ARCTICCAT
Hi-Tech’s resin upgrade set (48025) for the Jaguar A provides detailed parts for the cockpit, wheels, and the gun ports.
includes burner cans, bulged tyres, two ejection seats (for French Jaguars only), gun blisters and a nice coaming for the dashboard. Marked for the Heller Jaguar A kit, only minor mods were needed for an RAF service jet. The Martin-Baker Mk.9B resin seat came from the now sadly defunt Paragon (4834) stable. Improvement over the kit part is far superior but this is an individual choice for the builder.
Colourwise black is the order
of the day for these interiors,(very reminiscent of RAF 1950s jets) including the inner canopy frames but scalewise they look far too stark so I steered well away from pure black, instead preferring UA735 Deep Cockpit from Lifecolor which appears far easier and realistic to one’s eye! Once dry it was brushed with Lifecolor UA731 Dirty Black, the detail was picked out and the effect was most realistic.
Before closing up the main
fuselage parts remember to add weight to the forward nose section. (Plasticine from a toy shop is a great foil for this as it is cheap and lasts ages.)
Attention was now turned to
making good the joint for the intakes, as from memory they were less than impressive. White putty and a silver of
plastic card filled the problem. As the Hi-Tech set provided better defined 30mm ADEN cannon with more beefy gun shrouds, they were chosen in preference to the kit item. My trusty small drill bit added depth to the six circular cooling vents designed to stop the overheating of the gun barrels. Secondly if you wish to include the overwing missile rails (originally designed for the Jaguar International version but fitted to RAF jets in the lead up to the first Gulf War 1990- 91), you will need to either drill the four supplied holes slightly deeper – or fill them in! This is a nice option and presents a more quirky looking aircraft. If you wish to make a standard aircraft (ie non-Sidewinder AAM fit), you will have to carefully remove the top half missile rail which is easier said than done!
Everything went as planned
for the rest of the build but as mentioned, filler will, without doubt, play a major role in construction. The poorest part found was around the main wing joint and more so the
Many small embellishments can be made from the simplest of items. Masking tape, plastic card, and fine wire can be used to make items such as intake and pitot covers adding much overall additional interest to the finished model..
complex curved lines under the twin engine Rolls-Royce Turbomenca ADOUR engines bays on the underside between the port/starboard stability strakes. Additional items added were the small resin gun bay cartridge ejection chute blisters from Paragon that were an oversight on the original kit mould. A cheaper alternative is to sculpt these from either Milliput or Magic-Sculp! The supplied brace of Tracor AN/ALE-40 counter measure dispenser system (CMDS) chaff/flare containers are well presented and I decided to add them to the underside.
Before making my mind up
on a colour scheme and weapons fit, a set of SAC metal landing gear was used as a replacement for the kit parts. Colourcoats RAF BS627 Light Aircraft Grey was sprayed on and they were left to cure until fitted near the end of the build. It is advisable if you go down this route to prep the metal first with a matt base coat. The Jaguar
undercarriage is extremely sturdy allowing it to land on rough unprepared airstrips, a lesson maybe taken from Soviet/Russian jets?
Cat’s teeth In the back of my mind
certain patterns were emerging as to the colour and markings to go with. She was either to be a first Gulf War ‘Desert Pink’ aircraft or an attractive Coltishall deployed winter exercise 'Arctic Specialist' Jaguar based at Bardufoss up in the NATO Northern flank of Norway. The choice of weapons was to be left until the end but in the kit there are a pair of AIM-9L Sidewinders, four Hunting BL755 Cluster Bomb Units, a Westinghouse ALQ-101(V) noise
deception jamming pod, a Philips- MATRA Phimat chaff-dispenser pod, a VINTEN
FEBRUARY 2015 • VOLUME 36 • ISSUE 12
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