| 1/48 Tamiya Mitsubishi Raiden "Jack" J2M3 by Franz Galli |
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Franz Galli comes back with another stunning OOB build, an IJN Mitsubishi Raiden!!! (Comments by Thanos Mentzelopoulos)Â 1/48 Tamiya Mitsubishi Raiden "Jack" J2M3 by Franz Galli
The Mitsubishi J2M Raiden (é›·é›»,
"Thunderbolt") was a single-engined land-based fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air
Service in World War II. The Allied
reporting name was "Jack". The J2M was designed by Jiro Horikoshi, creator of the A6M Zero to meet the 14-Shi (14th year of the
Showa reign, or 1939) official specification. It was to be a strictly
local-defense interceptor, intended to counter the
threat of high-altitude bomber raids, and thus relied on speed, climb
performance, and armament at the expense of maneuverability. The J2M was
a sleek, but stubby craft with its over-sized Mitsubishi Kasei engine buried behind a long cowling,
cooled by an intake fan and connected to the propeller with an
extension shaft. Pilot visibility was poor, but a domed canopy
introduced later in production partially alleviated this concern.
 Teething development problems stemming from the Kasei engine, unreliable propeller pitch change mechanism and the main undercarriage members led to a slowdown in production. A continual set of modifications resulted in new variants being introduced with the ultimate high-altitude variant, the J2M4 Model 34 flying for the first time in August 1944. It had a 1,420 hp Kasei 23c engine equipped with a turbo supercharger (mounted in the side of the fuselage just behind the engine) that allowed the rated power to be maintained up to 30,000 ft. Two upward-aimed, oblique-firing (aimed at 70 degrees) 20 mm cannons, mounted in the German Schräge Musik style, were fitted behind the cockpit with the four wing cannons retained. Unresolved difficulties with the turbo supercharger caused the project to be terminated after only two experimental J2M4s were built. A total of 621 aircraft were built by Mitsubishi Jukogyo K.K in Nagoya and Suzuka plants. 128 J2M3 were built by Koza Kaigun Kokusho. Source: Wikipedia
Hello everyone. This is
the 1/48 Tamiya kit. The model was built out of the box, except that I
added
photoetched seatbelts. And the cannons were replaced for hypodermic
needles. This is an old kit and I
had some troubles filling some gaps, especially the ones between wings
and fuselage. Â This was the first time I made a Japanese airplane and I
was
a bit afraid on how I was going to do the paint job.
 I used Model Master and Tamiya paints to finish this one. I used the post-shading technique to give the model a weary looking paint effect, but not too much. The chipping was made using a small brush with Tamiya Aluminium. Decals were difficult to set in place but finally got it using Solvaset. Thanks for looking!
I hope you like it!!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Text and Photos by Franz Galli
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