Hi all, as promised here are the gallery photos of the Arii 1:48 J2M3 Raiden:

It was a fun experience bringing modern techniques and materials to bear on a 1970s kit, and I look forward to building some more of these golden oldies, as well as tackling the subject matter in a more up to date form.

Thanks, Owl, it was a great build and I'm delighted to have taken part.

Cheers, Mike/Thunderbolt379

Hi Miss Owl and fellow builders,

I am delighted to say that my Raiden is finally finished! I was very close to done before my UK trip back in November, one of the two antenna wires was defying my bigtime so it had to be left as-is, and when I got back from the UK I had to hit the ground running in a house move that has been the worst we've ever done. Well, we're in the new place and the workshop is set up, I have my first display case, and am starting to get back to things.

The antenna wire was fixed on the first try, the Ezy-Line is painted, ceramic insulators simulated, and all touchups are done, so tonight I'll take the gallery shots and hopefully get them posted -- and claim my badge at last!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

I've found a way that doesn't sand away all the detail. I use Squadron putty and I take a q tip dipped in finger nail polish remover and it takes the excess putty off and leaves the putty in the seams. I recently did this to a Freightliner day cab dual drive I cut down from the cab over kit with the sleeper on it and it came out pretty nice. One thing I noticed on it was using too much nail polish remover seemed to leave tiny pits in the plastic though. So you don't want to use too much.

"it probably wont dissapear without a good session of filling and sanding...one of the most tedious parts of a build! lol"

But this would seal up the door of the gun compartment when it should be able open.

Yeah, worst part about the Monogram kit, which is otherwise nicely detailed is that you'll have to sand away so much of that nice detail getting everything lined up. Good luck with her, I think this was the first 'serious' kit I ever built.

it probably wont dissapear without a good session of filling and sanding...one of the most tedious parts of a build! lol

Yea i know, the wings/*** pit aren't glued to the booms yet. There is a nice seam at the top of the gun compartment too. The gun compartment opens to show the guns and ammo inside. I'm hoping it dissapears when it's painted. The anti glare panels are  going to be flat black

good start green. Those seams around the nacelles and nose look nasty!

The P-38 is almost ready for the paint shop. I don't have the P-47 yet. I'll get it the first of the month.

sweet looking tank, Its now on the front page! :)

Extremely realistic looking tank, Wayne.  Well-done!

Waynec, lovly looking build and base, thats sweet.

Really nice work there on the tank and the diorama groundwork looks superb!

Great work (as always) on a challenging scheme Trey. How long did it take you ?

Cheers

Tony

Thanks Owl !

nice one trey. front page is updated

Thank you greentracker,appreciate that!

Thats one fine looking P 47 Trey.Very sharp indeed WOW !!!

CMK thank you ,much appreciated !

and a big thanks to Bigfoot01 who took the time to point out that the gear angle needed a tweak!

the fix,looks a lot better thanks John

Exceptional Jug.  You did well, despite the issues.  NMF came out very nicely, and they are not easy to achieve.

Thanks CMK I think it will be ok without them too.

I'm calling it done

Added some gunsight details

I used watercolor mixed with Formula'560' canopy glue for the id lights after drilling them slightly

also used the same canopy glue for the clear position lights

I used aluminum tubing for the exhaust and punched out disc for the pressure valve that goes in the outlet

cheers Trey

Elsie's looking fine without belly stripes.

Wayne thats looking sharp!

Greentracker nice to have had some heros in the family and get to hear those stories first hand. My Dad fought in Korea but would'nt talk much about it.

Well I have made a partial recovery to were I wanted to be. I shot tamiya ts-30 first followed by Model Master aluminum plate metalizer. Then I buffed everything out by hand and shot automotive 2part urethane clear thinned about 30% over the whole thing. I'm not going to attempt to mask and spray the invasion stripes,just too worried everything will pull up again! I tried using the kit supplied ones but ruined them putting them on,totally my fault. So 'elsie ' will have to live without her belly stripes,oh well.

Decals are Aero Master and are working great

Monster Prop is ready to hang

Thanks Gamera, I'm also doing the 1st time GB and the 1943 GB, So this is a triple crossover; Maybe. I'm thinking of doing a dio with the P-47 i'm doing for the 1943 GB. Like I said in the 1st time post, my first build was any one of 3; the P 38; a P 51, or a B 17. That was just too far back for my memory LOL Like they say, the mind is the first thing to go. LOL

I grew up listening to my Dad and his brothers talk about thier ww2 experiences. All but one of them flew the planes or flew in them. Dad was stationed in Panama flying a B-26. 2 uncles were in B-17s, 1 uncle was in a B-24,(all 3 of these in the Pacific) another flew off a carrier (he had to be different and went to the Navy LOL) My other uncle was in a Tank Destroyer in Patton's 3rd army & earned a silver star for his role in the Bridge at Remagen

the problems were annoying and a couple self inflicted and a couple model design "flaws". solving problems has built confidence to the point when i drop a part on the floor my mind is looking at how to replicate or fix the problem even as i look for the part.

past problems have shown me i should not put the fiddly stuff like mirrors on a vehicle until after i paint it so i don't knock them off. the staples worked great. i broke one off the "stack"and slid it between the holes in the track and folded the ends over with tweezers. some paiunt, "mud", ground cover and placement will hide them. i learned to secure the rubber band track and slide it over the sprocket and all the road wheels, slip the idler in and stretch the track until the idler fits over the axle. i have also learned to mask all axles and holes before painting because sometimes just one layer of paint makes things too tight.

this is the first time i have had problems with MMA flaking off of rubber band tracks. again not serious. mud and dirt are your friends.

GT98: Nice choice! That kit was probably my first 'serious' kit I ever tried to build, waaay back in the late '70s- early '80s. Same box, instruction sheet, and decals as my kit! I had my WW2 vet uncle help me with it, he told me about seeing them flying above the landing ship he served on in the Pacific, blew my mind back then!

Waynec: Looks great to me! Sorry to hear about your problems with the suspension but everything looks good to me in the photos.  

thanks. was going to airbrush it (MMA) and started by brushpaintint the lower hull nooks and crannies and it looked good so continues. tools and machine guns and hatches are painted so they just have to be put on. haven't decided on crew members. BARAK (lightening) bde did not have the side skirts on. my '67 SHO'T will have side skirts. like the LEOPARD 2A4 w/ and w/o the side skirts look like 2 different tanks. suspension is spring loaded so will have to build a base to take advantage of that,

Nice looking tank, Wayne.  I like the subtle variations in the paint.  Despite the trouble, you've achieved great results.

got the tracks on my SHO'T KAL. only broke off 4 pieces in the process. the return rollers are a stupid design, hard to put together and fragile. guess they think they are smarter than tamiya who has the back end with a whole, the front end with the shaft going into a hole in the hull. next time i will put the tracks on before putting the fenders on. track melt pins are also tiny so, after melting them i put a staple in the front and back and folded it over to make sure they stay together. hadc more problems with paint flaking off these tracks and the dumbass separate rubber tires but both are easily fixed.