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Mitsubishi Raiden Best Kit?


fishplanebeer

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Whilst building my current Zero I've found Japanese aircraft a lot more appealing so now considering building a Raiden as well but not sure which of the available kits in 72nd scale would be the best to go for.

 

My understanding is that there are currently two options, either the Hasegawa J2M3 or the Sword J2M2 but which is the better in terms of accuracy and build please?

 

Regards

Colin.

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I guess you mean the 1/72 scale kits? Both are very accurate; the Hasegawa fits better and goes together very easily and the canopy fits perfectly. The downsides to the Hasegawa kit are the cockpit, which is very simplified and not accurate, which can be said for all of the single-engine aircraft  they released at that time, and the wheel bays are too shallow. Both of these can easily be rectified by some scratch building or aftermarket parts. The Sword kit does have a much better cockpit and wheel bays, but doesn't fit as well as the Hasegawa kit. I think the Hasegawa kit can still be had at reasonable prices on auction sites and vendor tables. I have both kits, and I like the Hasegawa kit with the Sword detail bits in the cockpit; fixing the wheel bays is easy.- it''s the inner part of the bay where the wheels rest that is too shallow.

Mike

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Be aware that the J2M2 had machine guns in the fuselage deck, and therefore gun openings are visible. There are only very few options published for building a J2M2 of which not many were produced. It would be a rare model, however, if you chose that one. The instrument panel was also completely different and thus not a good option for a J2M3. I guess it will be easier to take the Hasegawa with the CMK set.

 

P.S. I just saw a model of the Hasegawa J2M3 in RFI. The cowling section seems out of proportion (too long) resulting in a somewhat untypical profile shape.

 

Michael

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72modeler nailed it. Both the Hasegawa and Sword 1/72 kits are very worthwhile. The Hasey is extremely good for its age and cost. I do feel the Sword kit is somewhat more accurate, as well as better-detailed. It probably used the much later Hasegawa 1/32 scale J2M's as reference.  (A bit of poking about on Scalemates shows that Sword's excellent 1/72 kits of the Ki-44 "Tojo" and Ki-84 "Frank," interestingly enough, also followed closely behind the corresponding big Hasey kits.)

 

Sword does not make only the J2M2 in 1/72. They also do the "standard" J2M3, and the later J2M5 / 6 with enlarged canopy and altered nose. Hasey does the J2M3 only. 

 

Edited by MDriskill
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16 hours ago, Toryu said:

 

P.S. I just saw a model of the Hasegawa J2M3 in RFI. The cowling section seems out of proportion (too long) resulting in a somewhat untypical profile shape.

 

Michael

 if there is a flaw to the old Hasey kit, it's that the cockpit / canopy is slightly too far to the rear. The overall fuselage length is about perfect, but if you squint really hard the nose looks a bit long, and the aft fuselage a bit short. The Sword kit fixes this...but really it's a very minor thing.

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