Raiden Jack

The Mitsubishi Raiden has the wide-body look of a razor back P-47. Tamiya's 1:48 scale kit comes with two sets of instructions--one in Japanese and the other in English. The instructions are easy to follow and understand with just a couple of very minor grammatical errors. There are 4 spruces of light gray plastic--2 spruces are just for the wings. All panel lines are very thin. The wings have recessed panel lines while the body lines are slightly raised. The kit comes with two figures--one seated for the cockpit and the other standing. There is one clear plastic sprue for just 2 pieces--the one-piece canopy/windscreen (canopy shut) and a flat clear piece (bulletproof armor) that is mounted above the instrument panel. (The canopy is incredibly wide for a single seat fighter!) The plane can be built with landing gear up (doors shut) or with gear down. The tires are not weighted (no flat bottoms). There are decals for three aircraft from different air groups--Genzan Flying Group, 302nd Flying Group, and 352nd Flying Group. The kit comes with a 7 x 10 colored print showing the left side profile of the Raidens from the Genzan Flying Group and the 352nd Flying Group. The kit only has 44 total pieces but the details in the moldings make it seem like it has more parts, which is typical of Tamiya excellence!