Jaguar SN in 1:72

[Jakko]

As a little diversion quick build, I thought I’d take a Jaguar kit out of the stash. I’ve always liked the shape of this plane, with its square cross-section and high wings, so I thought: let’s go for it!



This is a Revell kit from about 25 years ago, that I purchased cheap a few years back. It turns out to really be a rebox of the Italeri Jaguar. I know there are better kits than Italeri planes, but more importantly, there are far worse kits than Italeri planes



Markings are provided for three British planes, two in Gulf War sand and one in grey/green camouflage. I intend to build it as a Nigerian example, though:



Nigeria bought 13 examples of the Jaguar SN in the 1980s, but retired them by 1991 for budget reasons. I like the camouflage, so I’ll paint mine like this. I have no real details on what is different, but I gather the SN is basically the same as the British GR 1, which this kit represents. (If anyone knows better, do tell! )

I started with the cockpit:



This is six pieces: tub, instrument panel, stick, and a seat with two side plates.

Also the main fuselage:



This consists of three parts, but the floor panel doesn’t fit overly well:



I first glued the two main halves together, and had to clamp the bit at the rear, between the exhausts, else the two sides bowed outward. Getting the floor in when the glue on that had dried was tricky too, but I got it to fit OK with just a few seams to fill.

 

[adt70hk]

Looking good Jakko. Like the choice of camo too.

Not sure I've seen you do a plane since I joined, out have I missed one in the last couple of years?

ATB.

Andrew

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Something out of the usual for you - no tracks. Nice choice. A good looking plane. A Nigerian air force model is definitely not mainstream.
Jim

 

[papa 695]

Nice start to a nice aircraft Jakko.

 

[Jakko]

Looking good Jakko. Like the choice of camo too.

My first intention was to build a French Jaguar, but when I opened the kit (soon after buying it, not yesterday ) I found it 1) didn’t include French decals, and 2) British Jaguars differ from French ones, so it would need conversion. Yesterday, I read up on the plane a bit and found Nigeria had them too, among others, and that appealed to me partly for the reason Jim says: it’s not mainstream

Not sure I've seen you do a plane since I joined, out have I missed one in the last couple of years?

I’ve built a few, but not a lot.

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… hang on, that’s almost more than military vehicles …

Something out of the usual for you - no tracks.

See above

Nice choice. A good looking plane. A Nigerian air force model is definitely not mainstream.

All of those are the reasons it appealed to me The main issue is figuring out how to do the markings, though — there are very few decal sets of Nigerian Jaguars, and even fewer (read: none I know of) that are still available, so I’ll have to improvise something. At the moment, I’m mainly struggling with finding a way to neatly mask roundels.

Nice start to a nice aircraft

Thanks, if all goes well this will be finished soon — I don’t intend to make it a very elaborate build, just straight from the box other than the camouflage and markings.

 

[yak face]

Great choice of subject jakko , its a fantastic aircraft , very distinctive with its long ,bird like undercarriage . Up until you started sticking it together it looked like a nice kit . Im sure youll sort the fit issues , looking forward to seeing the camo go on , cheers tony

 

[Jakko]

It needs a bit of work to get parts to fit well, but it’s not actually bad — just a little more work than a kit of modern standards. There’s a little flash on some of the parts, removing which of course helps, and then mostly a matter of taking your time to line things up before and after applying the glue. Some clamps help as well.

 

[Jakko]

The fuselage is taking shape:



Getting the cockpit to fit inside the forward fuselage parts was a little tricky, and required some minor filing to the left side of the instrument panel. The fit after that was still tight, and I clamped the halves together to ensure there would be no gaps.

A little filler was needed at the joint between the forward and main fuselage, but not much. This still needs sanding down, so it looks rough in the photos because it is.

The wings, which are one part, sat slightly too low, so I glued two strips of 0.25 mm plastic card to the underside, which raised them enough to get the spine on the wing part level with the spine on the fuselage.

I kept the cockpit simple:



Just painted dark grey, black wash, medium grey drybrush, and then painted the details of the seat, because I doubt much of this will be visible. The kit provides a decal for the instrument panel, but good luck applying that over the detail. I suppose the best way would be to install the panel back to front, so you can stick the decal on the flat side, yet have it face the seat.

 

[Jakko]

This model needs some filling:



On the top, it’s mainly the joints between the wing and the fuselage that need some attention. Underneath, I filled the mounting points for the outer wing pylons and the one under the fuselage, as I intend to build the plane with just two drop tanks under the wings. Rather more work was the area under the forward fuselage, between the gun fairings. Those are separate parts, and they stand a little proud of the underside of the fuselage — which, in turn, didn’t quite match up along its centreline. I filled the whole area with putty and once it had dried overnight, scraped it flat and level with the gun fairings using a steel ruler (I finally found a use for the inch side of that ).

As you can see, I also installed the horizontal tail and the fins under the rear fuselage, and now the putty is dry and shaped, I can get on with the rest of the model.

 

[Jakko]

Done building with this one:



The wheels and exhausts are still off, because I intend to paint them separately, but I decided to install the undercarriage before painting. I had to consult some photos of the real thing to see how two separate struts fit, and then discovered several more struts are missing, but I don’t really care because I see this as a quick-build rather than a model I want as detailed as possible.

Still wondering how to paint the roundels, though.

 

[adt70hk]

Coming on nicely Jakko

 

[Jakko]

Thanks

 

[Jakko]

I don’t know the exact colours used by the Nigerian Air Force, and they vary a bit in photos, so for the base coat I settled for a yellow sand colour that I found on my paint drawer, Agama Color B27M, 8th Army Uniform Khaki.