Aeromaster 48-287: Empire Defenders part 4

This is a nice sheet for JNAF fans and provides markings for five J2M3 'Raiden' aircraft. These are all late war planes and in the standard dark green over light grey with yellow wing leading edges. The Raiden was not really that colorful an aircraft, a trait that was common with JNAF types and while some had bold, red lightning bolts on the fuselage, that is not the case with these planes. This sheet was produced prior to the release of the very nice Hasegawa kit so the Tamiya kit, which is actually 1/50 scale, is the one recommended. Since there are no flamboyant markings, these should fit pretty much any kit, including the older Otaki version.

The first two options are from the 332nd Naval Air Group with one having a yellow stripe on the tail and bare metal panels behind the exhaust.

The next two options are with the 352nd Naval Air group and again, one plane has a yellow fin band while the other does not.

The final option is with the Yatabe Naval Air group.

Decals are nicely printed and while not spectacular, do provide options to what is offered in the kit.

The kit does provide enough hinomarus for two planes and you'll notice that the white surrounds are provided separately. The wing undersides do not have these surrounds.

June 2018

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