Jaguar E - 1:72 Hobbyboss

[Paul A H]

Jaguar E

1:72 Hobbyboss

Like many multinational combat aircraft, the Jaguar had a difficult gestation. It started life as a trainer and light attack aircraft, designed to fulfil the requirements of both the French Air Force and the Royal Air Force. Two companies collaborate on the design and development of the aircraft: Breuget of France and BAC of the United Kingdom. The venture they formed was known as the Société Européenne de Production de l'Avion d'École de Combat et d'Appui Tactique (European Company for Production of Combat Trainer & Tactical Support Aircraft) or SEPECAT. Two distinct aircraft were originally proposed. The first was to be a low-cost trainer with limited ground attack capability, the second a larger, more capable strike aircraft with variable geometry. The French eventually withdrew from the latter programme, but the project survived and the aircraft eventually emerged as the Panavia Tornado.

The delay in the development of the dedicated strike aircraft cause a problem for the RAF as their planned ground attack capabilities were centred on this aircraft. After some wrangling, the trainer aircraft's tasking was re-written to remove the trainer element, thus completing the Jaguars evolution into a dedicated strike aircraft. The RAF eventually took delivery of 165 single-seat Jaguars and 35 two-seat trainers, While the Armée de l'Air took 160 single-seat aircraft and 40 two-seat Jaguar Es. Throughout its service lift the Jaguar was frequently deployed in support of French military action, taking part in operations in Mauritania and Chad and participating in multinational campaigns over Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo. The last Jaguars were retired from French service in 2005.

In typical Hobbyboss style, the kit is packed into a sturdy top-opening box adorned with a fairly nice picture of a Jaguar E on the runway. Inside are six sprues of grey plastic, one small clear sprue and a sheet of decals. In common with other Hobbyboss kits, the parts are extremely well packed, with all of the sprues individually bagged and the more delicate components such as the canopy wrapped in foam for extra protection. My only criticism is reserved for Hobbyboss's habit of taping the protective film to the decal sheet. Apart from being unnecessary, this introduces the risk of damaging the decals when removing the tape. The plastic parts are very well moulded and surface detail is depicted by fine, engraved panel lines and fastener or rivet detail where appropriate.

The cockpit is made up of a tub complete with side consoles, the instrument panel coaming and a pair each of the ejector seats, control columns and instrument panels. The seats are moulded in one piece, but thanks to the use of slide moulding, they are detailed enough to pass muster in this scale. The seat backs are hollow, however, so you may wish to address this prior to painting them. Whilst the cockpit is all there shape-wise, it's a little lacking in terms of fine detail. The instrument panels and side consoles have been replicated without any kind of moulded detail, but decals are only provided for the instrument panels. This seems a rather odd omission, I must say. Before the completed cockpit tub can be sandwiched between the fuselage halves, there are a number of other internal structures and must be fixed in place. Both the nose gear bay and the main landing gear bays are made up of multiple parts that have to be fitted inside the fuselage prior to assembly. There is no intake trunking of any sort and no attempt to represent the engine compressor faces, so you may want to address this prior to joining the fuselage halves in order to avoid the dreaded see-through effect.

Once the landing gear bays and intakes are in place, the vertically split fuselage halves can be joined together. At this juncture, Hobbyboss expect you too add all sorts of fine detail, such as the nose-mounted IFR probe and all sorts of small aerials and antennas. There seems to be no compelling reason to fit all of these eminently snappable parts at such an early stage of the build, so you may want to leave them off until the end. Unlike many other kits of the Jaguar, the wings are moulded separately to the fuselage, and unusually the locating tabs are part of the fuselage rather than the wing. The vertical and horizontal tail surfaces are all pretty straightforward and shouldn't cause undue difficulty.

Once you have the basic structure of the aircraft together, you can start adding the smaller details. The landing gear is very nice and appears to replicate the real thing pretty well. The canopy is nice, but it's a shame that it is moulded in one piece. A full range of pylons and ordnance is included far more than you could ever add to the model, meaning lots of goodies for the spares box. Included are:
2 x Matra BLG-1000 LGBs;
2 x BLG-66 cluster bombs;
6 x Matra BR 250 bombs on two multi-launchers;
1 x BAT 120 anti-armour bomb launcher;
2 x AJ-168 Martel TV-guided Anti-Radiation Missile;
2 x ATLIS II targeting pod;
2 x Barracuda ECM pods;
2 x Phimat chaff/flare dispensers; and
2 x drop tanks.

Two marking options are provided, both (of course) for L'Armee de l'Air machines. The first is finished in the dark grey/green scheme depicted in the box artwork, while the second is finished in a rather eye-catching sand/brown scheme. The decals are fairly well printed and look reasonably thin and glossy on the sheet.

Conclusion

This looks to be a well-detailed and rather buildable little kit which may just have what it takes to trouble the offerings of established manufacturers such as Hasegawa and Italeri. The overall shape looks pretty good and, one or two omissions aside, so do the details. The only downside is the price, which is a fair bit higher than the similarly-sized MiG-29A which has just been released by stablemates Trumpeter. All very odd, but judged on the quality of the plastic alone, still a very creditable kit. Recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Uncle Dick]

Thanks for posting this - I might have to obtain a few of these just for the Frenchie armament loads - some very nice and exotic goodies there, particularly like the decals for Beluga cluster bombs not done in 72 scale previously (mind you I have not perused reviews of the single seat jag by Hboss yet - I'll have to pull my finger out), rest of the load looks a treat as well, no more scrounging around for Mirage F-1, Alpa jet loads etc....

or Argie Scooters ...

Edited October 25, 2015 by Uncle Dick

[Mick4350]

Is the front undercarriage assembly like the Hasegawa kit ? Is it just a solid lump or does it have the two separate prongs that mount to the fuselage ?

[perdu]

That looks very nice but the auxiliary air doors are a bit 'old Airfix'

Lots of very acceptable other detail, includes the first attempt I've seen of the underwing/fuselage fillet

Good to have open bay doors too, lots of scope for detailing in there

I would like to see how the main gear legs look assembled but from what I see this is a far more realistic effort than Hasegawa or Italeri

I think I might have one of these

Can I have a GR1/3 to play with please?

[Arachnid]

link takes you to pak 50

[Paul A H]

No it doesn't