The Modelling News: Gary reviews the Raspberry Ripple? It's Rhyming slang for the Jaguar from Kittyhawk in 48th scale

The two-seat Jaguar is the last in this series of Jaguars from Kittyhawk in 48^th scale and Gary has made a very good review out of his kit to share with us all today...

Kittyhawk Sepecat Jaguar T.2/T.4 1/48

Kit No: KH80105

1/48 scale

Plastic Sprues: 5

Clear Sprues: 1

Photo Etch Brass Fret: 1

Decal Sheet: 2

Today we review the Kittyhawk Models Jaguar T.2/T.4 in 1/48. This is the third Jaguar release by Kittyhawk having been preceded by two single seat kits, the French Jaguar A and the RAF Jaguar Gr.1 / Gr.3.

The Aircraft

The Jaguar T2 (or Jaguar B) was the two-seat training version built for the Royal Air Force. One prototype and 38 production aircraft were built. The T2 was designed to be capable of the secondary role of strike and ground attack.

Two Jaguar T2 were flown by the Empire Test Pilots School and one by the Institute of Aviation Medicine. The T2 was equipped for inflight refuelling and had a single Aden cannon.

The Jaguar T4 was a Jaguar T2A upgraded to the Jaguar 96 (GR3) standard, which saw the addition of a new HUD, a new hand controller and stick top, integrated GPS and TERPROM Terrain Referenced Navigation. (source: wikipedia.org)

The Kittyhawk Jaguar T.2 / T.4

The kit is broken down into five gray plastic sprues and one small clear sprue. Four of the sprues are shared in common with the single seat kits while the fifth contains the parts unique to the two seater. Each sprue is individually packed in its own plastic bag and as seems to be a new trend for KH, the kit box is larger meaning the parts are not crammed in like a sardine can, as was the case with earlier KH kits.

Two decals sheets are included and allow you to build one of two schemes:

1. Jaguar T.2 XX842:33 of 2Sqn

2. Jaguar T.2 XX830 of the Empire Test Pilots School

A photo-etch sheet is provided which contains detailing options for the cockpit instrument panel, side consoles, seatbelts front and back, antennae and wing spoilers.

The finish on the surface of the plastic is consistent with previous Kittyhawk releases with a noticeable roughness to the surface. The panel line and rivet detail is a mixed bag with some parts being sharp and deep with other being vague and almost “washed out”.

Sprues A1/A2 are almost not sprues at all. Each one contains a single half of the main rear fuselage.

Sprue B contains the parts specific to the two seat T.2, the forward fuselage nose, extra seats, cockpit tub & sidewalls and a single centreline practice bomb unit.

Almost every Kittyhawk kit release to date has been designed in a very modular way. This allows them too more easily re-use “common” sprues across variants in the same aircraft family.

As with most recent Kittyhawk kits the trend seems to be towards a very bare bones plastic cockpit relying on photo etch to provide the detail.

Like the cockpit tub, the instrument panels are simple plastic blocks onto which the PE detail will be glued.

By comparison to the cockpit tub and the instrument panels the sidewalls are actually quite nicely detailed. I truly wish that KH would apply this level of effort to the cockpit proper and IPs, as frankly I do not believe that PE is good enough in 1/48.

Sprue G contains the upper wings, engine bodies, ventral fins, vertical fin top and nose wheels.

Sprue J contains the main pylons, more seats and second cockpit tub, engine bay roof and the main and nose landing gear struts.

Sprue H contains the lower wings inserts, centreline drop tank, main landing wheels, airbrakes, horizontal tails and engine bay details.

Sprue I contains more engine bay details, overwing missile pylons (not sure if these were fitted often to the two seater), undercarriage bay doors and miscellaneous detail parts.

Sprue F is one of two weapons sprues, which contain a large assortment of bombs, rockets, missiles and ECM/Self Defence/Targeting pods.

Rounding out the final plastic sprue we have Sprue E. This sprue contains more weapons with AA missiles and precision AG ordnance.

The clear sprue GP, contains both canopies, the windshield and assorted lights and clear lenses.

The clear parts are perfectly clear with no moulding seams that require removal.

Paint Schemes and Decals

As with previous KH decals these are well printed and based on past experience I would expect them to perform well.

Conclusion

I believe this is the first time we have seen a mainstream injection moulded two seat Jaguar in 1/48. Paragon did a very nice resin conversion for the older Airfix kit. From looking closely at the parts in this kit its pretty much on par with Kittyhawks previous efforts. So if you have in your stash any other KH kit you should have a good idea as to what you will be getting for your money.

I love the look of the two seat Jaguar (probably more than the single seat) and whilst I can’t see myself painting my model in the bright red, white and blue scheme, a well-weathered two-tone camo scheme is high on the cards.

Highly Recommended.

Gary Wickham

Thanks very much to Kittyhawk Models for the review kit (and for giving us a new tooled T.2 Jaguar).