Phone Phixer

Phantastic work. Love everything about it.

Ooohh, that's very nice. Lovely crisp demarcation lines between paint colours.

Here you are. Rob.

Hi. I'm currently building the same kit, only the Hobby 2000 boxing of it. I'm using the eduard brassin seat and painted the PSP seat cushion in Humbrol 226 interior green and the harness back pad Tamiya XF67 NATO green with a thin wash of Humbrol 163 dark green. These are scans of the instructions with the kit seat details and also the main colour callout. If you need any more of the instructions scanning, let me know. Hope this helps. Rob.

Fantastic work and a great recovery from that varnish problem. I've tagged you on a Jaguar thread in the cold war section. It's a video from Julian that shows the undercarriage retraction sequence and how the legs twist and fold. "Good luck"!! It's all probably too late for you as you have decaled and fitted the weapons. Hopefully, it's just the flash wiping out the colour of the Sidewinders. But, AIM-9L winders were Light Ghost Grey FS 36375 on the body and wings. Not white. Those CBU 87's have stencils on saying "do not fly" on your model in flight! (Ignore me, just being pedantic)! Loving how this is looking now. Rob.

@Massimo this video will be useful for you with your current Jag build. It shows the undercarriage twisting and folding during travel.

Looking good. It's going to need some serious weathering to re-create the end of conflict state. The brake chute "noddy cap" needs painting black. Many had bare metal repair patches on them.

Canberra Kids diagram is the standard (long) tail. As used on Buccaneers, Harriers, Hawks etc. The photo shows the initial solution of no tail fairing. Then the short tail fairing was produced.

We only removed the fins if it was planned to fire the gun(s). I don't know if that was for aerodynamic purposes to keep them on as much as possible. Or if it was to stop the riggers moaning, as it was them who had to remove and fit the fins! That was when I had moved onto 16(R) sqn. And the only time that happened was for a QWI course, on the heavy weapons phase. Someone decided they wanted to resurrect the tandem beam and CL tank fit, it had rather fallen off the charts in favour of LGB's. Each jet had 4 x 1,000lb HE to drop as a stick across Garvie Island. Then as if enough granite had not been chipped off the rock, 30mm HE strafe runs were done too!

We missed each other by a few years Steve. I was posted to Colt in 1995 (conveniently into the CBLS bay/AMF arm). All the CBLS at Colt had the short tails by then. So sometime between 1990-95 it happened. It was sometime after then when the grey scheme was applied to the Jags, the role equipment SA gave the instructions to paint everything to match. I would guess that it would be standard practice to fit long tails carriers to the outboards. It would be sods law that after the last short tail was fitted to an outboard, one was needed for the CL. Yes, you are correct. CBLS were originally fitted to the CL rear ERU. Picture from canberra kid. This was stopped when it was found, the turbulent airflow in that area was causing major cracking of the CBLS structure and tail.

CBLS 100 tail fairings on the Jaguars are one of those classic, "pick your timescale and find some photo references" The need for a short tail fairing was due to the step in the centreline pylon to the rear of the front ERU. The long tail butted up to the lower pylon surface preventing correct loading. In the Jags early days this was solved by simply removing the tail fairing in total. Later on the short tail fairing was introduced and there were mixed holdings of CBLS on the squadrons, some long tail and some short (as Fritag states). In its later times Coltishall raided the RAF's stock of short fairings and every CBLS used for the Jags had a short tail. Careful of those Air-Graphics "Jaguar short tail" CBLS items. I haven't seen them in the flesh. But the photo is actually of a CBLS 100 with a WRS (weapons response simulator) fitted. The WRS was for nuclear bomb release training sorties. The WRS was a different shape to the regular short fairing. Rob.

Yes, those are the openings from the ejection tubes. The empty 30mm cases were dumped out through them. Picture from the BM walkround section. The ammo tanks were slid into the compartments above the gun bay. Stbd gun ammo in the rear compartment, port in the forward. The belted 30mm rounds came down the upper chute into the feed mech at the rear of the Aden gun. There, the rounds were stripped from the links and fed into the rotating gun chamber. After firing the empty cases were ejected out through the pipe at the rear, down through the opening at the bottom. The empty links continued along the lower chute and into a compartment between the 2 gun bays. Its due to the lower link chute that there are the bulges in the doors. It was always the standing joke, that the Jaguars dumped the valuable brass casings and brought back the cheap links that only went for scrap. An extra note about the ejected 30mm cases and centreline tanks. During training, if the guns were to be fired and a CL tank was fitted the rear tank fins were removed. This was due to the ejected cases hitting and damaging the fins. During Op Granby (as per your load configuration) the fins stayed on the CL tanks as it was war and the tanks were expendable. These are enhanced Paveway II LGB's that the Jaguars never used. We only had the basic model!! The conduit running from the tail section to the nose needs removing along with the 2 bands mid bomb that held the conduit on. Also the 2 small round GPS aerials need sanding off just forward of the guidance fins. Those are the wrong CBLS for the Jaguar. They are CBLS 200 (used on Tornado), the Jag used CBLS 100. See this thread. I know it's the wrong scale, but all the info is there. Lovely work as usual from your good self. These are amazing looking Jags. Rob.

Hi Massimo. I wasn't on the Jags at the time of Op Granby, so don't have first hand knowledge. I think the flying kit was a mixed bag of colours in use. Desert flying suits were possibly issued, but I don't know how many to each aircrew. It probably varied, depending what was in the laundry. They got a bit sweaty, flying those missions. This video has a variety of colours on the flying clothing and helmets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJV-3Pto0Kg I think the Jags only flew one mission early on with BL755 CBU's. They could only be dropped from low level, so after the change to medium level attacks the BL755 was useless. Those Reskit BL755's are actually RBL755 CBU's with the sensor fairings on the tails to allow for dropping at altitude. A modification done after the Gulf, with the lessons learned. The Jags did indeed hurriedly get cleared for dropping American CBU 87's, as they had height sensors that allowed release from medium level. Because they were longer in length only one was carried on each inboard pylon. If you want to use the tandem beams, then 1,000lb bombs were loaded on those, 2 to each TB. Rob.

A marathon of a build, but what an epic journey. This was truly a masterclass in 1/72 detailing. Just sublime.

I can't help with definite info for a FRS1. But I am currently building the GR3 and it has PE2 as the outboard wing fence and PE3 as the inboard. Rob.

Amazing work and a lesson in detailing to the exquisite level. Your oddball gizmo seems to be a combination of a canopy hinge damper (riggery bit pah!). With the MDC initiator and shroud (the good trade item)! Ooer, there should be one for the rear MDC too. Picture from BM walkround section. Tsk tsk, now what's this about Jaguars not being started soon! I suggest another dual build. the 226 OCU jet you first went solo in, and any random 6 Sqn jet you joyfully threw around the skies. Starting next week!!!!!😜 Rob (In total awe).

It seems to be a standard training role fit, plus the addition of the baggage pods. The TER's and LAU-68 could be loaded with practice weapons for use on the range when needed. If the mission did not require weapons, they would be left on but not loaded. Depending on where it was off to that required "baggage", I doubt that weapons would have been loaded for that flight. Some places don't like you turning up with items that go whoosh/bang. It seems to be a standard A-10 fit. THIS PICTURE has practice bombs included. No baggage pods.

Potentially, yes they could. As both of them are drill items, there would be no official reason not to. It's not like mixing live/practice/drill. In reality, it would be a very strange situation to do that. The drill Skyflash complete with wings and fins, were usually kept as a set of 4. Used for training or demonstration loads.

74 Sqn did take their turn on southern QRA along with 56 Sqn. As with all UK QRA fits, they had the 4 x 4 missile load that selwyn says. Sgt fletcher fuel tanks on the outboard stations and a 600 gal centreline fuel tank. Only the RAFG and Falklands QRA had the SUU 23a gun pod fitted.

The information about the pylon locations comes from build reviews of the Kinetic Harrier GR1/3 kit. https://www.hyperscale.com/2020/reviews/kits/kinetick48060reviewbg_1.htm Scroll way down to near the bottom for pylon information. The original source was from the IPMS (UK) Harriersig site. But BM's own @NG899 is the Nick Greenall quoted in the review. He is the font of all Harrier knowledge, and can confirm if this is relevant for the SHAR. Rob.

It used to be a 12 Sqn boast, that every foxes head was different. Most were subtle with different styles or colours. Then there was one with a moustache and the 2 heads taking the mickey of the other 2 Lossie units. One fox had an eye patch for 208's sphynxes eye and the other had a mortar board.

The AIM-9L acquisition round is a live seeker head mounted on an inert metal body. It is loaded onto the LAU-7A or BOL launcher and gives the pilot missile lock indication during air combat training. The head is the usual anodised grey/green colour and the body is light grey with pink bands. Photo from BM member @Simon on an earlier post. If he wants me to remove it I will. As far as what the Harrier GR7 carried, it depends on any timescale during its service. Take your pick from:- Fuel tanks, CBLS 100 practice bomb carriers, TIALD or Sniper laser designation pods, TERMA countermeasures pod, recce pod, 1,000lb bombs with ballistic or retard tails, 1,000lb Paveway II, 500lb Paveway IV, AGM-65 Maverick missiles, CRV-7 rocket pods. I think the main issue on weapons, is what is available in 1/32 for you. Hope that helps. Rob.

Lovely build and excellent photography.

I have simple tastes. I see an F14 =I like. You have built an excellent model with a finish different to the usual. The kit...........yeah, that nose profile looks way off. Top skills to get it looking that good.

Wow, that is an amazing build. I do like the ghost camo scheme on all the HAF jets.