LS 1/144 Jaguar Family

The Anglo/French Jaguar was such a successful design that it was used to base two more aircraft on: the Yugoslavian/Romanian Jurom VTI/CIAR-93 Orao and the Japanese Mitsubishi T-2 and F-1.

LS did kits of both the Sepecat/BAe Jaguar and the Mitsubishi F-1 (cat.nr.A116 shown).
The initial LS release of the Jaguar kit (cat.nr.A119) depicted an early RAF version without laser tracker in the nose, some time later LS changed the patterns to a later type Jaguar GR.1 (cat.nr.1036) with a laser tracker fitted to the nose.
Since a Mitsubishi F-1 is basically a twin seater with a single cockpit, the LS kit paves the way for doing twin seater conversions of the F-1 (Mitsubishi T-2) and the Jaguar.

Both the LS kits of the Jaguar with 'laser nose' and the Mitsubishi F-1 were cloned by Korean ACE, these cloned kits also ended up in the Revell Germany catalog (Jaguar GR.1 cat.nr.4041; Mitsubishi F-1 cat.nr.4079). The shapes of canopy and wings and the general details of these cloned kits are inferior to those of the original LS and ARII kits. In case of the Jaguar kit Revell did include some useful RAF(G) decals though.

In 2006 ARII did some re-releases and new versions of the former LS Mitsubishi F-1 kit, three of these ARII kits include parts for converting the F-1 model into a Mitsubishi T-2 ( Mitsubishi T-2 "20 Anniv" (cat.nr.62151), Mitsubishi T-2 CCV "A.D.T.W." (cat.nr.62155) and Mitsubishi T-2 "Blue Impulse" (cat.nr.62201). Each of these kits contains parts and decals for three models).

Jaguar GR.1 conversion

Although LS later reworked the Jaguar kit to include a 'laser nose', the early kits had the nose shape without laser tracker.
Modifying the nose of an early LS kit isn't hard: cut off nose tip at the panel line, drill a hole for a steel pitot tube in the top, add a steel pitot (magazine staple) and a small piece of clear plastic to the nose using superglue. When glue has cured, shape the clear bit into a triangle (see sketch). Then shape nose by adding layers of filler.

Some more improvements made to this LS kit:

• Cut back rear edges of the antennae on vertical fin to a V-shaped rear end.
  
• Slightly reshape the curve in the spine between cooling inlet and tail fin by adding filler.
  
• Remove main intake locations from fuselage sides.
  
• Open gun muzzles (0.3mm drill).
  
• Open up cockpit under canopy. Add instrument panel, coaming, stick and ejection seat.
  
• Drill holes in main wheel bays for location pegs of landing gear and for stabilizer bars.
  
• Move location holes for centerline pylon 3.5mm to the rear.
  
• Reshape leading edge of horizontal tail planes to reduce the curve near the root.
  
• Separate the air intakes from the fuselage (see sketch): sand off 0.5mm of inside edge, add an inside wall and a D-shaped splitter plate out of 0.25mm plasticard between intake and fuselage. Use filler to smoothen joint between fuselage side and inlet. If required, 'open' blow-in doors by scraping excess plastic away with a sharp knife blade (doors hinge at front edge).
  
• Add the twin blade antennae behind the canopy by fitting a single wide piece of plastic and cutting away the center after the glue has cured.
  
• Reduce thickness of ventral fins by careful sanding, add slight bulge near root.
  
• Add pieces of plasticard (0.25 mm thick) to fill gap where exhaust pipes meet hatch.
  
• Remove 0.7mm of rear edge of engine exhaust pipes and scribe line in the rear edge of each engine exhaust to separate the bright metal shroud from the nozzle.
  
• Shorten main landing gear legs by 1mm overall, drill hole through the top of each leg and insert a piece of copper wire for strengthening and to ease attachment to wheel bay.
  
• Add a stabilizer rod to each main landing gear leg.
  
• Reduce width of main wheels slightly.
  
• Reshape top of nose wheel leg into Y shape. reduce thickness of nose wheel arm slightly.
  
• Reduce thickness of nose gear cover, drill out the lights and add lights from clear sprue. Add second cover (size 1.0 x 3.5mm) behind the lower edge of nose gear cover.
  
• Thin down main landing gear covers from the inside.
  

The GR.1 on the pictures was depicted in take-off configuration: pilot in cockpit, aux. intakes open and true blinking anti-collision and wingtip lights. Here are the details of how I put four LED's into this tiny model.
The stabilizer bars double as electrical leads for the LED's, that's why these extend between the main wheels to touch the ground.

The model wears the colors of XX722 of 54 Sqn at Coltishall.

Date finished: September 6, 1984.

Jaguar T.2 conversion

This is what you get when you graft the nose of a Mitsubishi F-1 on a Jaguar GR.1, fit the F-1 windshield, add a new heat-plugged canopy and some cockpit details.
You do need to reduce the depth and length of the F-1 nose as the F-1 has radar fitted whilst the T.2 has not.
Compared to a Jaguar GR.1, the entire nose landing gear bay needs to be moved forward by 1.5mm.
Removing the tail mounted RWR housing and blanking off the starboard cannon concludes the GR.1 to T.2 conversion.
Remove the molded frames from the front of the F-1 windshield as the Jaguar T.2 frames taper towards the top.

The model depicts XX145 after it was transferred from 226 OCU to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, to replace the brightly colored T2 XX835.

Date finished: August 17, 1990.

Mitsubishi F-1

This good old LS kit (cat.nr.A116) is straight from the box, apart from adding some cockpit interior, an ejection seat and hydraulic cylinders to the main landing gear and replacing the pitot tube with a sanded-down piece of stainless steel magazine staple.

The paint scheme depicts the early version with gray undersides: dark green FS.34097, medium green FS.34108 and light stone FS.30372 with light gray FS.36440 undersides.
On pictures of actual F-1s the medium green shade often looks brighter and a bit more blueish than a fresh sample of FS.34108 does, so I adjusted my paint mix accordingly.
I used the kit decals for the first production airframe 70-8201 early in its career without squadron markings.

Date finished: August 17, 1986.

Mitsubishi T-2 (F-1 prototype)

This T-2 represents a trainer that was converted into a testbed for developing the F-1, two early production T-2 airframes were converted this way: 59-5106 and 59-5107.

The LS Mitsubishi F-1 kit can easily be converted to a Mitsubishi T-2 trainer by cutting out the fairing over the rear cockpit and replacing it with a piece of curved clear plastic. The fairing is indicated on the kits fuselage by a finely recessed line. A small window needs to be inserted in the frame between the canopies on either side.
After making clear side windows and a clear canopy for the rear cockpit, I painted the inside of the rear canopy gray to simulate a metal cover just below the canopy.
As with the F-1 model I added some cockpit interior, an ejection seat and hydraulic cylinders to the main landing gear.

The paint scheme is of interest because it features both International Orange (Fed.Std.12197) and dayglow orange (Fed.Std.28915) over light gray (FS.26440) with white and bare metal areas on the tail planes.
I used the F-1 kit decals and cut up the registration numbers to arrive at '59-5106', call sign '106'.

Date finished: June 8, 1983.