I love eclectic subject matter; whether it’s cars, planes tanks or robots, a model of something out of the ordinary usually gets my immediate attention, not to mention my money and time. However, there are some “famous” and “mainstream” subjects that are just too cool to turn away from. For me, one of those is the somewhat-famous J2M Raiden, known as “Jack” to the Allies in WWII.

I usually prefer Japanese multi-seat or multi-engined planes; most of their single-seaters don’t do much for me. However, the Jack, whick looks almost as much like an air racer as an interceptor has always been a favourite of mine. The problem is, there are almost no good kits of it in 1/72, and I’m not willing to pay what they want for the few that do exist. However, since the Jack is so small, even in 1/48 it’s not a lot bigger than some 1/72 WWII twin-engined planes.

Thus, I was able to finally add a Jack to my collection recently by picking up the old Arii second-hand. I have to say, give the age, it’s a good looking kit. Sure, it’s not as detailed as some more modern ones, perhaps, but for what I paid (and how horrified I was with the Arii Wirbelwind I got was) I was very pleasantly surprised.

Check out my out of box review for this likely mostly-forgotten example of Japan’s pudgy interceptor at the link below! Anyone built this guy?

https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/model-kits/out-of-box-reviews/arii-148-mitsubishi-j2m3-model-21-raiden-jack-oob/