Joe Youngerman's 1/72nd scale Raiden

Belatedly continuing the theme of Raiden kits started here and here (and more to come - please bear with me), is news that Sword are about to release (or have released) a new 1/72 Raiden.  And here are pics of a sharp looking build of the classic Hasegawa 1/72nd kit kindly contributed by Joe Youngerman.

Joe added a new interior, gear doors, wheels, radio mast, and horizontal tail surfaces and a vac canopy section from the Resin Art set. The wheel wells are from Eduard. Brake lines were added using fine solder.

The decals are from Aeromaster and Aviaeology's tail code set. The model is based on a profile that identifies this aircraft as being at Naruto Air Base in February 1945 and flown by Ensign Susumo Ishihara. The parent unit was the 332nd Kokutai formed at Iwakuni in August 1944 for air defence of the Kure region with a mixed force of Raiden, A6M5 and J1N1-S fighters. Joe was not sure whether this aircraft actually had the later climb prop but installed it on his build anyway.

Gunze paints were used for the upper surfaces and WEM Mitsubishi Navy Gray was used underneath. Joe also used WEM's Mitsubishi Interior Green for the cockpit and weathering was done entirely with pastels. A very fine model of a classic Japanese aircraft from a classic kit which to some of us is still "recent"! Thanks to Joe for very kindly sharing these images.

Image credits: all pics © 2012 Joe Youngerman