Vulcanicity Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 Hi all, Part of the reason I signed up as co-host to this GB was to give me an excuse to build a Jaguar. Since I'm living in Norfolk this year only a stone's throw from the crumbling tarmac of Coltishall, I felt the time was right to lay my hands on this beauty: Here's the sprue shot. I haven't started it, honest guv! (OK. I removed the fuselage halves from the sprue to have a play) I splashed out on this rather handsome resin set for the cockpit, which looks a vast improvement on the kit parts. I'm going to be building the kit as a T.4, so I'm aware I need to do some tinkering with the cockpit avionics-anyone know of any other modifications? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritag Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 (edited) T4 Phil - well if you must - but how can you ignore the beauty of a lovely T2A in wrap around camouflage? Edited August 3, 2013 by Fritag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted August 10, 2013 Author Share Posted August 10, 2013 Well, true, I love camo as much as the next man. Personally however, I think the plainer scheme really highlights the beautiful lines of this machine better! Anyway, I made a bit of a start. Fuselage front and back halves were glued together, and the gun panels added. Nominally this is supposed to minimise the "step" caused by Italeri's awful fit, but i've still managed to get a step on one side. I've made a start on assembling the rather handsome resin tubs. The improvement over the "generic" kit detail is obvious. Helpfully NeoMega have quite obviously used the kit tub as a pattern, so this should help the fit. I've also made a start on modifying the instrument panels to better resemble the "Jaguar 96" avionics upgrade featured in the T.4. This involves firstly removing several lumps and bumbs on the coaming of the resin panels. In this pic the bits to be filed down are the little boxes on the edge of the coaming either side of the gunsight. This is the rear panel suitably cleaned-up. A few spots of filler are needed. I'm using this excellent photo-gallery as my reference. http://sepecat.info/images/48-burkill/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 Looking nice and inspire me to make a start on my single seater. Surprised there not more JAgs listed for this GB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shalako Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 Interesting subject you've got there mate. Can you post a few more pictures of the cockpit's tubs in various angles as well as, the resin ejection seats? Thanks in advance. Cheers Sernak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted September 13, 2013 Author Share Posted September 13, 2013 Hi all, another update. This is proving to be a slow build and I'm constantly interrupted by busyness! For Sernak, here's a walkaround of the cockpit tub now the two halves are together. Ignore the bits of electrical wire and plasticard, the U/c bay is still a WIP! The last shot above shows that I've finished grinding off the circular moving map display on the centre of the IPs, ready for the square LCD screen. Overall I've been pretty impressed with the Neomega set, it fits excellently and the detail is good. The tubs are mastered from the kit parts and inherit the poor representation of the nosewheel bay roof: This is what I've done to better represent the maze of wires and hydraulic lines in this area. The little bulkhead towards the left in the above shot was quite a complex piece of carving! That's all for now, off to Cornwall for a week! (this one will be right up to the line I think) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 The little bulkhead towards the left in the above shot was quite a complex piece of carving! That's just showing off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 Very nice ! I love the job you made on the wheel well. And the Neomega level of detail is great, no surprise this company enjoys such a reputation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted September 26, 2013 Author Share Posted September 26, 2013 Thanks Enzo and Giorgio! I've got a relatively clear month to finish this build, so it's pedal to the metal! Having got very bogged down with the nosewheel bay, I was not looking forward to dealing with two mainwheel bays and two airbrake bays! The majority of the mainwheel bays are sealed off by doors which Italeri moulded closed. These appear to be only opened for maintenance, so I have made no effort to open them (what a relief!) Still, there was plenty of scratchbuilding to do in the rear part of the main gear bays (where the gear legs stick out), and I also wanted to pose the airbrakes open so these bays needed dealing with. In both cases, the kit has moulded-in detail, but this is basically fanciful. So off it came, and out came the plasticard and fuse wire! The cockpit is now ready for priming, as I have completed my little "avionics upgrade" to T.4 standard-namely adding the square LCD screens and removing extraneous controls on the instrument panel shrouds. The intakes are massively see-through, with not even a turbine face provided in the kit. So I had a go at making some rudimentary intake trunkings. Not sure how I managed to get two of these matching tubes (which are supposed to grade smoothly from a square to round cross-section) but I did. Primer time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNoAF Aerobatic Team Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 Looking good! I fancy the Jaguar Twins.. They look really sleek in shape! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted October 9, 2013 Author Share Posted October 9, 2013 Thanks Ørjan! I've been at this build as fast as possible in the last week or two, so much so that updating this thread has rather fallen behind! Last week I finished painting the cockpit. The instrument panels in particular were a challenge! I also completed the underside of the tub, which forms my scratchbuilt nosewheel bay. The Zinc Chromate is a mix of two Vallejo colours, White and Yellow Green, with a touch of black added, and a weathering wash from Mig Pigments. The trailing wires at right will be the brake cables for the gear leg. From there it was a relatively quick jump to joining the fuselage. Fit wasn't great but not too bad either. the fact that Neomega had used the kit tub as a master for their resin casting made life much easier! Some filler needed along the nose and underneath. The wings were a different story. Big gaps everywhere! These were reduced with plasticard shims, and once the one-piece wing was added, I used a bit of putty along the gaps to fair them in. The underside of the fuselage between the jetpipes is a separate piece as far forwards as the front edge of the airbrake bays. This was very difficult to glue in, as it had to be manipulated from the back edge, worked in through the gap for the jetpipes and glued from inside. The large locating tabs helped, but this was still difficult! Fit wasn't great, and there's quite big step to fill at the front edge. This is where I'm up to! The tail was a breeze to apply, although the tailplane locating holes allow rather a lot of play in the anhedral angle. I've also drilled out and applied the air conditioning intake on the spine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12jaguar Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 Looking good Just one piece of advice though, the inside face of the airbrakes (where they close on to the engine doors) should be external camouflage colour and are generally pretty grimey especially on the port side where the air starter is. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNoAF Aerobatic Team Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 Sweet progress. Great looking Jaguar so far ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shalako Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 For Sernak, here's a walkaround of the cockpit tub now the two halves are together. Ignore the bits of electrical wire and plasticard, the U/c bay is still a WIP! Cheers mate! Keep up the good work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted October 17, 2013 Author Share Posted October 17, 2013 Thanks everyone! I've been flat out on this build to try and get it done for the GB-indeed so flat out that updating this thread has taken rather a back seat! Just one picture for now, this is the model before primer last night. I've since got the main camo colours on, pics later! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritag Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 (edited) updating this thread has taken rather a back seat! I'll have you know that quite a lot of work went on in the back seat of a T-Bird. You want to try sitting in the back of someone who's learning to fly low level at night using Night Vision Goggles. That'll make you sweat.... Thread Drift over. Looking forward to a display of your usual hairy stick magic. Steve Edited October 17, 2013 by Fritag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted October 19, 2013 Author Share Posted October 19, 2013 Thanks Fritag-the compliments for my painting are quite something coming from you! Great to hear your reminsicences about the T-bird-sounds like quite a hair-raising experience! Anyway- Must. Model. Faster. Here we are shortly before decals yesterday evening. Sorry about the shoddy late-evening photography! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natter Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Looking great... will you make it before the GB deadline? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted October 20, 2013 Author Share Posted October 20, 2013 We'll see! I believe I have some 7 and a half hours left... Decals. It is much, much easier to list the things Italeri got right with this decal sheet than the things they got wrong! It's by a country mile the most shoddily-put together decal sheet I've ever seen! Here's the problems which apply just to the grey 54 Squadron example (XX146/GT) which I decided to build: Roundel size: Those supplied for the fuselage/starboard underwing/port upperwing in this version correspond to 18-inch-they should be 12-inch. Roundel colour: They're much too dull, particularly the blue. Fin Flash: Also too large and dull. Ejection Seat warning triangles: inexplicably printed on white backgrounds-the supplied larger ones for the nose are also too large-they should be the same size as the warning triangles on the pylons. Rescue stencilling around canopy emergency release handles: There should be two lines of small yellow text above the handle, and the "rescue" arrow should be a thin yellow outline with yellow text. The supplied decals have thick black "text" in a yellow-filled shape with a thick black outline. Also the arrow is definitely too big! Serials: Hopelessly wrong font, much too bold and twice the correct size (8-inch not 4-inch) Squadron codes: The "tiny" code for the nosewheel door is the correct size for the codes on either size of the fin (but there's only one, obviously). The codes intended for the fin are so massive that they'd would barely fit on the f***ing fin! Squadron badge: This is very well printed (the rearing lion is excellent) and the colours are OK but the shield is too tall and narrow. Squadron flashes (fuselage): The check on both sides of both badges should have a blue square at top left-the flashes should not be a mirror image either side of the badge. Squadron flashes (fin) The check is too small and square Phew! There's really no excude for such God-awful decals-in most cases it looks like Italeri just lazily copied all the sizes and styles from the green/grey wrapawound camo option and used them on the later schemes. I'd bought an Xtradecal sheet for the national markings, but was mortified that in the chaos of moving, all my generic serial letters got left at my girlfriend's house in Cambridge! Some ingenuity was called for, and I managed to find the remnants of this old Sea Harrier sheet in my spare decal wallet. The astute will see that by much cutting up, I could get two repeats of "XX146" in 4-inch serials. For the codes on the fin, I pillaged a "T" from one of the other kit options which (XX845/ET) which also featured over-sized squadron codes. The decal wallet supplied a number "6" which with a little painting can be converted to a "G". Anyway, most of the decals are now done, and I'm on to some final assembly jobs: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Nearly there! Keep going! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted October 20, 2013 Author Share Posted October 20, 2013 And he staggers over the finishing line with an hour and five to go! That was exhausting, but I'm glad it's done. One Jaguar T.4, 54 Squadron, RAF Coltishall 2004. More pictures to follow tomorrow when I get some light! Thanks to everybody who gave encouragement and advice, or even just looked in. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritag Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 (edited) Lovely Phil. I knew the finish would be good. Nice touch with the camouflaged drop tanks on the Gallery pics. Adds character Edited October 21, 2013 by Fritag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natter Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Stunning Jag. Considering it sounds as though you life was seriously full, I think that is a double fantastic job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardtarget Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Nicely done Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaguarfan Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Well done, you ended up with a great result! You managed to overcome all the obstacles that the kit presented you with! cheers Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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