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PK-102 BAC Jaguar S


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My first build in this GB is box PK-102, the BAC Jaguar S.   I believe that @Black Knight is also building this.

 

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Back in the early 70s, we didn't have the internet. We didn't know what kits were being released, and when.  We couldn't argue interminably over whether it would be accurate or complain about it being the wrong scale. :lol:   Usually, the first I knew about a new kit was when it turned up in the local newsagents.  Yes - in this days newagents used to stock kits.  It truly was a different world!  :D  

 

The first I knew about Matchbox kits when when they turned up in Houghtons, our newsagents.   I built every one that I could get my hands on!  However, they were all small aircraft.  I hoped that eventually Matchbox would release some larger ones.

 

One summer my family dragged me on holiday to Scotland.   Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Scotland for a holiday. In fact, there are lots of things right with Scotland for a holiday.  What was wrong was the way my family did it.  One set of grandparents came along and my grandmother basically took over.  We would rent a cottage out in the middle of nowhere.  As you may know, Scotland has a lot of nowhere!  No television.  No decent radio reception. :(   Each day we would drive for an hour (sometimes two) to visit a town that looked exactly like the town we had visited the previous day.  Sometimes we even drove through the town that we had visited the previous day.  I used to sit in the car thinking "Kill me.  Kill me now!"  My grandmother would force us to walk endlessly round shops where everything was tartan.  One bright spot was that shortbread is inevitably sold in a tartan tin, but that didn't work because apparently shortbread is bad for a young boy's teeth. :(  

 

The cottage was "a wee mile" away from the local village.  "A wee mile" seems to be a variable unit of distance but it is always much longer than a statute mile.  However, the village did have a Post Office which we went into on the day of arrival.  And in that Post Office was a rotary stand filled with plastic kits - including the Matchbox Jaguar!!!   It was the first time I had even seen this Matchbox range and I so wanted that Jaguar!  :frantic: :bounce:

 

Sadly, it was not to be.  My grandmother decided that I shouldn't waste all my spending money on a toy on the first day.  I resolved to buy it on the last day, which turned the rest of the week into an agonising wait that seemed to last three months!  Would the kit still be there at the end of the week?  I mean look at it!  It's a thing of beauty!  Someone is bound to buy it in the meantime.

 

Every time we visited one of those identical towns, I would look to see if there was another shop selling Matchbox Jaguars, which I could maybe sneakily patronise.  No joy!  :fraidnot:  Well, it doesn't have any tartan on it...

 

I really hated family holidays with grandparents, but that one was the worst. Sheer purgatory!  On the final day, my grandmother decided we didn't need to go into town to buy things as we were going home tomorrow.  :boom:   Tomorrow came and we were all packed up ready to go and then...  my grandad's car wouldn't start!!!   No phone to call the RAC.  There was nothing for it.  My dad drove him into the town to find a pay phone and I went along for the ride.  At the Post Office, my grandad found a phone and said to me "Isn't there something you wanted to buy?"

 

And after all my catastrophising, no one had bought the Jaguar!!!   :yahoo:  

 

Eventually the RAC got my grandad's car going and we set off home.  I read that wonderful instruction booklet over and over and over...  The plastic was fondled to within an inch of its life!  :lol: 

 

This will be a pure nostalgia build.  I won't be adding much additonal detailing (maybe a basic cockpit).  I will use the box colour schemes, although very likely with modern decals.  In RAF service the Jaguar never used the AS30 missiles, but so what?  That's what's in the box;  that's what I used the first time I built this kit;  that's what I'm gonna use now!  :D  

 

Is it Saturday yet?!?!?!   :bounce:  

 

 

 

 

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Great story Enzo I think we've all experienced holidays like that(don't tell the Missus but the highlight of our regular week on the Yorkshire

coast was the trip to Croppers model shop in Bridlington I swear I couldn't sleep the night before).Superb choice of kit.

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9 minutes ago, Enzo Matrix said:

My first build in this GB is box PK-102, the BAC Jaguar S.   I believe that @Black Knight is also building this.

 

spacer.png

 

Back in the early 70s, we didn't have the internet. We didn't know what kits were being released, and when.  We couldn't argue interminably over whether it would be accurate or complain about it being the wrong scale. :lol:   Usually, the first I knew about a new kit was when it turned up in the local newsagents.  Yes - in this days newagents used to stock kits.  It truly was a different world!  :D  

 

The first I knew about Matchbox kits when when they turned up in Houghtons, our newsagents.   I built every one that I could get my hands on!  However, they were all small aircraft.  I hoped that eventually Matchbox would release some larger ones.

 

One summer my family dragged me on holiday to Scotland.   Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Scotland for a holiday. In fact, there are lots of things right with Scotland for a holiday.  What was wrong was the way my family did it.  One set of grandparents came along and my grandmother basically took over.  We would rent a cottage out in the middle of nowhere.  As you may know, Scotland has a lot of nowhere!  No television.  No decent radio reception. :(   Each day we would drive for an hour (sometimes two) to visit a town that looked exactly like the town we had visited the previous day.  Sometimes we even drove through the town that we had visited the previous day.  I used to sit in the car thinking "Kill me.  Kill me now!"  My grandmother would force us to walk endlessly round shops where everything was tartan.  One bright spot was that shortbread is inevitably sold in a tartan tin, but that didn't work because apparently shortbread is bad for a young boy's teeth. :(  

 

The cottage was "a wee mile" away from the local village.  "A wee mile" seems to be a variable unit of distance but it is always much longer than a statute mile.  However, the village did have a Post Office which we went into on the day of arrival.  And in that Post Office was a rotary stand filled with plastic kits - including the Matchbox Jaguar!!!   It was the first time I had even seen this Matchbox range and I so wanted that Jaguar!  :frantic: :bounce:

 

Sadly, it was not to be.  My grandmother decided that I shouldn't waste all my spending money on a toy on the first day.  I resolved to buy it on the last day, which turned the rest of the week into an agonising wait that seemed to last three months!  Would the kit still be there at the end of the week?  I mean look at it!  It's a thing of beauty!  Someone is bound to buy it in the meantime.

 

Every time we visited one of those identical towns, I would look to see if there was another shop selling Matchbox Jaguars, which I could maybe sneakily patronise.  No joy!  :fraidnot:  Well, it doesn't have any tartan on it...

 

I really hated family holidays with grandparents, but that one was the worst. Sheer purgatory!  On the final day, my grandmother decided we didn't need to go into town to buy things as we were going home tomorrow.  :boom:   Tomorrow came and we were all packed up ready to go and then...  my grandad's car wouldn't start!!!   No phone to call the RAC.  There was nothing for it.  My dad drove him into the town to find a pay phone and I went along for the ride.  At the Post Office, my grandad found a phone and said to me "Isn't there something you wanted to buy?"

 

And after all my catastrophising, no one had bought the Jaguar!!!   :yahoo:  

 

Eventually the RAC got my grandad's car going and we set off home.  I read that wonderful instruction booklet over and over and over...  The plastic was fondled to within an inch of its life!  :lol: 

 

This will be a pure nostalgia build.  I won't be adding much additonal detailing (maybe a basic cockpit).  I will use the box colour schemes, although very likely with modern decals.  In RAF service the Jaguar never used the AS30 missiles, but so what?  That's what's in the box;  that's what I used the first time I built this kit;  that's what I'm gonna use now!  :D  

 

Is it Saturday yet?!?!?!   :bounce:  

 

 

 

 

I know where you are coming from ref models in the Newsagent.

 

The Matchbox Rep in Colchester must have made a killing as all the little sweet/toy/corner/newagents shops were selling them.  

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So glad you got this story off your chest Enzo, that’s certainly one thats etched in the brain forever.  We are all so glad you’ve been able to retell it and soon relive it (the modelling experience of course, not holidays with Gran!). This will be a special WIP and we cant wait to see it take shape. 

 

Cheers, welcome aboard and best of luck.. Dave 

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3 hours ago, PLC1966 said:

I know where you are coming from ref models in the Newsagent.

 

The Matchbox Rep in Colchester must have made a killing as all the little sweet/toy/corner/newagents shops were selling them.  

 

 

Back in the late 70s / early 80s it seemed that one could get plastic kits anywhere and everywhere!   These days WH Smith is a bookseller and stationer.  In the late 70s they had a much wider portfolio. In my home town they had a DIY and gardening shop, very similar to the sort of thing that B&Q do now.  For me, the attraction was the selection of Hasegawa kits that they sold.  

 

Eventually I got a driving licence and use of my grandad's car.  The very one that broke down in Scotland.  And... well...  regularly...  He gave up driving and let me use it. Turns out that if you have it serviced regularly (and by "serviced" I mean change the oil and coolant and clean the plugs...) then it was quite a reliable starter!   There was a village about eight miles away from my home with a newsagent that stocked a huge range of Heller kits.  No Airfix, Matchbox etc.  Just Heller.  I didn't complain becase they were cheap as chips!

 

Nowadays, if you want to buy a plastic kit you have really got to search for them.  The nearest shop to me that sells them is eighteen miles away.  The second nearest is the Big H in Lowestoft!

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2 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

So glad you got this story off your chest Enzo, that’s certainly one thats etched in the brain forever.  We are all so glad you’ve been able to retell it and soon relive it (the modelling experience of course, not holidays with Gran!).

 

Family holidays were not always bad.  Before grandparents horned in on the act the holidays were rather good.  We always used to go to Fleetwood.  We always stayed at a hotel called The Grosvenor which was directly opposite the railway station.  I could look out of the window and watch the trains all day!   The pier was a five minute walk away.  There was a funfair which was marvellous.  Further down the prom was the boating lake - not full size boats.  Model boats!   A little further away was the headquarters of the Sea Scouts.   Believe it or not, they had a Hawker Sea Hawk and you could sit in the cockpit.  It didn't even cost anything!!!!  :D 

 

But the big attraction for holidays in Fleetwood were the trams!   You could buy a 1/6 (one shilling and sixpence) day ticket and go to Blackpool or simply ride round all day! :lol: 

 

Eventually, dad, mum and my brother and sister returned to a holiday in Fleetwood without the grandparents.  We didn't have a lot of money at the time so there was no Grosvenor Hotel.  Instead we used a caravan site just outside town.  It was near to a gas refinery.  I found this facinating as there was always something going on there; usually announced by the PA system.  There was also a railway line seperatng the refinery and the caravan site.  More trains to watch!   And the Sea Hawk was still at the Sea Scouts HQ, although it was a lot more dilapidated and had been painted in a weird light blue colour.

 

Once again, there was a Matchbox kit surprise.  There was a hobby shop adjacent to the Pharos lighthouse which I was delighted to visit.  They had a Revell 1/72 YF-16 kit which I really fancied.  I wasn't so :frantic: about it by this time as I had a small Stash at home so I resolved to come back and buy it the following day.  Besides... I didn't have the cash in my pocket. :)  

 

Come the following day and I had the YF-16 kit in my grubby little paws and the money burning a hole in my pocket. :lol:   And then I saw it...   PK-404. The Phantom F-4M/K!!!  Once again I didn't have a clue that these were available...  but I had to have it.   So the YF-16 went back on the shelf and the Phantom headed towards the checkout!   

 

Sadly, to this day I have still not built a Revell YF-16.

 

I have been thinking about when that holiday happened.  PK-404 was issued in 1975, but this holiday must have been later than that.  I remember in the caravan in which we stayed there was a selection of books and magazines.  People were encouraged to take from and leave things in this library.  I can remember reading Issue 1 of 2000AD.  That dates the holiday to 1977.  I had just finished reading "The Currents Of Space" by Asimov.  How I wish I had taken that 2000AD issue and left the Asimov novel in its place.   It wouldn't be the oldest comic book in my collection but it would be one of the most significant.

 

The Grosvenor Hotel, where I used to stay as a child is part of Queen's Terrace which was designed by Decimus Burton  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimus_Burton  as was a large part of early Fleetwood.   The whole terrace has now been converted into flats.  A couple of years ago one of the flats came on the market and it turned out that it was part of what had been the Grosvenor Hotel.   I was very tempted indeed to sell up here and move back up north to where I spent my favourite childhood holidays.  One minor issue was that it would have wiped out most of my savings.  In the event, the pandemic intervened but it is still nice to consider what might have been.  :)

 

Thanks for putting up with a few reminiscences. 

 

 

 

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Brilliant reminiscences Enzo, out of curiosity can you remember whereabouts you stayed in the frozen North  🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ?

 

I must admit you have taken me right  back to "holidays" with my Gran on Hayling Island  there was a Post Office in Stoke that sold model kits which was only a "short walk" across 3 fields to get to, but the reward was they stocked lots of Matchbox and some Frog kits.

 

Most of these were built and finished unpainted as Matchbox intended.

 

This GB is going to be really special,  and stories like yours just go to prove why.

 

Cheers Pat

 

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I think, and I could be wrong about this, that the original Airfix pointy-nose Jaguar had AS30s as well. It definitely had those weird French rocket launching fuel tanks. 

The retool into a proper GR1 was much less exciting 😃

Reinforcing the point about availability back in the day, my Matchbox Jaguar came from Jimmy Scott's paper shop at the end of our street. 

John 

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3 hours ago, vppelt68 said:

Great stories to read, thank you Enzo!

 

I just had to check the build list, though, and there's no Mr. EM listed besides TonyW building the PK-404... yet. C'mon, you know you want to :wicked:


You sure about that V.P? @JOCKNEY, please send over your glasses to our fine Finnish friend, yours might get there a lot quicker than my bi-focals down here! 

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6 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:


You sure about that V.P? @JOCKNEY, please send over your glasses to our fine Finnish friend, yours might get there a lot quicker than my bi-focals down here! 

Glasses from Scotland, yes please and properly filled of course :cheers:

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Thanks Enzo, for the top holiday nostalgia stories.  Sounding very similar to my own on the Devon Atlantic coast - usually finishing up with a plastic kit.

All models from that era are long since gone.

The Matchbox Jaguar was one of my subjects in the previous Matchbox GB. 

A colleague trades toys etc on Ebay, and gave me first refusal on any models that he acquires.  And he's very fussy about box quality.  

One day it was scruffily boxed Matchbox Meteor, Lightning and Jaguar - each a classic.  £10 the lot?  That will do nicely!

 

 

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IInteresting reminiscing Enzo. My mum and her second husband moved up to Scotland after they retired and lived in several different places and it always struck me that the towns were very similar in layout, apart from Aberdeen that was bigger. 

I really cannot remember much about our family holidays when younger. When I was seven and eight (1961-2) we went to Caistor on Sea near Yarmouth in a static caravan. What I do recall is seeing a fair few Hunters and watching a Lightning go supersonic off the coast. I think that and trips to the airshow at Hucknall stimulated my interest in military aircraft as well as seeing my mums relatives in Lincolnshire (lots of Vulcans and Super Sabres) 

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This thread is fast becoming the ‘Family Holiday Nostalgic’ go to spot. As long as the esteemed @Enzo Matrix doesn’t mind - please post your childhood holiday (Matchbox related) stories here! …… You will also see a cracking PK-102 Jaguar taking shape as well! 

Cheers.. Dave 

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2 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

This thread is fast becoming the ‘Family Holiday Nostalgic’ go to spot. As long as the esteemed @Enzo Matrix doesn’t mind - please post your childhood holiday (Matchbox related) stories here!

 

That's why I did it!  :D  Seems like a lot of us bought Matchbox kits on holiday.  :thumbsup:

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Okay, let's get cracking on this one.

 

Here are the multicoloured sprues in all their Matchboxy goodness.

 

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The Matchbox stand was a novelty as the head could be swivelled to display the model in different flight attitudes.

 

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And lets not forget the wonderful instructions.

 

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I will be building this as the box art aircraft from 54 Sqn.   The other option is from 6 Sqn and has the earlier intake style with splitter plates.  The markings are a bit odd as the squadron badge replaces the fuselage roundel. 

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In those days, kit manfacturers always used to put the box art from other kits in their range on the box sides. This was a Jedi mind trick attempting to lead weak willed modellers like myself into parting with more of their pocket money.

 

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Nearly fifty years later, the Jedi mind trick is still working! :lol: 

 

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235104624-pk-101-corsair-a-7d/

 

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On 04/01/2022 at 01:13, JOCKNEY said:

Brilliant reminiscences Enzo, out of curiosity can you remember whereabouts you stayed in the frozen North  🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ?

 

 

Two names spring to mind.  Dunkeld and Nairn.   I think it must have been Dunkeld as there were no jet aircraft to be seen.   The holiday at Nairn always had aircraft from Lossiemouth overflying - almost certainly Jaguars!  :D 

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The cockpit assembly is two parts: a seat and a pilot!  

 

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This is not a complicated kit!  :D

 

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The famous Matchbox trenches are very evident on this kit. I'm not filling them as this is a nostalgia build.   However, some of the joint lines are veritable canyons.  They get filled!

 

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Yeh...    I still sometimes have gluey fingers.  Or spill MEK on the model!   Have a look at my thread in the F/A-18 STGB...   :wall:   

 

I've just learned how to rectify the damage not how to prevent it... :fraidnot:  

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Borag Thungg, Enzo. A zarjaz holiday tale.

We would go to the same place year in, year out, and it was great because my cousins would go to the same place and I'd get to spend 2 weeks playing with proper boys instead of my silly sister. South of England. Sun, beaches, fun. This was also where the campsite shop sold Matchbox kits.

But then for some unknown reason my parents decided to buy a static caravan nearer to home. Cue awful holidays in Easington on the East coast near Hull. No cousins, Sun replaced with rain. Sand replaced with mud. The ONLY thing to do was go to Hornsea Potteries and look at plant pots. My memory isn't clear, but you can be damned sure that the campsite shop didn't sell Matchbox kits.

Perhaps this is why I became a gloomy Goth - Faith and Seventeen Seconds by the Cure were perfect with that Easington rain as a backdrop.

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On 1/3/2022 at 3:12 PM, Enzo Matrix said:

Back in the late 70s / early 80s it seemed that one could get plastic kits anywhere and everywhere!   These days WH Smith is a bookseller and stationer.  In the late 70s they had a much wider portfolio. In my home town they had a DIY and gardening shop, very similar to the sort of thing that B&Q do now.  For me, the attraction was the selection of Hasegawa kits that they sold.  

 

It was that way where I grew up as well.  Department stores?  Check.  Hardware stores?  Check.  Pet supply store?  Surely not......well I'll be buggered.  Wait, what are these little Hasegawa boxes...I've not seen the likes of these before!  I still enjoy reminiscing of the bike rides w/ my best friend on the weekends down to said pet store (Windham Pet Supply, if memory serves me correctly) and rifling through the shelves looking for the new arrivals.  Many a after-school job paycheck was spent there.

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13 minutes ago, Enzo Matrix said:

Yeh...    I still sometimes have gluey fingers.  Or spill MEK on the model!   Have a look at my thread in the F/A-18 STGB...   :wall:   

 

I've just learned how to rectify the damage not how to prevent it... :fraidnot:  

 

As frustrating as it is, it's not a bad skill to develop.  Less likely to get flustered when things go inevitably sideways.  Now if only I could find some of that secret sauce.  :lol:

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