Zoukei Mura 1/32 Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden 'Jack'

[Stew Dapple]

I wasn't going to buy this kit, as I had already built the perfectly serviceable Hasegawa 1/32 J2M3 early last year and had been very pleased with how it turned out. However earlier this year I bought the Zoukei Mura Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu kit and was somewhere between very impressed and completely blown away by the contents of that kit, to the point that I decided I needed* to get the Raiden kit as well. The prices for these kits are pretty steep from the outset, about equivalent to a Wingnut Wings kit, but in fairness the quality of the mouldings, instruction manual and presentation/packaging is about equal to WNW's products. A further point regarding the prices - these do vary significantly between stockists, I got mine from Tiger Hobbies and it was over £40 cheaper than the most expensive Z-M J2M3 kit I found on the internet (I don't have any affiliation with Tiger Hobbies, nor any connection except as a customer).

 

Anyway, here are the constituent parts: 

 

Box - very sturdy, lovely box-art:

 

 

Instruction book - yes, book:

 

 

 

This is very impressive, as well as very nicely drawn instructions it has lots of photographs of the parts and how they look when they go together. The drawings are in black and white, the photos in colour, as is the painting and decal guide. Paint callouts are all for Vallejo but if you don't know what colours from your own favourite range you should be using, Nick Millman's Aviation of Japan blog has a .pdf available of colour notes for the Raiden, advertised in the right-hand margin about halfway down - for £6.50 it is worth every penny even if you only intend to build one Raiden. Here is a page of the painting and markings guide:

 

 

The decal sheet and masking set included in the kit:

 

 

The masks seem to be made of a very thin vinyl, I'll see how I get on with them, though I might not need to, since as well as the usual clear parts:

 

 

... in a little side compartment of the box are these:

 

 

... an incredibly thin canopy frame set plus equally thin glazing for the frames. I will definitely give these a go, but they look so fragile I am glad to have the standard clear parts as a back-up if in case I break them. Now on to the other parts, Sprue A, mostly engine parts:

 

 

Sprue B, propeller, exhausts, fuel tanks, tyres and guns:

 

 

Sprue C, fuselage interior parts:

 

 

Sprue D, wingspar, undercarriage parts and a few more engine bits:

 

 

Sprue E, fuselage exterior, rudder and landing gear covers:

 

 

Sprue F, fuselage underside, stabilisers and elevators, auxillary fuel tank, more engine parts:

 

 

Sprue G, upper and lower wings:

 

 

... and finally, Sprue H, ailerons and gunbay covers:

 

 

So, although comparisons are odious, in this case for me they are unavoidable, it is inferior to the Hasegawa kit in that it does not include a pilot figure (and the Hasegawa one is excellent, if you have any interest in using pilot figures in your builds) and apparently equal in respect of the markings, as both kits offer exactly the same choices, although the Z-M kit also gives a set of spare numbers so that in theory you could make any of the aircraft that flew with the 302 Naval Air Group if you have suitable references. That's a little annoying, a greater selection or at least a couple of different options would have been nice, as there is very little in the way of aftermarket decals for the Raiden, but onto every life a little rain must fall and I shall build the version flown by Lt (JG) Yoshihiro Aoki, the famous one with the lightning bolts. As for the kit parts, there are probably about twice as many as those provided for the Hasegawa kit and they are easily as beautifully moulded if not more so, if the buildability is about equal I shall be very happy indeed. The level of detail is phenomenal and perhaps ultimately pointless if you prefer the painting stage and don't actually enjoy the assembly of a kit that much - I think I do enjoy that part equally, this should prove it to me one way or the other.

 

I'll sort out my paints and get cracking shortly...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

* ... and when I say 'needed' of course I mean 'wanted'

 

 

[Thom216]

Those are some extremely fine looking parts! Will be cool watching you put her together.

[clive_t]

Excellent, another Stew Dapple Japanese subject - pulling up a chair for this one!

 

Delicate as those canopy parts look, I'd be equally nervous of some of those engine bits too, if not more so! Still, in your capable hands what could possibly go wrong!

[spitfire]

That looks like a most impressive kit, like you I was tempted by the Ki-45 and after resisting for some time I finally bought one, I tend to shy away from ZM kits as they do seem to be overly complicated, so I will be very interested on finding out how you get one with the ZM Raiden.

My Hasegawa 1/32 Raiden is sitting on the shelf being ignored at the moment as I am going through a dry spell as far as modelling is concerned, after your Hasegawa build I set about it with great enthusiasm, I have Nick,s guide on the Raiden as well as, maybe your build will spark off my modelling energies again.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks Thom, glad to have you along  

 

Thanks Clive, there certainly are some very delicately moulded parts, I shall be very careful when removing and cleaning up those  

 

Thanks Dennis, I hope you will carry on with the Hasegawa Raiden, it is a lovely kit. Regarding the Zoukei Mura kits, you can only avoid them for so long, I doubt anyone else will be doing a large scale Ki-45 in the foreseeable future, but you never know. If the Zoukei Mura crew aren't too busy at Telford I might suggest to them that they visit the Ki-46 at Cosford as well...  

 

I got my paints sorted out:

 

 

From the top left they are: ACJ03 - IJN D2 Green Black/IJA #27 Blue Green for the uppersurface camouflage, ACJ07 - Mitsubishi Navy Grey for the underside and ACJ08 - Mitsubishi Cowl Blue Black for the anti-glare strip. From the bottom left, ACJ18 - IJN Interior Olive Green (mine is an old tin still labelled Mitsubishi Interior Green but it's the same stuff) for the interior, obvs, ACJ19 - ID Yellow for the leading edge ID marking and ACJ20 - Hinomaru Red because occasionally I like to kid myself I am going to paint the national markings myself this time.

 

So I'm about ready to kick off; the first section of the instructions deals with the assembly and painting of the engine up to the firewall - here's how it looks, I don't think I am infringing anyone's copyright here as I believe the instructions are downloadable from the Z-M website:

 

A couple of general information pages describing the purpose and nature of the aircraft:

 

 

 

Paint guide and photographs of the completed engine:

 

 

... and two double pages of assembly instructions:

 

 

 

Right, I'm going in...  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[clive_t]

Wow, those are some comprehensive instructions!

 

[clive_t]

Just remembered where I saw the name Zoukei Mura, and that style of instruction manual before... There's a review of their 1/32 Ki45 Toryu kit on Flory Models' YouTube channel. Now that is a beast!

[Thom216]

Nice inst. That deserves to be put on the bookshelf when you're done.

[fubar57]

Good Lord, that's a lot of words

[Chaotic Mike]

I've built their Skyraider and Uhu. They reward care...! 

[rob85]

Another big ‘un from you stew! Looking forward to this one, I’m enjoying your Japanese builds.

 

Rob

[Stew Dapple]

On 9/30/2019 at 1:52 PM, clive_t said:

Just remembered where I saw the name Zoukei Mura, and that style of instruction manual before... There's a review of their 1/32 Ki45 Toryu kit on Flory Models' YouTube channel. Now that is a beast!

 

Hi Clive, thanks, yes I have the Toryu kit too, in fact it was what set me on the path to getting this one  

 

On 10/1/2019 at 1:02 AM, Thom216 said:

Nice inst. That deserves to be put on the bookshelf when you're done.

 

On 10/1/2019 at 1:09 AM, fubar57 said:

Good Lord, that's a lot of words

 

Thanks Thom, Fubes, yes I feel when I get to the end I ought to be able to re-assemble a 1:1 scale Raiden

 

On 10/1/2019 at 7:03 PM, Chaotic Mike said:

I've built their Skyraider and Uhu. They reward care...! 

 

Nicely put Mike, thanks for the advice, I shall do my best to take care  

 

On 10/1/2019 at 10:25 PM, rob85 said:

Another big ‘un from you stew! Looking forward to this one, I’m enjoying your Japanese builds.

 

Rob

 

Thanks Rob, nice to see you again  

 

My original plan was to make up all the engine sub-assemblies and paint as many as possible before sticking them together, but on studying the instructions it was clear it would need to be done virtually piece by piece and then assembled - here are the parts covered by the first section of the instructions, five pieces in total but each part made up of two parts in itself:

 

 

There are things in there that will either make you scratch your head and think what a waste of time, or will make your heart sing with joy (which might be a microcosmic analogy for the whole Z-M philosophy) - for example the pistons and their equivalent recesses are moulded on the inside of the cylinders: there is no possible way that they will ever be seen again but there they are... anyway they all got a primer coat of near-black:

 

 

For the record, if you do find yourself in possession of this (or indeed the Hasegawa Raiden which also features a nice engine), how much effort you put into painting the engine is really up to you but it will be academic unless you plan to somehow expose it, as this - from the Hasegawa kit - is what you see of the engine:

 

 

I shall paint mine as best as I am able because that's the sort of fool I am  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[clive_t]

Some lovely details on those engine parts already. As you say, though, to what end? 

 

Is there a pilot figure included? I didn't see one on the sprue shots. I can always find time to marvel at a pilot figure painted by your good self!

[pinky coffeeboat]

On 9/29/2019 at 1:51 PM, Stew Dapple said:

it is inferior to the Hasegawa kit in that it does not include a pilot figure (and the Hasegawa one is excellent, if you have any interest in using pilot figures in your builds) 

No, he mentioned it earlier in his intro. Are there any good resin cast figures? 

 

It's got a great amount of detail and the instructions are wonderful. Clearly Z-M put lots of time and care into every aspect of their products. 

 

Jeff

[spitfire]

Very strange, I cannot see the pictures, initially I have big grey pulsating boxes which then turn into small grey pulsating boxes.

 

Edit, reloaded Firefox and all is well.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[spruecutter96]

Lovely, stunning stuff. 

 

Could these be as good as injection-moulded kits ever get? It would not surprise if that proves to be the case.....

 

Thanks for sharing. I'll be watching with great interest.  

 

Chris. 

[Chaotic Mike]

1 hour ago, pinky coffeeboat said:

No, he mentioned it earlier in his intro. Are there any good resin cast figures? 

 

It's got a great amount of detail and the instructions are wonderful. Clearly Z-M put lots of time and care into every aspect of their products. 

 

Jeff

ZM do wonderful figures as add-ons. Not sure if they targetted this kit, but they have for most of their others in 1/32.

[Thom216]

I guess someone could do a cutaway of the engine... Still, nice looking Hasegawa Raiden!

[Stew Dapple]

17 hours ago, clive_t said:

Some lovely details on those engine parts already. As you say, though, to what end? 

 

I think partly Z-M's intention may be that building a model should be in some way educational through details like the cylinders and the detailed notes in the instructions, and though I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, I didn't know the internal layout of a radial engine so it could be argued that they have achieved that end already (I don't really know why I should be embarrassed, there is no need in my real life for me to know that and if I had thought about it I could have just looked it up, but still... ) 

 

On balance though, if there is unnecessary detail, as long as it doesn't interfere with the fit of parts, whether you think it worthwhile or not, at least it doesn't do any actual harm

 

16 hours ago, pinky coffeeboat said:

No, he mentioned it earlier in his intro. Are there any good resin cast figures? 

Yes sadly there is no pilot figure included, but a variety of resin add-ons are available which include two different seated pilots and two sets of pilots outside the cockpit - these are quite expensive but look like nice models.

 

14 hours ago, spruecutter96 said:

Lovely, stunning stuff. 

 

Could these be as good as injection-moulded kits ever get? It would not surprise if that proves to be the case...

 

Thanks Chris - I hope that this is not the apex of injection-moulded design and technology; I remember getting the Airfix Kittyhawk kit in the early 70s and thinking how amazing it was that they had moulded on all the rivets! Looking back, it seems a bit less of an achievement now, and I hope that technology and design continues to advance to the extent that maybe in 20 years time if I am still able to make models we will look at the state of the art kits available at that point and laugh at the clumsy moulding and toy-like simplicity of those early Zoukei-Mura kits  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Procopius]

Z-M kits have always looked immensely intimidating to me, but if anyone can tackle one it's you, Stew. Great to see you in action again.

[pacificmustang]

Will be watching this with interest.  I have just finished their mustang and enjoyed the process greatly, in fact I thought about buying the Raiden as well.  

 

They certainly reward careful assembly, but if you take your time and do repeated dry fits to ensure everything is aligned, fit is pretty good

Bruce

[Stew Dapple]

6 hours ago, Procopius said:

Z-M kits have always looked immensely intimidating to me, but if anyone can tackle one it's you, Stew. Great to see you in action again.

 

Thank you Edward, you are very kind - they do seem a bit overwhelming but so far I've not found anything that you would consider in any way difficult...  

 

4 hours ago, pacificmustang said:

Will be watching this with interest.  I have just finished their mustang and enjoyed the process greatly, in fact I thought about buying the Raiden as well.  

 

They certainly reward careful assembly, but if you take your time and do repeated dry fits to ensure everything is aligned, fit is pretty good

Bruce

 

Thanks Bruce, I saw your Mustang and it has made me think about getting the kit, yours is an absolute beauty   

 

I got the engine bits (so far) painted up:

 

 

I overuled the kit instructions and used a darker metallic grey for the cylinders and silver for the push rods rather than just silver for all. None of it will be seen and I won't be weathering it at all, but I do like to pretend that I have standards to keep up and using two shades of silver enables me to maintain this delusion without really making any effort whatsoever  

 

Although I said I would take care in the construction I already glued the spidery-looking bit at the back to the wrong holes at the rear of the cylinders (which are meant to accept the exhaust outlets) but fortunately it occurred to me to check the instructions based on the knowledge that there was a 50% chance that I had got it wrong, which probably translated in reality to a 100% likelihood, which turned out to be quite correct, and I was able to detach and reattach it correctly in time. Hopefully that's my one stupid mistake out of the way rather than the precursor of a trend.

 

Speaking of the exhaust outlets, they feature a nice bit of slide-moulding to give them hollowed ends:

 

 

Hold on...

 

 

Better? Nice, aren't they?

 

I'm now de-sprueing the parts for the back of the engine, hopefully I'll get them in primer today, but possibly not, as I'm taking the dog to the pub in a couple of hours. What? I am doing it for him. He hasn't been for ages and he misses the attention

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

[Procopius]

Those parts look amazing. I think I'm relieved they don't do any RAF subjects.

[Stew Dapple]

15 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Those parts look amazing. I think I'm relieved they don't do any RAF subjects.

 

*cough* Mustang III *cough*  

[Procopius]

Noooooooooooo