History
The
Japanese Imperial Navy, officially adopted the Nakajima B6N2 Tenzan Type 12
carry born attack bomber in March 1944 with a round about 1200 of this type
being produced during the war, however the Jill was plagued with problems with
the Kasei Model 25 (14 cylinder radial) engine and other factors which postponed
its front line debut The Tenzan type 12 had a crew of 3, with the Kasei 14
cylinder which had an out put rate of 1,850hp at take off and a top speed 481.5
km/h (at 400m). The Jill was armed with 7.7mm MGx1 for rear upper defense and
7.7mm MGx1 for rear lower defense.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The Kit 09390
Hasegawa
has presented the modeler with a superb model, which is highly detailed. The
cockpit is marvelous with the amount of attention to detail, as well as the
crisp panel lines which feature on the fuselage and wings. Hasegawa has included
extra parts with this kit, although I have know idea as to what most of these
extra part are for, since the instructions have no mention apart form parts not
for use. The kit is pretty
straightforward to build with some fiddly parts, but with patience there is no
problem. Another feature is the ability to have this kit displayed with the
wings folded up or positioned down
Construction
This
model was built OOB except for the seat belts, which were from the Eduard
Japanese Navy set; I found this model very easy going to build with very little
putty required. I think that the hardest part to assemble was the cockpit
sidewall; I found that once they were attached/glued to the cockpit floor that
the cockpit had trouble fitting into the two fuselage halves a little persuasion
was needed to fit the cockpit but not to much, perhaps a light sanding of either
in side the two fuselage halves or the cockpit sidewall to make the fit more
easy would have help. The only other parts which might be a slight problem are
that of the Fowler Flaps if they are to be positioned down a little bit of
fiddly work is required to do this. But with the help of some tweezers the job
can be accomplished a little easier. Other than that the rest of the kit is a
breeze to build.
Painting and finish
The
Jill was painted using that of Humbrol paints, with a chipped affect added and a
finish with a pastel wash. You will note that the main canopy is not painted,
well it was but the paint seeped under the Tamyia masking tape, so I had to get
out the trusty oven cleaner and remove the paint. I just haven’t gotten around
to repainting it yet. The Jill is finished apart from canopy and a aerial to
represent that of the Hemeji Flying Group (April 1945 Kagoshime Pref. Kushira
A.B.)
Alan
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