Building Hasegawa's 1/72nd Scale Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden "Jack"
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Background
 According
to Peczkowski, the Raiden was a high altitude interceptor fighter. The
designers had begun working on this project in the late 1930s with its
first flight coming in May 1942. The Raiden traded manoeuvrability for
performance; however, its withdrawal from action was delayed because it
was the only navy fighter able to intercept the B-29 (see Lemairesoft's
web site). The subject of this kit, the J2M3 Model 21, improved upon the
J2M2, by enhancing the armament, strengthening the wing structure, and
improving its armour protection. The heavier weight resulted in slightly
reduced performance with respect to climb rate and ceiling limit.
In the Box
 This
is one of Hasegawa's earlier engraved panel line models. At the time of
issue, it was fairly state of the art though a lack of features in the
cockpit and a completely "Bald" wheel well area leave this kit
a little bit dated, in terms of detail. Nevertheless, I found this kit
a couple of years ago for eight dollars and at that price it was well
worth it. The plastic is the usual robust, smooth, flash-free, light grey
Hasegawa fare. There are three sprues in the box, one of which is a small
one that contains the clear parts. The decals provide for two schemes.
The first is 352nd Naval Kokutai, Lt. Aoki, Omura Naval Air Base 1945,
which has the well-known yellow lightning bolt flashes on the forward
fuselage. The second scheme is 302nd Naval Kokutai, Atsugi Naval base
1945, which has a simple yellow stripe around the rear fuselage.
At the outset, I decided that both the
cockpit and the wheel wells would need some detail and the Eduard photo
etch set came to the rescue. This set provides both cockpit interior detail
and wheel well detail. I confess that I was unable to use the entire set,
but more of that below.
Construction
 As
usual, I began with the cockpit. The canopy opening in the Raiden is unusually
large for a fighter aircraft, so you really need to put something in it,
even if you are going to have a closed canopy. I followed Eduard's instructions
as closely as possible: chopping off bits of the kit part's floor and
replacing it with the photo etch details. The instructions tell you to
"Make new seat" but I decided that with a little sanding, the
kit's seat would have to do. It is a little inaccurate but with the canopy
closed, I did not think it was worthwhile replacing. Using Mikesh's book
on Japanese cockpit interiors and Peczkowski's book from Mushroom Models,
I managed to find where most of the pieces went. The instrument panel
in the kit is decent but the photo etch one is outstanding so I used that.
I discarded some of the photo etch pieces because I could not work out
how to install them without bending and ruining the part. One part that
was troublesome was the roll bar at the top of the rear part of the cockpit.
However, the photo etch part is a lot more convincing, in my view, than
the kit's. Once I had assembled the interior, I sprayed the it with the
closest I could come to Mitsubishi interior green (A/N.34) with details
painted in various other colours. I left off the clear part number 33
until I closed the canopy. I closed the fuselage and the fit was excellent:
I found it needed only a small amount of filler. I know there are those
that claim these kits' fuselage halves can be glued without any filler:
for example by squeezing the melted plastic through the seam and sanding.
My experience is that I am almost never able to get away without some
filling and sanding.
 The
wheel wells were next. My first problem here was to decide how much detail
to include. I decided to replace the "Roof" of the wheel well,
so I cut out the kit part and glued on the photo etch piece. I also used
the various little brackets and handle-shaped pieces in the Eduard set.
However, I did not attempt to replace the sides of the wheel wells with
the photo etch: I have no idea how one would accomplish this without making
a huge mess. I also left out the photo etch wheel doors, which I thought
would be too difficult to glue to the wing without making a super glue
mess. Nevertheless, by simply replacing and filling in those areas that
needed it most, I felt the Eduard set significantly enhanced the model.
Once the photo etch had been dealt with,
the remainder of the assembly process was straightforward. I glued together
the wing subassembly, which fitted perfectly onto the fuselage section.
The tail parts' assembly was similarly uneventful.
 It
was now time to paint the model. I decided upon the second scheme in the
box with the yellow fuselage ring. First, I sprayed yellow for the fuselage
ring. I masked that off and sprayed the upper front fuselage with "Scale
Black" - I prefer not to use either pure black or white - I simply
added a few drops of white to the black enamel paint. Then, I sprayed
the underside with light grey enamel. I darkened up the paint a little
and sprayed along the panel lines. Then I made a slightly lighter shade
and sprayed the centre of each panel. Finally, I gave the entire surface
a light over-spray of the original colour to blend it all in. This was
the first time I had used this method, which I first saw explained in
Greg Cooper's Hyperscale build of a "Gekko". In retrospect,
I should have been bolder with the shading because once I had clear-coated
and weathered the surface, only a slight hint of the shading process could
be seen. I masked off the under surfaces and sprayed the topside with
a homemade acrylic mixture of dark green and just a touch of blue. Again,
I attempted Greg Cooper's shading method, the results of which are even
less apparent than on the grey underside. Once I had painted all the main
body, I attached the landing gear and the various other bits and pieces.
 I
decided that Hasegawa's red disc markings were too orange and I used a
set made by Authenticals. These are a much darker red and apparently reflect
the actual colour more accurately. I also replaced the red line decals
on the upper wing surface with some from the spares box. All the decals
went on without any difficulties. I masked off the large cockpit canopy
and sprayed that using the base upper side colour and attached it. Ideally,
given the amount of detail I had put into the cockpit, I should have had
an open canopy. There is a Falcon set containing a canopy for the Raiden
but I do not have it. My attempts at squash molding or vacuum-molding
canopies have met with little success, so I went with the kit's canopy.
The canopy opening is sufficiently large that most of the detail can be
seen so all was not in vain. Finally, I added a .005-inch length of wire
for the radio mast.
 In
conclusion, I would recommend this now old but still decent kit. True,
the cockpit and wheel wells need some enhancement but it is still a really
nice model. Further, this would be an excellent kit for a beginner: with
its ease of assembly and straightforward colour scheme.
References
 Robert
Mikesh. "Japanese Aircraft Interiors 1940-1945." Monogram Aviation
Publications, Sturbridge, Massachusetts, USA. 2000.
Robert Peczkowski. "Mitsubisihi J2M Raiden." Published in
Poland by Stratus for Mushroom Model Publications, Rebourn, United Kingdom.
2004.
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