoothly that it doesn't actually look as if they have been painted. Trust me :hypnotised:

 

DSCN6980.jpg

 

Another view:

 

DSCN6983.jpg

 

The kit provides two types of propeller but again doesn't indicate which should be used for each version, presumably as there is some doubt or at least no concrete proof either way - however I had a squint at the instructions for Hasegawa's 1/72 Raiden which includes the same marking options and indicates the use of the later high-performance propellers for the version I am building, so I de-sprued and cleaned up these:

 

DSCN6984.jpg

 

That weekend went damned quick; back at work today but hopefully will get those painted up and assembled in the next few days. Not much left in the way of actual construction now, just the inner undercarriage doors  and their actuators to fit... I think I'll just tack the cowling on for painting and add the engine parts afterwards, probably do the same with the main undercarriage...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Very nice Stew. Admittedly it's not my scale or subject matter, but a good builds a good build. Plus every scale has its own nuances and challenges. Looking nice and professional.

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There you are, over in the land of the big boys! Sorry Stew, completely missed this one, mainly due to the (gulp) scale... up to date now though.

Great work as usual - gorgeous internals and oh, that pilot painting.

Gosh, it's big 'innit?

Great stuff mate and pleased to see the Mr Metal Iron came in handy - I hope you like it as much as I do :)

 

Tony my use of Ratskin Flesh is entirely down to Stew's method, explained here. Like most of my attempts I follow the instructions but don't get the same, beautiful results. I must be missing something, like practice? Or skill? Not an artistic bone in my body... :(

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Thanks very much gents :cheers:

 

Ced, yes the Mr Metal Iron is very impressive - I used it on the Emily builds too :)

 

I got the propeller unit painted and assembled:

 

DSCN7032.jpg

 

I sprayed the propeller tips yellow and masked them before spraying the Propeller Brown (if I recall correctly the actual Japanese name for this paint was 'Tea Colour' which sort of puts me off trying Japanese tea). Hasegawa do provide transfers for the yellow strip but I always prefer not to use transfers on the propellers if I can avoid it. I also fitted the clear parts, primed the aircraft with Tyre Black and sprayed the yellow for the fuselage band and the leading edge ID markings:

 

DSCN7036.jpg

 

I had to do a fair bit of sanding of the canopy centre section to get everything to fit, not sure if I made some gaffe in assembly as I haven't heard mention of any issues in other people's builds. Next I'll have to mask off the ID markings and I can start painting the undersides...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Two months???

 

Doesn't time fly? As I'm getting to the end of my entries for the Carrier Group Build I thought I'd better get on with this one which has been hanging about with a dejected look about it.

 

I masked off the fuselage band and the leading-edge ID markings, and applied a scrappy coat of hai ryuko shoku (the fit of the cowling in the picture looks a bit off but it is only held on with Blu-tack to save me having to mask the protruding exhaust pipes which I would have to do if the engine was installed):

 

DSCN7191.jpg

 

Followed by a few coats of incrimentally-thinned paint to get a slightly uneven and worn effect:

 

DSCN7193.jpg

 

I'll have another look at that when it has dried and if I'm happy with it I'll mask off the undersides and start applying the topside green.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Thank you very much gents :cheers:

 

19 hours ago, spitfire said:

Which yellow did you use ?

Dennis, it was this one. Alternatively you can add a little red to RAF Trainer Yellow.

 

I added a watery brownish wash to the main gear bays to add a little depth to the detail and represent hydraulic fluid, dust and muck residue, and flooded the recessed cannon shell-and-link ejector ports with Citadel Nuln Oil black wash - if you are really eager you could drill these out so that they are actual slots but as far as I'm concerned if it's underneath I am not that likely to look at it again :lol: 

 

DSCN7195.jpg

 

... and I got the undercarriage units assembled; the door insides were painted Vallejo Metal Colour White Aluminium and the compression strut(?) was inked in with a Molotow Liquid Chrome pen to represent the unpainted stainless steel part of the gear legs:

 

DSCN7197.jpg

 

I also painted the inside of the inner gear doors White Aluminium and realised that I had not painted the little outer doors in hai ryuko shoku when I sprayed all the other underside bits; sometimes that's what happens when you aren't paying attention :( I will probably brush paint those rather than trouble myself to clean the airbrush after such a small job.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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And it's a catch up and a bucket of likes from me too.

 

The term you were looking for is the fescalised portion of the oleo strut.

Heretofore after to be known as 'the shiny bit'.

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