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Fouga CM.175 Zéphyr (SH72323) 1:72 Special Hobby Zéphyr was the name given to the maritime variant of the Magister by Fouga, which benefitted from a strengthened airframe, arrestor hook, had no ejection seats, sliding canopies to facilitate take-offs with the canopy open, and a nose-mounted light to assist with night landings on carriers. It was tested on two British carriers late in the 1950s, with only a small number of airframes delivered, totalling 30 production aircraft and two prototypes. Only one squadron was formed at the end of 1959 as a consequence, with the active airframes rotated into storage to even out the flight hours and prolong the length of service of the airframe in French service. Although the Zéphyr was capable of carrying gun pods under the wings, they could also carry guns in the nose, although they were seldom used in practice due the type’s given task, and weight savings also saves fuel. They were used as aircrew trainers at Hyéres, where they taught the novice pilots the intricacies of the perishable skill that is carrier landing at the Deck Training School. In the 60s they also formed an aerobatic team by the name of Patrouille de Voltige d'Hyéres, which translates as Hyéres Aerobatic Patrol, who took over the name of the Patrouille de France during austerity cut-backs to retain the prestige of French aviation, using the less expensive Zéphyr, and freeing up the costly front-line capable fighters that they previously used. The Kit This is a reboxing of the 2015 kit from Special Hobby with new decals and some optional extras that you can pick up while you’re shopping to improve the kit further. The kit arrives in a small end-opening box, as the Zéphyr is a small aircraft, and inside are four sprues in grey styrene, a separately bagged clear sprue, and a decal sheet in yet another bag. The instruction booklet is portrait A5 and printed on glossy paper with colour profiles at the rear, and adverts for other SH products on the rearmost pages. Detail is excellent for such a diminutive aircraft, although as with many 1:72 kits the panel lines could be deemed a little deep, although they will doubtless reduce under several coats of paint. Construction begins with the double cockpit, which is well-done with separate seats, instrument panels with decals, plus control columns and throttle levers completing the appointment of this key area. The fuselage halves are prepared with intake trunking inserts that slot inside the engine nacelles after being painted the correct colours, and having the front and rear engine faces emplaced. Externally, the intake lips, exhausts and a number of other small parts are fitted, then the cockpit is trapped between the halves and glued together, adding an equipment deck behind the crew stations and cutting off a blade antenna just behind the cockpit near a small intake. More detail parts are scabbed on the underside toward the rear along with a central strake, two-part tail-cone and the arrestor gear that slots into a triangular aperture. At the front, the nose gear bay is made from a tapering L-shaped former that is trapped between the two nose-cone halves that are then joined to the fuselage after painting the interior while you still have the chance. Returning to the rear, the diagonal tail fins are fitted using pegs with tiny inserts at the root, and actuators near the tips. Each wing is made from a top and bottom surfaces, but first the gear bay inserts are added to the lower part, and a choice of deployed or flush air-brakes that apply for both sides of each wing. The upper wings have the top of the tip-tanks moulded-in, and have separate lower halves added once the two wing halves are mated, with a pair of clear parts for the lights. The nose gear leg has a two-part wheel that slots onto the leg, plus a small front bay door and two side doors, then the two main gear legs are installed in their bays with retraction jacks and wheels, plus a pair of doors on the outer edge, and a single inner door with separate double retraction jack. The model is completed by gluing the rails to the edge of the cockpit and adding the fixed windscreen, central and rear portions to the fuselage, then deciding whether to close up the sliding portions or leave them open, which is done just like the real thing, remembering to add the periscope to the central section, which has parts inside and outside of the canopy. Markings There are four options on the decal sheet, all of which are painted overall with aluminium paint rather than bare metal, and each has a red lower nose, rudder and elevator fins on all but one of the options, which is almost totally aluminium. You can build one of the following from the box: S/n.4, ex-Escadrille 59s, BAN Hyéres, latterly on display in Belgium S/n.4, ex-Escadrille 59s, BAN Hyéres, France late 1970s to 1994 S/n.16, ex-Escadrille 59s, BAN Hyéres, France, late 1970s to 1994 S/n.4, ex-Escadrille 57s, Ecole de Chasse de la Marine, Khouribga, Morocco, 1959-60 and Port Lyautey, Morocco, 1960-62 Decals are by Special Hobby’s usual partners, and have good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion The Zéphyr was a niche type that saw extended service in predominantly French hands, and Special Hobby have done a great job of rendering the details of this diminutive early jet. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hi All, Here is another bird completed this year. In fact I finished this one back in August but have not made a photosession until yesterday. So here it is - Fouga Magister in IDF demonstration team colours: Not much to say about the prototype as its history is pretty well-known. A training aircraft that flew with numerous air forces for many-many years as a basic trainer. In IDF though it made quite a career serving not only as a trainer but also as an attack aircraft and a demonstration team airplane and was further upgraded to Tzukit standard with updated avionics, engines, etc. The kit used is a newly released Special Hobby option. Overall a nice kit with impressive level of details in cockpit, undercarriage bays, full engine details are also provided. Fit is good but tight at times. Pay attention to cockpit as after closing the fuselage you may find out that the canopy is too narrow. Cockpit interior needs to be carefully trimmed to make sure it does not stretch fuselage sides. Also I would advise to start canopy attachment with front and rear sections, then install two-part middle section and finish with opening sections which you may trim as appropriate if they do not fit. More construction details are available at the WIP thread. Very minimal aftermarket sets were used - resin wheels from CMK (although kit wheels are not at all bad either), seat belts from spares and that is it. And I do not think I made any substantial improvements either as the kit looks very convincing out of the box. The kit I had was for exotic African Air Forces but my intention was always to make an Israeli machine, so an Isradecal set for Fouga Magisters was bought. That one unfortunately was a disappointment almost ruining the whole project... Large white decal stripes turned out extremely brittle. While I was able to deal with them on flat surfaces, on curved area around V-tails that broke apart and in fact did not fit the area well too. Particularly poor result is on port side where I had to overpaint cracks with white paint and still not super satisfied with outcome. Paints used are Hobby Colour blue H328 (FS15050) well diluted with white - I tried to be as close to the blue colour of Stars of David, obviously black, white and silver from Vallejo and lastly H318 tan for undercarriage interiors. I was matching this to the photoes of real French Magisters and that seemed to be the closest match. Final finish with Gloss Tamiya clear. Now there are couple more shots "with others". My full IDF collection firstly: And all the bright jet trainers secondly: Hope you like it Kind regards, Dennis

Fouga CM-170 Magister Canopy Masks (M72017) Special Hobby 1/72 Special Hobby are now also offering a new set of tape masks for their excellent Fouga Magister kit which will help a great deal with the masking. Review sample courtesy of

High pitched wail of Fouga's 'hairdryers' is quite familiar to me - restored Fouga Magister used to fly in the skies of Pori quite often. Contents of the box, with some aftermarket wheels. It's a fine looking kit, this Special Hobby Fouga. I will be doing my hometown planes for this GB. So this will be Fouga Magister, FM-5 (in the front of the pic) in the mid 1960's. So it will be all silver with no orange markings. Photo was taken after the parking area got new tarmac in mid 1960's. It was not too uncommon in th e 1950's and 1960's that the parking areas or taxiways were gravel and in many times the planes were pulled to the runways.

Fouga CM.170 Magister, , pics thanks to Sergey (mr_stomach)

Hello all, Today I have for inspection one of the old FROG / Chematic 1/72 Magisters, in the markings of an Irish Air Corps bird. Originally I had planned to build a RAAF in overall aluminum, but the included Techmod decals enticed me to build something a little more colorful. All in all, I'm glad I did. I started this kit in the same way as the MB Gladiators - by adding some conjectural interior framing, as seen here: Unlike the Gladiators, the final result is actually visible, and makes the interior looks much better in my opinion. Control sticks were also added. The final result looks like this: The eagle-eyed will observe that the front windscreen was sourced from a Revell 1/72 P-26 - the included piece wasn't fully molded, and so wasn't usable. Thankfully, the Revell piece more or less looks the part and fits well. Next is a 1/72 Spitfire Ia, followed by a DH.60G in Belgian markings and then a Mig 17 for a change of pace. Thanks for checking in, Stay safe, Tweener

Hi all! After getting ready with my Spitfires I decided to start a quick and easy project. I looked through the stash and picked this one: Some goodies that I have are CMK wheels (really only front wheel is a reasonable replacement but I will use all three), Pavla seats (bought them because no seat belts are in the kit. Unfortunately Pavla seats are too narrow and have wrong harness anyway so likely I'll not be using this), and Isradecal set for training Magisters. Kit contents: Quite a few parts for a small airplane? In fact many parts are not used. What is interesting - this kit contains full set of parts for navalised Zephyr version (right side of upper right sprue). The sprue seems to be designed for molding only part of it. Why the guys packed the full sprue in the kit? Some shots taken after closer examination of the kit: The molds are crisp and clean. The main problem is noticeable molding seams elsewhere. These are typically easily removable on most parts. Still the quality of molds is impressive and is definitely a quantum leap over older MPM/SH kits. Some resin bits supplied with a kit are intended for Algerian version that had some wire antennae set on the bottom side. An IDF version that I'm planning to build did not carry these parts. Kit's decal is near perfect: Isradecal set is probably not as crisp but is not bad either: Couple shot of decal's instruction sheet: As I'm heavily interested in IDF history and try to build more planes operated by Kheil Ha'Avir I'm closely watching what's released by Isradecal and try to buy interesting sheets even if I do not possess necessary kits yet. That was the case with this sheet too. My plan is to build an ultramarine blue demonstration team bird. And my goal is to try to do this fairly quickly as the kit seems quite simple, really none scratchbuilding needed, painting is going to be quick and easy. So full speed ahead! Best, Dennis.

The Build: Notes OOB, Scratch built seatbelts, BAF decals - Airfix 1975, Re-scribed panel lines, Paints used: Revell enamels/luminescent & acrylics, mr surfacer 1500 primer, mr mark setter & softer, old humbrol enamel, Klear, W&N artists water colours+oil paints, vallejo wash, Alclad, Fading orange was done by first having an acrylic yellow base. Then removing the enamel orange by rubbing a brush with thinner over surface. The result.... 😎🥳

Hi folk's, This is one of those GB's where I could easily slip into double figures with builds, there's so many subject's I love in their range and at the moment most can be picked up for very little money.But I decided early on to go for something out of my usual area of interest and picked up this set for a meagre thirteen quid from e-bay all sealed in mint condition. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/heller-80399-patrouille-france--167958 inside are the three bagged kit's in a beige plastic and a huge decal sheet.

Been secretly working away at this 1980s kit. After building the 1975 Airfix Magister, I thought id try another Magister! Model was painfully & slowly re-scribed & sanded. Seat belts made form tape. Given a coating of mr hobby 1500 primer, thinned around 60% cellulose thinner (otherwise it would stick). Then 'polished' out before paint. Not happy with the result. I used revell acrylic silver. Fantastic paint. It almost as shiny as Alclad polished aluminum. BUT in my opinion it came out TOO shiny for a tiny 72nd model. Out of scale. Also every mistake, gap, scratch, orange peel, depression in plastic/filler came out magnified. I gave it another soft sanding/buffing session and am considering either... 1) use same silver and finish with a light matt coat to dull it down OR , 2) trying revell enamel silver (different to acrylic) OR , 3) Model master aluminum. Something not as shiny. These aircraft were not polished metal, but a dull silver. Model re-scribed and sanded a few times! Pretty good canopy. Raised details. Just needed a dipping in Klear. Masking was tough. Im sure the glass is all blade scratches. Primer on and polished. Way too shiny???

Old 1975 tooling of airfix fouga magister. For such an old model surprisingly good fits and still good decals!

Fouga CM.170 Magister "French, Belgian & Irish Service" 1:72 Special Hobby (72371) The Magister is probably Fouga's most well know design even though they had been producing aircraft since 1936. Post war the company was working on sailplanes and the heritage from this can be seen in the Magister design. In 1948 the French Air Force were looking for a jet powered aircraft to replace the then piston engine trainers. Fouga's original design the CM130 was underpowered with two Turbomeca Palas engines. Fouga then re-designed their aircraft to incorporate the more powerful Marbore engines, et voilà the CM170 Magister. The distinctive V tail, and slender wings bear testament to Fouga's sailplane designs. The prototype Magister flew in 1952 with an order for the first 10 being placed in 1953. The Magister was the worlds purpose designed/built jet powered trainer. It is also worthy to note the Magister made it into carrier aviation. With a few changes to the structure and undercarriage, the addition of an arrestor hook, and sliding canopies the CM175 Zephyr was born. Interestingly carrier trials took place on HMS Bulwark and HMS Eagle. The French aircraft industry in parallel with the UK went through many mergers with the aircraft being known as the Fouga Magister, Potez Magister, Sud Aviation Magister; and finally The Aerospatile Magister; though always actually being called The "Fouga" Magister. Development of the aircraft continued right up until the French selected its replacement, the Alpha Jet. Overseas sales proved popular were made to primarily to Germany, Belgium, Finland, and Israel; with Germany, Finland & Israel building them under licence. Of a total of 929 aircraft built, 286 were built under license. The basic jet was very affordable to operate for smaller Air Forces. Other users would include, Algeria, Austria, Bangladesh, Biafra, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, El Salvador, Gabon, Katanga, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda. Many counties including Austria, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Finland; and Israel would use the aircraft for their National Aerobatic display teams. Even though primarily a trainer many of these smaller nations would use the aircraft for its light strike capacity as well. Israel would use them in combat during the 6 day war, El Salvador saw them used during its civil war, and aircraft used by The Katangese Air Force were used against the UN during the Congo crisis in 1961. The Kit The kit arrives on four sprues of grey plastic, and a clear sprue,. The plastic parts are of excellent quality, the panel lines are engraved and deep enough to be seen after painting without being trenches. Care will be needed to take some of the smaller parts of the sprue, and it might have been the case that these would have been better in photo-etch? The clear parts are crisp, clear and thin. The resin parts are for the under-fuselage antenna fitted to the Algerian and Moroccan examples. Some of the smaller parts will need careful removal to avoid damage. Construction starts in the cockpit area. The front and rear instrument panels are fitted (instrument faces are provided as decals), along with the seat supports for the front cockpit. The seats are added along with the engine and flight controls. Once complete the cockpit can be set aside. Attention then moves to the engine pods on each side of the fuselage. Engine fan faces and exhaust need to be placed inside and then the inner side of the engine trunking can be added. At the rear of each side the final exhaust section is added. Once the engines are complete then cockpit can be placed inside the main fuselage, and this then closed up. The radio equipment area to the rear of the cockpit is also added at this time. Various antenna behind the cockpits then need to be added and/or removed depending upon the version being modelled. Once the main fuselage is together work needs doing on both ends. At the rear the tail cone is added along with ventral strake. The 'V' tails are then added, care being taken with the small hinges for these. At the front the first part to me made up is the underside of the nose where the nose gear mounts. This attached inside the nose cone and the appropriate gun/no gun insert is attached to the top of the nose. The prominent nose mounted VOR antenna loops are added and the nose attached to the main fuselage. Construction then moves to the wings. These are of conventional upper & lower construction. The wheel wells are mounted into the wings before they are closed up, along with the wing mounted air-brakes. These can be modelled in with the deployed or retracted positions. The wing end mounted fuel tanks are in two halves, with the bottom being moulded to the upper wing, and then a lower fuel tank part is added. The clear noses can then be added to the front of the fuel tanks. The landing gear is then added to the model. The front single nose wheel is two parts and this is added to the main leg, this is then mounted to the nose of the aircraft. The single front gear door is added. The main wheels though larger than the nose wheel are single parts. These are fitted to the main legs, the legs along with their retraction struts are added into the main gear bays. The three part main gear doors are added. If needed armament can now be added to the model. Bombs and rocket pods are included to be used as wished by the modeller. To finish off the model the canopies can be added in the raised or lowered positions. Markings The decals are printed in house and look to be good. They are crisp, clear and in register. The dayglo stripes for the French Aircraft are not supplied when I thought they would be in this scale. Markings are provided for four examples; 315-PA French Air Force Sqn 00/315 Cognac, 1970-80 312-TX French Air Force, Tan & Light Blue markings for 25th Anniversary of GERMAS (Group d'Enteriten et de Reparation du Material Specialise) Salon de Provence, 1989 MT13 Belgian Air Force advanced flying school Belgian Congo 1960 (Aircraft armed with nose guns) 220 Irish Air Corps 1976 to 1999. Aircraft now used by the Carlow Institute of Technology. Conclusion This is a welcome new tool of an important and widely used trainer/light attack aircraft. The kit is highly detailed and should build upto a good looking if small model. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

MikroMir is to release a 1/32nd Miles M.14 Magister Mk.I kit - ref. 32-002 Source: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2607434466000940&id=1416295571781508 V.P.

Hello! This is the 1/72 Heller kit and i tried to give this oldie a go. I rescribbed it and chopped the flaps to give it a little rupture around the wing shape area, and also cutted the canopy and done the interior. It was painted with vallejo acrilycs. The Magister with it's distinctive tail always looked odd to me but after this one I will try one in 48 for sure. This machine was based upon on a scheme of the Berlin Gatow Magister and the whole point was to get the worn out look and the hi vis orange. Your comments are welcome!

I must say, a very fun 3-4 month build. Even though it is 43 year old kit! (made/boxed in 1975) it went together quite well and detail was quite good for an old kit! In fact i found it better than some kits today. Way better than a Heller kit. It was fun spraying blue paint and i really liked the rivet details, so i left them and did some re scribing on wings. Ooh yes and canopy cracked while putting on masks ;( Feel free to comment: 'Patrouille De France' family...

Fouga CM.170 Magister "German, Finnish & Austrian" (72373) 1:72 Special Hobby The Magister is probably Fouga's most well know design even though they had been producing aircraft since 1936. Post war the company was working on sailplanes and the heritage from this can be seen in the Magister design. In 1948 the French Air Force were looking for a jet powered aircraft to replace the then piston engine trainers. Fouga's original design the CM130 was under-powered with two Turbomeca Palas engines. Fouga then re-designed their aircraft to incorporate the more powerful Marbore engines, et voilà the CM170 Magister. The distinctive V tail, and slender wings bear testament to Fouga's sailplane designs. The prototype Magister flew in 1952 with an order for the first 10 being placed in 1953. The Magister was the worlds purpose designed/built jet powered trainer. It is also worthy to note the Magister made it into carrier aviation. With a few changes to the structure and undercarriage, the addition of an arrestor hook, and sliding canopies the CM175 Zephyr was born. Interestingly carrier trials took place on HMS Bulwark and HMS Eagle. The French aircraft industry in parallel with the UK went through many mergers with the aircraft being known as the Fouga Magister, Potez Magister, Sud Aviation Magister; and finally The Aerospatile Magister; though always actually being called The "Fouga" Magister. Development of the aircraft continued right up until the French selected its replacement, the Alpha Jet. Overseas sales proved popular were made to primarily to Germany, Belgium, Finland, and Israel; with Germany, Finland & Israel building them under licence. Of a total of 929 aircraft built, 286 were built under license. The basic jet was very affordable to operate for smaller Air Forces. Other users would include, Algeria, Austria, Bangladesh, Biafra, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, El Salvador, Gabon, Katanga, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda. Many counties including Austria, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Finland; and Israel would use the aircraft for their National Aerobatic display teams. Even though primarily a trainer many of these smaller nations would use the aircraft for its light strike capacity as well. Israel would use them in combat during the 6 day war, El Salvador saw them used during its civil war, and aircraft used by The Katangese Air Force were used against the UN during the Congo crisis in 1961. The Kit The kit arrives on four sprues of grey plastic, and a clear sprue. The plastic parts are of excellent quality, the panel lines are engraved and deep enough to be seen after painting without being trenches. Care will be needed to take some of the smaller parts of the sprue, and it might have been the case that these would have been better in photo-etch? The clear parts are crisp, clear and thin. Construction starts in the cockpit area. The front and rear instrument panels are fitted (instrument faces are provided as decals), along with the seat supports for the front cockpit. The seats are added along with the engine and flight controls. Once complete the cockpit can be set aside. Attention then moves to the engine pods on each side of the fuselage. Engine fan faces and exhaust need to be placed inside and then the inner side of the engine trunking can be added. At the rear of each side the final exhaust section is added. Once the engines are complete then cockpit can be placed inside the main fuselage, and this then closed up. The radio equipment area to the rear of the cockpit is also added at this time. Various antenna behind the cockpits then need to be added and/or removed depending upon the version being modelled. Once the main fuselage is together work needs doing on both ends. At the rear the tail cone is added along with ventral strake. The 'V' tails are then added, care being taken with the small hinges for these. At the front the first part to me made up is the underside of the nose where the nose gear mounts. This attached inside the nose cone and the appropriate gun/no gun insert is attached to the top of the nose. The prominent nose mounted VOR antenna loops are added and the nose attached to the main fuselage. Construction then moves to the wings. These are of conventional upper & lower construction. The wheel wells are mounted into the wings before they are closed up, along with the wing mounted air-brakes. These can be modelled in with the deployed or retracted positions. The wing end mounted fuel tanks are in two halves, with the bottom being moulded to the upper wing, and then a lower fuel tank part is added. The clear noses can then be added to the front of the fuel tanks. The landing gear is then added to the model. The front single nose wheel is two parts and this is added to the main leg, this is then mounted to the nose of the aircraft. The single front gear door is added. The main wheels though larger than the nose wheel are single parts. These are fitted to the main legs, the legs along with their retraction struts are added into the main gear bays. The three part main gear doors are added. If needed armament can now be added to the model. Bombs and rocket pods are included to be used as wished by the modeller. To finish off the model the canopies can be added in the raised or lowered positions. Markings There are 3 marking options on a sheet printed by Cartograf which guarantees there will be no issues with it. Finnish Air Force - Aircraft licence built in Finland 1968 German Navy 1968 Austrian Air Force Silver Birds Aerobatic Display Team 1966-1968 Conclusion It is great to see more versions of this new tool from Special Hobby becoming available. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hi folks! I've been lurking here for several months now and I decided to join in and show my latest build, A 1/48 Flashback Miles Magister depicting a machine from the No.15 EFTS at Carlisle during 1940. Hope you like it! P1080218 by clkal, en Flickr P1080220 by clkal, en Flickr P1080233 by clkal, en Flickr P1080224 by clkal, en Flickr P1080226 by clkal, en Flickr All comments and critics welcome

Magister Figure Set 1:72 Special Hobby Special Hobby have released these figures under the CMK label to accompany their new Magister kit which we reviewed here.The set consist of two standing pilots and a kneeling ground crew figure. There is one standing pilot with his helmet and parachute on, one lounging on the airframe with his helmet off and no parachute. The ground crew member is franticly fixing something that pilots probably broke . The figures are very well sculpted with separate heads for the guys not wearing helmets. These figures are excellent and just what is needed to bring a Magister model to life. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

This is a amazing kit for me, I love it! I suggest everyone who is in fond of aircraft should try ihis kit. Not satisfied with painted, but Magister is a beautiful plane. Thanks guys.

Fouga Magister/Zephyr Update sets 1:72 Special Hobby Following on from their excellent kits of the Magister and Zephyr, Special Hobby are now producing their own aftermarket sets. The first two for these aircraft are a set of seats and wheels. Seats The seats are just for the magister and as well as being designed for the Special Hobby kits they should fit the kits from Airfix, Heller and Vallom. They are well cast and should be an easy drop in fit. Wheels These are for all aircraft, and again as well as being designed for the Special Hobby kits they should fit the kits from Airfix, Heller and Vallom. The wheels are well cast with the tread visible, and even in 1.72 if you look closely you can see the DUNLOP printed on the side walls! They are a direct replacement for the kit wheels. Conclusion These are high quality parts and should add to what are already great kits from Special Hobby, and of course the kits from other manufactures. Very highly recommended. Review samples courtesy of

Fouga CM.170 Magister "Exotic Air Forces" 1:72 Special Hobby The Magister is probably Fouga's most well know design even though they had been producing aircraft since 1936. Post war the company was working on sailplanes and the heritage from this can be seen in the Magister design. In 1948 the French Air Force were looking for a jet powered aircraft to replace the then piston engine trainers. Fouga's original design the CM130 was underpowered with two Turbomeca Palas engines. Fouga then re-designed their aircraft to incorporate the more powerful Marbore engines, et voilà the CM170 Magister. The distinctive V tail, and slender wings bear testament to Fouga's sailplane designs. The prototype Magister flew in 1952 with an order for the first 10 being placed in 1953. The Magister was the worlds purpose designed/built jet powered trainer. It is also worthy to note the Magister made it into carrier aviation. With a few changes to the structure and undercarriage, the addition of an arrestor hook, and sliding canopies the CM175 Zephyr was born. Interestingly carrier trials took place on HMS Bulwark and HMS Eagle. The French aircraft industry in parallel with the UK went through many mergers with the aircraft being known as the Fouga Magister, Potez Magister, Sud Aviation Magister; and finally The Aerospatile Magister; though always actually being called The "Fouga" Magister. Development of the aircraft continued right up until the French selected its replacement, the Alpha Jet. Overseas sales proved popular were made to primarily to Germany, Belgium, Finland, and Israel; with Germany, Finland & Israel building them under licence. Of a total of 929 aircraft built, 286 were built under license. The basic jet was very affordable to operate for smaller Air Forces. Other users would include, Algeria, Austria, Bangladesh, Biafra, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, El Salvador, Gabon, Katanga, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda. Many counties including Austria, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Finland; and Israel would use the aircraft for their National Aerobatic display teams. Even though primarily a trainer many of these smaller nations would use the aircraft for its light strike capacity as well. Israel would use them in combat during the 6 day war, El Salvador saw them used during its civil war, and aircraft used by The Katangese Air Force were used against the UN during the Congo crisis in 1961. The Kit The kit arrives on four sprues of grey plastic, a clear sprue, and a small resin block with 5 smaller parts on it. The plastic parts are of excellent quality, the panel lines are engraved and deep enough to be seen after painting without being trenches. Care will be needed to take some of the smaller parts of the sprue, and it might have been the case that these would have been better in photo-etch? The clear parts are crisp, clear and thin. The resin parts are for the under-fuselage antenna fitted to the Algerian and Moroccan examples. To be honest these parts are very small and I am not sure how you would remove them without damaging them. In this review sample one of the parts has broken off at some time and there is no sign of it despite the parts being in their own separate bag. Construction starts in the cockpit area. The front and rear instrument panels are fitted (instrument faces are provided as decals), along with the seat supports for the front cockpit. The seats are added along with the engine and flight controls. Once complete the cockpit can be set aside. Attention then moves to the engine pods on each side of the fuselage. Engine fan faces and exhaust need to be placed inside and then the inner side of the engine trunking can be added. At the rear of each side the final exhaust section is added. Once the engines are complete then cockpit can be placed inside the main fuselage, and this then closed up. The radio equipment area to the rear of the cockpit is also added at this time. Various antenna behind the cockpits then need to be added and/or removed depending upon the version being modelled. Once the main fuselage is together work needs doing on both ends. At the rear the tail cone is added along with ventral strake. The 'V' tails are then added, care being taken with the small hinges for these. At the front the first part to me made up is the underside of the nose where the nose gear mounts. This attached inside the nose cone and the appropriate gun/no gun insert is attached to the top of the nose. The prominent nose mounted VOR antenna loops are added and the nose attached to the main fuselage. Construction then moves to the wings. These are of conventional upper & lower construction. The wheel wells are mounted into the wings before they are closed up, along with the wing mounted air-brakes. These can be modelled in with the deployed or retracted positions. The wing end mounted fuel tanks are in two halves, with the bottom being moulded to the upper wing, and then a lower fuel tank part is added. The clear noses can then be added to the front of the fuel tanks. The landing gear is then added to the model. The front single nose wheel is two parts and this is added to the main leg, this is then mounted to the nose of the aircraft. The single front gear door is added. The main wheels though larger than the nose wheel are single parts. These are fitted to the main legs, the legs along with their retraction struts are added into the main gear bays. The three part main gear doors are added. If needed armament can now be added to the model. Bombs and rocket pods are included to be used as wished by the modeller. To finish off the model the canopies can be added in the raised or lowered positions. Markings The decals are printed by Cartograf and are excellent. They are crisp, clear and in register. The dayglo stripes have been washed out by the scanner but they are as you would expect on the actual sheet. Markings are provided for four examples; Ugandan Peoples Defence Air Force School, Entebbe late 1960's. Supplied by Israel along with training personnel following Congolese attacks in 1965. In Israeli camo. NT-44 Algerian Air Force, Air Force School at Tafraoui, early 1980s. L602 Lebanese Air Force. Ex Luftwaffe aircraft delivered in 1965. Now on display at the Air Force museum in Rayaq. Royal Moroccan Air Force, used in the 1963 war with Algeria. Conclusion This is a welcome new tool of an important and widely used trainer/light attack aircraft. The kit is highly detailed and should build upto an impressive if small model. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

I have a Heller Magister taking up shelf space, however I have a big reluctance to build it OOB because it's hardly inspirational as such... Option 1: Patrouille De France 1978, could there be a more colourful scheme? Or a more common combination...(tied perhaps with a Red Arrow Hawk) Option 2: All silver West Germany WS50 19966. Could this be the most boring Heller scheme? So without buying an AM decal sheet what could I come up with? 1. Put it back on the shelf 2. Build but don't paint/decal 3. Spend more money on decals, and blowing apart the idea of cheap + cheerful. 4. Wiff... Which do you think won? ********** Edit: Just found an old Matchbox G91Y in deep storage so now I have to wonder what a mix-n-match would result in...

DACO products would like to produce a 1/32nd Potez-Air-Fouga CM.170R Magister kit - ref.KDCC3201 Market enquiry Source: http://www.dacoproducts.com/KDCC3201.php V.P.

Fouga CM.170 Magister 1:48 AMK AvantGarde Model Kits The Magister is probably Fouga's most well know design even though they had been producing aircraft since 1936. Post war the company was working on sailplanes and the heritage from this can be seen in the Magister design. In 1948 the French Air Force were looking for a jet powered aircraft to replace the then piston engine trainers. Fouga's original design the CM130 was underpowered with two Turbomeca Palas engines. Fouga then re-designed their aircraft to incorporate the more powerful Marbore engines, et voilà the CM170 Magister. The distinctive V tail, and slender wings bear testament to Fouga's sailplane designs. The prototype Magister flew in 1952 with an order for the first 10 being placed in 1953. The Magister was the worlds purpose designed/built jet powered trainer. It is also worthy to note the Magister made it into carrier aviation. With a few changes to the structure and undercarriage, the addition of an arrestor hook, and sliding canopies the CM175 Zephyr was born. Interestingly carrier trials took place on HMS Bulwark and HMS Eagle. The French aircraft industry in parallel with the UK went through many mergers with the aircraft being known as the Fouga Magister, Potez Magister, Sud Aviation Magister; and finally The Aerospatile Magister; though always actually being called The "Fouga" Magister. Development of the aircraft continued right up until the French selected its replacement, the Alpha Jet. Overseas sales proved popular were made to primarily to Germany, Belgium, Finland, and Israel; with Germany, Finland & Israel building them under licence. Of a total of 929 aircraft built, 286 were built under license. The basic jet was very affordable to operate for smaller Air Forces. Other users would include, Algeria, Austria, Bangladesh, Biafra, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, El Salvador, Gabon, Katanga, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda. Many counties including Austria, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Finland; and Israel would use the aircraft for their National Aerobatic display teams. Even though primarily a trainer many of these smaller nations would use the aircraft for its light strike capacity as well. Israel would use them in combat during the 6 day war, El Salvador saw them used during its civil war, and aircraft used by The Katangese Air Force were used against the UN during the Congo crisis in 1961. The Kit Many of us have been waiting for this kit since AMK announced they would be making it. On opening the box you are not disappointed. You are presented with 6 sprues of dark grey plastic, two clear plastic sprues, a small sheet of photo-etched parts; and plastic case containing die cast metal parts. Be careful how you open the case as the metal parts have a tendency to ping out! As well as the box of metal parts, the other item to stand out from the box is that you get the complete fuselage sprue in clear plastic. This will enable the modeller to build this kit with the insides on show. The idea of a "visible" kit has been done by a few companies over the years and AMK seem to wish to carry this on. As you get this clear option you also get two complete engines, main wing spar (in metal), the centre line fuel tank, the secondary oil tank, electronics bay, pressure bay, and the nose electronics/gun bay. This kit will be a super detailers dream with all these parts to show off. There is no surprise though that construction starts with the cockpit. Each seat is made up from five plastic parts. These are installed into the one part cockpit tub. There are then a total of 16 small parts for the cockpit which will give it a really busy look. Two oxygen bottles are installed behind the front seat , followed by instrument panels and control columns. Two metal weights are supplied to attach under the cockpit to stop the model from being a tail sitter. The secondary fuel tank then needs to be assembled. Even if you are not doing the visible model this item needs to be constructed as it forms the rear cockpit bulkhead. The next stages build the internal parts which need to be built for the visible model, and can be skipped if the modeller is not doing this. The main/primary fuel tank is built. The forward face of this can be either the plastic part, or the main white metal part which looks to be the main wing spar. The main tank is made from two sides, the rear bulkhead and the front main spar part. Three additional stiffening ribs are added to each side. Next step is the rear electronics bay which sits behind the main fuel tank. This is very detailed comprising of a total of 22 parts. Even though the instructions call this an electronics bay in reality an hydraulic pump and generator. Two separate equipment racks are constructed and joined. The final internal section for the main fuselage is what the instructions call the Pressure Bay, this is in the location indicated as an equipment bay. Correctly painted and detailed all of the parts should look very good when installed in the clear fuselage. Next construction moves onto the fuselage and is the same if you are making the visible or solid version. A support is installed in each side at the rear of the V tail-planes. A plastic part can be used, or replaced by a white metal part. The cockpit is installed with the secondary fuel tank behind it. If using the visible fuselage then the main fuel tank, equipment bay, and pressure bay are installed. If the modeller is using the solid fuselage then only the wing spar part need to be installed behind the secondary fuel tank. The next stage is to close up the main fuselage. Once this is closed up the main fuselage panel is installed on the underside. Construction then moves to the top of the fuselage. The radio equipment which is mounted under the rearmost canopy section is assembled. Once the main fuselage is finished construction moves to the outside of it. The intakes and engines need to be assembled as these are not internal to the main fuselage. A full length intake is provided for each engine. This is a two part intake with an outer cover. These parts can be constructed in clear or solid plastic. Once the intakes are complete attention moves to the engines and exhausts. Two full engines are included. Each is made up from eleven parts. Once installed the exhausts are installed. Again these are supplied as plastic parts and white metal parts. Rear engine covers are then installed. These are supplied as clear and solid plastic so the full engines can be visible. Once the main fuselage is complete the canopies are added (I suspect most modellers will leave this until the end though). Some of the decal options have a solid read canopy and this is supplied as a separate solid plastic part. The distinctive periscope for the rear seater which is on the centre canopy section between the two cockpits is added. Construction then switches to the wings. The wings are of a conventional upper & lower configuration. The internal bulkheads of the wheel wells will need to be added before closing up the wings. If installing wing pylons the holes for these will need to be drilled out. Separate flaps are supplied, and there are options for these to be in the deployed position. Photo-etched parts are supplied for the wing mounted air/dive brakes. These can be modelled in either the in, or out positions. Separate automatic balance tabs are added to the wings along with linkages which are supplied as photo-etched parts. Both types of wing tip tanks fitted to The Magister are supplied. The modeller will need to research which were fitted to the aircraft which is being modelled. Three part wheel are made up and attached to the legs. Even though strangely missing from the instructions the legs are supplied as both metal and plastic parts. Landing gear doors are attached with photo-etched hinges. The gear retraction arms are again supplied in both metal and plastic (though again missed of the instructions). The V tail-planes are assembled with the distinctive control linkages available again in metal or plastic. The last major construction step is the nose landing gear and its compartment. In The Magister the front gear is attached by a frame to the main forward bulkhead. This is accurately modelled in the kit. The main frames are available as metal or plastic mats, as is the nose wheel leg. Machine guns (if fitted) are supplied for the compartment over the nose gear. The distinctive hoop VOR antenna on the nose are supplied as metal parts. Finally it is up to the modeller to fit all the sub-assemblies together. The wings and tail-planes are added, followed by the nose section. Covers are then fitted to the nose section. Again these are in clear plastic if wanted to show off all the detail on the nose. Fuselage access hatches and antenna will be added at this point. These did change and the instructions show which need to be added for the decal options. If modelling another aircraft the modeller will need to research the aircraft antenna configuration used. For those countries which used their Magisters in the light strike role a small selection of armament is included in the kit. There are small bombs, double stacked rockets, flat faced rocket pods, and what appear to be Matra F2 rocket pods. Metal and Photo-etched Parts A small fret of photo-etched parts is supplied. The main parts on here are for the wing mounted air/dive brakes which can be modelled in either the open or closed positions. Control linkages are also supplied along with a five point harness for each cockpit. The brass will need to be annealed for these as its thicker than other photo-etch I have seen. The white metal zinc cast parts are supplied in their own plastic box. As mentioned be careful when opening this as they tend to ping out and you don't want them lost to the dreaded carpet monster. The metal parts supplied are for The Main Wing Spar, tail-plane mounting spars, exhausts, nose weights, front landing gear frame & leg, main landing gear legs, machine guns; and some control linkages. The casting on these parts is very good and minimal clean up will be needed. Decals Decals are provided for five aircraft. There is no manufacture listed on the decal sheet. The decals do look glossy, well printed and have minimal carrier film. The colours are bright and the density looks good. Its a little disappointing that the options do not include some of the smaller countries that used the Magister. The markings supplied are; Luftwaffe camouflaged aircraft. Belgian Air Force trainer. Belgian Air Force trainer - Marked "The Last Of Many". Belgian Air Force "Red Devils" Aerobatic Team. French Air Force "Patrouille de France" Aerobatic Team. Conclusion This kit is certainly a step up from other kits I have seen, and is certainly not for the novice modeller. Even though its only AMK's forth model, if they continue in this vein we should be seeing more from them. Overall highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

RS Models is to reissue its 1/72nd Miles M.14 Magister kit - ref.92167 Source: http://rsmodels.cz/en/modely-letadel/plastikove-modely/1-72/92167/miles-magister Previous boxing ref.92120 (http://rsmodels.cz/en/modely-letadel/plastikove-modely/1-72/92120/miles-magister-maggiebomber) and 92117 (http://rsmodels.cz/en/modely-letadel/plastikove-modely/1-72/92117/miles-magister) V.P.