BobM's Tamiya J2M3 Raiden - a Newbie Build

[BobM]

Well here goes. I'm new to ISM and haven't build a kit in at least 30 years, so I might as well dive in head first and also join my first Group Build.

For my subject I've chosen the oldie but goodie Tamiya J2M3 Raiden:


J2M3 Cover Art by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Being a newbie, I thought I'd start with something rather simple. I'm fairly confident I'll be able to build OK; painting is likely to be the challenge. I hope this will be a good model to practice on. If I do screw up, it was pretty inexpensive, so it won't hurt much!

While I am a real admirer of WWII aircraft, I'm really not much into the history thing; I just enjoy building... So I'll leave history to others and instead just post a link to the Wikipedia article for those that are interested.

The kit has the choice of three configurations:

• 1. Genzan Flying Group (November 1943, Kagoshima Air Base)
  2. 302 Flying Group, Lt. (J.G.) Sadaaki Akamatsu's (March 1944 to August 1945, Atsugi Air Base)
  3. 352 Flying Group. Lt. (J.G.) Yoshihiro Aoki's (April 1945, Kanoya Air Base)

For my build, the cover art will be my main reference, so I'll build that configuration (#2 above).

To get things rolling, here are the contents of the box:

J2M3 Contents by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Being my first build in a long, long time, I need to start acquiring building supplies. I have a few modeling tools that I recently got from a friend that is unfortunately unable to model any more, but just a few exacto handles, some tweezers, files, a Micro-Mark sprue cutter and a couple of other random things. So, along with the kit I purchased an assortment of 12 Tamiya paints that should be enough for this build. I also got some X-20A Thinner, Squadron sanding sticks, Tamiya Extra Thin, Zap-a-Gap CA glue, some small (5/0, 0, 2) cheap paint brushes, Micro-Set and Micro-Sol. Prior to that I had purchased a Badger Patriot 105 airbrush; I'll need to get some practice in on that before hitting the model! You can see my delivery in this post if you like. Of course this is a lot more to get; primer, masking tape, etc. I'll include my acquisitions in this thread as they arrive!

Since I'm still gathering supplies and getting my build area set up, it might be a while before the next post.

Edited 11/19/16: Photos moved to new Flickr account.

[BobM]

OK, while searching for videos of other builds, I stumbled on to this vintage footage. Enjoy!

[youtube]MxV7DfbW0_E[/youtube]

[Les0012]

Interesting subject, hope it all goes well.

Looking forward to the finished article and will watch the build

Les

[SteveAFV]

Looks a straight forward build and get you to the painting practice fairly quickly. I'm a recent returnee too. There are quite a few of us.

Checkout the ISM YouTube channel if you haven't already. Particularly the Aircraft modelling series which I see has had an update.



And the original series -

[SteveAFV]

Oh and good luck

[BobM]

It's been a slow start but I finally got some time last night to get going. Work, family priorities, waiting for supplies and other projects (see below) conspired to keep me away from the bench. At least last night I got a little time to get the cockpit prepped for paint. Below you can see the prepped parts and subassemblies along with the tools I've been using to get this far. Things so far have been pretty straight forward. Just one lesson learned: be very careful holding tiny parts in tweezers while trying to glue them on! Yup, there are two small brackets(?) on the rear of the head rest that I was gluing in place. I was adjusting the position of the first part (#36 in the photo) in the tweezers when... weeee... it went flying who knows where! After spending some time trying to find it (yeah, right) and a little more trying to duplicate it from a piece of sprue (need more tools and patience), I gave up. Well, those parts aren't really necessary, are they?


Cockpit Paint Prep and Tools by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Next is a closer look at the cockpit parts ready for paint. If you look in the lower left corner, you'll just see the landing gear that needed a little filler in an ejector mark. As you saw in the first photo, I'm using 3M bondo Glazing & Spot Putty. We remodeled a while back and one of the painters left it behind; I've been waiting for a chance to use it and I've see it recommended quite a bit for just this purpose!


Cockpit Ready for Primer by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

So now it's on to the primer coat. This will be my first attempt with an airbrush using my new Badger Patriot 105. For paint I'll be using the highly recommended Stynylrez, probably black for "black-basing" but maybe I'll just go with gray. It make take a bit to get this on the model as I need some practice first. I also need to test out the project that has slowed me down: a DIY foamboard spray booth. It's powered by an old 20" box fan that was laying around. It seems to draw OK, but I have no idea if it will work! The front is collapsable to take up less room while not in use; it's currently taped open while I wait for some magnets to show up to use for the closure. In my next update I'll let you all know how it works.


DIY Foamboard Airbrush Spray Booth by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Well, until next time.....

[BobM]

So, instead of getting started on priming and painting the cockpit, I decided to make some progress in other areas. First I assembled the lower and upper wing sections. Generally this went very well and I'm please with the results. A couple of minor issues, one alignment pin was broken at some point, and the tip of one upper wing was slightly bent/wrinkled. Correcting for the missing pin was easy, just careful alignment and taping. The wrinkle turned out to be easy as well; I just laid the wing tip flat on my bench and used a Sharpie to rub it out. After assembly I can't even remember which tip it was! I also re-scribed some of the lines for the panels on the leading edge around the machine gun bays. I'm not sure how successful I was (first time trying); we'll see once I get paint on it.


Wing Assembly by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Next I decided to tackle masking the cockpit. Now I understand why people buy pre-cut masks! It look two tries and lots of patience and time, but for my first ever attempt at this I'm pretty happy. (BTW, you'll probably notice a lot of "first time I tried this" in these posts... well it is!)


Masking the Canopy by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

This closeup shows the biggest issue, I didn't get the bottom of the front mask low enough. Not sure why, but at this point if I were to lower them there would be lines left where I made these cuts. Oh, well. It is what it is.


Masked Canopy by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

I've got to say, having read lots here on ISM as well as many other websites and YouTube channels has really paid off. I've been able to put many of the techniques, tools, tips and trick to good use already. I wish I had had these resources when I was a kid, or even last the time I tried to pick up the hobby some 30 years ago.

Anyway, now I'm too a point where I have to get going on the painting. I hope to find time either tomorrow or at least sometime this week.

[BobM]

Lots of progress to report on now that I was able to find time (and courage) to paint. First, I'll mention that thus far my DIY spray booth is working out just fine, I was concerned that the filter might not fully trap all overspray so I conducted a test. I turned the fan on high, loaded my airbrush with Stynylrez black primer and sprayed full-bore right into the filter. I had taped a white paper towel over the exhaust and from what I could see nothing came through! I think I have a winner.

Now, back to the Raiden.

After a little practice with the Stynylrez on a spoon, I was ready to prime the cockpit, interior, wheel wells and pilot:


Primed and Ready for Cockpit Green by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Primed and Ready for Cockpit Green by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

The Stynylrez went on like a dream and I was real happy with that. I let it dry overnight and the next day (or maybe longer) sprayed Tamiya XF-71 Cockpit Green for the cockpit interiors and wheel wells. The instruction sheet calls for the "Clear Blue Green" for the interiors; I guess that is the Japanese Aotake color. My earlier "research" found there wasn't entire consensus that this is accurate and I followed the lead of some other builds I came across and chose to use Cockpit Green. The next time I do a WWII Japanese aircraft I may choose differently. For the pilot, I mixed XF-64 Red Brown and XF-2 Flat White as a light brown for the pilot's main uniform. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of these with just their base colors.

Instead I moved on to detailing. The pilot was the most challenging. I've seen other complain about using Tamiya paints for brushing, but for this I found them to be adequate (at least for me). Yeah, they dry quickly, but I just added X-20A thinner as needed and that seemed to work out. The real issue I had (besides lack of talent) was with my brushes. I had purchased some small cheap red sable brushes; this was a basically a disaster. The "hairs" had a mind of there own and trying to paint small detail was nearly impossible; but I persevered and made it work. Later, while detailing the cockpit, I found that I also had an inexpensive #1 Taklon brush. Even though it was bigger than I would have liked, it held paint much better and was much easier to control; wish I had tried it earlier. Guess I need to invest in more brushes!

With everything detailed, I moved on to weathering. I started by dry brushing with XF-16 Flat Aluminum. Generally this worked out OK, maybe a little heavy handed in a few places; but for a first attempt, again I'm please. I followed that with a wash made from very, very thinned XF-1 Flat Black. This worked out OK and gave me some good staining and general "dirtiness" that works for me. Hopefully you agree.


Painted, Weathered and Ready for Assembly by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Cockpit Detailed by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Cockpit Detailed by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Cockpit Detailed by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

The last bit of detail was the instrument panel. It had been base coated with Cockpit Green and washed with the thinned Flat Black. I then brushed on some "Future" (aka Pledge Floor Care Finish) to prepare for the instruments decals. These were applied with Micro Set and Micro Sol. They are actually oversized compared to the actual panel so once they were in place I used "lots" of Micro Sol to soften the edges and wrap them to the sides of the panel. It worked out. These Tamiya decals held up well to this abuse and I think all the Micro Sol really helped them settle down on the the panel.

At this point, I couldn't resist getting these into the plane, so they were installed in the right half of the fuselage. This was done with a combination of either Zap-A-Gap Medium CA or Tamiya Extra Thin, depending on the situation.


Cockpit Fitted by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Cockpit Fitted by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Finally, I test fitted the left half of the fuselage as a preview to the next steps.


Test Fit by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

I'm really pleased with how the cockpit has come together especially since, as I've said before, this is my first attempt at this kind of detail and weathering. I'm sure that in the final model much of this will be hidden by the canopy; but I really intended this to be a learning experience. Thus far it has been; and a fruitful one as well (knock on wood).

As a side note I'd like to mention how really impressed I am with the quality of pictures I'm able to take using my iPhone 6; they really show some of my flaws!

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! It may be a week or so before I get a chance to make progress and put together another update. Next weekend will be devoted to my other passion as we travel to Las Vegas to watch hockey! Yes, hockey in Vegas... "My" LA Kings have there final pre-season games at Frozen Fury in the new T-Mobile Arena.

So until next time....

[Lysus]

For a return build you're knocking it out the park. The pilot looks great, the cockpit details are nice and sharp, and personally I think I prefer the Raiden over the Zero.

Well done, can't wait to see more!

[BobM]

Well, I did get some bench time before heading out for a long weekend and was able to make progress on getting the fuselage ready for paint. Assembly went pretty well; the fit was good but some filler was needed as others have reported and you can see below.


Preparing for Paint by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

The largest fit issue was with the radio behind the pilot's head; it wasn't even close to lining up. But with some sanding, filing, filling and paint, it turned out OK.


Preparing for Paint by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Here is a photo of the underside which also needed a lot of attention. Especially where the wings fit the fuselage. You can also see how I've "masked" the wheel wells using the "wheels up" covers. I plan to build with the landing gear down, so this is temporary for painting. I actually saw this on someone else's build (I think it's here on ISM) and though it was a great idea.


Preparing for Paint by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Finally, I had a few minutes to cleanup and super glue the landing gear parts to toothpicks; now they are also ready for paint.


Preparing for Paint by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Thanks for following....

[BobM]

Here's another quick update after spending some time in the paint booth and "body shop".

First, I finished painting the landing gear. All pieces got a coat of Stynylrez Black to start. I'm leaving the struts just primer'ed since the instructions called for black anyway. Except for the silver inside cylinder which you might be able to see below; it got XF-16 Flat Aluminum. The wheels were brushed with XF-1 Flat Black slightly lightened with XF-2 Flat White to make them look more like a sun bleached rubber. The hubs were painted with XF-16. Next the insides of the covers were painted with XF-71 Cockpit Green. These were all dry brushed with XF-16 and washed with my very thin XF-1. That just leaves the outsides of the covers which are waiting for the body to be completed so I can use the same color as the underside. (You can see that I got a little over zealous with the Cockpit Green on one of the small covers!)


Landing Gear Painted by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Next, I fitted and glued the canopy (don't forget the pilot, I almost did!). The fit was OK, but there were some gaps that just needed filling. For that I used Bondo Spot Putty 907. I was trying to see what would thin it so that I could paint it into the smaller crack. I started squeezing a good amount into a small cup when some of it's solvent came streaming out! A lucky accident as this was the perfect thinner! I mixed in some of the putty until I got a nice smooth pudding like mixture. This laid on nicely using some micro brushes that I have. I let this dry overnight and only a minimal amount of sanding was needed the next day.

Then it was time to spray the body with the Stynylrez Black primer. This stuff is working great for me, although it is a bit susceptible to scratching. I hope once the color is applied followed by a clear coat that it will no longer be an issue. With the black primer on all my poor filling and sanding became readily apparent. So after drying another night I sanded with some homemade 320 and 600 grit sanding sticks.

For the sanding sticks I picked up two sheets of wet/dry sandpaper on the way home from work; $2.80. At home I had a couple of what I think are wooden coffee stirrers; I don't know where I got them, I need to do some hunting to find more. I cut these in half and taped them to the back of the sandpaper with double-sided tape. I then cut the paper around the sticks and labeled them. I made them two sided with a different grit on each side! There were only enough sticks to make 6, so I used only about 1/30th of the paper! They worked great so I'm happy with them; I'll be making many more!


Homemade Sanding Sticks by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

At that point I re-primed the sanded areas, along with some spot that were a little thin, scratched, or missed in the first go round. So now I'm waiting for the primer to cure overnight and then I'll be ready for color! Here it is primed along with some close-ups of the cockpit area where I had the most difficulty filling and sanding; you can also see my attempts at rescribing panel lines (I think I need more practice). Not perfect, but not bad either...


Primed and Ready for Paint by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Cockpit Up Close by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Cockpit Up Close by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to photograph black?

The next step it to add color. I realized last night that I got the wrong gray for the underside; so I'll be mixing my own to get something close. But that's for another day.

Thanks again for following along!

[Lysus]

It's this point where I want to just leave the kit primed, Stynylrez black is so awesome.

Looks like you're enjoying yourself and the rescribing looks better than my first attempt. I really want to make this plane some day...but that canopy....

Good on you for going for it!

[BobM]

Lots of progress this week as it was time to apply the base colors!

The first order of business was to mix up some orange yellow using XF-3 Flat Yellow and XF-7 Flat Red. I tried to match the color on the decals, but you can see it isn't nearly red enough. That's OK though since I won't be using the lightning bolt decal and the only other decal this color is for the stripes on the tips of the prop; I ended up just painting those as you'll see later.


Identification Color/Orange Yellow? by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

After painting applying this, I masked off the identification stripe. I've seen a few builds on the web where it looks like they got these a bit too wide; I did my best to follow the paint scheme in the instructions and as you'll see when I umask, I think I did well. With all the orange/yellow overspray, I decided to cover it with more Stynylrez Black after masking. Then it was on to the bottom light gray.

For this, I thought I had found that the correct color was XF-77 IJN Gray, but to me it looked really dark. I'm not sure if I was confused or found a bad reference or if I'm just wrong, but my model, my colors! So I lightened the XF-77 with XF-2 Flat White and added just a touch of XF-70 Dark Green 2 (since again, I found a reference that indicated the color might be slightly green). However, I added so little that I don't think it really mattered and I ended up with the light gray you see below (although I think I looks lighter in the picture than it really is). I tried keeping the panel lines a little darker and the centers lighter; I don't know how successful I was since I'm still learning to control the amount of paint being laid down. I'd be happy to hear feedback, good or bad.


Light Gray Bottom by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Next I masked this off so I could apply the top color, XF-77 Dark Green 2. To mask, I basically laid Tamiya masking tape along the wing and stabilizer edges leaving it stick out over the edge a bit. Except along the fuselage and cowl where I just followed the lines shown in the instructions painting scheme. The trickiest area was where the horizontal stabilizers meet the fuselage; I just cut some thin strips of masking tape and followed the panel line where the two meet; it worked out well. I found the XF-77 to be a bit dark for me as well, so I lighted it very slightly with XF-2 Flat White. I was hoping to it would make it look faded, but not really... Hopefully some weathering later will take care of that.

Once that was on I need to mask off for the blue black anti-glare. I mixed XF-1 Flat Black and XF-8 Flat Blue at a ratio of 3:1; it's hard to say it isn't just black! I probably should have taken some photos with the masking tape still in place, but I was to excited to see the results!

And here it is umasked! I also popped on the prop temporarily. You can see the "orange/yellow" strips I hand painted on the prop and the nice identification stripes. Oh, the prop and spinner are just straight XF-64 Red Brown. In these pictures you can also see the painted and assembled landing gear.


Unmasked by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Unmasked by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Unmasked by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

At this point I wasn't sure how to proceed ; clear coat and decals or painting some details. I chose the latter and painted the antenna stay, landing gear indicator rods, cartridge outlets, exhaust pipes and wingtip and tail lights. And being impatient to see my first model fully painted, I removed the canopy masks! (I hope that wasn't a mistake. ) In the remaining pictures you can see some of the details; and also where I already started chipping the cowl (not on purpose mind you!).


Ready for Clear Coat and Decals by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

And look who still there! This also shows the "Rusty Iron" exhaust pipes; for these I mixed XF-1 Flat Black, XF-64 Red Brown, a little XF-3 Flat Yellow and a touch of XF-16 Flat Aluminum to give it a slight metallic look; I think it worked out.


He's Still In There! by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Next up is a clear coat and decals; I'll be using Pledge/Future/Klear or whatever it's called. That will be followed by another clear coat, some intentional chipping, weathering and a final flat coat. It's getting there!

Thanks again for "tuning in"!

[BobM]

Alright, I sprayed the clear coat (Pledge Floor Care) and while it was drying I started planning to apply the decals. That's when I noticed it... I'd made the ID stripes too long! They extended one panel line further towards the wing tips than they should have! Well what now? Fortunately I had kept plenty of the Dark Green and Light Gray that I had mixed for just such an emergency! But since my airbrush skills aren't that great, and I didn't want to do a lot of masking, I decided to just paint over the ends of the stripes with a brush. It worked out just fine. I figure any variations in color, texture, etc will either be hidden by further weathering and clear coats, or they can just add to the story. (One of the reasons I choose a WWII airplane for my first "victim" is that I hoped weathering/aging could be used to hide a multitude of mistakes!) Here is the before and after.


Before and After by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

And here she is clear coated and repaired.


ID Stripe Fixed! by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

And a closeup of the repair.


ID Stripe Closeup by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

So while I let this dry overnight, I decided to give a couple of weathering techniques a try. One thing I'll want is some sort of wash/stain over various parts of the exterior. I don't have any enamels or oils to work with and I'd like to just use what I have handy. So a thought occurred to me, one that I don't think I've see mentioned anywhere (and maybe there is a reason for it). I decided to try to make a wash/stain by adding some color to my Pledge Floor Care! Has anyone done this? Anyone know of any problems with this plan? I mixed some "earthy" colors (red brown, yellow, some light gray I had mixed) into a bit of the Pledge. This produced a muddy color that I was happy with. I used a toothpick to apply this to one of the landing gear covers that I had used as a mask while painting. I think I like it! I'll make several mixes of different colors and give it a go!

Here is a picture of the muddy wash/stain on the left and some chipping practice on the right. I used red for chipping so I could more easily see the effect/shape. (Ignore the blobs on the bottom of each cover, they are just spots where I had super glued toothpicks to try to remove them from the fuselage after painting.) I think with careful application, these two techniques will give me some of the effects I'm looking for.


Weathering/Chipping Tests by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

That's it for now. Thanks again!

[GarethCrossland]

That's looking pretty damn good! Can't wait to see it finished. Keep up the good work.

[BobM]

First, thanks to everyone that has been following along; especially those that have taken the time to post a comment.

This will be my last update as the final assembly and weathering just flew by! I don't think it's supposed to go that fast, but with the excitement of my first build coming to an end I just kept pushing on until it is almost complete. Because of my excitement, I failed again to take pictures along the way. So other than a few sneak peek photos, this post will have to describe what I did.

After my last update it was time to apply decals. For this I used the standard Micro Set, Micro Sol combo. This went really well and I thought the decals laid down really well. (Where was this stuff when I was a kid!) I did use quite a bit of Micro Sol once the decals were in place to really get them to conform to the surface. I used a wet Q-tip to roll them down really well. BTW, wet (or at least moist) is extremely important! It turns out (you probably all know this) that the Micro Sol also softened the Pledge clear coat I had applied. On one decal I was using a dry Q-tip and noticed that the "hairs" were sticking to the decal and surrounding areas. With more Micro Sol and careful "scrubbing" with a Microbrush, I was able to remove most of them. From now on, moist Q-tips for rolling out decals! One or two of the decals tore ever so slightly, but they were minor and easily explained as chips! While applying one of the identification markings, I got the position slightly off and didn't notice until I had applied Micro Sol and it was too soft to correct. When I tried I got a pretty bad crease and one of the numerals was misshapen, but later chipping hid that mistake!

Once the decals were complete and dried I decided to move on to chipping. For this I used XF-16 Flat Aluminum and some small tears off of a fine sponge and a Scotch-brite pad. I'm not sure I'm completely happy with the result, it may be that Flat Aluminum was a bad choice; or maybe it was my technique, inexperience or impatience. It's not bad, but not great either, maybe a bit overdone. Something to work on the next time.

After chipping, I wanted to dirty things up. I tried my mixture of mostly Pledge Floor Finish and a little bit of paint. I made a muddy color mixture and a blackish mixture; both very thin. I fairly liberally applied this to all surfaces, streaking in the direction of airflow and removing most of it along the way. I also lightened the black mixture with white towards the end, mainly to get the black anti-glare section to look a bit faded. Again, it may be overdone since once it dried it was much more apparent than it seemed during application. But in general I'm happy with the outcome.

At this point it was looking nearly complete, just some assembly and a few details to be added. I attached the landing gear, machine guns and pitot tube with CA glue. The machine guns and pitot tube needed paint, Flat Black and Flat Aluminum respectively. I also added some black streaks behind the machine guns, exhaust pipes and under the cowling. The streaks were done with a "thicker" mixture of Flat Black and Pledge; it blended/streaked OK, but was hard to control. The next time I'll look into getting some oils and thinner.

The last thing to add was the antenna, for this I first tried to use a thin piece of copper wire taken from an old stranded phone line. There are two lines to run for the configuration I built and the first, lower one went on well with some CA glue. However, I just couldn't get the top one to be taught enough. So I abandoned the wire and switch to using some thread. This attached easily with CA glue and looks OK (although a little "fuzzy" for wire). I don't know it was needed, but I coated it with Pledge. I then overpainted that with Flat Black.

Now I'm just letting everything dry completely before adding the final XF-86 Flat Clear coat! Once that is on my next post should be in the Reveals section. But until then, I'll leave you with some sneak peek close-ups...


Weathered Wing by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Too Much? by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

[Gauzer]

Looks good to me. IIRC I seem to remember something about what does it look like from a couple of ft away, close ups are always a nightmare. I'd be happy with that.

[BobM]

Looks good to me. IIRC I seem to remember something about what does it look like from a couple of ft away, close ups are always a nightmare. I'd be happy with that.

Yep, you're right. In fact it looks even better from a few feet without glasses! And what do they say, we are our own worst critics?

Thanks for the comment!!

[BobM]

The reveal is up: BobM's Tamiya J2M3 Raiden - a Newbie Reveal!.

Thanks again to those that took the time to follow along and especially those that left comments!

So until next time... happy building!