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1/72 Fouga Magister ++ Ready for Inspection ++


CliffB

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When I first signed up to this GB, I was planning to make a red and white chequered Bucker 133.

However, at the back end of last year I was lucky enough to win a prize in the Emergency Services GB and it turned out to be this sweet little Fouga generously donated by MadNurseGaz.

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I thought that a nice way of saying 'thank you', would be to build it in the GB. The kit looks nice, being crisply moulded with fine recessed panel lines - not too sure about the colour of the plastic though? sick.gif

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Being a Heller kit, the decals have already started to yellow and I know (from bitter experience), that they are destined to get significantly worse. I took this as a cue to look for alternative markings on the net and there are plenty of multi-coloured extravaganzas to provide inspiration.

No matter where I looked though, I kept being drawn back to some photos of the Patrouille de France Magisters in their original polished aluminium/tricolour wings scheme - to my nostaglic eyes this simple scheme suits the Magister's delicate frame perfectly. wub.png

When I found these decals, the decision was made!

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I think this is going to be a great GB!

Cheers

Cliff

Edited by CliffB
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Hi Cliff, I think during that period when the Magister was produced, Heller was using a lot of the blue plastic, the Allouette III came out in the same shade of blue. However it isn't too difficult to work with. I like your choice of decals, you can't go wrong with the Model Art decals, they're well researched and very well printed.

Good luck with the build, I'm looking forward to more pics.

Colin on the Africa Stastion

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Probably because the aeroplanes were all different and not grey all over. And they looked more like jets etc should!! LOL!

Edited by Paul J
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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you for your continuing comments everyone :)

It's going to be another week or so before I start on the Magister, but in the meantime I've been 'laying my plans'.

Unfortunately, I've just hit a snag with the colour call outs on the Model Art decal sheet with it saying in one place that the engine air intake lips are red, whereas elsewhere it says they are blue. To compound things, all the photos that I've found of these early Patrouille de France aircraft just show the intakes as natural metal (although to be fair, none of the photos show any of the particular aircraft featured on the decal sheet) :confused:

Can anybody help please with this dilema?

Many thanks.

Cliff

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Hooray! I made a start on the Magister over the weekend :)

Here are a couple of the web photos that got me interested in the first place.

patrouille-de-france-fouga-42.jpg

patrouille-de-france-1966-2.jpg

In my first post I said that the kit had engraved panel lines - in fact, they are raised; so fine though that they fooled me at first :banghead:

The breakdown of the kit parts is pretty simple, with very little that requires careful alignment. The only tricky bits are the air intakes which are moulded separately and whose compound curves have to match those of the fuselage. I found these to be slightly oversized, but some careful work with a sanding stick gave a pretty good fit. With a bit more TLC I'm optimistic that all will be OK for the polished metal finish.

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Other than that, I've been putting the internals together...

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Many who make this kit insert jet pipes, but I couldn't find anything suitable to hand and so went with the instructions and painted the innards matt black - it should look OK I think.

There's no mention of the need for any nose weight and my 'finger balancing' experiments suggest that this should be OK. Nevertheless I added a few squashed air gun pellets, just to be sure. ;)

The cockpit I will paint once the fuselage is together - there's an ugly join line/gap at the rear of the cockpit tub which I will tidy up first. The cockpit is black throughout, with the exception of the seat belts which are .....

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.... blue! Destined to be a constant reminder of the ghastly blue plastic which lurks behind the plane's shiney exterior!

Cheers

Cliff

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Thanks guys!

Are you going to retain the raised panel lines?

At the moment, I'm thinking that I will probably remove the raised panel lines from the fuselage (to be honest they're already disappearing as I sand the join lines), but probably keep them on the wings - I'm pretty useless at re-scribing!

Cheers

Cliff

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Hi Grant

It seems that the colour balance in the single aircraft photo is right - certainly the decals are printed with the same pale 'dull' blue and there are plenty of other images on the internet that match.

The formation photo is the one with the problems! B)

Cliff

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Here's another colour photo from the Aerobaticteams website....

patrouille-de-france-fouga-44.jpg

Mmmmm.... the Hillman Imp!

Cliff

That pic looks like it was taken at Biggin in the late 60's! So remember every year I went from 1968 onwards that it always rained in May on the same weekned of the show, with the odd exception. The Belgian team also attended with Fougas as the 'Diable Rouge' and also 'Les Manchots' (Penguins) with their pair of Stampe SV4Cs

AAah what memories!

Edited by Paul J
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Hi guys,

Glad to see that you enjoyed the period photos as much as I did :) .

I was away last weekend but have managed to do a little more this week. No mistaking that it is a Magister now!

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It all went together pretty well, although the port wing root was slightly thinner than the wing.

The kit comes with two sizes of wing tip tanks, which is good because while the blue PdF machines used the smaller variety, this NMF one goes large.

Hoping to get some primer on this weekend.

Cheers

Cliff

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Hi Cliff,

This is coming along nicely sir, I'm very interested in how the NMF is going to turn out :popcorn: . I've never been able to get a convincing look with mine, but with all the 'new' things around today (Alclad etc) I've seen some spectaculat achievements - and that piccy of the actual team parked with the lids open really shows off the NMF perfectly - I've always been quite taken with these neat little aircraft, so much so that I've got four of them in the stash waiting for the old 'Round Tuitt' (I seem to have a thing about 'squadrons of tiny airplanes - lol :thumbsup: ) These are earmarked for the blue painted 'PdF', The Belgian 'Red Devils', The Brazilian Smoke Sqdn and the Israeli Team, maybe if we have another AGB in the near future they'll be a good choice. Keep up the good work.

Tony R

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Hi Cliff,

This is coming along nicely sir, I'm very interested in how the NMF is going to turn out :popcorn: . I've never been able to get a convincing look with mine, but with all the 'new' things around today (Alclad etc) I've seen some spectaculat achievements - and that piccy of the actual team parked with the lids open really shows off the NMF perfectly - I've always been quite taken with these neat little aircraft, so much so that I've got four of them in the stash waiting for the old 'Round Tuitt' (I seem to have a thing about 'squadrons of tiny airplanes - lol :thumbsup: ) These are earmarked for the blue painted 'PdF', The Belgian 'Red Devils', The Brazilian Smoke Sqdn and the Israeli Team, maybe if we have another AGB in the near future they'll be a good choice. Keep up the good work.

Tony R

Thanks Tony - it's interesting to hear that you are such a fan of the Magister :) It should be great when your squadron is complete.

I'm going to use Alclad Polished Aluminium - I've used it once before (on a DC-2), and that turned out really well. The finish does wear slightly with handling, but to my eyes that only improves the appearance as it gives that slightly weathered appearance that you see on the photos. Well that's the plan anyway!

I've been distracted recently by the start of the Close Air Support GB, but have now decided to crack on again with my Fouga. So this morning I've been prep'ing ready for Alclad primer.

Masking off the navigation lights was fiddly (a combination of fine tape for the edges and in-filled with fluid).

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I've also been cleaning up all the little bits. This is only my second Heller kit (the first being a Bf.108), but I'm coming to the conclusion that Heller were pretty good at 1/72 aircraft - lots of finely moulded fiddly bits to keep one entertained.

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Cheers

Cliff

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Hi Cliff,

I really like your choice of subject here, such a charismatic plane deserves more interest from the model manufacturers. Can't wait to see how yours turns out, especially the NMF; how are you going to achieve that?

Good progress so far :)

Mike

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Hi Cliff,

I really like your choice of subject here, such a charismatic plane deserves more interest from the model manufacturers. Can't wait to see how yours turns out, especially the NMF; how are you going to achieve that?

Good progress so far :)

Mike

Thanks Mike :)

I'm going for Alclad Polished Aluminium for the NMF - fingers crossed!

A bit more achieved this afternoon.

The cockpit is now complete.

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A little bit of dry-brushing brings out what detail there is.

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I've also added the canopy.

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It fits well and is crystal clear. Unfortunately it is very thick and as a consequence there are ugly internal reflections at the join with the fuselage. Thankfully, the framework is also thick so things should look OK once it's painted.

Cliff

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Hi Cliff. She's looking great. I guess you're on the home straight now?

Thanks Alpha Delta 210. I'm not counting my chickens just yet - let's wait and see what the first coat of primer reveals!

I'm expecting the paint job to take longer than usual as I'll be undercoating the Alclad with several light coats of gloss black enamel :bristow:

Cheers

Cliff

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