Woody, @wkubacki
You have made some incredible progress (and improvements) with your plane since the last time I have checked in here. The extra steps you have done with all of the additional detail work looks fantastic. What I really like is how you have collected so much documentation / information and reference materials. I agree with Spiros, a dedicated modeler is a much better description... 😉

I know that this build journal will be used when I finally get around to building my 1/32 scale Hasegawa kit... hopefully this will not be too far away, but I have a lot of projects to finish up first.

I have a question for you... Were all of the landing gear wells painted the same color as the underside of the wings, or were they occasionally left in bare metal, or even sprayed with Aotake ?

Thanks in advance.

Some minor progress last night. The instructions have you glue the bar that holds the armoured glass prior to installing the forward upper fuselage piece. I skipped this step because I figured with all the painting and masking that the little part would break off. with the upper fuselage attached there isn't room to install the bar without some force, but fortunately it fit without the IP breaking off.

Next up was the armoured glass itself. I started masking the glass with tape, but then realized that since the framing was higher than the glass, all i had to do was add liquid mask to the recessed glass area and the mask would self level and create a straight edge. I painted black then interior green and when the mask was removed, the results were quite good. They would have ben better if I didn't spray the paint on so thickly.

Next up was the gunsight. Hasegawa decided to leave a clear nub on the forward glass part of the gunsight, which left a mark when cut off. This may have been fixed with some polishing, but I decided to cut the glass entirely off and glue on some thinner, clearer plastic (from a Mr Color paint shipping tray/box). The added benefit to this is that the gunsight could be painted on its own and then the glass glued on later. I used Tamiya X-22 clear varnish as the glue as it wouldn't fog up the plastic.

I will be working on the landing gear tonight. Most everything is painted and just needs assembly and weathering.

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Woody, @wkubacki
Thank you for the detailed answer on how the landing gear and wheel wells were painted. It's much easier to understand when you can look at pictures. I have had correspondence with Nick Millman in the past. He is a good person, and his website (and various books) are among the very best on WW2 Japanese aviation. Several years ago he posted my 1/48 Tamiya Ki-61 on his blog. I felt very honored for him to do that.

The additional work on the gun sight is on par with all of the other magnificent upgrades you have done with the kit. I'm definitely looking forward to your next installment. By the looks of things, you are getting closer to wrapping it up.

This is a beauty !

After mixing my J3 SP (AK RC303) amber grey with 10% off white in small batches, I finally decided to mix a larger batch so that the colour would be consistent. Original on the left and mixed on the right.

I also added some filth to the gear doors and landing gear legs. I used Mr Hobby Weathering products (enamel), multi black, stain brown and ground brown and applied them with a small brush. Then I used another brush soaked in Zippo lighter fluid (Butane) and dabbed it on the surface to achieve the effect I was looking for (or rather the effect I liked best). I may go back and thin the weathering down a bit, although it will mainly be hidden by the wheels and legs.

You will also notice that I painted the wooden blocks in the small doors brown. These were used as rub blocks where the tire would press against it and close the small door. Ideally I should have chipped these with brown as the base colour, but I'll do that next time.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Been reading your entire build so far of these Raidens and have to admit that you are doing an exceptional job, Woody @wkubacki
Weathering on the gear doors looks great.

And cannons!

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

Beautiful weathering, Woody @wkubacki

So my initial plan of having my friend 3D print a radio fell through after multiple print fails and breakage, so I scratchbuilt it instead, took about 15 minutes. I used a 6x6mm square rod, some 0.010 styrene sheet and some round rod. I still need to add a base and some bungee cords to the sides

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.