Profil24 1/32 SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1/GR.3 full resin kit

[JagPilot]

I was a Jaguar examiner and on a visit to 2(AC) Sqn at Laarbruch the boss offered me a GR to "go and take some piccies for an hour" which I duly did.  That's the only time I flew with the pod.

[RCPlym]

4 hours ago, JagPilot said:

I was a Jaguar examiner and on a visit to 2(AC) Sqn at Laarbruch the boss offered me a GR to "go and take some piccies for an hour" which I duly did.  That's the only time I flew with the pod.

 

Get any good shots? 😁

 

You may have T.2 experience and recognise what I was up to here? 

 

[iaf-man]

45 minutes ago, RCPlym said:

 

Get any good shots? 😁

 

You may have T.2 experience and recognise what I was up to here? 

 

Is it printed?

[RCPlym]

20 minutes ago, iaf-man said:

Is it printed?

 

No. Old school as I have zero clue about 3D design. (yet!)

[JagPilot]

"You may have T.2 experience and recognise what I was up to here?"

 

Lots of T2 experience after over four years as a flying instructor, instrument rating examiner and "trapper" on 226 OCU.

 

I have also chucked one away.

[thierry laurent]

That kit is interesting as it combines some clever assembly ideas, some old fashioned ideas, some strange choices and various assembly challenges! You will see that various areas require modifications, typically when you try adding the photoetched parts on the resin ones. This is quite obvious on the top of the wings and the cockpit instrument panel. Personally I had resigned waiting for a plastic kit and had collected various aftermarket sets along the years in order to work from the vac kit or even a scratchbuilt model. Hopefully I had not yet purchased the vac kit when the resin ones were announced! The sets will be finally quite useful and as I had them the final cost will be less painful. If I had to recommend one it would be the Master productions Mirage III pitot tube that can be easily used on that kit. I also got a ladder, weapons, wheels, decals, correct drop tanks, a french version  bang seat and exhausts! One thing that I would recommend scratchbuilding is air intakes FODs as there is not way to clean easily the big step inside them without adding a serious amount of epoxy putty and finally there is no intake end or engine front part. This is quite surprising when you look at the very detailed exhausts... you will also need a sturdy metal wire cutter as the ones going out of the wings are far too long. In that perspective it is required to be very cautious when drilling the corresponding holes in the fuselage in order to keep the correct flat dihedral.

[RCPlym]

36 minutes ago, thierry laurent said:

That kit is interesting as it combines some clever assembly ideas, some old fashioned ideas, some strange choices and various assembly challenges! You will see that various areas require modifications, typically when you try adding the photoetched parts on the resin ones. This is quite obvious on the top of the wings and the cockpit instrument panel. Personally I had resigned waiting for a plastic kit and had collected various aftermarket sets along the years in order to work from the vac kit or even a scratchbuilt model. Hopefully I had not yet purchased the vac kit when the resin ones were announced! The sets will be finally quite useful and as I had them the final cost will be less painful. If I had to recommend one it would be the Master productions Mirage III pitot tube that can be easily used on that kit. I also got a ladder, weapons, wheels, decals, correct drop tanks, a french version  bang seat and exhausts! One thing that I would recommend scratchbuilding is air intakes FODs as there is not way to clean easily the big step inside them without adding a serious amount of epoxy putty and finally there is no intake end or engine front part. This is quite surprising when you look at the very detailed exhausts... you will also need a sturdy metal wire cutter as the ones going out of the wings are far too long. In that perspective it is required to be very cautious when drilling the corresponding holes in the fuselage in order to keep the correct flat dihedral.

 

There is a lot more that that to get this into decent order.

Wing leading edge slats are unusable, fit of top/bottom fuselage halves is atrocious, the nose/cockpit section ver.2 has a 1.25mm step when joined.

The top of the wings themselves have no chord-wise air foil shape that gives the undulation along the top of the fuselage. 

Tailplanes are the wrong shape and need shaving in one area and material added in another to get the right planform.

 

As for the intakes, the provided parts are almost 1mm too wide and the back of the intakes and fuselage 'splitter plate' will be needing a lot of sanding back to get a good fit.

 

Armament fit for the RAF version is inaccurate in type and scale - the ALQ pod and Phimat were closer to 1/48th than 32nd.

I have printed out full intake trunking and compressor face, RAF pylons, correct seat, wheels, maingear legs and a few other bits and pieces, so at least that is one step in the right direction.

 

Mine also had some extremely poor quality castings that needed replacement - even attempts had been made to 'repair' some areas with resin, including the underside of the nose section. It took months to get replacements.

 

However... In time I will build it as a quite acceptable Jaguar T2, but for the high cost of €391, even fully understanding the effort put into the kit, it simply is nowhere near good enough.

[thierry laurent]

2 hours ago, RCPlym said:

 

There is a lot more that that to get this into decent order.

Wing leading edge slats are unusable, fit of top/bottom fuselage halves is atrocious, the nose/cockpit section ver.2 has a 1.25mm step when joined.

The top of the wings themselves have no chord-wise air foil shape that gives the undulation along the top of the fuselage. 

Tailplanes are the wrong shape and need shaving in one area and material added in another to get the right planform.

 

As for the intakes, the provided parts are almost 1mm too wide and the back of the intakes and fuselage 'splitter plate' will be needing a lot of sanding back to get a good fit.

 

Armament fit for the RAF version is inaccurate in type and scale - the ALQ pod and Phimat were closer to 1/48th than 32nd.

I have printed out full intake trunking and compressor face, RAF pylons, correct seat, wheels, maingear legs and a few other bits and pieces, so at least that is one step in the right direction.

 

Mine also had some extremely poor quality castings that needed replacement - even attempts had been made to 'repair' some areas with resin, including the underside of the nose section. It took months to get replacements.

 

However... In time I will build it as a quite acceptable Jaguar T2, but for the high cost of €391, even fully understanding the effort put into the kit, it simply is nowhere near good enough.

Indeed. This is everything but not a shake and bake kit! And the price does not help but finally this is still the best way to get a 1/32 Jaguar. As I said I resigned getting a 1/32 plastic one. We were not far from getting one but this was close to 15 years ago...

[thierry laurent]

With cautious scraping work it is possible to get a correct assembly of the two big fuselage parts but this asks for quite some time! Globally the issue is essentially located at both ends of the lower part. 

I also opened all the fuselage intakes as much as I could without taking too much risk as resin is less forgiving at such a level!

[RCPlym]

11 minutes ago, thierry laurent said:

With cautious scraping work it is possible to get a correct assembly of the two big fuselage parts but this asks for quite some time! Globally the issue is essentially located at both ends of the lower part. 

I also opened all the fuselage intakes as much as I could without taking too much risk as resin is less forgiving at such a level!

I did get as good a fit as possible with mine, but the annoying thing was the 'seconds' quality parts I was sent to use for mastering the T2 for Profil24 were a better fit than the kit parts! 🤣 

 

Do you have the single-piece nose section or the newer version split top and bottom?

[thierry laurent]

Currently I have the French version and the nose tip is a single part. I'm still waiting for the Brit one. Some may think I'm crazy but the Jag is amongst my ten favorite jets.

[RCPlym]

29 minutes ago, thierry laurent said:

Currently I have the French version and the nose tip is a single part. I'm still waiting for the Brit one. Some may think I'm crazy but the Jag is amongst my ten favorite jets.

 

The RAF chisel nosed original version of the kit had a separate nose tip with the one-piece cockpit section of the nose that was cast in a faulty mould causing a massive scar on the underside and misaligned nose bay.

The replacement section is now in two pieces split top and bottom but still needs the chisel attaching as per the original.

Problem is the new parts mismatch by 1.25mm uncorrectable difference in width. ☹️ 

 

I happily accept I am crazy and am still going to get this one done! 

Unfortunately, with all of the issues and high pricing (£360 UK money), it'll mean I simply can't warrant buying another to make a single seater. It is a real shame. 😭 

[thierry laurent]

My French version already has the cockpit section in two parts (top and bottom). Cleaning and modifying the parts beforehand is for sure a lenghty exercise but I'm used to that. And finally I'm preferring that approach as when you're using the glue you get a far better assembly and only need a little bit of time to get a clean result.

[RCPlym]

It appears you have the later version than myself and two others received September/October of last year.

Hopefully yours is, perhaps, shall we say, a little more refined.

[thierry laurent]

Hopefully! I have two questions regarding your remarks. First, the tailplanes: can you explain further about what should be added and removed and where? Second, the pylons differences: are they limited to some panel lines or is the store hanging/ejection system noticeably different as well?