Fouga CM.170 Magister

Kinetic, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Mick Evans

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The Fouga Magister was the first purpose built two seat jet trainer aircraft.  The Magister had a distinctive V tail design. 

It was a very successful trainer having its first flight in 1952.  Nearly 1,000 Magisters were built and many were exported to a wide variety of countries. 

The Israeli Air Force operated a licensed built version, the IAI Tzukit.  While principally a trainer, it was used in the 1967 Six Day War by No 147 Squadron as a close support aircraft, attacking targets on the Egyptian front during the first day of the war when Israel’s more capable combat aircraft were deployed on Operation Focus against Arab air bases. 

The Belgian Air Force operated 50 Magisters as primary trainers.  The aerobatic team The Red Devils also used them as display aircraft.  A small number of Magisters remained in use until September 2007, as flight maintenance aircraft for senior officers.

Development of the Magister came to an end when the French Air Force selected the Alpha Jet as their new jet trainer to succeed the Magister. 

This release from Kinetic is the first mainstream 1/48 scale injection moulded kit of a Fouga Magister. The only other 1/48 scale Magister of note is the multi-media low pressure moulded Fonderie Miniatures limited run kit.  The FM kit was very basic and required a lot of work and a high level of model skills to build.

In this release you get not one but two complete Magister kits. 

The first thing that struck me as I examined Kinetic’s 1/48 scale Fouga Magister was that the surface detail is fine and restrained and among the best that Kinetic has done so far. 

The box contains two kits with each being made up from 146 light grey injection moulded parts, 14 clear parts and 12 etched metal parts - that means the box contains over 344 parts.  The fuselage is constructed from two main parts to which are added the nose cone, wings, intakes, exhausts and V tails.  The intakes contain full ducting back to the engine compressor face and continue with the exhaust ducting from the turbine to the tail pipe outlet.

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The wing detail is great. Separate flaps and ailerons are provided, which can be positioned in the up or down positions.

The wheel wells have a good level of detail.  The nose gear assembly and structure along with the forward bulkhead detail provides a high level of detail to the nose gear bay.  A major plus point is the separate photo-etched metal speed brakes.  On the Magister, the speed brakes are three serrated surfaces that slide out above and below the wing surfaces.

Wheels are provided in typical Kinetic style of separate wheel hubs sandwiched between two tyre halves.

The cockpit has sufficient detail with nicely detailed instrument panels and side consoles.

The transparencies are crystal clear and well moulded. The canopy is broken down into five parts to allow both the instructor's and the trainee's sections to be posed open. If you want to display the canopy closed, a full-length clear part is provided - nice touch.

Alternate rear cockpit bulkheads are provided but there is no reference as to which version uses which bulkhead.  A part numbered C4 containing two oxygen bottles although illustrated has no location identified in the instruction sheet.  A location line is missing pointing to a square locating hole between the front seat and in front of the rear instrument panel.

Alternate nose panels are included.  One has two cannons fitted while the other has the gun troughs blanked.  I presume that either panel may be fitted to any version but once again no information is supplied about this.  The instructions are also confusing around the wing pylon fitment.  Step 6 has you fitting the underwing pylon and then the next step mentions fitting a twin rocket launcher in the same locating hole that the underwing pylons has been fitted to.

The stores supplied for this kit are as follows:

• 2 x underwing pylons

• 2 x dual rocket launchers

• Twin nose cannon

Markings

There are five schemes provided:

1. Fouga CM.170 Magister, MT 15 No 272 of the Belgium Air Force.  This aircraft is painted in FS 11350 Red with Black and Yellow stripes on the V tail and undersides of the main wings.  There is a white trim line extending along the fuselage from the nose to the tail.

2. Fouga CM.170 Magister VP 585 of Patrouille de France.  This aircraft is finished in overall RAL 5017 dark Blue with Red, White and Blue V tail and upper wing surfaces.  There is a white trim line extending along the fuselage from the nose to the engine nozzles and a white trim line extending along the centre of the lower fuselage from the nose to the engine nozzles

3. Fouga CM.170 Magister No 529 of the French Armee de l Air.  This aircraft is finished in overall natural metal with FS 28915 dayglo orange nose and trimming on the V tail surfaces.

4. Fouga CM.170 Magister No 216 of 147 Squadron of the Israeli Air Force in the 1967 Six Day War.  This aircraft is finished in a camouflage of RAL 8025 Brown and RAL 5008 Blue upper surfaces and RAL 7044 Grey under surfaces.

5. Fouga CM.170 Magister No 158 of the Israeli Air Force Flight School in 1976.  This aircraft is finished in overall FS17925 White with FS 12197 dayglo Orange trimming on the nose, wing outer surfaces and V tail.

The decals are beautifully printed by Cartograf and colour saturation looks excellent.

This is another excellent kit.

Other than some minor issues with the instructions this is a superb kit with too many excellent colour schemes.  I will just have to purchase another kit!

Big kudos to Kinetic for this release. 

Highly recommended

Thanks to Lucky Model for the sample

Review Text Copyright © 2014 by Mick Evans
Images Copyright © 2014 by Brett Green
Page Created 10 March, 2014
Last updated 10 March, 2014

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