Andrew's 1/48 Tamiya Raiden

[adt70hk]

Me again!

So as the spray booth was out for the Jagdpanthers, the Raiden also saw some primer and paint.

I have seen a whole range of greens used on the insides of Raidens from very dark to fairly light, and fairly strong/bright to quite muted, and so went for my own mix of what was intended to be a rough mid-way point. Didn't work exactly as planned - it's a bit brighter in real life - but you won't see much when the pilot is seated, so it will do for my purposes.

Unfortunately I some managed to mark the prop before the paint had dried, so will have to do something about that....

Thanks for stopping by and sorry for the quality of the picture, it was taken in a rush.

[adt70hk]

Good morning all

So the build stalled last week as we were away on holiday but I also have this week off work and so the cockpit has been finished, pilot installed, fuselage halves joined and wings stuck on, although they were not without their challenges:

• Even allowing for the age of the kit, the internals of the Tamiya cockpit differ from every other build or AM cockpit set I could find online and so I was stumped on colours, as the Tamiya instructions were somewhat lacking. Then I found a book online called "IJN INTERCEPTOR J2M RAIDEN and N1K SHIDEN SERIES, PICTORIAL BOOK MARU MECHANIC #43" (link), which did for the most part match the Tamiya cockpit (see below). If anyone knows why the difference I would be interested.....as know almost nothing about Raidens.

• I should have installed the pilot after assembling the cockpit as his right knee very slightly stops the IP sitting in place properly. It's very minor and you won't see it after the canopy is installed....but I know it's out.

• There were some 'minor' challenges with the fuselage alignment, as you can see below from all the filler...and there is much more out of shot!! I don't think it was me but I may be wrong.

• The worst issues though were the huge steps where the wing root joined the fuselage. Unless my eyes are tricking me, I think I can see that Andy had the same issues with his Raiden. I started by putting thin styrene rod down ahead of applying any filler, as the steps were so big. I figured any filler would just sink without some structural support. I'm in the process of applying the filler since the below shot was taken.

As this is my first 1/48 wingy build I have not added any extra detail to the cockpit and besides the curve of the fuselage and the pilot being in place mean it would mostly be hidden in any case.

I will though be scratching a rudimentary radio, as the Tamiya blob....and I mean blob....that was meant to be the radio was simply awful.

Next time you see this, hopefully, the canopy will be on and it will be primed.

ACW as usual.

Andrew

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The cockpit picture from the book:







Cockpit and fuselage ready for assembly.



















Styrene support ahead of filling the wing root steps.
Oh and yes I did drop some glue on the port wing.....I have managed to clean it up fine though. Oh and the shelf behind the pilot is definitely not finished.....but I have a cunning plan!

[The Smythe Meister]

Hi Andrew,
That's looking very nice:thumb2:,I couldn't find much in the way of references either,but I have to admit, that, because the cockpit is closed up,I didn't worry about it too much,as for the wing roots..... YEP, pretty poor really,you look to be overcoming that issue though.
Good stuff!!

[adt70hk]

Hi Andrew,
That's looking very nice:thumb2:,I couldn't find much in the way of references either,but I have to admit, that, because the cockpit is closed up,I didn't worry about it too much,as for the wing roots..... YEP, pretty poor really,you look to be overcoming that issue though.
Good stuff!!

Thanks Andy! I think the Tamiya cockpit is almost a made up version but as you say, shut up it is barely visible!

[adt70hk]

Good morning all!!

So the cockpit is finally finished!

As you may recall I have decided to replace the radio that sat on the shelf behind the cockpit by scratching my own offering.

The Tamiya offering was basically a small misaligned vague rectangular cuboid....in fact it was so bad I had no idea what it was meant to be until I did some research.

In researching what it was meant to be I came across a build blog showing a very clear shot of an AM one. Using this an an example I made one from styrene - the main structure was a 4x4mm rod cut to the appropriate length (c. 11mm), with thin bits of styrene sheet and circles stuck on it. It's not a perfect recreation due to the limitations of the tools I have to hand but given that the control panel faces the back of the pilot's head rest, it will hide the worst discrepancies.

ATB.

Andrew

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The Tamiya offering!
Or at least the two halves......







The one I found online on another build.








My offering.
Sorry for the difference in shot quality and colouration...the camera would not behave....it is not as black as in the final shot.













In situ.....
Much better than the Tamiya offering I think you would agree.

[The Smythe Meister]

Yep,it certainly is!!
An excellent bit of scratchduggery there Andrew, really looks the part .
(Like the added cabling running up to it as well.... nice touch that :thumb2.

[Jim R]

What a fine job you're making of this, Andrew, especially considering all the issues the kit has. Excellent looking cockpit. The pilot looks the part. As for the radio - excellent and vastly better than the Tamiya offering. The fit of the wings is very poor. All you can do is what you've done. Lots of patient sanding and filling, repeat, repeat.

[adt70hk]

Yep,it certainly is!!
An excellent bit of scratchduggery there Andrew, really looks the part .
(Like the added cabling running up to it as well.... nice touch that :thumb2.

What a fine job you're making of this, Andrew, especially considering all the issues the kit has. Excellent looking cockpit. The pilot looks the part. As for the radio - excellent and vastly better than the Tamiya offering. The fit of the wings is very poor. All you can do is what you've done. Lots of patient sanding and filling, repeat, repeat.

Jim, Andy

Sorry for the late response and glad you like the radio. I was very pleased with it.

The build is currently stalled. It's had a full coat of primer and it's clear the wing joins need more work....i knew that would be the case but at least the primer has helped my se it clearly. I'm just waiting on some tools to help attack them in a more controlled fashion!

Thanks again.

Andrew

[Jim R]

I'm just waiting on some tools to help attack them

A sledge hammer, a chain saw and some ready-mix concrete. No point in pussy footing around.

[adt70hk]

Evening all

So last weekend I finally finished dealing with the wing root step join issue after a number of attempts and whilst it's not perfect it is a lot better and from a normal viewing distance should be ok.

The process went as follows - give or take:

• Get to where I thought it was vaguely ok and prime it knowing it was likely to need some work.
• Cry at the results....justifiably as you will see below!
• Put it one side and think about how I could do a better job...
• Decide to by some Albion Alloys sanding needles. I figured the round needle would help get more rounded join, as the flat sticks weren't cutting it......
• And I was proved right, if not perfect the join was much better after a good sanding...
• In order to finish off the much improved join in a controlled way, I laid down two strips of Tamiya masking tape either side of it and then carefully painted on a couple of thin coats of Mr Surfacer 1000 and let it dry
• When I pulled off the tape, I had a much neater join to work with than previously and it didn't take much to sand down the joint to a reasonably smooth finish.

As I said it's not quite perfect but from a normal view distance it looks fine.....plus it is after all a 50 year old kit that cost me less than £14.....so I was not expecting perfection......and I don't want to spend any more time on it TBH!

WARNING....for some reason the camera picked up the slightly satin finish of the black Vallejo primer as very light if not almost white! In real life it is as black as the rest of it!

ACW as usual!

Andrew


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As you can see from the exaggerated light reflection after the first coat of primer it was a truly awful job......embarrassingly so.....










My sanding stick saviours and my new book...found it very helpful already....







3rd attempt at dealing with the truly awful wing step/join....looking much better already....as you can see there was a slight step but it was pretty easy to deal with







And all primed.....looking MUCH better and far less obvious from a normal viewing distance than it appears.....you have to love the dreaded digital zoom!!

[Lee Drennen]

Great updates Andrew nice painting the fig.

[Mickc1440]

Just caught up Andrew and you've done some great work on this kit, I shall pay closer attention now

[The Smythe Meister]

Well,going "the extra mile" with this old kit was certainly worth the effort eh Andrew?!.......... what an improvement that is :thumb2:.
Cracking work,I have some of those sanding sticks,always thought they were a bit of an unnecessary luxury, but, about 12 months ago I finally bought some,to see what all the fuss was about !.... Have to say that I'm glad I did, they're a great addition to the "tool kit" ,
Looking forward to seeing the paint going on :tongue-out:!

[Tim Marlow]

Looks good after all that wrangling Andrew.

[Allen Dewire]

Still with you here, Andrew! Nice work so far and a great job in repairing the step. It's also good to see the pilot recovered well and can sit in the pit Sir!!!...

Prost
Allen