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Zoukei Mura 1/32 Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden 'Jack'


Stew Dapple

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Seconded!

Pleased to hear Jack has recovered - good boy Jack 🐾

 

Lovely interiors as always Stew - they look pretty perfect to me :) 

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On 12/5/2019 at 6:15 PM, Stew Dapple said:

I think that is pretty much the bulk of the interior parts completed, next, I think, is to stick them all together before joining the fuselage halves...

 

Thusly:

 

DSCN0874.jpg

 

DSCN0875.jpg

 

I've read ahead a bit in the instructions (see - I do read them!) and the next step is actually assembling the wings, so hopefully I can make a bit of progress over the weekend...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thank you gents :cheers: 

 

On 12/6/2019 at 11:15 PM, CedB said:

Bloomin' marvellous that is Stew. It'll be a shame to close it up… :) 

 

Perhaps, but I can't wait to get it closed up and looking like an aeroplane :) 

 

However closing it up takes a back seat for the next assembly stage, which is building the main wing:

 

DSCN0880.jpg

 

I did deviate from my original plan (PAINT EVERYTHING!!!) since I don't intend to leave the gunbays open. Also, if modelling is also a learning process, I may have learned two things so far, one being that I am lazy and two being that if I don't get a kit finished within a certain amount of time I get to the point where I just want to get it finished, and if I go past that point there is a risk that I will lose interest altogether. I'm not at the first stage yet, let alone the second, but I am itching to make some actual progress.

 

I fitted the wing main spar, centre section spars and wing fuel tanks:

 

DSCN0878.jpg 

... and the gun-bay and ammunition tray area ribs:

 

DSCN0883.jpg

 

Next was fitting the guns and the ammunition feed trays:

 

DSCN0885.jpg

 

The Raiden has two different cannons, a longer model inboard and a shorter one outboard, which are nicely reproduced as single parts:

 

DSCN0886.jpg

 

... and the associated ammo feed trays, and landing gear bay walls and (I think) the oil cooler intake:

 

DSCN0888.jpg

 

Finally, fitment of the top wing - I have done this but haven't photgraphed it yet.

 

DSCN0891.jpg

 

The instructions indicate not to cement the gun bay covers so that the gun bays remain accessible, however pretty much all you will be able to see is the ammo feed trays and a section of the gun breeches so it's up to you, personally I prefer to look at the aircraft itself rather than its components and I feel leaving hatches open, engine hanging out etc. is interesting from a technical point of view but draws your attention to parts of the aircraft, so I have glued mine.

 

Closing up the wing I did find I needed to clamp the starboard wing by the gun bays, I presume, given that everything else in the kit has clicked into place like LegoTM that I misplaced some interior part, but no harm done.

 

Next it is on to the rear fuselage, then joining the fuselage halves, I hope to make some progress over the weekend...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Lovely work Stew :) 

 

3 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Also, if modelling is also a learning process, I may have learned two things so far, one being that I am lazy and two being that if I don't get a kit finished within a certain amount of time I get to the point where I just want to get it finished, and if I go past that point there is a risk that I will lose interest altogether.

I'm with you Brother :D 

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7 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

The instructions indicate not to cement the gun bay covers so that the gun bays remain accessible, however pretty much all you will be able to see is the ammo feed trays and a section of the gun breeches so it's up to you, personally I prefer to look at the aircraft itself rather than its components and I feel leaving hatches open, engine hanging out etc. is interesting from a technical point of view but draws your attention to parts of the aircraft, so I have glued mine.

Looking good Stew. Totally agree regarding hatches and panels; I much prefer everything closed up as well.

 

J.

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Thank you gentlemen :cheers: 

 

I've been making some progress, but before we get to that, here's the assembled main wing:

 

DSCN0896.jpg

 

Now attention shifts (momentarily) back to the fuselage, with the installation of the tail-wheel retraction gear:

 

DSCN0898.jpg

 

... then the interior is added to the starboard fuselage half:

 

DSCN0899.jpg

 

The next part struck me as somewhat odd, instead of joining the two fuselage halves together, the instructions advise fitting the starboard fuselage half to the upper wing - as I say this struck me as a funny way of going about things but I assumed there is a reason for this sequence of events and went with the instructions:

 

DSCN0903.jpg

 

I believe it might be done in this order so that you can see where the underfloor cockpit supports fit in the upper wing. Once this had been given a while for the glue to cure, the port fuselage half was added:

 

DSCN0909.jpg

 

DSCN0904.jpg

 

This fit very well. Also shown on the picture are the separate wing-root fillets.  The final section of this particular part involves fitting the underside of the rear fuselage, which has another oxygen/compressed air bottle (the fifth and final one included in the kit) and what looks like a car battery and that's presumably what it is - a battery anyway, not a car battery:

 

DSCN0907.jpg

 

That part has now been fitted and some Citadel Liquid Green Stuff painted into the various join lines, as much for my own sense of security as a belief that some of the joins may manifest themselves as small gaps rather than panel-line joins. I haven't photographed it yet, but will do before I go on to the next stage of adding the tailcone, rudder and horizontal stabilisers...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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I'm building the same kit - but just a little bit behind you - so watching keenly. I will confess that I put the engine to one side half-way through building it. It's a very fiddly piece of construction and I just have the feeling that 99% of it isn't going to be visible - in spite of all of that detail and the endless painting.

 

I enjoyed building the cockpit and the wings and hopefully I'll be bringing it all together as you have in the next couple of weeks.

 

It's an interesting kit. There's so much detail and you learn a lot from the instructions - but it is hard work. You need to check the fit of everything and make sure its right because otherwise you know it won't fit together at the end. 

 

Great to see how it's all coming together for you.

 

Alastair

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  • 1 month later...

Thank you gents :) 

 

On 1/5/2020 at 7:42 PM, Wentworth said:

and I just have the feeling that 99% of it isn't going to be visible - in spite of all of that detail and the endless painting.

 

Snap! You are absolutely correct in that. I have the Ki-45 kit as well, and building this one has decided me upon the course that if it cannot be seen it will not be painted, and if it is not structurally necessary it may not even be fitted. This might seem a bit of a waste of kits in which the (almost) microscopic attention to detail is one of the major USPs, but if I lose momentum in a build I do find it hard to keep it going, and I have lost momentum in this one. Besides which, in 1/32 scale you are hardly spoiled for choice if you want a Ki-45, even if you only want to look at the outside of it :lol:

 

So in fact I haven't done any work on the kit in the last six or so weeks due to the aforementioned loss of momentum and the arrival upon us of the In The Navy Group Build to which I had previously committed myself and now need to deliver upon. 

 

I do need to bring this thread (almost) up to date though as there has been some activity since my last post. I fitted the fuselage underside; this fitted very well but for security's sake I applied a bit of green stuff in the flap recess where the wing meets the fuselage fairing:

 

DSCN0912.jpg

 

As I lay the model back down on the cutting mat after taking this picture, something wonderful happened: with a tiny 'crack' the entire engine section broke off forward of the cockpit. Normally something like that would not fall into a category in which you might describe it as 'wonderful' but as soon as it happened I realised it solved a problem that had been niggling at my subconscious, namely how to mask the engine and exhausts when priming and painting the rest of the fuselage. Now I can pretty much do as I like and just re-fit the engine afterwards :) 

 

DSCN0914.jpg

 

Next the instructions advise making the tailcone, horizontal stabilisers and the rudder:

 

DSCN0911.jpg

 

Here they are duly made up:

 

DSCN0917.jpg

 

... and fitted:

 

DSCN0941.jpg

 

... as you might observe, while I was waiting for the glue to set I assembled the drop tank which required remarkably little sanding along the seams :D 

 

Anyway that's where I am, or have been for the last six weeks. I hope that once I get to the priming stage of my group build entry I can prime this one as well and hopefully kick-start the painting process with it.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Very nice build.

I agree with the concept that if it is not seen don't paint it and if it is not need to support something or seen, don't install it. More often than not it will course trouble for the parts you want painted. This was one of the issues on both my Dornier and Heinkel. 

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Welcome back Stew! (Happy New Year; too late? :D )

 

Good to see you back at the bench with (hopefully) your mojo restored - looks like it to me…

 

I still love the detail on this one - that engine section is amazing.

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  • 1 year later...

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