1/72 Hasegawa Sepecat Jaguar IB 

by Rupesh Santoshi

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  India Air Force Day 2005 

 

Hasegawa’s Jaguar T2/E kit provides the option to make the SEPECAT Jaguar IB, the two-seater version of the British “T2” in Indian Air Force service. SEPECAT Jaguars have served the Indian Air Force for over 25 years in five squadrons comprising of three versions: the Strike version (IS); the Maritime strike (IM) and the two seat trainer (IB). The IB of this build is JT056 of the No. 14, Bulls, squadron based in Ambala, India.

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Build

The kit was completed pretty much out of the box. To modify the Hasegawa kit to the IB version requires the removal of several blade antennas from the wings and fuselage, and the removal of the fins on the tail. The overall fit of the forward fuselage section was trying and resulted in a lot of work to align the parts. I think it was more because of my lack of skill than the kit. The rest of the kit fell together well, without a hitch. The kit has two major drawbacks - poor cockpit detail and pathetic air brakes. I spruced up the kit's ejection seats with some belts and thinned the air-brakes as much as I could. On the plus side, it comes with two accurate drop tanks and corresponding decals, and an access ladder (a bit thick if you ask me).

Painting

Indian Air Force Jaguar IBs sported a two-tone dark green and grey wrap-around pattern until a few years ago, when it was replaced by the boring all-grey scheme. I elected to use the wrap-around pattern because the all-grey scheme is a bit boring and omits the attractive Bulls squadron insignia. The main colors were Euro Dark Green and Dark Camouflage Grey. Wheel wells were finished in Yellow Zinc Chromate and the gun port is a combination of dilute gloss Red over a base of Jet Exhaust. I experimented with post-shading weathering by lightening the base colors with white and spraying inside the panel lines. The effect is not prominent in the photos, but acceptable under natural light. Panel lines were highlighted with a wash of green and brown chalk, and soapy water. Everything was sealed with Future® for decaling. After decaling, a coat of Testors Acrylic Flat sealed everything except the canopy.

Decals

The kit decals are excellent and provide excellent stenciling for one complete British or French aircraft. However, there are no aftermarket decals for Indian Air Force IBs. Therefore, I created the squadron insignia on the air intakes, roundels, fin flashes, numerals, and stenciling in Adobe Illustrator. The decals were printed by a patient, Pete, of SpareTime Hobbies in Winnipeg, Canada (thanks!). I used a single photo of a Jaguar IB of the Bulls squadron to guide most of my work (http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/ IAF/Images/Current/ Jaguar/Jaguar15.jpg). To my disappointment, some of the decals silvered due to my lack of patience. This is my first two-seater, and it was enjoyable to build.

Rupesh

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Photos and text © by Rupesh Santoshi