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Jaguar GR.1/GR.3 - 1:48 Kitty Hawk


Mike

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Jaguar GR.1/GR.3
1:48 Kitty Hawk


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We discussed the creation of the Jaguar in our review of the French Jaguar A release here, concentrating on the French airframes for obvious reasons. The British order of 165 of the initial GR.1 models with a further 35 T.2 two-seat trainers resulted in the formation of two active squadrons and one Operational Conversion Squadron in the mid-70s, which became operational with the British nuclear deterrent in 1977. As the fast-jet training aspect of the Jaguar's initial requirements was by then removed, further squadrons were raised to carry out reconnaissance tasks. After an avionics upgrade they became GR.1As with more powerful engines that went at least some of the way to dispel their reputation for being underpowered.

The GR.3 upgrade saw the avionics and power plants upgraded further still, but only 10 years after this upgrade they were retired before their time (as usual), which marked the end of the Jag's faithful service with the RAF. During her time at the front line, she served in Bosnia, and the first Gulf War, narrowly missing the later invasion of Iraq after Turkey withdrew permission to overfly their airspace at the last minute.

The final scheme was a stunning salute to this interesting aircraft, consisting of a blazing orange Jaguar pattern showing through the simulated torn outer skin of the aircraft. After a number were sent to museums the rest were reduced to main assemblies for storage, thus ending an era. India and Oman still operate a number of license built and former RAF airframes, with India carrying out upgrades of their own, including radar systems similar to those proposed for the Jaguar-M in the 70s, with a projected out-of-service date of around 2020.

The Kit
This is the follow-up to the water-testing (in the UK market at least) that was the French Jaguar A, and as such has seen a couple of changes following comments made about the initial release. The kit arrives in a similarly small box with a desert liveried Jag down in the weeds over from scub land with his wingman in the background. While a lot of Jags will doubtlessly be built in the Gulf War era camouflage, it might have been better to differentiate the two kits by putting another scheme on the box in order to stop the myopic amongst us from choosing the wrong one! Inside the box we get to the important part - the plastic. There are two loose fuselage parts plus seven sprues of pale grey styrene of a type identical to the last kit, so good to work with. There is also a clear sprue of parts, a small sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a pair of decal sheets and finally a small instruction booklet with a glossy cover and two fold-out pages with full painting and decaling guides in colour. One of my gripes about the A boxing was that the painting guides were incomplete and small, so likely to confuse the hard of thinking like myself. Well done for listening, KH! My name also appears on the cover with a thank you, but my input was so slight that it didn't warrant such a gracious gesture, but thanks anyway :)

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Anyone that has the A boxing will be very familiar with the contents of the box, as the majority of the parts are the same, for obvious reasons. The fuselage is split between fore and aft just forward of the engine intakes, and again, I'd consider gluing the two parts together before proceeding. It worked well for me with my A build here, but it might work just as well following the instructions. I did find the filling of the seam to be nice and easy with none of the sticky-out parts installed though. The cockpit is different, and uses a Martin Baker seat that was actually present in the other boxing. Detail is nice and a set of PE seatbelts are included, which are a bit thicker and more detailed than the earlier ones, so again KH have been listening. The instrument panel has the option of a large PE MFD screen for the later mark, or the original circular screen fitted in the GR.1s, although the instructions seem to imply that you put this on behind the main panel, but that could just be my enfeebled brain's way of looking at it. The PE is of higher quality in general this time around, and the instrument panels and side consoles are all much busier. There are also additional instruments applicable to the British machines on the edge of the coaming, which sit either side of the HUD enclosure.

The New Sprues
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The gear bays are identical in this edition, as are the gear legs. The nose gear bay is still a little over-sized, but the main gear wheels have been reduced in diameter to closer replicate the actual size, and are now only a fraction of a millimetre from the now-extinct Paragon replacement parts that were made for the old Airfix kit.

The nose of the British Jags were almost without exception of the chiselled variety with the glazing panels beneath the pitot probe. This is depicted by a single piece of clear styrene that depicts the nose, glazing, and a socket for the probe. Behind this is placed a large clear hemisphere depicting the lens within, so a little black paint in the nose might be wise just in case anything can be seen through them. The other glazing is identical, and based upon the two samples that I received, the glazing issues seem to be behind us, and no cracks were visible in the windscreen part. It might be my imagination, but it looks a micron thicker than the one on the A that sits to my right here in the workshop.

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The error with the two APU exhausts has been carried over to this kit, so you'll need to remove the starboard one from the equation and place a box in the bay instead, using some of our detailed walkaround pictures (found here) as guidance. Of course, if you're leaving the air-brakes closed this that would save a lot of work, but it's entirely up to you.

The engine bays are exactly the same as the A boxing, and here you have the opportunity to show the basics of the engine un-fettered by the cowlings that surround them. The fit is good either way, as long as you make sure that everything is correctly seated and test-fit at each stage. I built one open and the other closed, and they both fit pretty well. The engines are the same too, and you have the full body supplied, with forward and aft engine faces, plus a nice PE burner ring that sits inside the rear. The nozzle outers are styrene with a PE inner and petals that you fold in to create the constricting inner exhaust. There is an overlapping tab to secure the end, and careful rolling will result in a nice cylinder that fits snugly inside the plastic outer. Tweak the petals inward, and secure them with super-glue from inside when you are happy with their angle.

The intakes are built from two L-profile parts, and as with the earlier kit, they fit together well with minimal sanding or filling, and if aligned carefully with the fuselage, there should be little work there either. Don't forget to paint the insides white or very light grey, and mask off the insides 5mm or so with the body colour, as it'll save a lot of faffing later. There is no forward fan-face or deeper trunking in any of these kits, so a set of FOD guards will ensure there is no see-thru look - there's not much to be seen inside anyway once all the bays are installed, but I have heard stories of modellers with torches at shows.

The wings have the slightly concave curved inner panel that caused some scratching of heads on release, but the slats have been reduced in chord, particularly inboard, which as well as showing that KH listen, should also result in a better looking leading edge to the wings. The flaps, aileron and spoilers are all there, with the spoilers the only parts that can be easily placed in either deployed or stowed positions. Drill a couple of holes in the wing underside for your pylons, and install the clear wing-tip lights, and you're done. Just remember that you'll need to hide the seam on the upper side when you install them on the fuselage, but underneath they pretty much sort themselves out.

Oddly, the construction of the tail fin and elevators has been omitted and the instructions jump from section 18 to section 22, back to 21 and then on to 22 again. Somewhere the printers have managed to bind my instructions up incorrectly, missing out steps 19 and 20, that would presumably cover the construction of the fin, the under-fuselage strakes, chaff-and-flare dispensers, sundry antennae and lights both underneath and on the upper spine, as well as the important cockpit heat exchanger on the spine just behind the cockpit. Hopefully this is an omission peculiar to my copies that will be rectified in later printings. I'll scan the omitted steps later and post them up for reference, but the fin will differ from the French version, so I'll update it with the correct part numbers.

The weapons fit for the RAF Jags was different from the French, but the same "cross-over" sprues are included as well as the same pylons. The over-wing pylons for the Sidewinders were in the box for the A, but unused, and here they are designed to be used, as there is no cover-strip included for when they are not installed. There's not much to them however, so a little scratchbuilding should see you sorted, and it's a good thing, as the over-wing pylons weren't always present in service, especially when there was no perceived air-threat.

The weapons included for use with the British Jag are as follows:

  • BGL1000 x 2
  • Matra 155 x 2
  • OBL755 x 2
  • BGL480 x 2
  • AIM-9M x 2
  • Fuel Tank x 1

The PHIMAT pod and Magic.2 missiles are hangovers from the A instructions, so shouldn't be used. The load-out diagram also shows the French weapons, and shows the single fuel tank installed on the centreline pylon, whereas the RAF often suspended them from the inner wing pylons in pairs.

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Markings
There are three schemes included on the decal sheets, and it's safe to say that they should please a lot of modellers. The basic schemes are Desert, Green/Grey camo, and the unsual winter distemper scheme. The majority of the decals are printed on the larger sheet with the smaller sheet having the loviz roundels and a rather fetching caricature of Saddam Hussein for use on the Desert scheme. From the box you can depict one of the following:

  • GR.1 XZ364 "Sadman" Gulf War 1991 - all over desert sand
  • GR.1 XX732 54 Squadron, Coltishall 1979 (Bull's Eye '79) - green/grey camo with red shark mouth and blue/yellow checkerboard on the intakes
  • GR.3 XX725 54 Squadron - green/grey camo with white distemper overpainting of the green. Blue/yellow chequerboard motif on tail and intake sides with crest.

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The latter shows a little of the colour underneath showing through, but unless my eyes deceive me, it has been depicted as grey, when in fact it should be green, matching the green that was over-painted for the Arctic Express exercise in 1994.

Decals are well printed and in good register with the exception of the white background printing, so there are likely to be some touch-ups required in places, unless you elect to cut the offending white sections of the roundels off. It's not the end of the world though, as roundels are easy to source, but it would have been nice for KH to have got it right, or ensured that their printers were aware of the need for precision. On the upside, the representation of the Sadman figure with a British combat boot up his backside is excellent, and shows some subtle shading on his uniform and the attacking boot. Stencils for the weapons are included, and annexed off on a per-weapon basis by dotted lines, and KH have thought to include a few white boxes with "Training Use Only Suspension Capable" written upon them.

Conclusion
A number of issues have been fixed with the RAF boxing, which will please a lot of British modellers (British by birth or interest). Like any model, it's not perfect, but it has got closer as a result of the additional work that's been put in - compared to the old Airfix kit though, it's streets ahead for both the "out of box" builder and the detailer. It's not a kit that you can blunder on regardless and expect everything to fit regardless of application of skill, but if you take your time, learn from others' successes and failures by studying online builds, you will end up with a very good replica of the famous RAF Jag. The instruction goof could have been avoided, but in this online world, it's not insurmountable, and now it's out in the open, it is easily resolved.

Now we wait with baited breath for the two-seat trainer, which I'm seriously looking forward to, as it has some unusual lines that if done right should sell plenty.

Highly recommended

Review sample courtesy of logo.gif and available soon from major hobby shops

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Thanks for the review, Mike.

I really don't want to build 1/48 jets, but I can see myself getting one of these. Looks lovely! :thumbsup:

A couple of minor problems... RAF Jags were usually seen with two tanks on the inboard wing pylons. The LGBs bear no relation to anything that the RAF ever used, although the BL755 cluster bombs look pretty good. However, I have no doubt that the resin AM companies will soon provide us with tanks, Paveway II LGBs, 1000lb bombs (ballistic and retarded) together with Pave Spike pods, Phimat chaff dispensers and ALE40 flare dispernsers. Maybe even a recce pod! Considering that some kit companies never provide any weapons, I'm certainly not going to complain about KH.

Edit: and lets not forget about CBLS...

Edited by Enzo Matrix
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For those not lucky enough to have the earlier Jaguar A boxing, here are the missing steps of construction if you're afflicted with the missing pages like I am:

instr1.jpg

tail1.jpg

instr2.jpg

Hope that helps :)

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good review Mike, Might get one of these.

I have no doubt that the resin AM companies will soon provide us with tanks, Paveway II LGBs, 1000lb bombs (ballistic and retarded) together with Pave Spike pods, Phimat chaff dispensers and ALE40 flare dispernsers. Maybe even a recce pod!

Enzo, Flightpath already do Paveway II, 1000Lb bombs,CLBS-100, CBU-87 (as used in gulf), BL-755 and a TAILD pod.

They also do;

RAF Jaguar Fuel Tanks & Pods

An accurate pair of the very characteristic tapered fuel tanks in injection resin, together with replacement over-wing AIM-9L rails + two AIM-9L missiles & and ACME Pod. A TIALD Pod and a replacement AN/ALQ-101 ECM Pod is also provided.

Julien

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Sean

On the 3rd sprue down (the one with the overwing pylons and engine compressor fronts) it look like they've included 2 sets of gun bay doors (top middle of the sprue). One pair has the blisters molded on.

Great review, thanks Mike.

I've been waiting for this one as I spent six and a half years on Jags...I have plans for more than a couple. :thumbsup:

Cheers

Gaz

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Nice kit but still some errors. The Inboard pylons are wrong, they look like the french ones. UK Jags I/B pylons are the same shape as the O/B pair, just bigger. 1 drop tank is also a bit of a shame, very rarely see a Jag with one on. My main disappointment is no Recce option. I spent 3 years on 41(F) in the mid 80's so personally a bit miffed. Hope and pray the aftermarket boys come up with the goods to turn this into a cracker. Roll on the T-Bird. Happy days!!!

Scoots

Ex-RAF Armourer

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  • 3 weeks later...

thanks everybody for the superb review and updates!

will come handy when I start mine!

one more thing I noticed:

Kitty Hawk used a very small (just right) sized box!

,

they folded up the spues in a very usefull way an managed to have a box only half as big as the Heller/ Airfix one! - but with a lot more content!

good for shipping costs...

box sized became bigger lately I think, but content smaller ....

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  • 4 weeks later...

For those not lucky enough to have the earlier Jaguar A boxing, here are the missing steps of construction if you're afflicted with the missing pages like I am:

instr1.jpgtail1.jpginstr2.jpg

Hope that helps :)

Hi the new boxing of the jag seems to have the same problem with the missing steps in the instructions steps 19-20-21

I bought my kit at Salisbury model show. Any chance of getting replacement instructions !

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Started this one last night. The amount of injector stubs is insane, they're 3~6mm high. I've had to drill out or clean out most of the locating holes that I've hit so far as they've been flashed over. It becomes a real issue on the smaller parts as well, there are locating holes on the floor of the cockpit but the stick & IP don't have the corresponding pins to lock them in place! None of it is a deal breaker as we can all tidy up the parts or work out the mounting location but for a brand new tool, it seems a little excessive.

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  • 3 months later...

Mine arrived today. Like yours Mike the instructions are mis printed so your earlier post will be very useful. One thing though, the starboard rear fuselage quarter is short shot (where the parachute exits on the real aircraft). Has anyone had experience of KH's replacement service at all?

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That's a bit of a bugger, but sometimes these sort of things do slip through QC. My initial thought would be to go back to the company you bought it from. If you strike out, let me know, and I'll see if I can help :)

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  • 1 month later...

I'd like to put two pairs of 1000 pounders on the centreline. I think pylon J13-J14 should do for starters. Does anyone know if unused parts F16 to 19 are the bomb supports (which connect to the pylon). They look more or less like they could be but more less than more.

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  • 1 year later...

I know this is resurrecting an old thread - but a quick check and most of the pics of RAF jags in Desert Storm show with just one centre-line tank. I've recently picked one up and it's the desert storm variant I've chosen to do.

Edited by treker_ed
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