Now though 30 years on, looking through the books once more is journey into a personal past filled with memories, inspiration and the same excitement that I felt for aviation as a young man.
23rd April 2025
With my cold showing no sings of getting better (in fact, I feel worse today than I did yesterday, though that might be down to lack of sleep rather than the fever) I’ve had another patchy day of writing, a little building and plenty of reading.
Having revealed recently that I have an Airfix Jaguar to build, I set about looking through my references only to find them rather lacking when it came to SEPECAT’s masterpiece. Sure I had a few books here and there, including Andy Evans’ ‘SEPECAT Jaguar’ created for Crowood Press, but nothing more of note. Even my collection of World Air Power Journals came up short, which is when I decided to see if they had ever looked at the aircraft in detail…
Here, Google was indeed my friend offering information on when and where the machine had been featured. Looking through the lists, it appeared that they looked at the Jaguar in detail in the Winter 1992 edition. Great I thought: I have the Autumn 1992 edition and the Spring 1993, so I must have the one in-between, right? Wrong. My bookcase was singularly lacking in that volume much to my annoyance, so a quick search for a possible seller of said volume was in order. Two minutes later one had been found on the Rain Forest of immediate needs, an order had been placed and I sat back and waited for it to arrive.
This morning my package appeared through my letter box, snuggled in between a layer of card and that popping film that kids love so much. At first I thought the book would be secondhand, but it appears to be new (if indeed you can use that description for a book that’s 30-odd years old!) so will fit in nicely with all of my other volumes.
Looking through this latest addition to my collection, I’m not sure if there has ever been a better series of books on aviation. Each column was so crammed with fantastic pictures in-depth analysis and superbly researched articles, you have to wonder how they could have made them any better. The production quality was stunning as well, the perfect binding and glossy covers working beautifully with the gorgeous contents, and those spellbinding images.
Now though 30 years on, looking through the books once more is journey into a personal past filled with memories, inspiration and the same excitement that I felt for aviation as a young man. I make no secret of my love for aircraft from the Seventies and Eighties, so each of these books lets me return back to those days when I pored over pictures of aircraft that at the time were just entering service, but are now already retired or close to it. But it was the colour schemes that I was really captivated by. In this day and age of monotonous grey aircraft, the camouflage and bright markings from that period were so much more exciting. Those colours weren’t set to last in reality, so I love that I can now replicate them in miniature.
But what about that Jaguar feature? Well, that was everything I hoped it would be, with a whole host of fantastic images that will help me with my build. Of course my focus is on RAF aircraft, but I am certainly taken with the idea of a French jet as am I, with thoughts of an Indian Jaguar IM and that two-tone grey colour scheme and radar nose. Frankly, I may have to build more than one of Airfix’s kits, but then given my love of the type and the fact that this is finally the first time that I have had a go at one in miniature, that’s likely to be of little surprise to anyone.
SKYHAWK: ED HEINEMANN’S HOTROD
A quick reminder that my Skyhawk book is now available to purchase. With it being a limited edition title, if you want a copy, now is your chance before I close the sale down a week on Wednesday (30th April).
Follow the link below for more information.
See you tomorrow.
Wow! I built a dozen back around 1980. Entered them as a collection at the IPMS USA Nationals. Didn’t win…
Yes, stop procrastinating……build a Lightning🤣
Who knows, you might even consider publishing another bookazine on building the BAC Lightning as well?
I am glad that the man was talked down. It’s definitely hard to see without knowing the outcome, until later.…
sadly(?), I’ve at least 15 models at various stages of completion. 2 I started back in the 80s, iirc I…
SPENCER POLLARD'S KIT BOX 
Spencer, I just ordered the A-4 book. My address is:
Bruce Culver
7724 Tophill Lane
Dallas, Texas 75248
United States of America
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Hi Spencer
Key Publishing have a ‘bookazine’ on the Jag. It’s No.16 in their Aeroplane Icons series. It’s very good. I’ve downloaded the digital version on the Pocketmags app.
Plenty of decent pics for reference and a load of info from the original designs through to retirement etc.
Regards
Andy
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I’d completely forgotten that I had that. I’ve now dug it out! Thanks a lot for the reminder!
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Great memories. My brand new wife would have one (or more) waiting for me every time I got home from Navy deployments. Still have all of them (and my wife, of course… she puts up with my hobby!).
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