Fouga magister 1/72 heller

[corsaircorp]

4 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Hello Dears,

Before anything, I will apologise for my big mistake.

Louis Baum was presenting the Mirage V on airshow, my mistake sorry about that.

I will post the photos as soon as I put my hand on it.

Sorry again, did'nt know how I did miss the point

I'll keep you in touch.

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

[corsaircorp]

Hello LH,

I was looking on the web, because my own photos are not available for this while.

Mainly slides, not easy to upload, and first I must scan it.

Another big task for me

Let's say "Viet Namcamo with the dayglo tip tank Typically surealistic

I'll keep you in touch.

Corsaircorp

[lunarhighway]

Ah yes I know this scheme. I think only one Belgian fougas was ever painted this way. I think the airfix fouga comes with this scheme, and there's a kit by vallom to with decals for it as well. so I'm sure I'll do it some day when I get either kit.

For my fouga I think I'll stick to the more common metal and dayglo scheme. I think it also looks rather nice and it'll be easyer to put on. painting will prove a challenge with all the open hatched and details I fear, and I don't want to risk ruining the kit at the paint stage. One thing I'm looking toward to try is faded dayglo... On later planes it appears almost red, but I like how on early ones it faded to light yellow where it was exposed to the sun. As the picture above illustrates.

 

Funny enough I know a guy who had his 4x4 painted in what looks like dayglo orange a few years back(not sure about his motives but I'm sure he doesn't have to look for it in parking lots) and it's starting to fade to yellow on the top of the fenders as well 

[corsaircorp]

Hello LH,

Yes, I know, I've got a similar problem with my Bell X-1.

Orange is not an easy colour, yellow and red are not easier.

I will fade a bit the Arctic red on my F-94, and I'm at the tryin' this or that.

So Orange faded to yellowish tone or a yellow base with layers of orange on it ??

Don't know, may be trying on a part from the scratch box.

Magnificent job on the flaps, I look it with envy

Congratulations.

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

[lunarhighway]

I apologize for the lack of progress, but after some hectic days I found a little time to work on the whistling turtle again.

 

i detailed the opened battery and oil compartment. I had originally planned to remove the battery cooling shroud and show the actual battery, but the battery box didn't turn out right, so i decided to fix the shroud in place.

 

 

I revisited the first panel i did... the wiring was a bit overscale and with the ... ahum... "experience" i gained i thought i'd give it a second try so i ripped them out and inserted some smaller wire... 

 

[lunarhighway]

Hi all, 

 

I'm trying to pick up the pace again and i'm working towards the moment i can close up the fuselage. since i wanted to show of another interesting area of the fouga early on, i had cut away the top hatch on the nose section. this was to provide access to the two guns that could be fitted, but where removed later in the life of most fouga's and could be replaced with a little cargo box, wich somehow reminds me a rear engined supercar that often have a surprising small trunk in the front. the guns or said stowage box sits ontop of a tube structure that supports the nose gear. so in fact the front wheel well and gun compartment are one. the nose gear leg in the kit is a gemn of a piece. comparing it to pictures of the real thing, it's spot on. unfortunately while it's supposed to sandwich between the fuselage halves it seems to narrow. so a good thing i added the support structure as per real fouga. 

 

 

 

i will have to add some more smaller braces and the retraction piston for the gear, as well as quite some details to the firewall, but it think it will look quite nice when done

 

braces where mostly done from metal white, the thicker sections are wire inside Albion tube and the od bit of stretched sprue was thrown in for good measure (actually it's easier to cut so it was ideal to fit in between the metal bits)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lunarhighway]

some more work on the nose structure.

 

i ended up redoing the front two triangles, some more fiddling showed the heller gear strut did fit well afterall, and since it's an integral part ofthe structure i fixed in place on one of the fuselage halves. this also allowed the retraction piston to be installed.

 

 

[Martian]

Great work, I am still finding it hard to believe that this is in 1/72 rather than 1/48 scale!

 

Martian

[lunarhighway]

 

I added some more hoses and wires to the nose section, got in as much as i could.

and one for scale 

 

and with that we're nearing the point where the fuselage halves can be joined

[Nigel Heath]

Excellent work on the scratch building.

[lunarhighway]

time for some paint, 

 

most of the interior bays of the Belgian Fougas seem to have been painted in what looks like an almost white sky color, so i mixed some Revell white and sky. I ordered some small plastic bottles a while ago and use these to store my custom mixes, any leftovers in the airbrush go right back into the pot, so i can use it later on the build.

i spayed all the bays with this mix and than hand painted in the details, follwed by a floor polish based wash, 

 

it could have all looked a little sharper, but i guess for the scale it's ok 

 

battery and oil compartment

 

 

fuselage almost done

 

 

 

 

 

[lunarhighway]

I really wanted to move on to the wings, but i still had some unfinished business on the fuselage.

 

The weather was nice to they let out the NH90 (still on my todo list but the revell kit is harder to get hold of than the real thing) to inspect the progress on the build.

 

 

the radio compartment is something that sets Belgian fouga's apart from it's other brethren. At some point in it's long career, Belgian fouga's received an avionics upgrade as well as new radio equipement. the new hardware took the form of a bather bulky box, that apparently didn't quite fit the glazed compartment on the fouga, so to accommodate this two bulges had to be introduced on the rear window, that was also painted white from the inside, the two side windows where deleted and replaced with a metal panels with air scoops and underneath the rear window three louvers where added. I assume the new electronics got a little hot in their tight compartment and needed some airflow to cool things down, as well as direct sunlight blocked out.

 

an interesting little variation but unfortunately it does away with the rather cool transparent radio compartment.

 

the access panel/window does not hinge, but is released with a single catch at the back, that's originally accessible by a round panel below the window, but this moved to the port side with the introduction of the louvers. 

 

i had previously cut up the rather thick but otherwise nice canopy in sections and sanded down the thick frames on the rear section, i covered it with metal tape and used it to plugform a few new items, one of which was cut up to made the framing

 

 

it's just a loose test fit so pay no mind to the general wonkynes of this arrangement.

 

next i laminated some thick styreen sheet and cut out the box. the original setup actually consist of a large and smaller volume side by side, and rather than build two shaped a made one and than almost cut trough with a razor saw, so as to keep everything simple and aligned

 

various cables where added at this point, i find it's easier to attach long lengths of wire to the terminals and than shape the wires and cut them to length than try to shape them first and than individual attach them.

 

at the same time the radio/wire assembly is bigger and therefore stands a bigger chance against the carpet monster.

 

 

these where than shaped as close as i could to what i saw in my references , and some more where added to the compartment, that was also detailed with more wires, some going into the fuselage trough holes, and some embossed metal tape.

 

 

and that concludes this episode.

 

 

 

[lunarhighway]

time for some colors, 

 

the radio bay has quite a few bright colors, which help the details pop. I could have probably painted the whole thing twice with each drop of paint i put on the palet 

 

everything was first spayed with a dark grey rather than black...it looks more in scale than true black, and allows for real and artificial shadows to be added.

 

 

 

with that done most main details on the fuselage are done... 

 

i still have no idea how i'll manage to paint the main colors though, some advanced masking will be required.

 

[Brandy]

This is just insane for 1:72, absolutely gorgeous detail. I have no idea how you do it, and I put quite a bit into my builds in the same scale!

 

Ian

[lunarhighway]

I don't really think there's a trick to it. The advantage of scratchbuilding , especially tiny details is that the biggest investment is time, so if something goes wrong, take a deep breath and start over. I think i must have made most parts at least twice.   Working with sub-assemblies is also important. Treat every section of the kit, and perhaps every component therein, like a tiny kit. And in stead of an airplane i enjoy making a nice seat or an oxygen hose. Tiny tweezers also help, they make the parts seem bigger

[lunarhighway]

hello everyone, 

 

been doing a few things to the kit over the last days, although nothing very photogenic or refined.

 

i glued the fuselage halves together, but before that i installed some nose weight. i'm not sure the fouga needs much, but i didn't want to take a risk, even when the real fouga has a tiny rail wheel to safeguard against tail strikes.

 

since the actual nose didn't have much room to begin with and none after it got opened up, fortunately a little room could be found under the cockpit floor. some tiny nails where super glued to the bottom of the cockpit. they're not that heady but it should be enough to place the center of gravity ahead of the main gear

 

next everything was finally glued together...

 

 

the radio compartment was superglued to the spine and faired in with milliput (after vallejo and revell putty proved more messy than efficient in my hands )

 

everything was painted over with vallejo model color grey green, which acts as a sort of micro filler ( ironic perhaps as their actual filler isn't very useful)

 

 

next comes a lot of messy sanding to make everything smooth where it should be

 

with the fuselage more or less in one piece, it was time to move on to the wings, after looking at some pics, i decided to box in  the bays so i had something to add some detail to... in true fouga style there's a lot of wires and stuff to be added... we'll see how that turns out

 

 

i used thick styrene and made everything a bit taller than it should be... now i'm in the process of sanding it down until it matches the wing curvature and the two wing halves close... a little brute perhaps, but with careful sanding and fitting it should make for a pretty tight fit when done... or so the theory goes

 

 

[lunarhighway]

Hi all, 

 

I'm sorry i am, yet again, not able to wow you with an exciting update, but i'll show you what little progress daily life has allowed me to make.

 

basically i'm further detailing the wheel bays in hopes of being able complete the wings soon (there is the small matter of the flaps)

 

anyway, a picture

 

 

in usual fouga style, the bays are packed with stuff, and in fact the hoses are so numerous and small in this scale i'm might to have to content myself with making an impression rather than be absolutely exact

Edited April 10, 2017 by lunarhighway

[Nigel Heath]

Nice detailing in those bays. To make sure the indelible marker pen marks don't bleed through subsequent paint layers I recommend the use of Alclad primer which is resistant to bleed through.

[Martian]

Those wheel wells look the business!

 

Martian

[lunarhighway]

thanks for the tip, pen-bleed is something that i've had troubles with in the past, although the ones i have now seem to hold up rather well, as it happenes i recently did a test by overcloating the marker by brush with clear, and it didn't bleed, so i think i'm good.

 

the reason i got these markers is to apply small markings and perhaps serials where i can't find appropriate decals but the clearcoat i use seems to be ok, so i'll be sealing any pen with that from now on

in the case of the wheel bays, i'll probably preshade with black so i don't think i'm much at risk here,