Fouga Magister - IDF demonstration team - SH 1/72 kit - COMPLETED

[Dennis_C]

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.

Edited December 6, 2021 by Dennis_C

[Dennis_C]

Quite a bit of work to prepare interiors for painting is done.

 

Small interior bits, cockpit tub subassembly, undercarriage doors, control panels with gunsight attached:

 

 

I left some small bits on sprues to facilitate painting but left them only attached at one point. 

 

Some notes made during the construction:

1) the molding seams are quite prominent so I'm sanding every small bit. Quite annoying, however not many manufacturers are perfect here. 

2) tolerances are super tight. I subassembled the wings, but faced troubles with inserting airbrake plugs - did not want to go inside at all. Both the hole in the wing and the airbrake itself had to be sanded.

Also the wing parts joint is tight as well. It seems ok while dry fitting but in reality you either need a super thin glue or you should sand the lower part off from inside to avoid a step after you apply glue. 

3) lastly the inner side of intakes/exhausts is a pretty crude piece of plastic that is not really fitting okay. See below:

It's minimally short, but more importantly its front part should be sanded off (which I did already) as otherwise it does not fit the cockpit tub shape in the place. The gap actually should be filled in too as this will be seen in the cockpit and could even be a see-through effect.

 

On positive side - the kit is actually engineered quite well. The main  undercarriage bay inserts are very clever and quality parts that match real aircraft pictures okay. Cockpit details are very good for plastic bits. In most cases parts fit is fine too - e.g. cockpit tub matches fuselage sides without any trimming and sanding. So far I'm happy how construction goes. 

 

Dennis

Edited December 25, 2020 by Dennis_C

[Dennis_C]

Hi folks,

 

Let me report on the progress made since the last post here.

1) Interior painting has been complete over holiday weeks. Black for the cockpit, aluminium for air intakes, gun metal for exhausts, radome tan colour as primer for undercarriage niches. 

Here is how fuselage halves and engine tunnel covers looked like before closure:

 

2) I painted bakelite seats, completed instrument panels, some other interior bits like oxygen tanks, control sticks, etc. 

Instrument panels are made with decals than sprayed with flat finish and then drops of Krystal Klear added on instruments. Rear instrument panel worked excellently as it's almost flat. For the front panel I'd suggest to cut decal into three pieces (left, centre, right) so that it applies better. Mine went a bit off on the sides. 

No seat belts (neither PE no decals) are supplied with the kit so I'll be raiding spares. 

 

3) I also moved to setting cockpit tub into the fuselage:

Fit is tight so make sure canopies sit okay after you will insert the tub into the fuselage.

 

4) The plane is a strong tail sitter with lite space to add weight. I filled all the space under the cockpit with small lead fishing sinkers and plasticin (see above).

Another bit of lead will go into the front cone:

 

Note primer colour here. Instruction says to use H34 which is the US wwii yellow zinc chromate primer. I studied quite a bit of pictures and looks like Magisters had this rather than yellow zinc chromate:

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/7692658

I figured that H318 Radome Tan is very close to that. 

 

That's it so far. Some work to be done before fuselage assembly.

 

Kind regards,

Dennis

[Dennis_C]

A lot of progress, but have not done too much photoes...

 

That is the fuselage closed up and tightly pressed by rubber ring:

Fit is tight. I spent quite a lot of time slowly trimming interior bits making sure fuselage closes easily and there will be no step between canopy and fuselage sides. Looks everything worked more or less ok. 

 

Then there was fairly quick process of adding nose and tail cones, wings, V-tail, minor intakes, and canopy as the final step...

After couple of weeks I came to this:

Some final steps were yet to be done - tip tank navigation lights, final sanding at some places, masking undercarriage niches.

 

The fit was very good generally. Very few putty at wing or tail joints.

 

Canopy might be tricky. It is made up of 6 bits so I felt it is not going to be easy. I started with front and rear sections, then placed 2 parts of the middle segment and finished with opening parts. The two latter refused to squeeze in and required some trimming at their edges, more the front one. So attention and dry fitting are mandatory here. 

 

Some parts will be installed after painting - undercarriage, bay doors obviously. Intake lips are painted in red so I figured it would be easier to add them in the end. Also tail elevator hinges are left for later stage as white stripes of IDF demonstration scheme will slide under these. I figured decalling would be easier without hinges in place. 

 

Comments and advise are welcome!

 

Kind regards,

Dennis

[Dennis_C]

Hi All,

 

As it always happens, a project intended to be over in 3-4 months did not go as smoothly resulting in no updates from me for 5 months...

 

Anyway that is where I'm now:

Painting is complete, decals are placed, even some minor bits are in place like rudder actuators, intakes (separately painted in red). Also I completed highlighting panel joints over the white decals.

 

Blue paint is H328 noticeably diluted with white to be closer to the blue of David stars. I really like the colour I achieved.

 

Now about causes for the delay...

 

Everything was going superokay until decal work started. Decal set I have is an Isradecal sheet for any Magister/Tzukit in IDF operations. The set gives you two sheets - one with generic decals and another one with white stripes for demonstration team. The first one is near perfect. Decals are a bit thin but nothing extreme. However the extra sheet with white stripes was a disaster for me. Very brittle decals cracking everywhere on each panel line... ultimately I got them on wings and stabilizers (with huge number of white paint touches all over), but the tail parts on curved rear fuselage worked extremely awful. After applying those I thought to strip down and repaint aircraft into a different scheme honestly.

 

See the worst case circled in red here:

 

 

Nevertheless I finally decided I want a blue aircraft and I'm lazy to repaint it. As I continued with the decal job, the model fell on a table and its nose cone went off... with nose white stripes getting wrecked! [Strong language deleted] Red arrow above shows where it happened.

 

Well I placed the nose cone back... And laid the box aside to the shelf of doom. That was March or April I think. 

 

After three month in exile the box actually returned to the workbench and the progress now goes very fast. I repainted all the cracks as much as I could, covered decals with as much Future as possible to avoid further cracks (the decals were still not very stable even after acetic acid treatment), placed the rest of decals such as stencils, number codes, insignia etc. (all are from the main sheet so much-much forgiving). And now I feel way better about the intermediate result! 

 

Some more time to put the wheels etc, final coat and get it over to a cabinet. 

 

Best regards and smooth modelling to you guys!

Dennis

[Dr. Quack]

Beautiful result. Always liked Magisters ...... extremely small and extremely noisy! I like your scheme, and think you've done it proud.

Q

[Hook]

Nice progress!

 

Those SH Magisters are neat little kits. I have a few in the stash, including the IDF/AF specific boxing with this very scheme as well as some extra resin. 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Dennis_C]

50 minutes ago, Hook said:

I have a few in the stash, including the IDF/AF specific boxing with this very scheme as well as some extra resin. 

Hi Andre, I did not wait for that and got very first African boxing with Isradecal sheet instead. Probably should have wait more as SH decals might be better. 

[Hook]

18 minutes ago, Dennis_C said:

Probably should have wait more as SH decals might be better. 

They're Cartograf printed, so they might very well be. 

 

Still, you've got a great result with the IsraDecal sheet.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Dennis_C]

1 hour ago, Hook said:

Still, you've got a great result with the IsraDecal sheet.

Still worth mentioning that my prior experience with Isradecal on my F-15 was very positive. So more like inconsistent quality. Cartograph is definitely best in class here. 

[STROP]

I am building several Fouga Magister  and I experience basically the same problems with the SH kit, but in particular with the middle section of the canopy, which is in two parts How did you fix them together ? 

 

[Dennis_C]

On 12/08/2021 at 21:11, STROP said:

I am building several Fouga Magister  and I experience basically the same problems with the SH kit, but in particular with the middle section of the canopy, which is in two parts How did you fix them together ? 

 

Hi,

I agree canopy is not straight forward. I was thinking and dry fitting quite a bit to develop a plan and in the result it worked out okay. 

So what I did:

1) front and rear sections went first. The rear part was simple but I think I spent quite a bit of time with front section as interior parts were wider.

2) then I added two-parts middle section and installed an interior part of a visor. Not much sanding here.

3) the last were the two opening sections. These actually required quite a bit of dryfitting especially the front one as they are a bit larger then space left between the three sections that were already in place.

 

Another important point is the width of the fuselage. I had to sand off cockpit tub a bit to make sure fuselage is not getting wider then the canopy. 

 

Hope that helps you!

 

Dennis

Edited August 14, 2021 by Dennis_C

[STROP]

Thank you .  Indeed , dry fitting and some sanding is necessary .  The nose section is another area where I did not follow their instructions. I glued the two parts to the fuselage halves , instead of  making the nose separately.  And I send an e-mail to Special Hobby , suggesting that they should provide a one-piece replacement part  for the middle section of the canopy. 

 

Erik

[Dennis_C]

2 hours ago, STROP said:

And I send an e-mail to Special Hobby , suggesting that they should provide a one-piece replacement part  for the middle section of the canopy. 

I see no point why they split it into two parts... Just over engineering.

[Hook]

8 hours ago, Dennis_C said:

I see no point why they split it into two parts... Just over engineering.

Methinks it might be to facilitate fitting the periscope parts.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Dennis_C]

Link to RFI topic. 

I actually completed this back in August.

 

 

No major issues further on the way. Maybe one point to pay attention is attachment of main gear and undercarriage doors. The outer section needs to be installed prior to installing of the gear legs otherwise it will not go in. Space is clearly tight there. Rest of construction was simple. I used Tamiya powders to represent leaks and dirt here and there, then covered with Tamiya gloss finish. Added a drop of Krystal Klear on the periscope. That is it I think. 

 

Hope you like an RFI

Cheers,

Dennis

Edited December 6, 2021 by Dennis_C