Revell 1/32 Mitsubishi J2M Raiden

[The Smythe Meister]

Got the cockpit masked up ready for primer then realised I still had a bit of work to do on the airframe . The navigation lights on the kit are just solid , whereas the ones on the aircraft are clear with a coloured bulb . So out with the spares box and a suitable piece of clear plastic was found in the shape of a cocktail stirrer . Cut to size and flattened at one side these were then drilled slightly and red and green paint added. Theyve now been superglued in position and will be sanded to shape and polished .View attachment 499262View attachment 499263View attachment 499264View attachment 499265View attachment 499266

Lovely stuff mate,...
... Makes my effort SO ameturish!!
Top job Tony,loving it

 

[flyjoe180]

Superb work Tony

 

[yak face]

Got the nav lights sanded and polished up ( Brasso again ) so theyre ready to be masked up . One other thing I wanted to do before priming was add some detail on the firewall behind the engine . Looking at the pics of the Zoukei Mura kit ( probably the most useful reference , theres not much else apart from a basic walkaround of the outside of an aircraft in the planes of fame museum and some scrappy cockpit shots ) there is what looks like an air intake on the top of the firewall . I made a basic representation of this using plastic strip and some bias binding ( sewing stuff , nicked from the mrs!) for the mesh screen .
The airframe minus engine is now ready for a quick blast of Halfords primer but not while its this cold in the shed !

 

[Andy T]

That intake looks great and I always love your innovative use of materials. I'll remember that one!

 

[yak face]

Got some primer on today , only a light misting as the recessed details are very fine and i dont want to lose them .As usual the grey primer highlights any areas that need further attention and a couple of joints just needed a smear of acrylic putty and a wet finger to smooth them off .

 

[Andy T]

That's a "stubby" looking plane from this angle. Looks like it's flown into a wall

 

[yak face]

Got the yellow wing leading edges painted and masked . I then sprayed silver on the parts of the airframe that would get wear so next up is a misting of hairspray before the top colours go on and the chipping begins

 

[scottie3158]

Tony,
Looking very nice indeed mate.

 

[The Smythe Meister]

Just had a good ole read up on this Tony, it's looking superb mate, absolutely love the details that you've got on there.. top,top, stuff.

 

[tr1ckey66]

I’ve just caught up with this build Tony. Excellent work on detailing the kit, the cockpit looks amazing.
Will you be doing a really weathered finish to the paint work? Heavy chipping?

Looking forward to seeing the progress

Cheers
Paul

 

[yak face]

I’ve just caught up with this build Tony. Excellent work on detailing the kit, the cockpit looks amazing.
Will you be doing a really weathered finish to the paint work? Heavy chipping?

Looking forward to seeing the progress

Cheers
Paul

Cheers paul , i wont be going mad with the chipping , although there are photos of really weathered raidens , i feel most of them wouldnt have seen much service before the war ended so im going to try and keep it fairly restrained , cheers tony

 

[yak face]

Got the colour on this now , just the anti glare panel to do then I might look at masking and painting the hinomaru .

 

[yak face]

After looking at the decals I decided to try and paint most if not all of the markings. The decals werent that bad considering they are 50 years old !!!! But a bit of crazing and yellow carrier film meant I didnt want to risk it , besides they would cover up all that lovely recessed detail. So out with the wide kabuki tape and the compass cutter .
The Hinomaru on the upper surfaces have a white border so this has been done first . Tomorrow I’ll cut some slightly smaller circles to mask up for the red although getting them central will be tricky .

 

[yak face]

Well i had a bugger of a job trying to mask the white outline on the wings and fuselage. First i tried a smaller circle with the wide tape but just couldnt get it central enough , and the slightest off centre shows up like a sore thumb. I ended up cutting some thin strips ( about 1- 2 mm) and going round the edge to mask the border . The meatballs under the wings dont have the white edge so they were easy . Anyways here it is unmasked , just a few tiny tidy ups to do , the next job is the anti glare panel and then its chipping time . Meatballs and chips anyone!

 

[yak face]

Oops forgot to mention , ive now got the unit markings and numbers to sort , again going to have to make masks as the decals aren't great .

 

[Allen Dewire]

I think I missed this one Tony. Apologies for that Sir. For spraying your own meatballs, you should be extra happy with the way they turned out. Super job and hardly any cleanup too!!!

Just In case somebody should mention it, the top right wing meatball is a 1/2 mm closer to the leading edge than the left one. Oh, and remember, it wasn't me that did see it.............

Prost
Allen

 

[yak face]

As mentioned the decals arent any good and the decal placement drawing leaves a lot to be desired! Plus there are options on the sheet that arent mentioned in the instructions , the only one shown is the same as the box art.
So how to sort the masks ? I’m going to use the decal sheet by cutting round the ones I need and use this as a mask for spraying the markings
We’ll see how this goes!

 

[yak face]

Got the blue black anti glare panel painted today and touched up the hinomaru. I also got the colour on the prop and spinner , the hub and prop cuffs need to be painted black before assembling it .Next I’ll look at spraying the unit markings , gulp !

 

[yak face]

Engine and cowling finally glued on , now the tricky mask up of the unit markings

 

[The Smythe Meister]

That's looking excellent Tony, very nice indeed mate .