1/72 Sepecat Jaguar GR3

Gallery Article by S K Loh on July 9 2015

 

      

This is a 1/72 PRC-made Sepecat Jaguar of unknown brand. I bought it in a clearance sale from a local Department store many years ago for my son when he was about 5 years of age as a introduction into modeling for him. It came with simple French markings for a Jaguar A. It was built OOB and simple brush painting with Humbrol enamel. It had a nice display stand too. 

Unfortunately, his interest was not spurred and it stopped there and the kit was somehow kept in the stash. I found it some 3 months ago when clearing some stuff. I could either dispose of it, used it as test kit for paint mix or do a makeover on it.

I went in search on the net. I learnt that the original kit was a Jaguar A under the French Air Force that operated in Chad with the Desert Yellow/Brown camo scheme. I had built a RAF Jaguar in 1/144 and I kind of like the RAF Jaguars. I came across a RAF 16 SQN Jaguar GR3 that has “The Saint” logo on its tail fin. “The Saint” was one of my favourite TV programs in my teens with Roger Moore as Simon Templar. That would be something nice for me to reminisce with. 

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The following were enhancements made for the conversion:-

  • A. Modified the tail fin with scratch built RWR and two HF antenna blades on its sides. Added the fuel vent and shorten the parachute cone.

  • B. Scratch-built the arrestor hook.

  • C. Retained the Phimat ECM/Chaff dispenser pod under the starboard wing but improved its look.

  • D. Discard the Barax ECM pod under the port wing and replaced it with a scratch-built AN-ALQ10 ECM pod.

  • E. Scratch-built the nose with acrylic rod to depict the ‘wedge’ profile nose with houses the Ferranti Laser Rang Finder and Marked Target Seeker. Added a new pitot tube.

  • F. Discard the bombs and replaced them with scratch-built drop tanks using acrylic rods.

  • G. Removed the canopy and touch up the pilot figure, seat and cockpit.

  • H. Added the two total-pressure probes, AOA, strobe light and the ‘T’ shaped VHF/UHF antenna behind the canopy. Added the two landing lights on the MLG door. 

  • I. Make-out the ram air intake on the fuselage spine.

  • J. Retained and improved the look of the centerline drop tank. Did a total sanding down to remove the old decals and paint work. Had to thin down the main wing and stabs too as they were thicker than desired.

Had it painted in two-tone Fray camo scheme using mix of basic Tamiya/Mr Hobby acrylics. The decals and stencils were self-made. Pretty heavy weathering was applied as this was an operational bird then. On hindsight, it was not so straight forward after all. 

Enjoy the photos.

S K Loh

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Photos and text © by S K Loh