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We must fight on, whatever happens. I should count it a privilege to be dead if Hitler rules England. I had not thought I should have to live through such awful days... From the diary of Sir Alexander Cadogan, Permanent Under Secretary of the Foreign Office How grim things must have seemed then. It is sobering to imagine the uncertainty of the times, even with our own present troubles. Civilization was on the brink, and it is frightful to think where we would be now as a people, as a species, if things had gone the other way. I'm always interested to read the accounts from people which were written at that time, unfiltered by years or a lifetime of hindsight. One aircraft that for me embodies that period of dark uncertainty and impending peril was the benign little Miles Magister, hastily modified to carry a clutch of anti-personnel bombs beneath its wings. When the invasion came, these fragile, under-powered trainers would be sent out as part of a last desperate all-or-nothing defense of Britain. I had the ex-Frog Novo Magister as a kid, and I loved that little bird. I must have painted it in a dozen different liveries in its time. The last being an overall coat of Humbrol 11 "Silver Fox". Traces of which remained on the armrest of my mother's favourite armchair for more than a decade after... I've long hoped to do another Magister, but these days I'm deeply embedded in the cult of 1/144. Apart from an unobtainable resin from Japan, there aren't any of the little buggers to be had. If I really wanted a Magister (and I did) the only hope was to do one from scratch. So here goes... The first bit was the keel. I found a bit of evergreen styrene and cut a strip representing the bottom of the fuselage and bent it to a curve that matched the drawings. Not very exciting, but its the most important bit. I made sure the taper at the back was okay then added two sidewalls of .35mm styrene. A "roof" of 2mm sheet was also cut and some undersized openings for the cockpits were drilled out. I tried to get this piece as seamless a fit as I could, but there's nothing to locate it to yet so I'll need to flush it in properly later. The upper fuselage decking got rounded off with a file and I laminated some scrap styrene for the cowling. The long bit sticking out the front is a temporary handle that will get cut off later. Making the part from laminations rather than a solid piece is easier, as you can use the seams as a guide to ensure you don't start filing the piece out of alignment. Then it was time to bur out the inside of the decking. Brrr! Once the piece is thinned down you can shape the edges of the cockpit much more easily. The next evening I added a dummy tail and taped the bits together for a captain cook. The cowling was beginning to take shape by this time too. With that part in hand it was on to the wings. I started off with a parallel strip of 3mm styrene and cut it to the width of the centre section. This got double sided taped to a block that was held in a vice. Then I went at it two-handed with a big coarse file that was about 30cm long. I rounded the leading edge first. Then worked over the back. Flipping the piece over and sticking the wing down again with a fresh bit of tape makes it easy to shape the wing evenly. It took about 40 minutes to get the basic shape. The wing(s) are marked with some scalpel lines and two deep score marks underneath where I'll bend them to create the dihedral. Then the excess is sliced off. Then it was back on the block with some tape to shape the outer wing panels. Once this is done the styrene is easily tidied up by wet sanding. A piece of the centre section was cut away to accommodate the fuselage, but I left a bridge running between the two wings to preserve their alignment. A corresponding notch was cut out of the lower fuselage. Somebody once said I was a frustrated carpenter. They may have been right! The fit isn't going to set the world on fire, but its okay. Adding more soon!