Building a Hasegawa
Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden (Jack)
Page 1

This tab on the website is a record of my building a kit of the World War Two Japanese Navy Air Force Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden (Thunderbolt), which was given the Allied code name "Jack" (to enable Allied military personnel to be able to remember and quickly identify the many different Japanese aircraft, Japanese fighter-planes were given Western male names [Oscar, Tony, Frank], and Japanese bombers were given Western female names [Betty, Peggy, Frances]).

Contents of the kit box

Here are all of the contents of the kit box: a runner with the transparent kit parts at the top left, decal sheet at the lower left, two runners containing the opaque kit parts in the middle, and the front of the instructions at the right. This is a pretty simple, straight-forward kit, with a date on the instructions and decals of 1987. The panel lines are engraved, and the wheel wells in the lower wing part are boxed in. There is some flash (excess plastic that oozes into the tiny gap between the two mold halves, as the mold becomes worn with use) but that is not unexpected in a twenty-five-year-old model. All in all, a fine little kit.

Adding details to the cockpit area

For the most part, World War Two fighter aircraft were designed to be simple (easy to build), lightweight (able to fly fast and maneuver with agility), and relatively inexpensive (a P-51 Mustang had a projected lifespan of 150 hours flying time or less). The fuselage of the real Jack had the typical underlying structure of curved fuselage formers (round or oval frames vertically oriented at right angles to the centerline of the fuselage) with longerons (horizontal strips stretching from front to rear) attached to the formers. On a kit from the 1980s, it was typical that this would not be represented in the model. I added these formers and longerons (made from .010" x .020" Evergreen styrene strips) to the interior of the fuselage halves, but only where they can be seen through the transparent canopy, when the model is finished. I located these parts on the basis of a black and white cutaway drawing from an article on the Jack in a 1971 compilation volume of Air Enthusiast magazine. I also added bits of styrene at the supports for the cockpit floor assembly, and a brace to support the part that receives the decal for the instrument panel.   

Detailing the cockpit floor

The resin seat is a generic World War Two fighter-plane part produced by the Squadron Shop as part of their "Tru-Details" product line. It includes the lap and shoulder harness straps. I made the throttle quadrant by exposing a tiny rod of .020" diameter Evergreen styrene to the heat of a lit match; this heat causes the end of the rod to melt and swell into a button-like tip, simulating the knob at the end of the pilot's throttle control. The rudder pedals are photo-etched brass, also from the Squadron Shop "Tru-Details" line.

Painting the cockpit interior

According to Donald W. Thorpe's reference book Japanese Naval Air Force Camouflage And Markings World War Two, the interiors of JNAF aircraft could be painted with any one of several particular shades of green, or with a translucent dark blue or translucent dark green. Based on the very limited color information I have on the Jack, I opted for Humbrol #144 Intermediate Blue, to approximate the translucent dark blue.

The rectangular Evergreen tubing at right angles to the left fuselage half is the anchor for an aluminum tube to be installed later. This tube will provide a temporary handle for airbrushing and decaling the entire model. Once all painting is complete, the tube will be cut off, and form a bushing for the propeller shaft. It's a rule: all propellers must turn freely. Seriously.  

Assembling the fuselage

When I started building plastic models in the 1960s, the only adhesives available were plastic model glues in two formats: a thick, clear glue in a metal tube (like a tube of ointment), and a very runny, clear liquid glue in a bottle, with an applicator brush attached to the bottle cap (like a bottle of fingernail polish). The thick tube glue was hard to control and messy, got on my fingers and then smeared on the model's exterior. I learned to use it mostly where I needed strong joints, like attaching the wing to the fuselage. I learned to use the thin glue to attach small parts, where precision and control was essential, by using a very small paint brush, instead of the big applicator brush in the bottle cap. However, these solvent-based glues had a side effect.

For the last thirty years, to assemble the main parts of a plastic model, I use fast-acting cyanoacrylate ("super glue"). This takes practice, and lots of care, to not glue the model parts to my fingers. Once cyanoacrylate model glues became available, I quickly made the switch, because the plastic glues worked by using solvents to liquify the plastic, welding the two parts together. However, over time, the seam between the two parts joined by the solvent glue would often sag, because the solvent continued to dissolve the plastic. This sagging joint would telegraph under the paint on the finished model, sometimes years later. Very discouraging.

Cyanoacrylate glues work by gripping the microscopic texture of the gluing surfaces, forming a mechanical bond between the two parts. No dissolving of the plastic takes place, so once I have filed, sanded and polished a seam, the seam never sags, even years later. I still use the runny liquid to cement small parts, where there is no concern about sagging joints. The liquid plastic cement also has the advantage of allowing adjustment to the alignment of the joined parts, for up to twenty or thirty seconds; the "instant" cyanoacrylates have no working time- the bond is truly instant. If I need to make a bond between large parts, with a little bit of working time (five seconds or less), I use the thick ("slow") cyanoacrylate glue.  

Installing the wings and horizontal stabilizers

Adding the wings and horizontal stabilizers to the fuselage is a very important step in assembling an aircraft model. The trick is to make sure these parts are as perfectly symmetrical as possible. Sighting down the fuselage, the left wing should angle up (dihedral) or down (anhedral) in relation to the fuselage, to the exact same degree as the right wing. Similarly, the angle of the left horizontal stabilizer should exactly match the right. And the vertical stabilizer (fin and rudder) should be perfectly vertical, in relation to the fuselage, the wings and the horizontal stabilizers.

There are a couple of techniques to achieve this. The time consuming way is to build a jig, as I did for the Junkers J.1 (see the tab labeled "Prop Planes"). I usually only build jigs for biplanes, because there are two wings to get aligned properly. For monoplanes, like the Jack, I rely on a simple tool I create from a scrap of cardboard: I draw, as exactly as possible, a horizontal line, bisected at 90 degrees (I use a drafting triangle) by a vertical line. Where the lines cross, I drill a hole the size of the aluminum tube for the model handle/propellor bushing. I insert the aluminum tube in the hole, and adjust the fit of the wings and horizontal stabilizers to align symmetrically with the perpendicular lines on the cardboard, before I apply the glue.

This step is particularly important for me, because the eyeglasses I wear correct for an astigmatism in one eye, and distort my view of reality, slightly. If I depended on my glasses-corrected vision to show me what is plumb and true, I'd end up with crooked models. The jigs keep me honest.    

Finishing up the cockpit before installing the canopy

Before gluing on the canopy, I installed the kit parts that represent the thick piece of armor glass, and the reflector gunsight. On World War Two fighter aircraft, armor glass was provided to give some protection to the pilot, in head-on attacks against other fighters, or from the defensive guns of bombers. Sometimes, in the RAF Spitfire for example, this armor glass formed the front of the windscreen, taking the place of the usual plexiglass. In the Jack, the armor was installed as a separate piece, inside the canopy, because the front, flat panel of the Jack's windscreen was so tiny.

A reflector gunsight was an illuminated device that projected an aiming point out to infinity, often through a slanted piece of glass, mounted on the top of the instrument panel coaming. This was a great improvement in fighter gunsights, over earlier, simple ring and bead sights. I don't understand any more than that about this device, but if you are interested in the Wikipedia entry on "Reflector gunsights", CLICK HERE  This Hasegawa kit included a tiny part representing the reflector gunsight, on the canopy runner, along with the armor glass part. I painted the non-transparent areas of these two parts to match the cockpit color scheme.

Installing the canopy

Epoxy fillet between canopy and fuselage

(Continued on tab "Build Jack 2")