lunarhighway Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Hi all The fouga magister is a very recougnisable aircraft, and it was the first purpous build, widely used jet trainer. Build by a company that mainly produced glider planes, the sleek plane with it's distinct butterfly tail doesn't looks as if it evolved from any existing plane, and sadly it didn't evolve into any other production designs. Nevertheless it was used as a jet trainer for decades and some are still active in civil hands today. I have the new valom kit, wich is very nice and includes some fine detail (and oddly also lacks a few quite obvious things), but i've always wanted to build the heller kit, wich, despite it's age, is very good. I also have this little gemn of a book, wich has pictures of pretty much everything that can be seen on the plane on to some modelling... I started by rescribing the wing pannels while still on the sprue any mistakes where fixed with sprue melted in cellulose thinner, it's thick and stringly but once dry it's just like plastic and will sand quite nicely. next it was time to cut some parts and i starded by removing all relevant pannels to show of the engine, and build the inner wall from some soda can metal i like the way the front intakes are done as they accurately represent the boundry layer splitter in the intake. the kit fails to represent the exhoust slots for the boundry layer air, but the way the parts go to getter allows for them to be added with just a few swipes of a file next i build the first opened compartment, by removing the pannel, and adding, again from can metal, an inner duct, to wich 3 structure ribs where added with metal tape, and to this i glued some copper wire, stretched sprue and albion metal rod bits to represent the hydrolic accumulater and airbrake controles. as an indication how good the fit of this kit is, the wing, fuselage and intake part have not yet been glued together. the mounting tabs where present, allow for some play, but when well aligned fit is perfect, an i don't forsee the need of much filler. i will try to put in as much detail as possible, but in this scale it will be hard to represent everythig, i just hope i can make it all tight and also get a clean overall finish. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Great choice of subject Lunar, there really is something special about the Magister. Very nice start on the build too, looks like it's going to be a special one! Any idea which scheme you will build her in? Craig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Heath Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Great start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted January 21, 2017 Share Posted January 21, 2017 Lovely plane, great start, I look forward to seeing more of this build! Martian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aircraftkit Posted January 21, 2017 Share Posted January 21, 2017 Good looking project. Looking forward to following it..... Donald Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted January 21, 2017 Author Share Posted January 21, 2017 hello all, thanks for watching, i hope it will be interesting. I'm taking some risks here with all the detailing, so I'm actually rather curious myself to see the end result. there's a few more open hatches like this first one comming, wich i'm quite confident i can more or less pull off, but the main attraction will of course be the exposed engine. i thought i'd work out the main dimentions of the unit, i worked these out by scaling sown measures i took on some pictures to the size these would have to be on the model. by no means 100% accurate, but it should be close enough for a first protoype. what i did was slide some styrene tube over a lenght of sprue, and than coilded lenghts of sirene sheet around that to build op the diameter, all was glued with cellulose thinner (wich is an excellent plastic glue but it smells rather potent so ventilation is adviced) and finally covered everything with homebrewn sprueglue, wich is actually bits of sprue disoved in cellulose thinner (wich works much better than the extra thin and humbroll glue i tried before)... all of this to produce... well something that looks like Chreck pulled it from his ear. the idea is to let this dry into a solid chunk of plastic overnight and than put it in a drill chuck and sand it to shape. On 20-1-2017 at 6:30 PM, modelling minion said: Great choice of subject Lunar, there really is something special about the Magister. Very nice start on the build too, looks like it's going to be a special one! Any idea which scheme you will build her in? Craig. Since i mainly collect planes with a Belgian connection i think i'll finish this one as a typical belgian trainer the red devil stunt team flew overall red planes with large Begian flags, wich i'm sure i'll build one day, but i've always wanted to build something with daygo orange to i think a well used mid life version of the plane will be interesting. i don't have decals for this version yet but i did design some on my computer along with some other markings for subjects i couldn't find as aftermarket decals, so perhaps it's time i finally had these printed decalling it could be a challange as it's covered in maintenance markings (both in dutch and french, so this thing is a bit of a flying dictionary) plus some symbols as well... well see how that part of the challange goes... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted January 21, 2017 Share Posted January 21, 2017 I thought I had seen it all in my fifty years in the hobby but and engine made from a lump of snot is genuinely new to me! Martian 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted January 22, 2017 Author Share Posted January 22, 2017 20 hours ago, Martian Hale said: I thought I had seen it all in my fifty years in the hobby but and engine made from a lump of snot is genuinely new to me! Martian as it turns out, snot is not the best medium for sculpting engines, or rather, it apparently takes a long time to dry... this morning it had shrunk down, wich was not a problem as i had accounted for this, but it was also still rubbery...so i took a more conventional approach and used various lengths of evergreen tube, and wrapped with styrene strips to further increase the diameter and than sanded to shape. these where further detailed with metal tape, paper and stretched sprue... its needs a few more bits and perhaps some refinement, but some details where so tiny they had to be placed with a needle. it needs a bit more work but i don't think it'll look out of place 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 That looks better, plus I'll wager you will have more success with plastic! Martian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted January 24, 2017 Author Share Posted January 24, 2017 A bit more detailing on the engine done. I replaced some wires that where overscale with metal wire that was less overscale, and added the forward portion of the engine. looking at the detail pictures it seems like the Fouga would be an easy plane to maintain with everything easily accesible, but also rather loosly wired, with ducts and tubes running everywhere.i tried to replicate the biggest and most obvious items but it's an interpretation at best. However the whole assembly fits snugly into the engine bay without glue, so i think the overall dimentions where gestimated rather well. appart from a well fed carpet monster (i could have done the other engine from the parts it ate) , and accidently dropping the whole finished engine into the garbage bin once, things came together rather easy, so lets hope some paint will improve it futher 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 That looks absolutely gorgeous! It will certainly add a lot of interest to the finished model and you've fed the carpet monster too, so he should be sated for a while! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaffajake Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Lovely engine. Looking rather smart! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Really nice start. I've always loved this plane since the time I saw a couple of Israeli Air Force versions make a strafing run at Judas Iscariot to compel him to rat out the Naz in that Superstar movie. Cheers, Bill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 The engine looks great! Martian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted January 25, 2017 Author Share Posted January 25, 2017 not much going on tonight, but i did put together a new cockpit tub. with the real item being rather bussy with the usual nobs and switches, but also a lot of esposed wires. One would think the bare tub Heller provides is an ideal starting point... but... unfortunately a lot of detail is located between the seats and heller as represented this as a solid block with some lumps on it...fair enough given the overall level of detail, but it would have to go to make room for some more delicate details in my case... unfortunately it's an integral part of the cockpit tub and removing it would compromise strenght. not that this would matter once installed, but since i'm planning to add some detail i'll be handling it a lot and i don't want it to come appart half way trough or when installing it, so i rebuild the tub from sheet styrene... and that's it for now 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted January 26, 2017 Author Share Posted January 26, 2017 Another, literally, small update. With the new tub ready i testfitted it, and had to refine the shape a little to get a perfect fit. i also test fitted the canopy and slightly enlarded the cockpit opening, as there is a large opeing ahead of the instrument pannel. this all took quite a bit of time, but it did not result in much worthy of a photograph. finally i test fitted the front interument pannel, again resulting in some sanding and fiddling (much the result of my own modifications, most of the kit parts are rather loosely aligned, but when you position them correct the fit is surprisingly good) i resisted the urge to glue the pannel in place as wated to detail it a bit more. the dials are represented by raised circles, but the layout is again, very close to the real thing, so i descited to keep this part and improve upon it. i usued a needle to punch in the center of the dial and than moved the same needle around in circles to enlarge the hole, this created a crater effect wich is often undesirable but in this case served as quite nice bezles for the dials. i also used a chisle blade to scrape the sides to produce the ilusion of a separate center pannel. a small molded on bottom pannel was removed and will need to be added again from plastic card i tried a micro drill on two dials, and regretted this as it did not improve the look, so i think i'll try to restor these somehow to look more like the others, pehaps by drilling them out further and inserting either plastic rods and than repeating the needle trick, or a shorth lenght of copper tube...i'll sleep on that descision. also the fun doesn't end here... i suspect it was done from a maintenance point of view, and as such might have contributed to the fougas success, but be back of the instrument pannel is not covered and so the backs of the instruments along with a lot of wiring can be seen trough the front windshield... this trend continues troughout the cockpit, with more wiring behind the first seat leading up to the second instrument cluster... as you see i stuck the pice down to some masking tape on a small piece of corrugated plastic, and it makes handling the piece much easier and prevents it from getting lost... doubled up masking tape is also great to cut mall pieces on like lenghts of stretched sprue or metal tube as it keeps the parts from taking of into space 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 This thread has become one of my first stops when I log into BM. I shall be using it for some ideas when I come to build my Kinetic kit. Martian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted January 27, 2017 Author Share Posted January 27, 2017 (edited) 2 hours ago, Martian Hale said: This thread has become one of my first stops when I log into BM. I shall be using it for some ideas when I come to build my Kinetic kit. Martian thanks for the compliment. i'm glad it's an inspiring build The kinetic kit looks very nice from the reviews. Edited January 27, 2017 by lunarhighway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 This really is an excellent example of the modellers art, superb scratchbuilding and attention to detail. The extra work you are putting in is really going to pay dividends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Lovely attention to detail and backed up by great skills in recreating the details! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted January 29, 2017 Author Share Posted January 29, 2017 Hi all, I don't considder myself very skilled, i very much envy the level of precision some people attain, but i don't think i ever build a kit fully out of the box, there's always some seatbelts to add or a pitot sube to replace with metal wire. the trick is not to give up to fast, but at the same time know when to quit. i ususally go trough several versions of some of the parts i add, sometimes they're not fine or strong enough, or look wrong, and and many an occasion parts will choose to take flight just when i'm thinking of sticking them down, never to be seen again. in case of simple parts if they can't be relocated soon enought, i just take a deep dreath and make them again... usually the second or third attempt looks better than the first anyway. yesterday i did some work on the cockpit i improved the sides of the cockpit tub as this is not of continuous with along it's lenght, but widens in two steps around the seats. i added some of the burrons, in a rather crude way by embossing them in a bit of metal tape. i briefly considdered drilling hole as incerting very fine wire for the switches... in 1/48 this would be possible, but in this scale, i gave up on the idea and setteled for the level of detail a good kit part might supply. rudder pedals where added, by glueig the same sort of metal tape with the texture scored in, to a bit of flattened and bend metal wire. the metal tape is not backed but it's glued in place with supre glue that was applied a bit more genrous, and serves as a reinforcement all of the instruments where drilled trough, with a very fine drill bit, so the contours where not affected this time (the two instruments i had drilled out to large where restored by drilling tough and glueing in styrenr rod... this was softer than the kit plastic but with a little care could be punched again like the kit parts. on the back each intrument was now marked with a tiny hole and it was a maatter op patience to super glue a wire in each hole. this is not 100% accurate as some of the instruments have portruding shapes at the back,and not all are promentleny wired i'll see if i can add some bits to make it a bit more accurate. most of this will be hidden by other components though, so i see if i can tidy it up a bit... on the other hand when i first took a reference foto of a real fouga, i was slightly shocked by the "spaghitti" that can be seen trough the front windshield. so i'm hoping to capture that look. I still have quite a bit of levers and such to add to the cockpit as well as pressure tanks and obvously the seats sticks, so this is turning into a fin little kit on it's own.... i guess i better start thinking how i'll pose those canopies open 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted January 29, 2017 Author Share Posted January 29, 2017 I spend a bit more time detailing the cockpit. I added the throttles and some more items to the tub, and than turned my attention to the upper sidewalls. all of this detail will need to be attached to the original fuselage halves wich is a little tricky as some of the hoses are connected to items an the shelves of the tub... i ended up more or less finishing the aft port sidewall, one down 3 more to go. Heller parts are usually rather finely molded, epecially considdering the age of the molds, and the sticks are a fair representation of the real item, even including a tiny button on the side, but a close up of the real item revealed more hoses etc, so an attempt was made to add those... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted January 30, 2017 Author Share Posted January 30, 2017 I managed to finish another little sub assembly tonight, and for some reason the reason a detail i was really looking forward to build. the oxtgen bottles that sit between the cockpits... again nothing to fancy, some evergreen rod, with the tops rounded off and a smaller diameter disk glued on, some metal tape for the fixtures and a length of metal wire for the brace. On top some albion brass tubes with thin metal wire threaded trough and some more stretches sprue... when fitting wires our smaller diameter rod trough a bigger diameter tube, I find it's much easier to lease the inner item full lenght untill it's in place and only trim it to size than, trying to manipulate and glue two tiny parts is much harder than sliding one over a lenght of wire... the curved brace is a bit of soda can.. it should reach the top of the aft pannel so i have some adjusting to do there. the adjusters on the vertical braces (i think that's what they are) are paper disks punched from plain paper with the tip of a mechanical pencil and than pierced with a needle.. testfit sadly the seat will cover most of the work, but it sill a lot better than the thombstone that was present on the kit it's not glued in place as i still have quite a bit of work on the sidewalls... to be continued 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 That looks stunning! Should look great under a coat of paint. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 This is a strange definition of "not very skilled" it looks great! Martian 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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