Hasegawa J2M Raiden 雷電 Lightning Bolt “Jack”
This is Hasegawa's classic Raiden kit from 1977. It is a good kit for its time, but suffers from basic cockpit detail and shallow wheelwells. I replaced both on my build and plunge-molded the sliding portion of the canopy. There is photographic evidence for at least three Raiden with the lighting bolt markings on the fuselage which is not all that surprising given the aircraft's name. This one represents a machine of the 353rd Kokutai at Omura in March of 1945.
For anyone interested the build thread is here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2020/02/14/j2m-raiden-%e9%9b%b7%e9%9b%bb-lightning-bolt-jack-build-in-1-72/
Very impressive results, Jeff.
It really doesn't look like a 1/72 because of all the details.
That's a quality build. At first glance I thought it was 48 scale.
Well your build description fits nicely into another article publish here focusing Murphy’s Law at the workbench. That said, and I really enjoyed reading your article, that’s one excellent effort to bring an old kit to current state of the art. I sure didn’t notice any mishaps in the photos
Looks great! I also built this venerable old kit and enjoyed it - nice panel lines for the era. All the extra details you added to this really make it a stand-out! Well done.
This is a wonderful looking model, Jeff!
Definitely looks at least a scale up.
I read your build thread with great interest.
Liked very much the way you solved all the issues you had.
This is a cool looking Raiden!
Nicely done Jeff, looks good.
Thanks guys! I definitely had some problems getting this one across the finish line!