Boltcropper

Thanks very much Marklo, doing my level best to try and do justice to this iconic aircraft!

Thank you One 48, much appreciated! Though I love my modelling I am definitely no photographer....so full credit goes to Kev's photo wizardry skills as this project develops!

Much appreciated Phildagreek..... its got to be painted soon!

Many thanks Trevor! and this kittie will indeed be in green/grey wrap around and 54 Squadron markings!

Hi Bar Side, Now that is a fabulous diorama, lovely work and very effective!, and I'm assuming a scratch-built HAS too?, full marks for that! Difficult to gauge the scale but but I'm thinking 1/72? This is the sort of effect I'm hoping to capture in the 1/48 engine change project. Thanks again for sharing this.

The perfect preview photo Kev!

Huntingdon area...small world eh!

Cheers I'll certainly give it my best shot! As for the scheme, yes its to be finished as a 54 Sqn aircraft from the early 1980's (Kev served on 54 Sqn as an Engine technician). The registration he's decided on escapes me right now but the tail fin/front undercarriage door letter code is to be GK. As for the gubbins, the plan is it will be wearing fuel tanks on the inner pylons (donated from the Airfix kit by a friend) and one practice bomb dispenser on the underside center pylon.

Many thanks RMP 2, these drawings are great! they will be really useful to use in conjunction with reference photos.

Hi Rob, Thanks for the the helpful advice here...good to know these things early on!

Hi 12jaguar, just outside Hunts!

Wow thanks! yes that would be brilliant please....I'll have no excuse for mis-measuring the bits then!

Thanks for the heads up on this, useful to know for the future!

Hello again RMP2, glad you like the laystands, they were a bit of a B&&%er to scratch-build but essential for this project! As you said, like the Jag entry ladder, something that would be helpful for us to have available. At some point I'll have to look towards knocking up a couple of line drawings with dimensions of the ones I've made in 1/48.

Hi Pappy, Thank you for your kind comments and very pleased you are enjoying the build so far. As you rightly say, the kit looks good in the box and to be fair there is a lot on there, but sadly as you, I and many others have discovered despite being boxed as a GR.1/3 there is little in there that's RAF apart from the decals! The kits fit issues are now widely documented and its thanks to brilliant forums like this that we modelers can pool our experience and resources to help one another sort them out! I know opinions vary about every aspect of the kit but I personally quite like the panel and rivet detail on the kit. Now then, to answer your questions: As you mention, the KH kit air brake bays are wrong, being identical in shape for both port and starboard, which is why Kev went for the Aries resin replacements. Not an issue for you if planning to model them closed. Q1. Having just had another look at both the resin and the kit parts, the all important undercarriage mounting points look the same to me so I don't think you should have any issues using the kit air brake bays in conjunction with resin main undercarriage bays. With regard to the KH under wing pylons, stores, fuel tank etc, I was fortunate enough to have a friend who kindly donated a spare set of parts from the Airfix kit. On comparing the Airfix and KH pylons, the Airfix items looked a little thin to me so I opted to reshape, thin down and re-detail the chunkier KH under wing pylons, to my eye these now look more like the RAF style pylons . By contrast, I found the KH underbelly pylon to be not too bad so I simply added a few small details to this. The plan is to mount a practice bomb dispenser (by Wingman models) to this pylon. Q2. For the all important jugs I used the Airfix under wing tanks adding some rivet detail and the prominent fin mounting brackets from plastic card. I seem to remember there may now be an aftermarket resin set available for the RAF style under wing tanks...though the manufacturers name escapes me! I hope this has helped, happy to answer any more questions you may have! Thanks again, Del.

Many thanks nasosrr, Its great to see peoples interest in this project and exchange mutual ideas, modelling experience!

Many thanks Jfgred1, much appreciated. I agree the Aires sets add really excellent detail and will certainly make a huge difference when painted and weathered. However, I can also associate and sympathise with your PITA situation...combined with the already well documented 'foibles' of the Kittyhawk kit. In my case, I had to carefully trim all the Aires resin inserts I fitted internally, I also needed to remove a good amount of plastic from the inside of the kit parts to get everything to fit, it was time consuming, frustrating at times and certainly not the easiest task I've tackled!, but the end results were well worth it. One thing I'm really glad I did was assemble the 2 x resin wheel bays and 2 x air brake bays as one sub assembly (see earlier photos by Kev). Carefully bracing them with plastic card inserts and shims not only stabilised everything but also provided much needed bracing/support for the quite flimsy plastic (and on the Kit I'm building), distorted under fuselage area between the undercarriage bays. This made things so much easier when I started assembling/aligning the undercarriage legs. Still 'learning as I go' with this kit so am keen and interested to hear from anyone else about how they overcame any problems. Regards, Del.

Hi Bar Side, I am also a blue-tac and tape modeller....never failed me yet! (see the earlier photos in this build). As you will see with mine, the blue tac can only do so much in photos, fine for those general views but when Kev needed to take his high resolution photos I had to use another approach for temporary assembly. I agree with you the temptation to use a mere sliver of cyano is high, particularly in those very small bonding areas but I simply did not want to take the chance. I'm glad you like what we've done so far with the undercarriage, as you appreciate its not easy but I'm hoping it will make a significant difference when the painting starts. Again really pleased to hear the engine detailing has been received so positively (the engines are actually the main focus of this diorama). This is the first time I've taken on detailing/largely scratch-building an aero engine of any kind......its been no easy feat! I totally agree with you about the aftermarket possibilities for producing really nice resin representations of the popular/well known engines such as the Adour, Spey, and if required, they would provide an ideal base for further detailing, either way I'm sure they would sell!

Hi James, yes the line detail is thin strips of Tamiya masking tape. Del.

Hi Bar Side, thanks for your interest. Yes like you I normally assemble as much as possible before applying paint ( I also remove any dry paint from areas where adhesive will go to improve adhesion). Wherever possible, I usually model in sub assemblies to allow, as you also mentioned , access to detail areas that would be difficult to reach later on in construction, (exactly the situation shown in Kev's photos of the main undercarriage leg assembly). You have a very good point here and I think the way we've portrayed this stage of the build might be a bit misleading to some, so I'll outline what has been done and why. The resin undercarriage bay, white metal main leg and scratch-built hydraulic component (running into the bay). plus the two resin wheels are all separate and will eventually be painted/weathered as separate sub assemblies. For reasons of clarity for Kev's photos I have temporarily assembled everything you see with diluted PVA.....yes very time consuming and fiddly but it dries invisible and (I find) is easily removed once the photos are taken, this is a method I've used several times where clarity is needed for photos. I have also used Maskol liquid masking fluid to good effect as an adhesive for temporary dry construction whilst scratch-building on many occasions, but drying dark purple it can obscure detail, also looks a little messy under the sort of photo resolution Kev employs.

Thanks, very much appreciated Wolfhound32. As everyone that has tackled the Kittyhawk kit knows, it has its 'quirks'. I've seen many very helpful write ups on here about it and had plenty of great advice from fellow modellers telling how they achieved this or overcame that. Kev and I thought it might be helpful to document this build with his excellent photos to return the favours and maybe offer something back by showing how I deal with certain things. My normal fodder is 1/72 aircraft so this has been an enjoyable learning experience for me so far!

Many thanks Trevor! quite fiddly so far but well worth it!

Many thanks James....still plenty to do!

Hello all, my first post here as the 1/48 Kitty Hawk Jaguar model builder, thank you for your encouraging responses and comments, very much appreciated. Just some background to accompany Kev’s latest excellent photos of the front under carriage bay. Having cleaned up the white metal undercarriage parts I’ve added lots of small details from Albion Alloys brass & aluminium tube, Hydraulic lines are from fine aluminium wire, other components are made from plastic card and sections of plastic rod profiles….port and starboard undercarriage bays and units are next!

Many thanks for the heads up on the Xtradecal sheet, I've just received the copy I ordered from Hannants. The yellow/black tail marking, roundels and XT914 code are spot on. However, I must make sure to open the spacing betwen the'T'and '9' (XT 914) a little when applying it to the model as this is how it is applied to the aircraft. Luckily, I also had Modeldecal sheet number 76 in my stash for a while. This sheet covers the F-4J(UK) Phantoms from 1984-85. It also includes the smaller diameter tigers head tail fin badge needed for XT 914 as it looks now. The Fujimi FGR2 I found on Ebay also arrived today so I'm pretty much set now!