1/48 Heller Jaguar A

Gallery Article by Benner on Nov 24 2009

 

    Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the French military launched Operation Daguet as their contribution to the build up of coalition forces during the gulf crisis.  Twenty-eight Jaguar As of the Armee de l'Air would eventually be stationed at Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.  Coalition air attacks began on January 17th and when daylight came, it was time for the French to launch their first combat mission of the war.  Twelve Jaguar aircraft launched to attack the "Scud" missile facilities at Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait.  Eight Jaguars carried BLG-66 Belouga cluster bombs which were dropped from a height of only 100ft.  The other four Jaguars carried the AS30L laser guided munition.  Low-level tactics was a controversial subject in the 91 Gulf War and the French do not seem to be an exception.  Four aircraft received battle damage during their first mission.  One aircraft, A91, was hit by a SA-7 missile and diverted to Jubail where it was later dismantled and flown back to France in a cargo plane.  Another, A108 had its canopy pierced by a bullet which also struck the pilot.  The Belouga cluster bomb, optimized for low-level delivery, was used by the French only on the first day of the conflict.  Afterward, French Jaguars began bombing from medium altitude with general purpose bombs or laser guided munitions.  

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    I used the Heller boxing to build my Jaguar A; it is not a great kit, but the other option is the Escii Jaguar which I was told was not any better.  Some basic improvements to the kit I did include: drilling out the space for the 30 mm DEFA 533 cannons found on the fuselage sides, adding some styrene rod to represent the cannons, fixing the fuel dump area by adding a new bulkhead and angling the dump pipe upwards, adding wire to the landing gear struts, and adding two more probes to the nose.  Aftermarket sets used for this kit include:  Eduard Jaguar A photoetch set,  Neomega cockpit set, Paragon exhausts, Paragon wheels, Paragon flaps and slats, PJ Productions French pilot figure, Belcher Bits BLG66 Belouga cluster bombs, and Two Mikes Jaguar seamless intakes.

    I chose to build a Jaguar on the first day of combat loaded with Belouga bombs because I wanted a more interesting load than SAMP general purpose bombs that Jaguars typically carried during the war.  I will save the SAMP bomb load for a French Mirage F1CR of Operation Daguet.  The Belcher Bits Belouga bombs are nice but required more work than I anticipated; the cluster munitions are raised from the bomb body and do not appear to be so on the real bomb, and using a paper template to build the bomb fins was another tedious chore.  After the  bombs are assembled and painted, they do look nice.  Although most pictures of Jaguars during the war show them with a Magic missile on the starboard wing, I used a Phimat pod instead because aircraft A91 carried one on that mission as did another plane, and I have a pre war picture of the plane I built with a Phimat pod.

    Getting the proper colors for my Jaguar was rather complicated (for me at least).  I used Tamiya Flat Aluminum for the underside.  The two topside colors are a mixture of either Gunze Sangyo FS33531 (with white and yellow added) and Model Master FS30277 (with white added).  Finer painting, weathering, and washes were done with various enamels.

    The decals I used were from Carpena which includes decals for aircraft A123 of 4/11 "Jura" Squadron.  I know this jet flew in the first combat mission because the bomb mission tally markings include one representing a BLG66.  Since I was representing the first day of the war, I left the mission tallies off.

Benner

Photos and text © by Benner