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Heller 1/72 Fouga CM-170 Magister
Reviewer: Kevin Ronayne Kevin.Ronayne@nuigalway.ie
The Fouga Magister was one of the first successful post-war designs for the French aircraft industry, and perhaps the best of the 'first generation' purpose-built jet trainers. Amongst military airplanes, the butterfly tail is synonymous with the Magister, which is also noted for its very short undercarriage, tailskid and wingtip tanks. The Magister first flew in 1952, and is still in limited service today throughout the world. It was licensed produced in Germany, Finland and Israel, and a special version built for the French Navy was known as the Zephyr. As with many famous aircraft, the design outlived the original manufacturer, as Fouga was taken over by Potez, which then became Sud-Aviation, which in turn led to Aerospatiale. The Magister could carry light underwing weapons, but it was never seriously intended to have a secondary combat role. The Magister has been a favourite of aerobatic teams over the years, including those of the French and Belgian air forces and Irish Air Corps. Long after the last Magister retires from military service, it will still be flying with private operators.
This is an exceptionally neat and tidy mold from Heller, probably dating from around the late-1970's. It is not the older Airfix mold. In the early 1990's, some Heller boxings had the original Heller mold replaced by an inferior (to my mind) Airfix equivalent - examples of this include the F4U-1 Corsair and the Alpha Jet. There are no such problems here. This particular kit is molded in mid-grey plastic on four sprues, with a separate transparency sprue for a single-piece canopy section and nose and wingtip tank lights. This totals to about 67 pieces, and includes optional parts for two different versions: a Patrouille de France aerobatics aircraft (1978), and a Luftwaffe trainer version (1966). The decal sheet is standard Heller - not too large, but including all the main items. The instruction leaflet is the typical 1980's single A4 sheet printed in landscape. The 10-step instruction guide spills on to the reverse leaf, where there are small but adequate four-view painting and decal guides for each aircraft. Paint codes are completely in Humbrol. The box is the sturdy two-piece design used by Heller since the early 1990's for all their kits, even small ones such as this. Today, this kit is priced at around just STG£ 4 or equivalent. Back in the early 1990's though, a local shop was selling Heller kits so cheaply - IR£ 2, about STG£ 2 - that you could buy two or three of anything interesting (including this) without even thinking. This explains one of the many piles of boxes in my family attic, and why stackable two-piece boxes are so important! Most long-time modellers will know just what I mean.
This kit features the standard Heller surface detailing: mostly raised panel lines, with countersunk detailing around the control surfaces, and for some grilles and openings. The airbrakes on the wings could have been a bit more detailed, and the small wing aileron hinges aren't included, but that's about it. Not a rivet in sight, and no flash to speak of either. Dimension-wise, the kit looks to be pretty much spot on in terms of both length and wingspan. On the ground, the Magister had a slight 'nose-down' attitude, which is reproduced very well in the completed kit. Also, when viewed from head-on, the upper wing surfaces sloped down from root to wingtip as the wings got gradually thinner. This is also done very well. The only accuracy concerns I have are minor, and I'll deal with those as they arose during assembly.
The cockpit was a standard 'bath' affair, with separate front and rear seats, control sticks and two different instrument panels. These featured the type of detailing that one would expect from a kit of this vintage - not perfect, but good enough to paint in a realistic set of dials on both panels. There is no detailing on the side panels. The seats were basic enough, with acceptable fabric detailing. The only real quibble I have is whether or not the German version should have an alternative set of ejection seats. At any rate, I was building the French version, so this did not matter here. The overall interior was painted in flat black, as per the instructions. I wasn't too happy about using brick red (Hu 70) for the seat covers, so I opted for a browner shade here.
Before assembling the fuselage, the nosewheel bay bulkhead and nosewheel strut had to be attached. No nose weight was required. The French version also required a few holes to be drilled out in the nose at this point. After this, and the requisite detail painting, I went to assemble the fuselage. Here I encountered some minor 'fit' problems. There was a slight horizontal gap between the front of the cockpit and the fuselage, which was eliminated by re-positioning the forward instrument panel to tilt forward slightly. Dry-fitting also showed a slight gap between the fuselage halves just ahead of the cockpit. Some tests and sanding down indicated that the cockpit was the problem, not the bulkhead. Eventually, I just used a small amount of filler - a very small amount, as the gap was really quite small. One thing missing in the detail was a raised section ahead of the forward instrument panel, just behind the windscreen. That said, the cockpit detail on the fuselage behind the rear seat was very realistic. The canopy had to be cleaned up, as the sprue attachment point left an ugly mark on the framing, and on a small part of a window. The canopy itself was a reasonable but not perfect fit - expect a small amount of sanding and filling here. Also, it needed to be secured in place while setting. An inside and outside part were provided for instructors' periscope, but these were not required for the aerobatics aircraft.
I completed the main assembly before adding all the detail items; this is how I generally work, regardless of the instructions sequence. The engine intakes were very tidy two-piece assemblies. The two-piece wings were very straightforward, although they naturally had to be left to set for an hour or two. Alternate sets of two-piece wingtip tanks were provided: the French version used small tanks, whereas the Luftwaffe version featured much larger tanks, with separate transparent pieces for navigation lights. The butterfly tails were OK, but required careful positioning and a small amount of filler at the underside of the root. A head-on diagram should have been provided indicating the correct angle. These also had to be left to set for a couple of hours. I attached the four large hinges at this point; in retrospect, I should have left them off until I had masked and painted the tailplanes, but this turned out to be a minor inconvenience.
© Kevin Ronayne 2005
The nosewheel door had a small section 'turned over' - this is correct, although it would mean some work if a model with retracted undercarriage was to be built. The main undercarriage bays were reasonably detailed, and each main undercarriage assembly contained six nicely detailed pieces, including three door parts. All quite fiddly, but causing no real problems. The only thing to watch out for is the main leg and support strut sub-assembly, which should be tested and fitted with some care. The bays and undercarriage were painted in natural metal (aluminium), with Hu 63 being used on the inside of the doors. Head-on pictures show the inner main undercarriage doors leaning outwards slightly, instead of hanging straight down. This is not mentioned in the instructions, although it's quite easy to do. The final assembly involved components such as the nose light, the nose 'handles' on the French version (for smoke generation, perhaps?), a pair of tiny antennae ahead of the cockpit, the tailwheel, and an array of intakes, bumps and antennae on the rear fuselage. The instructions could have been clearer on where to attach some of these parts, although it was mostly obvious once you looked closely at the fuselage.
© Kevin Ronayne 2005
How many different paint schemes can you have for the Patrouille de France? Quite a lot, as it turns out. The painting guide gave a matt scheme, which was surprising to me, with Hu 25 as the darkish main blue colour. I consulted two versions of the Heller Alpha Jet, which also had the Patrouille option. Both were gloss, but had different shades of blue. The first was a 50/50 mix of Hu 14 and Hu 47 - quite a light shade. The second was straight Hu 14. Trawling the Web seemed to provide pictorial evidence for all three schemes, and more besides. Some aircraft had a silver/natural metal fuselage; some had red and blue wingtip tanks; and some aircraft had the periscope attached. In the end, I went with my instincts, which was the gloss scheme using Hu 14 - the appropriately named 'French Blue' - as the main colour. The wings and tailplanes had to be masked, as no white stripe decals were provided for those. I preferred that anyway, as it made for a much more realistic finish. For the record, the Luftwaffe version was all natural metal.
The decals were in excellent condition, despite their age - always a plus with Heller. Nothing extensive, as you would expect for a kit of this vintage. However, for the Patrouille option, there is a full set of serial numbers and pilot names for the entire unit, should you ever want to model an entire team! The decals were very thin, had a great finish - I saw no need to overpaint with a varnish - and had excellent adhesion (with Humbrol DecalCote 1 and 2). The white stripes were not absolutely opaque, which is a common occurrence. With the lowered undercarriage and the nose 'handles' already attached, I had to truncate some of the stripe decals and hand-paint the remaining sections, which was no bother. On the downside, the Luftwaffe decals were not really printed properly, with white outline on the crosses being well off-line, among other things.
© Kevin Ronayne 2005
On the Heller scale of kit excellence, I would give this 9/10. It has exceptional accuracy and attention to detail for a kit of its age, with only minor flaws to contend with. With about half a dozen more of these, and the right decal sheets, a theme series of 'Aerobatic Magisters' would be very tempting. A true Heller classic.
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