Hasegawa’s Jaguar Gr.1/A kit provides the option to make the SEPECAT (Société européenne de production de l'avion d'école de combat and d'appui tactique) Jaguar International in the ground attack/strike configuration. However, a bit of putty and judicious use of the hobby knife can convert the standard Jaguar Gr.1 to the Indian Air Force’s unique Jaguar IM (International Maritime) aircraft.

The Indian Air Force’s No. 6 squadron, Dragons, based in Pune has a dozen or so Jaguar IMs. The Jaguar IM has a similar external configuration as the Jaguar Gr.1 or IS except for the Agave radar, which gives it a unique nose profile. When equipped with a Sea Eagle AShM to fulfill its maritime strike role, the Jaguar IM can launch action against ship-borne threats to India’s maritime assets.

The No. 6, Dragon, insignia, and Sea Eagle AshM

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Build/Modifications
The kit was completed pretty much out of the box, with the exception of a Pavla Martin Baker Mk9 ejection seat (the difference is amazing) and a Sea Eagles missile. The kit's Gr.1, or "S", parts were used in the conversion to the IM. The modification of the Hasegawa kit to the IM version began with the removal of several blade antennas from the wings and fuselage, and the removal of the fins on the kit’s Jaguar “S” tail below the RWR antennae. Unlike the British Jaguars, the Indian Jaguars do not sport many of these antennae and fins. There is also a mysterious bulge near the nose wheel-well that had to be removed.

The biggest modification involved the nose. Thankfully, the kit comes with a separate nose section (so that one can make either a Jaguar A, S, IS or, in my case, IM). Therefore, putty was added in layers to the standard Jaguar S nose, built-up to the desired shape, and sanded to look as close as possible to the IM’s. Line drawings of the IM in Scale Aviation Modeller’s October 2001 issue were very helpful. Finally, the conversion was complete with the addition of a Sea Eagle AShM swiped from Hasegawa’s Sea Harrier FRS Mk. 1 kit.

The rest of the kit went together well, except for the airbrakes. Hasegawa should be embarrassed by the lack of the part’s fit with the fuselage and the improper angle at which they are in the open position. The lack of air brake perforations is also unfortunate as the cover art shows these prominently. On the plus side, the kit includes an accurate access ladder and options to build at least three versions of the Jaguar (A, S, or IS).

The kit nose cone was filled with putty and sanded to shape

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A comparison of the kit ejection seat and the Pavla replacement

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Painting
Indian Air Force Jaguar IMs sported a British-style two-tone medium and dark sea grey wrap-around pattern until a few years ago, when it was replaced by the boring all-grey radar-absorbing scheme. I elected to use the wrap-around scheme because the squadron insignia is absent in the all-grey scheme. Frankly, I wanted to do a model with the beautiful No. 6 Dragon squadron insignia.

I found the reference photos more useful than Hasegawa’s painting guide. For example, the Indian Air Force IM’s have black wing, tail, tail wing, antennae, and ventral fin edges. In addition, there is a protective black panel fore of the tail. For the wrap-around colors I settled on the darker color being a blend of dark sea grey (Lifecolor from Italy) and intermediate blue (Model Master). The lighter color was a combination of light camouflage grey (MM) and medium grey (MM). This is the first time I used Lifecolor acrylics, and found them to be excellent. They are non-toxic and are fabulous to brush-on or airbrush when thinned with Windex®. Because the model was painted in several stages, the color tones vary like the real aircraft in my references. Weathering was modest with the fuselage receiving a wash of chalk and soapy water to bring out the nice panel lines. After recoating the decals with Future®, I sealed the model with Testor’s Lacquer Flat Coat (except for the nose, which was left in semi-gloss).  Since I am always looking to reduce the amount of time masking takes, I used Eduard’s Jaguar A Express Mask for Italeri for the first time to mask off the canopy and wheel oleos. The masks were useful for the wheels, but the fit around the canopy was less than perfect.

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Decals
The kit decals are very nice and provide excellent stenciling for one complete British or French aircraft. For the Indian Air Force markings, Mike Grant has printed beautiful decals for the JM252 and JM257 aircrafts of the Dragons. The squadron insignia is printed clearly in superb detail and looks great when on the aircraft. The only shortcomings of the decals were minor: slightly under scale fin flash and over-wing roundels, and slightly over scale serial marking on the nose wheel door. I added some self-made decals including the two dozen “No Step” warnings, the protective black panel just fore of the tail, and some white warning markings to complete the stenciling. Decal-police will notice an error, which I caught only after completing the model. If you are thinking of doing an Indian Air Force Jaguar, write me and I’ll point it out so you can avoid the same mistake.

Armaments
I finished the build with a training round of the Sea Eagle AShM, which is attached to a modified centerline pylon. While under-wing fuel tanks are common Jaguar issue on sorties, the kit did not include any. Lacking spare fuel tanks, I excluded them. I also omitted the kit-supplied Matra Magic air-to-air missiles because these are absent in photos of aircraft carrying the Sea Eagle. The training rounds of the Sea Eagles in Indian Air Force service have a yellow-on-dark sea grey scheme. I undertook the tedious masking of the tiny missile and airbrushed Tamiya’s dark sea grey on a base coat of enamel yellow. The stenciling on the Sea Eagles was done with home made decals.

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References
Radek Simecek’s SEPECAT Jaguar in detail web site on the Jaguar (an ARC link) is comprehensive and provides well organized reference materials to accurately model the Jaguar. But, I could not have completed this kit without several visits to the amazing Bharat-Rakshak Indian Air Force web site.

http://sepecat.info/
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/Current/Jaguar2.html
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Info/Aircraft/Jaguar-25Yrs.html
http://www.kitreview.com/reviews/jaguardecalsreviewds_1.htm (for a look at the decals)
Richard Caruana. "The Sepecat Jaguar." Scale Aviation Modeller. October 2001.

Rupesh