J8M
Finemolds 1/48 J8M

Subject:: Mitsubishi J8M1 Shusui
日本帝國海軍航空隊 (Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service 1912-1945)

August 1945 Captured Prototype
yellow-orange
Scale:: 1:48
Status:: Completed
Started:: October 28, 2018
Completed:: November 5, 2018
Time spent:: Just over a week.

Completed, Finemolds 1/48 J8M Shūsui

The J8M Shūsui was a rocket powered interceptor being developed in Japan towards the end of the Second World War. Heavily based off the German Me 163 Komet, the Shūsui was constructed based on partial blueprints of the Komet obtained from Germany. Intended to be armed with a pair of 30mm Type 5 cannons (The Navy's J8M) or a pair of 30mm Ho-155 cannons (The Army's Ki-200) it was intended to be used for intercepting B-29 Super-Fortress raids on the Japanese home islands. Only a few prototypes were manufactured towards the end of the war, with only one flight made under power. Two aircraft still exist today, one of the original prototypes which the US captured after the war, and another which was rebuilt from a partial aircraft the Japanese found in a cave.

The US aircraft is on display in the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California, while the Japanese aircraft is on display in the Mitsubishi company's internal Komaki Plant Museum. The US did capture a second J8M, but sadly this was destroyed.

This kit was... well, there were a lot of problems, some were my fault some were not.

The kit itself was reasonable to put together but with two major problems. The first being gaps between the wings and the fuselage (easy to solve with filler) and the second being an ill fitting tail/engine section (also had to be solved with filler, I did my best). The cockpit was very good however, including molded seat belts to fit.

The painting was the real issue with this, if you have been following my progress over the past week or so, you will have seen a lot of the problems I ran into, so I won't repeat that here. I'm definitely glad it's finished at last.

The Decals were excellent as Finemolds always are.

All in all, if I could do this kit again I would definitely do a lot of things differently. But I think that in the end, it does look ok.

The final pictures show a comparison with my other late war Japanese prototype aircraft, the J7W2 Shinden Kai, and the Nakajima Kikka.