Miles Sparrowhawk from a Magister?

[rob Lyttle]

I'm now the proud owner of a couple of little Novo kits, namely the Miles Magister and the Percival Proctor and I'd like to have a go at doing the civil variations. 

I can see my way to making some kind of Percival Vega Gull, although I'm already eyeing up the Dora Wings version!! 

But what about the Magister? 

Is there any chance of bashing this 2-seater trainer into a Sparrowhawk? 

They look like one is derived from the other, but that's just from looking at pictures. 

Are they basically the same airframe, or are they different and incompatible? 

I'm not talking about high grade museum pieces here - just a notion to make something interesting and civil from a couple of simple kits. 

 

[CarLos]

Hi Rob,

 

It certainly can be made! In fact, I started ages ago an Hawk Major from one of my several Eastern Express Magisters that I acquired for cheap in a web store from Ukraine. You may see some photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/70648695@N03/sets/72157719317223746. A Sparrowhawk and a Falcon are also planned. I also started a Gull using a Frog Proctor: https://www.flickr.com/photos/70648695@N03/albums/72157719324221337.

 

Drawings of Miles aircraft can be found in the Gallery pages in the Museum of Berkshire Aviation site: https://museumofberkshireaviation.co.uk/

 

Carlos

 

 

[Tripod]

The Magister and Sparrowhawk were both derived from the Miles Hawk, so certainly possible. The Sparrowhawk had a shorter wingspan thanks to a narrower centre section - Basically chop the wings off at the dihedral break and stick them straight on the sides of the fuselage.

 

Of course, there's also the Hawk Speed Six, regularly displayed at Old Warden, and assorted Hawk variants, most of which had a shallower rear fuselage. 

 

Peter

 

 

[JWM]

Once I did Miles Falcon Six and miles Hawk six as scratch conversions of Frog/Novo Magisters, so it is possible

 

 

 

Maybe today I will do it better (maybe not ...) 

Regards

J-W

 

[rob Lyttle]

On 04/06/2021 at 18:52, JWM said:

Once I did Miles Falcon Six and miles Hawk six as scratch conversions of Frog/Novo Magisters,

Good going, JW. I'll have another read through. Thanks for the links 👍

[Grumpy61]

On 6/4/2021 at 11:52 AM, JWM said:

Once I did Miles Falcon Six and miles Hawk six as scratch conversions of Frog/Novo Magisters, so it is possible

 

 

 

Maybe today I will do it better (maybe not ...) 

Regards

J-W

 

 

JMW,

 

I'd love to hear more on how you did your conversion for the Miles Falcon 6. I need a Miles M.3 Falcon for my 1934 Centennary Air Race project. The major difference I can see between the Falcon Six and the M.3 is the windscreen. Dekno made a Falcon Six some years ago but I have been unable to convince him to re-release it and the only other option is to try and find the older Dujin Miles M.3 kit. There was also a vacform of the kit which is even rarer to find. I look forward to hearing from you.

[JWM]

20 hours ago, Grumpy61 said:

I'd love to hear more on how you did your conversion for the Miles Falcon 6. I need a Miles M.3 Falcon for my 1934 Centennary Air Race project. The major difference I can see between the Falcon Six and the M.3 is the windscreen. Dekno made a Falcon Six some years ago but I have been unable to convince him to re-release it and the only other option is to try and find the older Dujin Miles M.3 kit. There was also a vacform of the kit which is even rarer to find. I look forward to hearing from you.

Of course the wider fuselage was done but cutting it into segments and  adding appropriate triangle of rectangle spacers, to get the proper shape looking from top. The wings myst remains of the same span, not larger (AFAIR). The upper rear part was more laboring - I cut out from a 1 mm thick plate a cross-section elements and then bond on them an element made of 0.5 mm plate which made upper fuselage. The spats I cut out from some large spats u/c (namely PZL 23 Karas, but old and very primitive kit by RUCH), The canopy was glued from many separate elemets, then sanded, polished and covered with gloss varnish... There was a lot of work with it, to be frank...

Regards

J-W

 

[Grumpy61]

2 hours ago, JWM said:

Of course the wider fuselage was done but cutting it into segments and  adding appropriate triangle of rectangle spacers, to get the proper shape looking from top. The wings myst remains of the same span, not larger (AFAIR). The upper rear part was more laboring - I cut out from a 1 mm thick plate a cross-section elements and then bond on them an element made of 0.5 mm plate which made upper fuselage. The spats I cut out from some large spats u/c (namely PZL 23 Karas, but old and very primitive kit by RUCH), The canopy was glued from many separate elemets, then sanded, polished and covered with gloss varnish... There was a lot of work with it, to be frank...

Regards

J-W

 

Do you know of any scale drawings for the Miles Falcon?

[JWM]

7 hours ago, Grumpy61 said:

Do you know of any scale drawings for the Miles Falcon?

I followed drawings from Miranda & Mercado book on (among others) British airplanes in Spanish Civil War. However in net you can find that one

 

Or that one

https://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/modernplanes/modern-m/18486/view/miles_m-3_falcon/

I think there is also a large book on Miles airplanes with drawings for each one Miles machine - i've seen it in the Krakow Museum if Aviation library...

Regards

J-W

 

 

[Tripod]

Scale Models of December 1980 had plans drawn by Guy Thomas; Wingspan magazine from April 1992 had plans by Alf Granger. Both were of the Falcon Six. There's an old set of plans from a book (I think called The Book of Miles Aircraft) that are on the website of the Museum of Berkshire Aviation.

 

There is a modern large book on Miles aircraft (published by Air-Britain), in three large volumes. Volume 1 covers the pre-war types and has lots of information in it, including for many of them a brief mention of the original colour they were finished in.

 

Peter

 

 

[Paul J]

I know someone who has done a lovely job on making G-ADGP in the black and cream schem as it is now and at Old Warden. He has just joined BM so I'll get him to post images of his build.

[rob Lyttle]

1 hour ago, Tripod said:

that are on the website of the Museum of Berkshire Aviation.

Excellent hint there, @Tripod

I may take a trip out to that location some time. 

I note that they have a nice 3view of a Sparrowhawk too. 👍

Perhaps a simpler mod for the old Frog Novo kit of the 2-seater for the likes of me. 

My Magister came with a Percival Proctor of the same ilk, and my attention has been caught by the Vega Gull type, incl getting the Dora Wings product which is quite an improvement. But I'm sure I'll be getting onto the Miles types in due course. 

[Paul J]

This is the conversion done by a friend but is having probs logging in to BM having just joined. From a Frog Maggie to Hawk Speed Six.