Adding to the growing list of great books from Mushroom Models  is this new one on the J2M Raiden. Given the Allied code name 'Jack', the Raiden was probably the Japanese Navy's first dedicated interceptor. Designed specifically for the purpose of getting into the air and to the enemy's bombers as quickly as possible, it put aside the requirement of being a good dog-fighter in order to have the largest engine placed in the smallest possible airframe.

As with all the other similar editions from Mushroom Models Publications, this one opens with a brief introduction to the type and then goes on to cover all the sub-types with drawings and photographs to illustrate the salient differences between them.

It is then followed with a section by section look at the airframe of existing types. In this case the only extant aircraft I'm aware of is the J2M3 that is held by the Air Museum in Chino, California. It is that aircraft which is the subject of all the close-ups and detail images. Interspersed with these images are drawings of the section in question as well as period photographs of these sections, wherever possible.

The final section is one that I find is the most inspirational, and that is the one of profiles. There are fully 18 pages of profiles and three views, superbly illustrated by Zygmunt Szeremeta of all the different variants and variations of the J2M.

Enthusiasts of Japanese military aviation should not be without this valuable and interesting guide to one of the JNAF's most important interceptors.

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