Dave Slowbuild Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 A French design of the 1950's, the Magister trainer is immediately recognisable by the 'butterfly' tail. If anyone knows the correct aeronautical term for the angled tailplane/elevator I'd be glad to hear from you! Why this build? My wife is Belgian, so any kit I come across with a Belgian marking option is up for consideration, plus I rather like a colourful training aircraft. Two boxes ticked then. The kit is from Special Hobby, comprising five sets of sprues that are a very tight fit in the side opening box (a few small parts were broken in mine). The parts are very nicely detailed, far better than I honestly expected. I did have some fit issues along the way; the cockpit floor/seats/IP assembly was too wide for the fuselage halves, and took a lot of carving and whittling to make all fit. The long clear canopy is made up of no-less than six parts, and was a trial in itself... fine if you want to pose the pilot and/or instructor canopies open, but a right fiddle if you prefer the clean lines from having them all closed. I deviated from the kit scheme of a BAF example from the Congo in 1960. I opted not to fit the two nose-mounted guns and instead went for a standard trainer fit from the mid '60s, based on photos from the web (the Belgian Wings website is the go-to place). This also meant I would have to modify the rearmost part of the canopy, because by then BAF Magisters had a white painted finish and acquired a pair of air scoop 'ears', two blisters and a group of three louvres. Pictures:- The improvements I tried to make were:- Filling in most of the panel lines on the wings, tail, and forward fuselage. I think this makes it look much more realistic. My preferred method is gluing in lengths of stretched sprue which sand down easily when dry. The most worthwhile thing I did!! Cockpit; detailed with homemade belts, IP wires, hoses, etc. I also detailed the periscope for the instructor in the rear seat. I thought all this would be worth the time and trouble as there's a lot of clear glass, but alas, as it's nearly all painted black you can't really see anything... Rear canopy; blisters were crash-moulded, the scoops are scratched from strip, and thin strips of black decal were used for the louvres and the prominent rubber seal around the white-painted area. Jet pipes; from plastic tube, reamed out to make the edges more in-scale, and fitted so that they protruded slightly from the exhaust fairings. Aerials; three blades with their mounting plates from strip. Underwing lamp and tail light from clear sprue Pitot tubes (?) directly in front of the windshield were scratched from strip and rod Hydraulic lines added to undercarriage legs, from wire (practically invisible...) Aileron trim tab actuators are supplied in the kit, but are a bit chunky, so were replaced with strip and sprue. Thanks for looking! 58 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 The term you are looking for is ruddervator https://www.aircraftsystemstech.com/p/flight-control-surfaces-directional.html And your Fouga is the cat’s meow 😻 -Bill 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Slowbuild Posted March 28, 2023 Author Share Posted March 28, 2023 6 minutes ago, billn53 said: The term you are looking for is ruddervator Thanks Bill! Good link too. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 That's a lovely build, looks really good 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire31 Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 All your hard work was worth it – one of the most attractive Magister models I've seen. Kind regards, Joachim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopesdaddy Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 Your Magister looks well done, very nice finish and great detail work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliGauld Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 I can only echo everyone else's comments. What a cracker. Cheers, Alistair 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichieW Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 Beautiful! I have made a note of the stretched sprue panel line filling method. I know it's only a small detail on a hugely impressive model but your use of black decal strip for the rubber seal is so effective. It must have been a proper fiddly job to get right! Richie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Slowbuild Posted March 29, 2023 Author Share Posted March 29, 2023 22 hours ago, F-32 said: That's a lovely build, looks really good 20 hours ago, Spitfire31 said: hard work was worth it 18 hours ago, AliGauld said: cracker 18 hours ago, RichieW said: Beautiful! Thanks everyone for your kind comments, they are much appreciated! Richie, The thin decal strip worked pretty well, but I wish I had cut it into shorter sections as it would have made it easier to get the tighter curves. The corners are a bit too squared off to be honest! I find the stretched spruce method a lot easier for filling panel lines than using filler; I find it hard to sand that stuff down to a smooth edge. If you want a panel line but something finer than what the kit gives you, then before sanding use one side of the sprue as a guide for scribing a new line to your own satisfaction, then sand down. Works for me. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Slowbuild Posted March 29, 2023 Author Share Posted March 29, 2023 20 hours ago, Hopesdaddy said: our Magister looks well done, very nice finish and great detail work Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 (edited) Excellent, while ruddervator might be the technically correct term. Butterfly tail is apt. The Irish Air Corps display team were known as the 'Silver Swallows'. I think that's closest. Search Swallow if you don't believe me.🙂 Edited March 29, 2023 by noelh 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Slowbuild Posted March 29, 2023 Author Share Posted March 29, 2023 1 hour ago, noelh said: The Irish Air Corps display team were known as the 'Silver Swallows'. Just googled them Noel, very smart, quite similar to the Belgian scheme I’ve done. It’s a very graceful plane, swallow is a vert apt name for the team. I’ve been trying to get my brain around how the butterfly tail works, how it can control rotation in 2 planes at the same time. The 2 control surfaces can presumably move by different amounts to each other, but have quite a complex linkage? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HL-10 Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 Now that's a pretty looking little model! Great work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Slowbuild Posted March 30, 2023 Author Share Posted March 30, 2023 15 hours ago, HL-10 said: Now that's a pretty looking little model! Great work. Thanks HL! Appreciate your kind comments Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted March 30, 2023 Share Posted March 30, 2023 (edited) 18 hours ago, Dave Slowbuild said: I’ve been trying to get my brain around how the butterfly tail works, how it can control rotation in 2 planes at the same time. The 2 control surfaces can presumably move by different amounts to each other, but have quite a complex linkage? Don't know myself but I imagine there's a mechanical mixer that does the job. Similar to the ailerons only more complex. The Fouga I believe had hydraulically powered controls, so even more complexity! Edited March 30, 2023 by noelh 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samuraiwarrior Posted March 30, 2023 Share Posted March 30, 2023 Hi Dave, A very nice job of that. Looks very striking in that scheme. Thanks for sharing. Kevin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Slowbuild Posted March 30, 2023 Author Share Posted March 30, 2023 29 minutes ago, Samuraiwarrior said: Looks very striking in that scheme. Thanks Kevin. Agreed, I’d have picked the Belgian scheme even if my Belgian wife hadn’t picked it for me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PattheCat Posted March 30, 2023 Share Posted March 30, 2023 It's got the looks. Very good NMF. The dayglo is a perfect counterpoint for it. I'm particularly fond of the Fouga. It's certainly due to me watching our "Red Devils" aerobatic team with "my mouth wide open and starry eyes" at each airshow when I was a kid. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Slowbuild Posted March 31, 2023 Author Share Posted March 31, 2023 14 hours ago, PattheCat said: watching our "Red Devils" aerobatic team I never saw the full team, but did see a solo aircraft at an RAF show back in the 80s or 90s. Very graceful and beautifully flown, made a great impression. I actually prefer the trainer scheme to the all red scheme of the Red Devils, the silver/dayglo combination is more eye-catching. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MACALAIN Posted April 3, 2023 Share Posted April 3, 2023 Well done. Alain 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Slowbuild Posted April 3, 2023 Author Share Posted April 3, 2023 5 minutes ago, MACALAIN said: Well done Thanks Alain. Your national colours look great on an aircraft - I hope to build a lot more BAF types! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Koktavý Posted April 6, 2023 Share Posted April 6, 2023 Absolutely fantastic result 👏 I have my second Fouga almost finished and the six part closed canopy is really nightmare to fit it well. You managed this part of assembly very well, hats off. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Slowbuild Posted April 6, 2023 Author Share Posted April 6, 2023 Thanks David. It’s a real pity they didn’t include the option of a single piece all-in-one canopy. I would have loved the kit even more if they had! Hope to see your completed build on here soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 That looks terrific! All the improvements and mods have really paid off. Immaculate finish with silver and red/orange too. Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celestialsphere Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 That's a sweet build. Very nice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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