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I built this kit back in late 2001-early 2002, eOut of the Boxf to meet the Australian National Championship rules, using only that which was contained within the box including colour scheme and decal markings.
When I started the kit I wasnft sure whether I wanted the wings up or down so I proceeded to build both separately to add later.
The build was good and all parts went together well, the only disappointment if you could call it that was all the work that went into the large and well detailed cockpit was that it is almost invisible once the canopy is in place.
The decision was made to have one wing up and one down to show the different positions. Painting and decaling was complete at this pont.
After a short period of careful dry fitting, the folded wing went together quite easily.
The locked down wing however did not want to play the game and sit right and match up to the main wing.
A longer period of fitting, sanding and adjustment and paint touch up of wing and pins got the desired result of alignment, I then drilled an additional hole in the forward area of each wing and added a short piece of sprue and superglued it in place to give it some added strength .
I enquired about the addition of the antennae wiring to complete the model and this was allowed without any problem.
Important Note here! If you intend building the Jill with wings down , then carefully join each of the 2 upper or lower wing sections together and reinforce them with some plastic card being careful to add the link(hinge) pieces that will protrude through the upper wing before glueing them together.
The model was painted overall with Tamiya XF-16, the undersurface was painted with a
mix that I thought closely matched colours that were being displayed on the j-aircraft discussion group at the time( sorry canft remember what it was now.) the upper surface was with a slightly lightened XF-11 J.N. Green
The upper surface was sprayed in a light built up cloudy pattern and the panel lines were a heavier application to make them darker.
Small strips of masking tape were used to gpull uph small sections of colour from the Aluminium undercoat in selected locations, this was followed by a very careful and light
Sanding with about 2400 grade sandpaper over areas of the wings and fuselage (front to back)to further remove the green and show some of the undercoat. I was happy with the result.
I am pleased to report that in 3 competitions entered my Jill flew the Japanese flag to victory in each, State and National OOB 1st place and an Axis Aircraft Display voted best Japanese aircraft.
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