Dark green/grey Jaguars: underwing serials?

[Bedders]

Folks, as I ponder the options for a 1/72 Jaguar in classic dark green/dark sea grey, I notice that many of the aftermarket decal sheets (e.g. Xtradecal) don't include the underwing serials. Did these serials officially disappear at some point? From what I can see, the Tornados seem to have retained them - albeit under the tailpanes - whilst they wore the same colour scheme. Any wisdom welcome.

 

Justin 

[iainpeden]

It might be that the Tornadoes came into service in overall camo with factory applied serials whereas the Jags originally had light aircraft grey undersides and would have lost the underwing serials as they were repainted on overhaul. (Emphasis on MIGHT!)

[andyf117]

Underwing serials were most definitely still carried - they were, of course, under the pylons, but still worn, and supplied on Modeldecal sheets:

It might be that Xtradecal have left them off to save space and encourage you to buy a generic letters and numbers sheet?

Edited May 15, 2020 by andyf117

[Rob de Bie]

5 hours ago, Bedders said:

Folks, as I ponder the options for a 1/72 Jaguar in classic dark green/dark sea grey, I notice that many of the aftermarket decal sheets (e.g. Xtradecal) don't include the underwing serials. Did these serials officially disappear at some point? From what I can see, the Tornados seem to have retained them - albeit under the tailpanes - whilst they wore the same colour scheme. Any wisdom welcome.

 

Justin 

I have a vague data point for you. When I first went aircraft spotting at Laarbruch in 1982 or 1983, we decided to sit on the extended centerline, and read the serials from under the wings while the aircraft took off. A rather stupid plan, but that's what we did. In my memory we were able to read the 2 squadron Jags that way. But it's 38 years ago, not 100% sure anymore 🙂

 

Afterthought: I think I remembered it correctly, because we thought we had misread some Jag serials, that were not on our list of 2sqn Jags from Scramble magazine. Later, when we compared notes with other spotters present that day (but in a different spot), it turned out those were 41sqn Jags from Coltishall. So we must have read the underwing serials.

 

Rob

Edited May 15, 2020 by Rob de Bie

[JagRigger]

They'd gone by 85 when I joined the fleet

[Bedders]

20 hours ago, JagRigger said:

They'd gone by 85 when I joined the fleet

Thanks - useful. I'm seeing now that the Tornados started to lose theirs too in later years.

 

J