Airfix 1:72 Fouga Magister

Airfix 1:72 Fouga Magister

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dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Sunday 19th July 2015
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This build thread is on behalf of the boy, who won this kit at Cosford for third place with his Matchbox Skyservant. Airfix donated the prizes for the junior class I think.

It's a pretty good kit, almost unbelievably good considering it's dated 1975; it looks much more modern despite the odd rivet and raised panel line. Plastic is the current Airfix soft grey stuff, decals by Cartograf are superb. As with most current Airfix kits, box design pretty much says "buy me and build me now", although in this case he had a paint by numbers Puffin and a wooden F1 car to finish first:



As with the Skyservant, I'm doing any scalpel work if required, the boy is doing the rest, although rather than me doing one part and him copying it, he's doing it all this time. First off, cockpit assembly:



...quickly followed by searching for his first lost microscopic part, ahhhh:



Then a spot of painting:





Pilots faces need dotting in and their visors painting, then the fuselage can be glued together permanently:



I think this thread will probably consist of a few main updates and some final images rather than much more detail TBH.

Eric Mc

121,779 posts

264 months

Monday 20th July 2015
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Does he plan to do an Irish version?

In my opinion, some of Airfix's best stuff comes from that mid 1970s era.

tog

4,517 posts

227 months

Monday 20th July 2015
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dr_gn said:
it's dated 1975
I must have built one of these c.1980. First aircraft I ever built, not long after a Kellogs-issue Golden Hind.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Monday 20th July 2015
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
Does he plan to do an Irish version?

In my opinion, some of Airfix's best stuff comes from that mid 1970s era.
No he wants to paint camo - in fact that all he wants to do, even before it's assembled.

Eric Mc

121,779 posts

264 months

Monday 20th July 2015
quotequote all
I have a half finished one in progress at the moment - but it's the Heller kit rather than the Airfix one. Even though Heller and Airfix were once owned by the same parent company and shared moulds, they had their own separate moulds for the Magister and as far as I know never shared them.

perdu

4,884 posts

198 months

Monday 20th July 2015
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Well G no matter how you plan to ration our helpings of his 'journey' I'm in to enjoy it

He shows lots of potential, I like his builds a lot


(and if I like the finished article I may buy one for myself) wink

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Wednesday 22nd July 2015
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perdu said:
Well G no matter how you plan to ration our helpings of his 'journey' I'm in to enjoy it

He shows lots of potential, I like his builds a lot


(and if I like the finished article I may buy one for myself) wink
It does build into a nice, delicate model albeit with a few overscale details which would be easily fixed. I have read that the Heller version is marginally better though overall. I'd be tempted to get one myself if I saw one at a show.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Wednesday 22nd July 2015
quotequote all
So the pilots are finished (flesh tone faces and hands, and black visors). If I put a blob of each colour on an onld credit card, he quite happily corrects any smudges as he goes. I then gave him some weathering powder to play with, which improved the look of the cockpit. I think the instant results of that simple process went down well. Pilots then secured with PVA:



He's now giving assembly advice to his sister, who is making impressive process with the Matchbox Gnat. The truth is she doesn't need any advice, having mastered cutting sprues, sanding and applying glue using a liquid cement dispenser within about an hour...


perdu

4,884 posts

198 months

Thursday 23rd July 2015
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Fair dos to both of them

That Gnat makes up nicely if my memory serves me well

I have had a similar thing with my grand-daughter (6)

I gave her the Mk 1 Spitfire from my stash because she wanted to do what granddad does

She left it unfinished until her next visit in the school hols

Just wants wheels. prop and canopy to finish

She painted the camouflage before she left it for me to guard, so she felt she'd done a lot

And transfers on too so not far to go

If she gives her permission I'll pop it in here

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Thursday 23rd July 2015
quotequote all
Tonight only child v2 rev.0 wanted to do a spot of work, so no progresss on the Magister. I assumed that a 5 year old would not have the dexterity to paint faces/helmets/boots to any degree of accuracy, but it seems I was wrong.





Luckily I've persuaded her to not bother with the wheels; I wanted her to build it all herself (or with the minimum of help), and I think the undercarriage might have been a step too far.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Thursday 23rd July 2015
quotequote all
perdu said:
Fair dos to both of them

That Gnat makes up nicely if my memory serves me well

I have had a similar thing with my grand-daughter (6)

I gave her the Mk 1 Spitfire from my stash because she wanted to do what granddad does

She left it unfinished until her next visit in the school hols

Just wants wheels. prop and canopy to finish

She painted the camouflage before she left it for me to guard, so she felt she'd done a lot

And transfers on too so not far to go

If she gives her permission I'll pop it in here
Yes, like the Skyservant, the Gnat is pretty good for a beginner, although a couple of the main gear doors don't make an appearance in teh instructions, and I think one of the aerial fairings is positiond incorrectly. Not that it matters.

Would be good to see the equavelnt Spitfire is permission is forthcoming.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
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Ruddervator mass balance quadrants added - very tricky:



...but trickier still were the twin pitot tubes just in front of the windscreen (one for each cockpit). Also attached the dorsal antenna and some small intakes around the engine fairings. Next job is painting the undersides.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
quotequote all
I assumed the undersides were light grey, but on closer examination, they are indicated as silver. Dammit. Since it's impossible to get a decent finish by brush painting, and since I had the airbrush out for the Spitfire paint repair, I thought I might as well give the boy a go at it. After fitting the mask to his face, and the masking tape to the cockpit, he soon got the hang of it:





Paint was Vallejo Air Aluminium, straight form the bottle.

perdu

4,884 posts

198 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
quotequote all
End of a short era, he'll not want to do all the rest of his modelling with hairy sticks now

Looks as if he's doing well enough too

Nice work young 'un


My granddaughter came across from Nottingham today and insisted on finishing her Spitfire

So I had to forgo watching F1 qually and hang around her in action

She didn't take much watching and soon got the little oddments in place and paint touched in

Then insisted on taking it home before I could take a picture frown

Oh well, it's hers after all

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
quotequote all
Undercarriage fitted tonight. No real problems with fitting it, but following the instructions/orientation of parts still seems a bit of a struggle. Still, the instructions appear to be the originals from 1975, and to be fair they aren't too clear:


dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
quotequote all
perdu said:
End of a short era, he'll not want to do all the rest of his modelling with hairy sticks now

Looks as if he's doing well enough too

Nice work young 'un


My granddaughter came across from Nottingham today and insisted on finishing her Spitfire

So I had to forgo watching F1 qually and hang around her in action

She didn't take much watching and soon got the little oddments in place and paint touched in

Then insisted on taking it home before I could take a picture frown

Oh well, it's hers after all
Ta Perdu, I think brush painting is the preferred method TBH; it's a process he can do pretty much unsupervised (brush cleaning can be a bit Russian roulette at the moment).

davepoth

29,395 posts

198 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
quotequote all
dr_gn said:
Tonight only child v2 rev.0 wanted to do a spot of work, so no progresss on the Magister. I assumed that a 5 year old would not have the dexterity to paint faces/helmets/boots to any degree of accuracy, but it seems I was wrong.



Luckily I've persuaded her to not bother with the wheels; I wanted her to build it all herself (or with the minimum of help), and I think the undercarriage might have been a step too far.
I'm looking at the Airfix Gnat I have on my bookshelf, and frankly I feel a little ashamed. biggrin

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
quotequote all
davepoth said:
dr_gn said:
Tonight only child v2 rev.0 wanted to do a spot of work, so no progresss on the Magister. I assumed that a 5 year old would not have the dexterity to paint faces/helmets/boots to any degree of accuracy, but it seems I was wrong.



Luckily I've persuaded her to not bother with the wheels; I wanted her to build it all herself (or with the minimum of help), and I think the undercarriage might have been a step too far.
I'm looking at the Airfix Gnat I have on my bookshelf, and frankly I feel a little ashamed. biggrin
Ha ha, TBH I'm amazed it looks as good as it does: 40 year old kit, 5 year old girl. I must admit, when she was painting the wings I wanted to grab the brush out of her hand, snap it in half and start again. when she said for the fifth time that she wasn't going to paint the fuselage because "it's already red" I wanted to cry a little bit, but I guess that wouldn't have been a good example to set.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Monday 3rd August 2015
quotequote all
Camo in progress, just the dark green to add. I gave him a Zoukei Mura brush to try - I'd forgotten how much difference a decent brush makes vs. a Hobbycraft special. I mixed the paints for him using Vallejo Model Colour plus thinners plus Retarder medium to give him a fighting chance of getting a level-ish finish before it dried:



It looks pretty good so far. I'll be interested to see how the wavy demarcation turns out after cutting the masking tape with dressmaking scissors.

Daughter's Gnat is finished:


I helped her mostly with decal placement and fitting the pitot tube. I also PVA'd the stand socket into the fuselage.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Tuesday 4th August 2015
quotequote all
So he's done the dark green today - Two coats of Vallejo Air Black Green, again with retarder:



...and the wheels:



Moment of truth for the dressmaking masking:



Not bad result:



Still undecided about how to paint the canopy. I'm thinking freehand, or painted Tamiya tape.