Jump to content

Patrouille de France Heller Alpha Jet New Build with a Fouga CM-170 Magister Restoration.


Brigbeale

Recommended Posts

With the Hawker Typhoons finished, the uhmmm and ahhh’ing started again.

While I was watching YouTube this morning, a video was suggested about a Matchbox Alpha Jet review (although I’m still yet to watch it!). I find reviews ok but most bore the h*ll out of me after a couple of minutes, but some do have their usefulness. 
That reminded me of another eBay acquisition - a Heller Alpha Jet. No box, just the kit with instructions and the wrong decals for what I had in mind - which was to add to my aerobatic display team collection and depict a Patrouille de France Alpha Jet.

Previously, I also bought a Fouga CM-170 Magister in German livery with the same intention of depicting that from the Patrouille de France team.

GPuYPxA.jpg

pU25q16.jpg


It didn’t take a lot to disassemble the Magister - just some flexing at the joints and the parts separated.

tQxKtAz.jpg
 

I also found some spare parts on eBay to assist with the repair. This included a new canopy, wheels and landing gear, other small parts along with some clear parts - namely an Airfix small display stand, a Matchbox display stand and whist I believe to be a Matchbox Mosquito canopy.

LlLp5s1.jpg
 

I purchased a set of Alpha Jet decals with the appropriate decals. 
Here’s the kit laid out for photo taking.

X70MvMF.jpg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, billn53 said:

This looks like it will be a fun re-build. 😊

The rebuild of the Magister should be relatively straight forward. The painting however………….

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Magister was taken out of the Dettol bath this morning after being left to soak overnight. I’m glad to report it took pretty much all of the silver paint off leaving a couple of spots where excess glue was sat near the wing to fuselage joints. The paint in the cockpit wasn’t affected though. The whole lot was washed with soapy water and dried.

4lU1TKg.jpg
 

This evening, I started by re-scribing lines on the  wings to replace the raised ones already there. Then both the wings and fuselage were sanded to remove the raised rivets, raised panel lines and excess glue spots. I left some raised detail on the fuselage such as some fuel caps and access panels. 
I noticed one of the wing tip tanks is broken, so I will have to make a replacement out of some sprue.

 

I printed off a copy of the original Airfix instructions which basically said to paint the cockpit black. I opted to paint the cockpit grey with black coamings and Olive drab seats. I didn’t paint the front seat flat cushion as a pilot is going to be added.

 

Once the paint on the cockpit had dried, i refitted back into the fuselage half and fitted the two halves back together again (which is a bit a record for me dismantling and reassembling a model).

Once the Mr Cement S had dried, I sanded the fuselage seams to smooth them out.

P3M74rm.jpg

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tonight it was the turn of the Alpha Jet to be worked on - partly as the the Mgister is progressing a lot quicker as there’s not really that much to the construction of it.

 

I started by using pieces of tape to hold the airframe together so that I could work out the balance point of where the main gear wheels would sit in relation to the fuselage. With no seats fitted and no horizontal stabilisers it would sit nose down, but there’s the engine exhausts to be fitted as well. I will add some small weighted to the nose to literally ‘tip the balance’.

XOnLCsF.jpg

 

The seats were glued into the cockpit along with the control columns. Very slim strips of masking tape were then stuck to the rear seat. As said earlier a pilot will be added to the front seat. That’s when it registered there’s no pilot in the Heller kit. Fortunately, the Magister has spare pilots - two original and two in the spares box. One would just need repainting to simulate the light blue Patrouille de France flying suits.

 

The intricate main gear was assembled which needed a bit of moving this way and that to line the two axles up with each other which hopefully means they’re set right.

The gear legs were then painted Aluminium while the interior of the wheel well grey. The struts will be painted silver to simulate the chrome pistons. the main wheels look ok but the nose gear looks very strange with the wheel hub being a lot wider than the tyre:shrug:. The main gear assembly is now sitting so that it can fully set - although care will be needed later on as I’ve heard they break easily.

 

The fuselage was dry fitted together to make sure it would close up properly.

QEBd9Eo.jpg

NWT1Dfl.jpg
 

and finally for tonight, a picture of a Magister pilot in the cockpit and the canopy fitted. While fitting it I noticed a small crack in one side which just protrudes past the frame line.

UjkFAAM.jpg

 

 

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Crikey , sorry I'm late, you've nearly finished them!!!

These look interesting,  the colour of the Magister plastic looks good, like a slightly tarnished metal.

These are both going together very quickly. 

What a shame about the crack in the glazing, would some clear floated into it help hide it???

Great work so far

Chris

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

 

What a shame about the crack in the glazing, would some clear floated into it help hide it???

 

Chris

I think it will always be visible, so I’ve just bought a Pavla V72071 replacement canopy off eBay for £3.50. It’s a shame as the original canopy is pretty good otherwise.

XnkFNYr.jpg

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

More work was carried out on the Alpha Jet to catch up to bring it up to the same point of construction as the Magister.

The landing gear was assembly was applied to the belly panel.
The fuselage halves were put together and the belly pan assembly was then fitted.

there’s some filling to be done to even up the panel joints especially underneath on the belly pan.
I’ve got to be careful on the handling as, despite the landing gear glue set, they’re very exposed and could easily be broken.

The engine exhausts were fitted along with the two fins that fit either side of the tail fin.

The main wings upper and lower halves were glued together.

Then the parts were left to dry until tomorrow evening.

N9lqFeP.jpg

k7Evj8o.jpg
PF4xjmB.jpg

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yet more work was carried out on the Alpha Jet.

The Mr Surfacer that was applied to the panel joints was sanded back revealing two spots that still need a little more attention on the underside.

I added the rounded nose cone as the pointed one was for the German aircraft which could be depicted from the same kit.

I then added the main wings making sure the tips both sat at the same height (19mm) with the model sat on this undercarriage. 
The horizontal stabilisers were then added  and then the kit was put in the cabinet to allow the Mr Cement S to fully cure.

1nYD2et.jpg?1
 

With some time to spare, I added the main wings to the Magister. One needs some attention to the underside where it meets the fuselage but other than that they reattached quite well.

0.8mm holes were drilled in the nose for the grab handles and also in the angled stabilisers for the actuators.

That too was out in the cabinet to allow the Mr Cement S to cure.

The rear of the port wing tip tank was filed flat for the addition of a repair piece which I’ve yet to make.

ya3SGVK.jpg?1

hhc8oZa.jpg
 

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Earlier today, I gave the underside of the port wing of the Magister some attention with a file to remove the step. This was caused by whoever constructed it not ensuring the inner edge of the wings being fitted properly. This also went along the wing to just behind the wheel well opening. I simply filed it to reshape the rear of the wing where the lower half is recessed into the top half of the wing.

The seams were then given a coat of Mr Surfacer 1000. 
This evening, I sanded it back to smooth the seams. 
I also refitted the angled stabilisers to the tail. It looks more like an aircraft now.

ZOZeV6H.jpg
 

I then set about painting the 4 pilots. Two still need their faces painting as I’d already cleaned the brush before I decided I might use all 4 of them. I’ve still got a couple of bits to paint on them so I’ll do them then.

 

I noticed something looked a little odd with the Alpha Jet with regard to the tail fin looking slightly out of true in the cabinet. The wing tip height looked off as well. Upon closer inspection, I found the lower joint on the port landing gear was loose and the axle part could move. I gave it a good dose of Mr Cement S (I still can’t get any Tamiya Extra thin at the moment locally). It’s now on the modelling stand to allow that joint to set.

kdLJ8Aj.jpg


And finally them both together with their crews and canopies dry fitted.

IKniNWD.jpg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tonight I masked the Magister’s canopy - which was fun!

I did it my usual way of thin strips of masking tape to outline the windows and then filled in with Mr Neo masking solution (I wish they’d use a thinner brush though).

While the masking solution was drying off, I finished painting the pilots. 
Then I decided to just fit all 4 pilots into the cockpits.

Once the masking solution was dried sufficiently, the canopy was glued into position.

1UrT22m.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

After a longer wait than usual, I received the Pavla Vac formed replacement canopy for the Alpha Jet.

Earlier today, I compared the size by simply putting the original over the replacement. By using just the mark one eyeball, the replacement appeared to be slightly shorter - or maybe it was just me.

Tonight I carefully cut around the intended shape leaving a slither of extra material to sand back. When I tried a dry fit into the fuselage, I found it was indeed too short. I thought a simple filler piece at the front would be in order.
The rear was also lacking in height, so I pushed the canopy rearwards to level the top with the fuselage. 
There was a gap at the sides but also the whole canopy was too narrow :tapedshut:. So far I have found the Pavla canopies to be a good fit with this being the first one I have had problems with. It may have been me cutting too much off the first place, but I’m pretty sure there was a definite line to cut to.:shrug:

 

So I just decided to use the original and try my best to ignore the crack.

I spent the next hour or so masking the canopy clear edges using strips of masking tape. I then filled in the canopy clear parts with Mr Neo masking solution.

cRlwSWq.jpg

 

With any luck, I should be able to get some flat white as primer on both models tomorrow in preparation for painting the main colours.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just a simple update tonight.

Both the Alpha Jet and Magister were both airbrushed with Tamiya XF-2 flat white to act as the undercoat.

3IDVFkt.jpg

DN86NAZ.jpg

Edited by Brigbeale
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Very nice Brian, they look good, you have a very clean cutting matt too!!!

Great work 

Chris

Thanks Chris.

I only use this cutting mat for the assembly process and taking the photos. For airbrushing/painting I use well hoovered spare piece of green underlay board from laminate flooring.

Although, yesterday I had a box and thought that would make a good spray booth. 

 

With regard to the Alpha Jet, I’ve been informed that the lights in the leading edges of the wings are not correct - as in they shouldn’t be there - so I went to fit the lenses and paint them over. One has disappeared- not surprising as it’s only a couple of mm wide - so I masked the wings and pot some filler in them instead.

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The filled in lights were sanded back tonight. A small amount of the grey plastic showed through where the whit got sanded off though.

 

I gave both models a coat of Tamiya X-2 white wherever a white stripe would be in the Tricolour livery on the wings and fuselage. The exposed plastic was also given a light spray of the white just to ensure that when the blue gets airbrushed on, there won’t be any darker patches.

 

The Alpha Jet and the Magister in my improvised spray booth mounted on two wires in the exhausts.

y6Zxiy9.jpg

zrNtAp7.jpg
h01i3SN.jpg

 

I’m currently searching through photos and kit manufacturer instructions to find where the blue, white and red demarcation lines are placed.

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I took an evening off last night partly to mull over how to go about masking the narrow white fuselage line with the z-flash and to watch the F1 Grand Prix (which had me shouting at the antics of a certain driver:tapedshut:).

Anyway today I found an image of a side view. I measured the Alpha Jet from the air intake to the exhaust, re-sized the image on my iPad, made a duplicate and reversed it to effectively give me both sides of the fuselage.

Tonight, I started to mask off the wings using the above image. I decided to paint the red sections first.

7SWnCz9.jpg

 

Then I started on the fuselage by a bit of measuring and sticking the masking tape on the fuselage. 
To make the Z-flash, I placed a piece of tape over the image and traced lines with a knife. It was then placed on the fuselage after a bit more measuring.

DuO3edz.jpg
NKY0dse.jpg


I then masked up the elongated arrow head on the underside of the fuselage using a Revell set of instructions.

OmOrgNq.jpg
 

From there, ot was just a case of masking off the remainder of the white upper surfaces.

20mw9jS.jpg
 

It looks like I’m going to be needing more tape soon:rolleyes:

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/24/2021 at 6:50 PM, Brigbeale said:

I believe to be a Matchbox Mosquito canopy.

LlLp5s1.jpg

 

That canopy is from a Matchbox Piston Provost kit

 

 

Nice work, I have that Airfix Magister kit on the go at moment, Irish AF version.

 

CT

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...