1/48 J7W2, second attempt
Second attempt at Hasegawa's 1/48 J7W2

And here we are! Hasegawa's 1/48 J7W2, completed.

The first time I made this kit was back in June last year, and I have wanted to re-do it ever since I got an airbrush, as I was sure I could do a better job of it, and here it is! Version 2.

The J7W Shinden was a late war Japanese interceptor prototype, of an unconventional canard design. Intended to be a fast and maneuverable high altitude interceptor capable of catching and destroying US B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers, the initial version of the aircraft, the J7W1, was driven by a single radial engine in "pusher" configuration, driving a large 6 bladed propeller. Armament was very heavy, with 4x 30mm Type 5 cannons mounted in the nose, sufficient to destroy even the largest of enemy aircraft with a short burst, as well as the potential to mount bombs or rockets under the wings. Towards the end of the war a single prototype of the J7W1 flew, with two being built total. These were captured by the US at the end of the war, and taken back for testing. One survives (sort of) to this day, however it is in pieces, that are believed to be in storage in the US.

The J7W2 was a proposed later development of the aircraft, involving removing the pusher engine and replacing it with a turbojet engine. It is believed that this possibility was planned from the beginning for the aircraft, however as the aircraft never entered production, and Japanese jet engines never got beyond the prototype stage. As such, the jet powered version was never built.


This is Hasegawa's recent re-release of the kit, which is based off their original J7W1 kit from 1981. As such detail is rather lacking in some places, and the kit has the older style of raised panel lines, rather than the modern recessed panel lines that newer kits have. Despite its age though fit of the kit is excellent, with the exception of the resin parts that make the J7W2 conversion (two enlarged intakes and a jet exhaust). However with some modification and careful filling, I was able to achieve a good fit even with these, showing that when it comes to Hasegawa, even their older kits are of good quality.

Construction as usual started with the cockpit, which was rather basic but still serviceable. Painted with my usual mix of airbrush and brush painting smaller details, and applied the decal for the cockpit instruments, which went on well and looks reasonable considering the age. After this building the kit went on as it usually does, fuselage halves, wings, etc. The only departure from the norm was the usage of resin parts, the fit of which was not that great. The rear engine nozzle went on ok, with only a slight gap around the edge that needed filler, but the resin intakes were a lot more stubborn. In the end I ended up cutting parts of them away, and then combining the plastic parts with the replacement resin parts to achieve a better fit, which was cleaned up with more filler. This worked well, and I am pleased with the result.


I decided to paint the aircraft with an NMF scheme, as during the later period of the war Japan was leaving more aircraft bare due to lack of resources and time, and I also decided to fit the drop tank, and a large air to air rocket under each wing. The aircraft was primed in black, and then given a silver base coat, over which I carefully masked and sprayed over metallic shades, including metallic black, gunmetal, aluminium, steel, and chrome. I'm rather pleased with the effect achieved, and feel it suits the aircraft well. Fine details were brush painted in, while the landing gear bays and inside of the doors were painted with Vallejo Aotaka Trans. Blue, which came out much darker than I expected. Whilst this paint does have a nice metallic sheen, I cannot really recommend it due to the colour.

As usual kit was given clear coats using pledge floor gloss, a very useful substance. I decided not to go too crazy with the decals, and mostly just stuck to the decals included in the kit, although I did add an aircraft ID plate to the rear fuselage beside the exhaust, as well as a couple of "Sakura" kill markings on the gun bay doors.

Sadly I was unable to find proper canopy masks for this kit, which is why the canopy frame is messier than it normally would be, I had to mask it the old fashioned way using small strips of masking tape, which wasn't entirely succesful. 🙁


I also included some photos comparing this to the last time I built this kit, you can see the improvement!

In conclusion, this kit is a fairly decent one considering its age, and I can recommend it if you are desperate for a J7W2, although the original propeller version would likely be easier to build due to not requiring resin parts. It's also worth noting the price of this version of the kit is significantly higher than the propeller version. The age of the kit really does show though, and with Zoukei-Mura's newer J7W kits on the market, the advanced modeller would probably be better off with one of their much more detailed kits.

Happy building!

~Katya