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Redicus
Marius (Redicus)
DE

Fouga CM.170 Magister - Israel - 1967

Album image #1
The cover of the Valom kit and the aircraft I am trying to represent. 
 

Album image #2
Why finish one project when you can start 10 more and finish none? So this one should be somehow quick and rather uncomplicated.

The Valom kit leaves a very good first impression. It has these nice PEs and resin parts, which are very good looking. 
 

Album image #3
Nice fine details on the outer surfaces, but no overkill, just the reasonable amount of detail for the scale. Personally I am very pleased with this kind of level of detail.
Only a bit of flash here and there. 
 

Album image #4
There are some cockpit consoles included also on the inner parts of the fuselage. 
 

Album image #5
The small parts seem to be well done with good detailing. 
 

Album image #6
For the wheels, you can get the improved resin ones from CMK, but the ones from the kit are definitely decent enough. 
 

Album image #7
For the clear parts there are a couple of small transparent resin (!!) ones for the lights and two flawless and very good looking vacuformed canopies.
For the option of open cabin you need to cut them 🙂, so it seems like a lot of fun with that. 
 

Album image #8
And the canopy can be cut easily even with a normal nails scissors. So far I have not decided if to try cutting the canopy open (and use the rear plastic part instead) or not. 
 

Album image #9
Some nasty gap at the wing which later required sanding and a rescribing of the flaps. Also note the 1mm white gap in the fuselage halves in the middle, already filled with putty.

Otherwise the fuel tanks mounted at the wing tips had to be sanded down very much because of an even worse fit. 
 

Album image #10
Overall still fast progress on this little aircraft. The details are overall more than sufficient in my view. 
 

Album image #11
Some cables can be added to the behind the instrument panels. I've done this later only for the front panel. 
 

Album image #12
The vacuformed canopy was succesfully cut with a small nails scissors.
For the canopy rear section I decided to use the opaque styrene part, since it's more nicely detailed and crisp than the vacuformed part.

Plenty of areas required quite some filling and puttying. This beautiful little kit is no weekend job, that's for sure! 
 

Album image #13
And the ventral fins surrounding the cute little rear wheel. I think the wheel is a bit undersized.

LATER EDIT: Two of those rearmost air intakes (one for each engine) were mounted on purpose against the flight direction, since I misinterpreted a photograph. That's wrong, they should be actual air intakes (therefore in flight direction). It was later corrected, so don't do it like shown here 🙂. 
 

Album image #14
And primed...and repairs/corrections...and again primed.

The delicate PE hinges of the elevators broke off a couple of times (logically) so I will attach them once more at the very end, together with other delicate PEs. 
 

Album image #15
Basic paint and decals on. Weathering next. 
 

Album image #16
And the wheels with the struts. Cables, PEs and doors to be attached. 
 

Album image #17
Some washes and postshading.

Now sitting on its own tiny, cute landing gear  
 

Album image #18
The wing tip lights have had a bad fit and are actually resin parts (requiring cianoacryl. for glueing). They got blurry at some point and I thought they will look very bad at the end.
After removing the masks, they are not that bad after all. 
 

Album image #19
Ordnance up next.
The 12 unguided missiles have 4 tiny PE fins each 🙂.  
 

Album image #20
16 fins attached. 32 more to go 🙂.

They will definitely look nice at the end. 
 

Album image #21
New goodies arrived, these beautiful figures from CMK.
I had a mixed experience with the CMK figures in the past, but these ones are really well done. I guess a small unplaned diorama will happen. 
 

Album image #22
And the Fouga Magister was indeed a really small aircraft.
(the model is still work in progress) 
 

Album image #23
And finished!

So I learned that the Valom kit is not the easy way for this aircraft in 1:72

The figures and diorama base are also in work.
 
 

Album image #24
The Fouga Magister received also two machine guns in the nose during IDF service. Overall, it became a surprisingly effective aircraft for close ground support during the Six Day War.
 
 

Album image #25
Some photographs of the Israeli Fouga Magister taken immediately after the Six Day War are showing indeed clear patina on the aircraft, with streaks of grime and colour variations of the camouflage. 
 

Album image #26
The cockpit included in the kit is more than sufficient for a decent detailing, so a positive point to Valom for this.
On the other hand, working with this vacuformed canopy was difficult. Very thin and very, very flexible, bending much under small loads, often resulting in chipped off paint.
 
 

Album image #27
That long ventral fin is a PE-part that easily bends on contact, but luckily we have an itsy-bitsy tiny wheel to protect it.

There is plenty of additional detailing that can be done on the small parts for the Fouga Magister.
I kept it rather simple and mostly out-of-box. 
 

Album image #28
And the hinges for the tail control surface got broken and lost several times. Out of the 4, only 1 is the original PE part, the rest were styrene copies.

And just now I noticed that the number (220) shouldd have been repeated on the tail as well. It seems Valom forgot that for the decal sheet. And I forgot it too. 
 

Album image #29
Sturdy landing gear with those nice resin wheels (worth it).

The unguided rockets didn't have such a clean, nice surface quality, but were overall still a good addition. I managed to find only one decent photograph with these exact rockets, but it's black and white and very dark. The cone/tip seemed to be white, but no idea about the rest of the body (I assumed dark grey). 
 

Album image #30
Album image #31
Since it's not yet 2 years since I finished the model, I realized it might be time to finish the initial diorama concept.

The base plate with the concrete segments was a pre-made resin part. I added only the corner with the desert and vegetation.
 
 

Album image #32
And a close up. No big deal, but it's my first diorama ever. 
 

Album image #33
Since I'm quite bad at figure paitning, I was lucky the figures were of great quality. 
 

Album image #34

Commentaires

97 30 September 2022, 06:00
Erik De Smet
This one will not be uncomplicated...
30 September 2022, 06:29
subotai
starting a new one is the best. right after buying more and more kits 😄
30 September 2022, 07:19
Marius
Erik, I realized soon after what you meant, yes, there were a few challenging steps, but considering the small size of the model, progress is still relatively fast.
9 October 2022, 10:19
Cuajete
Interesting... Nice start 👍
9 October 2022, 18:21
Hans-Jürgen Haag
👀👀
19 October 2022, 17:36
Tom B.
Cool! looking forward to the brown/blue camouflage... I find this to be a really intriguing combination!
19 October 2022, 19:09
Łukasz Gliński
That's gonna be another beauty in your collection, isn't it? 🙂
20 October 2022, 07:37
Robert Podkoński
Good work so far on this demanding kit. Keep it up!
20 October 2022, 19:32
Marius
Thank you guys for the interest!

I think if worked with care, this one has good chances to end up a beauty, since there are so many small details concentrated on such a small aircraft.
Painting should start soon, I am also very curious how this camouflage scheme will look at the end. I am planing later also an Israeli Vautour II in this same scheme.
21 October 2022, 06:47
Michael Kohl
I am in too. I particularly appreciate the background information you always provide with your builds. Very interesting.
21 October 2022, 22:09
Tom B.
Camo is looking neat so far 👍 I want to do a Sa´ar in the same scheme... just found that one of AKs "Aces High" Editions focussed on French jets has a chapter dedicated to painting this israeli scheme... However I propably won´t be able to free-hand the shapes... I assume you used some kind of masking for the hard transition, also?
6 November 2022, 14:44
Bernd Grün
Nice start, Marius. Following with interest. 👍
6 November 2022, 15:12
Marius
Thank you for the interest and messages Bernd, Michael and Tom!
@Tom:
I have to admit that I didn't do extensive research on this one, which kind of isn't my style. From what I have understood from the few historical photographs, it seems there was indeed a hard transition between the colours in my opinion, especially if you reduce the real size to 1:72. Indeed, I used masking, I don't see any other way.
7 November 2022, 20:03
S M
Looks great with colors and decals 👍
7 November 2022, 21:49
Cuajete
Nice progress 👍
8 November 2022, 20:22
Raphael Bernecole
Awesome, i like it a lot 🙂
9 November 2022, 07:05
Stuart Fowle
Great looking project and build.
29 November 2022, 14:02
Sylvain Vernier
Valom is not the easy way, but your build looks great. 👍
All the tiny fins will add value, but considering the number, it looks like a punishment for me 😭
Masking for paint certainly was the right solution for me too. Waiting for the next step 👀
29 November 2022, 14:46
Michael Kohl
Nice progress
29 November 2022, 15:00
Cuajete
Looks great so far 👍
29 November 2022, 18:11
Neuling
Very beautiful result! I like the camouflage colors. 👍👍
7 December 2022, 10:27
Bernd Grün
Outstanding result, Marius. Cheers! 👌
7 December 2022, 10:37
Vincent
Very nice work here!!! Great result.
7 December 2022, 10:43
Michael Kohl
I really like how you brought life into this special camo. Very well done. Hach, makes me wanna build a Fouga too.
7 December 2022, 10:58
Łukasz Gliński
Brilliant result, love the faded camo 👍
7 December 2022, 11:54
Clement
Lovely paint job, it suits the magister perfectly!
7 December 2022, 12:59
Bart Goesaert
excellent work... also soon on the table, together with some special hobby kits...
7 December 2022, 13:59
Harry Eder
Nice weathered plane! 👍
7 December 2022, 15:03
S M
Magnificent Magister! 😄 I also love the faded camo 👍
7 December 2022, 15:29
Sebastian Meyner
Beautiful work mate! The paint job and weathering are stunning 👍
7 December 2022, 15:51
James C
Fantastic work mate 👍
7 December 2022, 16:28
Simon Nagorsnik
Top notch!
Really like your paint job Marius!
7 December 2022, 17:17
Guy Rump
Great job. 👍
7 December 2022, 20:03
Cuajete
Wow... Fantastic job. Very nice painting job.
Congrats!
7 December 2022, 20:38
Curatorm
Awesome!
8 December 2022, 06:35
Raphael Bernecole
Great job !! well done 🙂
8 December 2022, 06:56
Lochsa River
Clean....
8 December 2022, 09:04
Marius
Thank you everybody for the appreciation! I did not expect it to be honest.

I guess a Vautour IIN in a similar livery will soon be on my workbench.
9 December 2022, 10:30
Shar Dipree
Very nice. 👍
7 May 2023, 06:47

Album info

The first Fouga Magister arrived in Israel in 1957, while the local license-manufacturing by IAI started shortly after. The licensed built aircraft was now renamed the IAI Tzukit. The first Tzukit was completed in 1959 and entered service in 1960. The Fouga Magister served with the IAF's flight school, where they were used for both basic and advanced jet training.

In 1964, the flight school organized a fighting squadron, manned by school instructors and IAF reservists, to use the Magister as light attack aircraft in case of hostilities.
In the morning of the 5th of June 1967, at the dawn of the Six Day War, a formation of several Israeli Fouga Magister where flying a patroling mission over the Meditarrenean Sea reproducing the flight paths, speeds and altitude of the Israeli Mirage IIIs, which were normally performing such CAP missions. The purpose of this action was to deceive the Egyptian Air Defences and further give the impression that everything was the usual routine. Nevertheless, the Israeli Mirages (together with other aircraft types) were already flying at that moment at very low altitudes undetected towards the Egyptian air bases, commencing the first bombing run of what was to become the Six Day War.

Later on the same day of the 5th of June 1967, 44 Fouga Magister flown by the IAF reservists and instructors were used by the 147th Squadron as close support aircraft, attacking ground targets on the Sinai front with unguided missiles and bombs, while Israel's more capable combat aircraft were deployed on "Operation Focus" against Arab air bases. In the following days of the war, the Fougas were then deployed against Jordanian forces, including against armour on the West Bank. Fougas reportedly destroyed over 50 tanks and over 70 other armoured vehicles (according to Israeli claims), helping in holding back Jordanian armour which had been advancing towards Jerusalem. The Fouga Magister proved effective in the close support mission, albeit sustaining heavy casualties in the process, with seven aircraft and six pilots recorded as having been lost during the Six Day War.

After the Six Day War, the Fougas were maintained in service as trainer aircraft, out of which the IAF Aerobatic Team was formed. In 1974, the Magisters were replaced by A-4 Skyhawks in the advanced jet training role, further keeping only their basic training role. By the beginning of the 1980s, a plan was devised to upgrade and refurbish the aircraft, extending their service life. The refurbished aircraft featured over 250 modifications, including new engines and a newly designed cockpit. By 1986, the majority of the Fougas had been upgraded to Zukit standard. All Fougas were subsequently replaced by the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II.

34 images
1:72
Terminé
1:72 Fouga CM.170 Magister (Valom 72088)1:72 Fouga Magister/Zephyr Wheels (CMK Q72228)1:72 Two Fouga Magister Pilots and a Mechanic (CMK F72306)1+

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