Zoukei-Mura J2M3 Raiden

Edbert · Feb 17, 2025

Putting down some color.

I need to add some silver to the inside of the flap-wells, and touch up the main gear wells. The codes on that tape are "O" for outer and "I" for inner. The smaller circles are about 2mm difference in diameter. I can use the circles and the remainders as masks.

For these meatballs I used the remainder of the tape, the border if you will not the circles themselves. Very little touchup needed on the roundels.

This is Tamiya XF paint looking oddly semi-gloss, I think it is the LEDs. Those round tape spots have a smaller set of circles too. These larger ones will be the white border.

Edbert · Feb 19, 2025

BarleyBop · Feb 19, 2025

Dunno about you, but I think those roundels look amazing!

Edbert · Feb 22, 2025

The bulletproof glass fell off while the canopy was glued with PVA, I can hear it rattling around, but since this is Zoukei Mura, there's an actual fuselage and wing-root area full of levers, cables, tanks, and lines/hoses (in the Bf109 there was a gyro/compass and radio back there) that make shaking it out a challenge. I figure I just need to find the biggest gap (there are many) and shake it up until I can at least see the damned thing.

Anyway, I'm about ready to clear coat this, I see some touchups that are too distracting.

Edbert · Feb 23, 2025

So the loose armored-glass thing is driving me nuts. As I sat there exasperated that I could shake it loose and get it out of the cockpit and into the fuselage while the canopy was glued but cannot even see the dang thing with the canopy removed...that is when the gap around the cowling started really bugging me. I had decided previously to ignore it and make it look like that was on purpose. Don't judge me, I know you've done that before too!

(JK, I'm no snowflake)

Then it occurred to me! If I remove the back half of the engine, including the fuel and methanol tanks, and all the bracing...not only could I get the cowl to fit right, but then the armored glass would be easy to get out, right?

This brings back the medieval conversation...

But then, still cannot get the missing part out, at least not easily.

Edbert · Jun 3, 2026

Coming back to this for updates, well over a year later yikes!

So I managed to finally get the armored glass out but it had gotten fogged, I'm guessing from use of CA in places that would have been far enough away if it were where it belonged. It say there for a while on a corner of my desk until I dropped a 24-ounce Yeti tumbler on it, smashing the landing gear, breaking off the antenna and cracking the canopy.

That is the real reason it spent over a year in the closet.

But I am trying to clear out my WIPs or backlog so I made what I could out of the remains. I used large amounts of glue on the landing gear, they are a bit crooked, I made a new antenna out of spare sprue. Here's the result, broken canopy and all.