Jump to content

Airfix 1/72nd Fouga Magister What If #1 : IAI T-270 Drowr


Harold Smith

Recommended Posts

It's just struck me that a couple of old builds of mine use nearly all Airfix parts, so they should be suitable for here.

The first is a swept wing Super-Magister of the Israeli Air Force Swallows display team. The backstory was that Fouga built it to compete for the French air Force advanced trainer requirement but lost out to the Alpha Jet, and the whole programme was eventually bought by Israel who built it as the IAI T-270 Drowr (which I hope means Swallow or Swift), with J-85 engines (well if the T-37 could do it...).

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d165/hws5mp/The%20Whiffery/Magister/SuperMagister013.jpg

The model uses Airfix G-91R wings and F-86D tailplanes. The canopy is a much-modified 1/100th scale F-14 one from a cheap Hobby Model Kits horror and the decals came from two aftermarket sheets: one 2nd hand that had all the Israeli squadron badges including the Swallows display team, and an Isra-Decals sheet intended for helicopters which was the only source of roundels small enough to fit on the engine nacelles!

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d165/hws5mp/The%20Whiffery/Magister/SuperMagister002-4.jpg

The gear-up build was dictated by the fact that the Airfix G-91 has a one-piece wing. The G-91 has it's wheels in the fuselage while the Magister has them in the wing, so it has much bigger undercarriage doors. Cutting bigger wells in the one-piece Airfix wings would have been exceedingly difficult and likely to ruin them, so it was MUCH easier to fill them in and draw new door lines on them. The solution to a gear-down version is to use the Matchbox G-91Y wing which is moulded in upper and lower halves, and I have all the bits stashed away to do this one day.

Here's some of the chicanery that went into the fuselage:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d165/hws5mp/The%20Whiffery/Magister/SUPERMAIGISTER005.jpg

After a few years living in a box with other models and going around to shows, thewhite yellowed very badly and I feared I'd have to retire the model, but this year it's spent most of it's time on a window sill in full sunlight and the yellowing has mostly gone, so you might see it out and about again next year.

Back when I was building it, I particularly enjoyed painting the pilot's wristwatch, although somebody on the What If forum did complain that the luminous dial was the wrong colour for IAF standard issue...

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d165/hws5mp/The%20Whiffery/Magister/SuperMagister006.jpg

Interestingly, although I made this idea up entirely myself, after I'd started it, some photos came to light (on Secret Projects: another excellent forum) of a large model of a swept-wing Magister derivative that was apparently made by Fouga themselves. Details of the project remain very thin however.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d165/hws5mp/The%20Whiffery/Magister/cm-195-2-1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interestingly, although I made this idea up entirely myself, after I'd started it, some photos came to light (on Secret Projects: another excellent forum) of a large model of a swept-wing Magister derivative that was apparently made by Fouga themselves. Details of the project remain very thin however.

 

That's the Fouga CM-195. Neat modelling project and you've mirrored the CM-195 quite accurately!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
  • Create New...