Well, I can't resist the lure of a new build, and I'm in. So far, I have the kit, a Neomega pit and some decals for it (all of which rhyme). Mine's going to be a Desert Storm bird after I stumbled across the decals I bought sometime ago while I was looking for the serials for my Mossie yesterday.

Before I start though, I need Neil in the UK, so I can get some slaps & flats, and the other goodies he's got for the Jag. When're you home again Neil?

Get back on October 17th.

Pedal faster!! It's pay day on the 15th!

Nige.

I have a brand new Jaguar Gr4 , but I dont have the neomega set. If I have it I think in enter the Gb.Its a beautifull plane and dont seeing like F-14 and F-18s.
Cheers
Héctor

Get the set, get the set While you're at it, get some of Neil's Paragon stuff too

Please tell me where to catch I want to do a jet plane , but this kits I´m not sure if its a good kit to start
Cheers.
Héctor

Can't wait for the next line of your rhyme when your Jag goes Tango Uniform! (Hope it doesn't mind!)

Neil sells through Hannants also. If hes not home anytime soon, don't delay the build

www.hannants.co.uk

7 replies & I've not even started cutting parts off sprues yet!

The Emperor's new Model. Only a fool can't see me making excellent progress

There, edited your typo

Fool!

do we not like Mr T then?

Maybe it's just the occupance that is implied in his clothing and the pictures background (we need a "shudder" emoticon)

Heh... no worse than a politician being there!

you mean like this one.......or is he an actor

Glove puppet, I thought?

His accent's improved I think.

Aye, so's his acting.

Right you are squires... back on topic (there's a novelty! )

While I was waiting for the wash on the landing gear bay doors to dry for the Mossie, I retrieved the box from up on th'top shelf, and cracked it open

First job will be to install the cockpit into the space left by the Airfix blank space Man, is that one detail-free cockpit! I've got a Neomega pit to install, so I popped open the little plastic box that it came in & cut off the pour stubs with some judicious use of my scalpel. I'll have to Dremel off the seat plug, but that can wait til I go outside.

The tub is in two parts, open at the controls end, and is VERY detailed... Beautifully cast, in fact, and fits like a glove. I just trimmed the bottom of the kit's stub rear wall, onto which the firewall cements, to allow the corners to mate cleanly. There's a replacement coaming, which requires the corresponding chunk to be cut from the fuselage halves. A couple of swipes with the scalpel & they were bent & snapped off. A little adzing with the edge of the blade, a brush with a file, and I taped the two halves together.

The coaming drops neatly in and won't need any filling at all. I then glued the Instrument Panel (IP) to the coaming, and refitted it. The ledge around the new coaming will need thinning to accomodate the IP, as it has side-lugs that are quite close to the bottom of the coaming. 2 seconds with the Dremel will resolve that.

Before I install the cockpit & close up the fuselage, I'll need to re-scribe a load of weak panel lines on the bottom of the fuselage, and cut out the intake on the spine, as per Neil's instructions I'll also open up any other intakes/exhausts I can find, and thin out the plastic surrounding it.

Pics in a little while... the bench is still a bit messy & I've not finished cutting yet

Another option, (like what I did as me old mate Ernie Wise used to say) dont cut away before joining, but after the 2 halves are together place a piece of paper over the V shape - run a pencil over it to outline the shape on the paper, cut a template, trace around plastic sheet, drop in - Et Voila!

Neils suggestion is sexier though

I've prepared all the cockpit parts & primed the resin pieces with Mr Resin Primer, glued in the cockpit sidewalls after test fitting to make sure they're in the right place, and glued the major parts of the tub together.

The ejector seat's got some minor mould damage on the fine seatbelts, so I'll need to replace one or two sections, but it's nothing serious, just fiddly work. The same can be said of the coaming, which was missing one arm of the gunsight... again, a replacement can be fashioned with a bit of faffing.




The detail's really nice & should come up well with a coat of paint. I just need to trawl the threads to remind me of the major colors in there... someone said Admiralty Grey IIRC? Haven't got that... what else could I use?

Those Neomega sets are eye-poppingly good!.

The cockpit in the jag wasn't grey it was black matt and satin on the kick pannels near the feet it's that colour to support the Night Vision capability.
Hope that helps.

Yeah it does, thanks.... I'm sure I've seen a grey one though.. did I imagine it, or were there grey ones knocking about? I must admit, black does make for quite a dull cockpit... I usually use a dark grey with a black wash & grey dry brushing. Once I've fixed the seatbelts, I'll have to get up close with the pics that some kind soul posted of the bang seat. GBs of a particular type are very very useful for pooling resources, aren't they? I wonder if we should structure the resources a little better, so they're easier to find?

WOW!!!!!!! Mate this cockpit set is amazing!!

It looks great, good luck!!!

Just like Martin Luther, you had a dream Mike........

That was Martin Luther King

Not to his chums

I'm sure Mrtin Luther had his own dreams too Nev.

ahem....

I broke the canopy on this last night while I was polishing the crappy mould lines & flash from the edges... I can feel a call to Airfix coming on

You ham-fisted muppet

Talk to the hand

I had worked on Jaguar for 5 1/2 years also in training at cosford so I've worked on GR1, GR1a, GR1b, GR3, GR3a, T2 and T4 and I can say I have never seen a grey cockpit, all have been matt black and satin black kick panels.
I can provide a few pics of cockpits from some of the above varients send me a msg and I'll try and help, but if you have seen a pic of a grey one I would imagine it was airframe specific.

PM inbound Mr Wardy Sir

Just been on the dog to Airfix about me canopy, and they're sending a new one, along with a new set of decals, cos mine are about 3mm out of register - I need the stencils & such, you see...

Great work on the cockpit thus far - as I have said previously, I love these Jags. Looks like a lovely set that Neomega.....must get one for my next build - maybe I wouldn't want to be shamed by this one lol.
Keep the pics coming......I shall be lurking this GB.

Well... I spent a couple of hours sorting out the basics of the cockpit today. Sprayed it all Panzer Grey as a base coat, washed it with Phil's black wash (old one), and dry brushed the details.

Last night I cut a piece of styrene to replace the missing gun-sight arm, and dug out some spare PE offcuts, which I trimmed & fitted to give a reasonable facsimile of the other piece. Then I slimmed down the styrene part so that it was about the same thickness. Very delicate work, with lots of "Ping! Where'd that go?" moments.

I also repaired a few bits of belt that were missing with Tamiya tape, painted green, and a wire that had a section missing with a piece of lead wire (the type used for tying flies). I picked out a few buttons with various colors, oainted the dials black & blobbed a few marks on the dails with white.

I followed the various cockpit & seat refs as closely as I could, but the Neomega pit is old-skool, with dials rather than MFDs, so I had to wing it quite a bit. Same deal on the seat... subtly different in the detail. Still... it looks ok... better in the flesh than in the pics, but I'm open to any suggestions to improve it, as it's a bit dark

The pics:







Those pics really don't show it in a good light, do they?

There looks like there's a bit of sugar-frosting on the edge of the coaming, but in the flesh, it's quite restrained... odd. No motes of dust either Oh well... I'll sleep on it & see how it looks in the morning.

oooh- we ARE Mr talent- aren't we....

Just HOW sarcastic was that, and on what level? I'm not quite sure how to take it

Up the bum..?

Mike- its bloody lovely.. if I send mine up in the post, can you do it for me?

Nice pit indeed Michael

Yeah, but only if I can do it orange!

I dunno about my pit painting... I get the feeling I could do it much better, but I'm struggling to improve at the moment... I think I need to pinch someone else's technique. Someone brilliant, like Neil...

It would help if all the bloody pits I painted weren't black! Not exactly much room for experimentation there...

Your bum or the cockpit? Same thing really I suppose

It must be late if I missed that one!

Been hackiing & sawing at the main parts of my Jag today... first job was to cut out the flaps & slats, which are now done, just need tidying up & some slots cutting for the slots, then some screws to detail the flaps once they're installed.



Next up was cutting out the heat exchanger inlet on the spine, taking my cue from Neil's excellent build. A template of tape was used to cut the base out, which was then attached with some little shims to give it the slope towards the rear. I extended the piece to the rear like Neil's to give it a bit of depth, and allow easier handling, cos my fingers are quite pudgy.



I also added some styrene tabs to the fuselage halves, choosing which side to attach them to depending on how the halves fit together. The whole things fits together much better now, which will hopefully reduce the sanding neededonce the halves are joined together. After test-fitting the wings, I noticed that there's a lot of flex in the front joint, as there's no support beneath the part. I shaved the lip inside the wing part, then added tabs to the fuselage to hopefully stop the two from cracking during sanding.

On to the rear, there's an insert below the engines, which when inserted drops lower than the surrounding area, because the tabs are recessed too far. I cut a few rectangles of 0.25mm styrene, which just needed a few swipes with a file to allow the insert to sit level with the rest of the fuselage.





At the moment, I'm detailing the front wheel well, so that I can install the cockpit & seal up the fuselage... that's unless I find something else to muck about with that'll delay the closure

Swift progress there Mike. Some useful tips for the other Airfix 48th builders here as well

Mike, what colour scheme are you painting her?

Bex

She'll be a Gulf War I bird, from the Model Alliance sheet MA-48117 Don't know which one yet, but it's bound to be one of the rude ones like Johnny Fart Pants or summit