Jaguar GR.1 / GR.3 RAF

Italeri, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

The Anglo-French Jaguar was a well-regarded fighter/interceptor/ground attack aircraft used by the RAF and Armee de l’Aire and number of smaller air forces around the world in a variety of versions. It was retired from RAF service over decade and a half ago but is still in service in other forces and is a favoured subject for modellers as it appeared in a number of schemes over the years of service and wore a number of attractive display and end-of-service schemes - who can forget the orange spotted cat scheme?

Arriving in the familiar, but not always popular, end-opening box, this new iteration of the Italeri kit offers five late service and retirement schemes, two of which are illustrated in a lovely piece of box art, worth getting the kit just for this!

The box rear has colour side views of the five decal choices.

The kit parts date from 1996 and has appeared with new parts and decals eight times since then.

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This is the third reissue of the 2014 kit which introduced some new weapon parts (info from ScaleMates). It shows its age with such things as crude interior and a very simple bang-seat, poor intakes, simplified weaponry and rather oversized recessed panel lines, but the general consensus is that it is a pretty accurate ‘cat’.

The two large mid-grey sprues come in a sealed plastic bag with the three transparent parts in their own bag to prevent scratching.

A row of crude bombs are not needed for these choices.

Parts are cleanly moulded but do show a trace of flash around the trailing wing edges and there are annoying mould pips/ holes in the rear of the wheels and inside the intakes - nothing that a little filler and sanding will erase. Another choice would be to mount it on a pole with a pilot so the basic interior does not become an issue, or to cover the intakes with FOD guards.

The forward fuselage comes in four pieces to allow Italeri to produce the two-seater and the French pointy-nosed variants, but does lead to some careful joining up processes. I would be inclined to join the three fuselage parts together first and then joining the two halves.

Dive brakes and undercarriage legs are quite well done and the canopy is clear and in two parts.

This is a pretty good little kit of this important aircraft enhanced by a beaut decal sheet and I would commend it to modellers looking for a quick job and as a good choice for a newbie or youngster.

Instructions fill twelve pages of a stapled booklet, with the last five of them taken up by excellent full colour four view drawings of the decal schemes - nice!

The decal choices are:

• GR3, XZ112 54(F) Sqn, Coltishall, 2005 in two-tone greys and a huge rampant lion against a yellow and blue tail,

• GR3, XX117 16Sqn, Coltishall, 2005 again in two-tone greys with the squadron crest on a black and gold tail,

• GR1, XX733/R, the “Pink Spitfire” , of 6Sqn , Operation “Desert Storm” , Oman 1991, in desert ‘pink’ overall and green fuel tanks,

• GR1, XZ398, 41Sqn 75th anniversary at Coltishall, 1991 in overall green/grey camouflage with a red and white spine and huge squadron crest on the red tail, carried a rather battered sand reduce pod, and 

• GR3, XX725 of 6Sqn Jaguar retirement parade in overall desert ‘pink’ livery commemorating the Desert war at Coningsby June 2007 

The first two of these are available on a Model Alliance sheet  - MAS-729016 - which I have, and it is interesting to compare them. Given that the Italeri sheet is commercially produced by the thousand, while the specialist Model Alliance sheet costs almost as much as the whole kit does, the kit decal sheet is quite OK. The only major difference being that the gold of the 16sqn tail markings is much too pale, more of a metallic buff, rather than a lustrous gold required. However the other choices are nicely done with good colour density and great register for such complex markings.

This is a pretty good little kit of this important aircraft enhanced by a beaut decal sheet and I would commend it to modellers looking for a quick job and as a good choice for a newbie or youngster. It lends itself to a mass production of Jaguars fro a display of colours. 

Thanks to The Hobby Company Limited for the review sample.

Review Text Copyright © 2022 by Graham Carter
Images Copyright © 2022 by Brett Green
Page Created 29 March, 2022
Last updated 29 March, 2022

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