ADVANCED BUILD
Taking the ‘road less travelled’, Andy Davies opts for a distressed appearance with Ushi Models’ 1/72 resin Mitsubishi J4M Senden interceptor concept.
Mitsubishi designed the J4M Senden (flashing lightning) twin-boom fighter project with the intention of providing the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) with a formidable high-performance land-based interceptor. Developed during the last years of World War Two, the type was conceived in two ways: one with an extensively glazed nose and another with a solid forward section and a more conventional ‘bubble’ canopy.
Pitched as a single-seat, low-wing monoplane, it would have featured a central nacelle housing the cockpit and a 2,130hp Mitsubishi Ha-43 radial engine, driving a six-bladed ‘pusher’ propeller between the tail booms. These were mounted below the wing and extended behind the leading edges. Measures to prevent damaging the large airscrew included a tricycle undercarriage arrangement and nose-mounted armament comprising one 30mm plus two 20mm cannon. Design work – on the initial J4M1 version – ended when the IJN backed the competing Kyūshū J7W fighter. Despite this, and World War Two ending before the J4M reached prototype status, the Allies nonetheless assigned th…
