1/32 Hasegawa J2M3 Raiden 352nd NAG (Finished)....
Hello, I thought I'd share my latest experiment which is still in progress. I continue to experiment with chipping using a mix of the hairspray and liquid frisket technique(s). I chose the 1/32 Hasegawa J2M3 Raiden "Jack" as my Guinea Pig so to speak. The Raiden was apparently designed as a bomber interceptor but struggled getting up to the B-29's operational altitude, so it was given heavy cannons to compensate. It's my understanding it was only moderately successfully in this endeavor as the Ki-44 and Ki-84 fared better. Either way, it was still a neat looking machine and was apparently designed by the same guy who designed the Zero.
I'm going with the box art 352nd machine with the lightning bolts. It was flown by Yoshihiro Aoki in March of 1945. My research revealed he only had two confirmed kills in October 1944 but there were perhaps more. The lightning bolts were reportedly for boosting moral in defense of the homeland.
It's nice to be back in the "easy on the eyes" scale. The pit looks fine out of the box, but it's nothing fancy. I added a seat belt from the stash (old FW190 lap belt) and I wired the radio. I sprayed the interior AK Real Colors Mitsubishi Interior Green. Seems a bit too olive to me. Oh well.
Great fit.
Got here in no time. So far no fit issues.
The engine is fantastic. So is the cooling fan detail. Like the FW190, he engine will be hidden. What a shame. I painted it up anyways and gave it a Tamiya panel line wash.
I added Alclad Aluminum to the areas I as going to chip, namely the wingroots and cowl. Time for paint.
I then began my experimenttion. I sprayed hairspray down on the silver. Once dry, I added some liquid frisket on a sponge to some areas, mainly the wing roots and cowl. I then did my normal painting. After a black preshade, I used XF-19 Sky Grey on the underside then XF-11 JN Green on the upper side. Both were then reverse black based by lightening the colors to produce a tonal fading effect. These turkeys sat outside and i bet they oxidized quickly. The grey was cut with XF-2 white and the green with XF-57 Buff. Once done, the frisket was wiped off to reveal chipping. I like the effect. For other areas, I wet the paint which activated the hairspray underneath. I then chipped with a toothpick. The meatballs were then painted and so were the arrows (which were an exercise in patience, but better than trying to use Hasegawa decals this large). I suppose I could have documented this better, but here's how it turned out.
I recently discovered the LG bays should be Aotake. I'll fix that soon.
