I finished this old kit just before Christmas and since I’m not really an aircraft kit builder I was using this as a test subject so please forgive my efforts. It’s one of the old airfix kits from the 80’s when accuracy and fit was an after thought for these old “Wet Weekend” kits
Lessons learned:
liquid latex/maskol shouldn’t be used for masking camouflage patterns on the whole aircraft as removing it removes all paint, including the primer down to the plastic.
Blue/White tac works better but still has paint removal issues and needs to be flat to create sharp paint lines and not fuzzy ones.
Masking tape is better but very time consuming and can be problematic in it’s removal.
Tamiya clear flat varnish from the spray can has increased the darkness of the acrylic darkgrey colour particularly when doing a winter camouflage scheme.
Delicate/fragile/sensitive parts should be added last to avoid having to re-attaching them again and again…and a-bloody-gain.
yes but remember these winter schemes were temporary so were applied for the exercise, use the blue tac but spray straight down from above the line not at an angle and that gets a line that imitates the ERK’s using a spray gun to apply the white wash.
Tamiya low tack tape, but dab it sticking side down to your cloths to remove some more adhesive, just watch for the stary hair.
Yes but normally it’s the gloss that will darken the colour with the matt bringing it back a bit.
You’ll learn
Two things, the white wash tended to wear away at the leading edges within a short time, it was only a temporary paint.
The blow in doors on the intakes should be closed, (they are sprung) when the engines are not running on the ground and are also closed in flight. As there is no one in the cockpit it’s safe to say that the engines are not running. Airfix and a few others got this wrong.
yeah this old dog is really behind times and accuracy is an issue and so is the fit of some parts. so a down scale version is really needed in today’s market place.
A good Jag GR.1/3 is long overdue in 1/72. I’ve got kits from the 3 big players. Airfix, Hasegawa and Italeri and none are perfect. Hasegawa messed up the air brakes and none of the supplied ordnance is correct (seems to be based on a static Jaguar International airshow exhibit). I think there are other problems, but I don’t remember what. Italeri’s suffers bad fit because they tried to do a multi-version tooling.
Hobbyboss made a really nice Jag A a few years ago. I had hopes they would follow up with the RAF Jag, but it wasn’t to be.
airfix has had a checkered past financially and seem to like making kits in 1/72, making kits of airplanes in 1/72 is fine but if those planes don’t have any pedigree i.e. combat experience then they’re not going to be as popular. 1/48 has been pushed as the new aircraft scale and is gaining pace, airfix has finally understood these to things and now we have a Jaguar and Buccaneer in combat/war colours and long may it continue.
they have started to accept 1/35 instead of 1/32 as the military scale and have adopted some academy kits to produce as their own as well. airfix really did suffer from stagnation from the 1980’s to just after the millennium or at least that is how it appeared compared to other makes, at least for myself.
I live in hope that they’ll scale it down, especially since the much publicised recall of the recent GR.1.
If nothing comes, I’m either going to have beat the Italeri into submission or get the 1/48. It’s not my preferred scale (don’t have the space really and it’s inconsistent with the rest of the collection. When you have a Desert Storm Tornado and Bucc in 72, a bigger Jag is just going to look bizarre). I was also really disappointed with the bare minimum ordnance they included for the price. But that’s my gripe rather than a criticism of the kit, it does look good from what I’ve seen.
