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1/32 Hasegawa Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden 'Jack'


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1 hour ago, spitfire said:

Hi Stew I found a site with a Raiden cockpit photo in it, I don't know how accurate it is but it may give you some ideas.

 

Thanks mate - that looks uncannily like the coloured etched parts for the Eduard set... I wonder if it has any basis in reality or if they just copied Eduard? I might go with those colours in any case, it will make for a more interesting cockpit and in the end no-one will see it anyway :D

 

Thanks again Dennis, and thank you too Clive :)

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Well that didn't take as long as I thought it would, in fact I am surprised how quickly it got done... but I think the pilot is finished:

 

DSCN6918.jpg

 

DSCN6917.jpg

 

I had to mix some orange paint up from Citadel Red and Yellow paints for the trimming on the parachute pack. Never noticed before that I don't have any orange in the paint collection but I doubt I will need any again for a while :D

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Wow that's looking great! I am still struggling with getting the right look on faces, your finished item is exactly how I'd like mine to look if only I could get the technique right.

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Thanks very much gents :cheers: 

 

18 hours ago, clive_t said:

I am still struggling with getting the right look on faces

 

Clive, for what it's worth I did very little to the face - a base layer of Citadel 'Ratskin Flesh', a couple of washes of their 'Reikland Fleshshade' and a dark grey dot for each pupil with a suggestion of dark grey for the eyebrow. It helps if the face is nicely moulded and you just have to highlight what is already there; the Citadel wash really did most of the work for me (and that's not false modesty) :)

 

As it happens I missed a couple of details - painting the life-jacket drawstrings and applying the flight-suit badges which are suppled as transfers:

 

DSCN6920.jpg

 

The instructions indicate you should apply no.35 to the left sleeve. I don't know how obsessive of details you are but I'm guessing you are to some degree - you're a modeller after all - so no.35 is the badge for a Lieutenant (Junior Grade) and is only appropriate for option 1 (Yoshihiro Aoki's aircraft with the lightning bolts on the fuselage). For option 2 (Lt Susumi Ito's) you should use decal no.33 which is the Lieutenant's badge and which is the one I have chosen to use, as well as one of the Hinomaru badges for the right sleeve which started being worn around February 1945. The other badges - the round and shield-shaped ones - are other ranks' badges. I've applied the appropriate ones now and they are currently settling under doses of Mr Mark Decal Softer.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Thank you Edward, as I said it is a very nicely-moulded figure and the details are well-defined which does make painting it a lot easier :)

 

I did the detail painting on the cockpit parts:

 

DSCN6925.jpg

 

... and 'clicked' everything together to see the effect:

 

DSCN6922.jpg

 

I'll just give his flight suit a coat of matt varnish and he will be done, and I'll get the cockpit tub put together...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

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On 2/27/2018 at 7:56 AM, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

...A Tamiya G4M1 arrived at my house yesterday; a birthday present from dad. We could have a Japanese theme at Perth this year B)

 

Good call from your Dad :) Yes at this rate we could have quite a IJNAF display...

 

Lieutenant Ito is settled into the cockpit:

 

DSCN6929.jpg

 

Hasegawa provides a series of internal strengthening braces that need fitting prior to joining the fuselage halves:

 

DSCN6931.jpg

 

There are similar parts to fit between the upper and lower wing halves; they should stop the fuselage and wing flexing and popping the glued seams when handling the kit. I'll leave those to set for a while then get the fuselage closed up...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

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On 2/28/2018 at 11:29 AM, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Modern Hasegawa stuff seems quite robust like that

 

Yes it's a good idea and it should be pretty sturdy when it is all joined up.

 

The fuselage is currently clamped and setting and the action (such as it is) now moves on to the mainplanes. There is a bit of chopping and fixing to to before the upper and lower wing halves are joined... Hasegawa moulded the wingtip navigation lights on in opaque plastic with the rest of the wing:

 

DSCN6933.jpg

 

... but they also provide clear parts to replicate the light cover for those who wish to use them - I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't; it is possible to 'fake' a navigation light of this sort reasonably convincingly but nothing really looks as real as a clear part, so we'll have those off:

 

DSCN6935.jpg

 

Yes I know, I'll tidy it later. I didn't forget to do the same for the upperwing halves:

 

DSCN6946.jpg

 

... as I was in the area anyway, drilling and cleaning out the holes for the cannon that need to be cut out:

 

DSCN6945.jpg

 

Again, not very tidy but they are covered by semi-cylindrical shrouds/fairings once the cannon barrels are fitted. I then built up the 'cradle' of internal wing spars:

 

DSCN6939.jpg

 

I test-fitted it to the lower wing and it fit so nicely that I glued it in straight away, along with the outer wing spars:

 

DSCN6941.jpg

 

... before finally adding the spar block between the wheelbays:

 

DSCN6943.jpg

 

... and then finding that I had not drilled the locating holes for the auxiliary fuel tank, so mine won't be carrying that :( 

 

Finally as the kit-supplied pitot was rather bent out of alignment, I made a new one out of Albion Alloys brass and nickel tube:

 

DSCN6937.jpg

 

... and that's where I am at now. I've just read that our office will be closed until 10am when we are to call for further instructions as we are still being beasted; hopefully those further instructions will be "For god's sake stay at home"... :D

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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On 26/02/2018 at 6:09 AM, Stew Dapple said:

 

As it happens I missed a couple of details - painting the life-jacket drawstrings and applying the flight-suit badges

Yes, well, we'll let it go this time...:D

 

Your work on the pilot Stew is just a splendid example of the painter's craft. I can see an investment in 'Ratskin' looming: I believe Ced too relies on it for painting his miniature Ced figures.

 

Despite the abomination of the scale, I wish you the joy of this build. :thumbsup:

Tony

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9 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

This is taking shape rather quickly!

 

It is rather - see below :D

 

8 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Yes, well, we'll let it go this time...:D

 

Your work on the pilot Stew is just a splendid example of the painter's craft. I can see an investment in 'Ratskin' looming: I believe Ced too relies on it for painting his miniature Ced figures.

 

Despite the abomination of the scale, I wish you the joy of this build

 

I did fix the missed painting on the pilot's lifejacket Tony, honest :D The scale is, I grant you, a perversion against god, nature and modelling and truth be told I'm still not sure how it happened that I came to buy this kit, but in the absence of a newer-than-1975* kit in 1/72 all I can say is when Hasegawa or Tamiya make a new-tool 1/72 version I will be on it like stink on a monkey :lol: 

 

Anyway, I had no work today due to the general inclemency of conditions so I had a little modelling time and here is where I ended up:

 

DSCN6948.jpg

 

Fuselage halves joined and the seam cleaned up. Also:

 

DSCN6950.jpg

 

Upperwing halves attached and cleaned up. Finally:

 

DSCN6952.jpg

 

Actually that wasn't quite finally, as I have now fitted the stabilisers to the fuselage. Next will be fitting the wings to the fuselage and the installation of the wing guns, after that I believe we start on the undercarriage...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

* Approximately. I couldn't be bothered to look it up on Scalemates, please feel free...

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Thanks Simon, that one never even entered my radar range... that said, my understanding is that Sword kits can be rather... challenging, not to put too fine a point on it? :D

 

I decided after a lot of staring at pictures (then deciding that I would never know for sure) that all the decking and fittings behind the pilot's seat would be blue-black, not just the shelf, so I retouched that area:

 

DSCN6957.jpg

 

I don't know why it looks so streaky there, it must have still been partially wet when I took the picture. I also got the wings and tailplanes fitted:

 

DSCN6959.jpg

 

I needed just a smear of filler along the joins, I used Citadel Liquid Green Stuff as it is easy to apply with a brush then wipe off the excess with a (water-)dampened cotton bud. I also jumped ahead of the instructions a bit and added the gun access panels which fit as inserts into the upper and lower wings (so that Hasegawa can produce different variants of the Raiden using most of the same basic kit parts).

 

I'm dithering about fitting the cannons at this stage as there is still a fair amount of handling to be done and the prospect of snappage cannot be comfortably ignored... but the cannon barrels do look reasonably sturdy and the fairings will need to be added before painting so it's not like I can easily add them right at the end... so I should probably just get on with it.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

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