1/48 Kitty Hawk Sepecat Jaguar

Gallery Article by Klaasjan Schuuring on Nov 5 2020

 

      

The Sepecat Jaguar was developed as a European project to replace a number of training aircraft. The end result was something quite different but very capable. The little jet has proven itself over a number of conflicts of which the first Gulf War is probably the most well known. Britain decided to paint its jaguars in desert pink which makes it look very operational although admittedly, I got the Pink Panther theme music in my head more than once during this build. :D

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Kitty Hawk produced a very well detailed kit but it comes with few flaws of its own. For starters, the instructions are a mess. One page for example was printed double where another page was supposed to go. Then some of the parts had been warped so making the fuselage halves fit was quite a challenge. And, for some reason Kitty Hawk decided to mirror interior detail on both sides which, is wrong. But, not deterred by these minor shortcomings I added the needed detail myself which was fun.

I sprayed the slender cat using MRP's, apparently, lacquer based desert pink. It's beautiful paint but quite odorous. Good thing I use a spray booth so most of the noxious gasses were removed. But it sticks very well and after a few coats it already made for a pretty Jaguar. I added the decals and quite a bit of weathering, given these machines were on the frontline pretty much on a daily basis. Then, the magic happened with the flat coat which suddenly made it look quite realistic. Enjoy the pictures. :)

Klaasjan Schuuring

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Photos and text © by Klaasjan Schuuring