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Miles M.14 Hawk III/ Magister Mk.I "Egyptian, Turkish and Thai" - Special Hobby 1:48


Julien

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Miles M.14 Hawk III/ Magister Mk.I "Egyptian, Turkish and Thai"

Special Hobby 1:48


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The Miles M.14 Magister was designed to meet the Air Ministry Specification T.40/36. Miles based the Magister on their existing Hawk Trainer. The Magister was a tandem open cockpit design with a low wing cantilever monoplane. The main structure was Spruce with a covering of plywood. The centre wing section was of constant section, having no dihedral. The outer sections had dihedral and tapered towards the tip. The undercarriage was fixed on the main and tail wheels. The main wheels could be covered by spats.

Production was started in 1937 and by the start of WWII over 700 Magisters were in RAF service. As well as the central flying school 16 elementary flying schools used the type. By the time production ended in 1941 1203 aircraft had been built. As well as these 100 were licence built in Turkey. As well as use by the RAF the aircraft were used primarily by The Irish Air Corps, The Egyptian Air Force, and The South African Air Force. Other users Were Thailand, Portugal, New Zealand, Malaya, Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, Canada and Australia.

The Kit
The kit arrives in a standard open-ended box from Special Hobby. They must be trying to economise as the box is the old release Magister box with a cover glued on, so you can only open one end. The kit comes as two main sprues of grey plastic, one clear sprue, one vac formed clear part, one bag of resin parts; and two photo etched frets. Also there is one small sprue of a light grey plastic, this seems to be a harder plastic than the kit and this is used for the landing gear struts.

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Shockingly construction starts with the cockpit! This area of the kit is highly detailed, most of which will be seen through the open cockpits. Many photoetched parts are added to the inside of the fuselage halves and to the resin cockpit floor. Resin seats attach to resin seat backs. Four part seat belts are provided for each seat, and the small rudder pedals are made up of four separate parts for each cockpit. Instrument panels are made by laminating the photoetched parts.

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Once the cockpit has been completed the rest of the airframe does not take much work. The fuselage halves are joined and the engine section is joined and added. Following the the tailplanes are added along with the rudder. The aircraft in this boxing had different rudders so please chose the right one. Next the landing gear is added. The Egyptian machine has Spats while the other two options do not. The tail wheel is added along with the propellor and its boss. Some small parts of photoetch details are nearly the final parts added. The last stage is to add the blind flying hood (not used on the Egyptian Machine). This can be added in the lowered or up position using the appropriate parts. I am sure if not wanted it can be left off as I doubt they flew with it attached all of the time.

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Photo-etch

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Two small frets of photo etched parts are supplied.These contain most of the parts for the cockpit, instrument panels and seat belts. Other parts are for the landing gear, small metal airframe parts; and attachments for the blind flying hood.

Canopy
Small injection windscreens are provided for both cockpits. As well as this a vacform part is supplied which is the blind flying hood in the open position. The parts are clear and well formed.

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Decals
Decals are provided for three aircraft.

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  • Black 4/L-204 Light Training School, Egyptian Army Air Force, Almaza, Egypt 1938 (trainer Yellow).
  • White 2, Initial Flight Training Squadron, Turkish Air Force 1944 (Olive Green/Light Blue.
  • Black 116, Royal Thai Air Force 1951/52 (overall Silver).
Decals are printed by Avi Print, look to be in register with good colour definition.

Conclusion
The model is a typical shorter run multi-media kit we would expect from MPM. The plastic has some nice detail if sparse (but then the real aircraft did not have too much in this respect). The resin and photo etched parts are well made and will add interest to the open cockpits. Some thought has gone into its production with the harder plastic for the landing gear legs a nice touch. This would be a good level entry kit into the world of mixed/multi media kits. Overall highly recommended.

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Review sample courtesy of
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That looks really nice. Looks like they were confused with the scale on the box, a 48th scale model number but showing 1/72 as well.

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That looks really nice. Looks like they were confused with the scale on the box, a 48th scale model number but showing 1/72 as well.

I never noticed that! Its 1/48 though in the box.
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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

A little LATE coming to this post! :drunk:

I found it while doing a Google search for RTAF Magister photos. I have the RS Models 1/72 RTAF Magister, and never even knew that anybody made it in 1/48 scale, my preferred scale. I guess I will have to save up for it now, and sell my 1/72 kit.

 

Larry

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  • 2 years later...

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