Heres my 2 old airfix kits (1975) of the Fouga magister, in service with the Uranium mining corporation air corps. Fifteen Magisters were bought directly from Fouga in 1965, and were modified to suit by the factory. More powerful engines were installed and stronger wings so as to carry a reasonable amount of ordnance. The gun kit was also added, comprising of a pair of 7.62 Belgian made machine guns, with a rapid rate of fire. Underwing stores usually consistedof rocket pods and small bombs, but also can include captured Russian made rocket pods destined for a helicopter. The aircraft were very good at what they did, and during operation Saladin certainly earned their keep. The aircraft were painted with RAF roundels during operation Saladin, so they can be recognised by both ground forces, and RAF pilots.
The kits went together ok, but the canopies are dreadfull. Thr detail was missing in a lot of places which made it difficult to mask off and paint properly, so I just did what I could with them. Cheers

"The Fouga" is such a graceful aircraft in the air - but more power should, indeed, be good if you want to carry a load.

Didn't the Israeli do an armed version?

Quote from: Pellson on January 01, 2024, 01:20:44 PMDidn't the Israeli do an armed version?

The Israelis are likely to have armed *everything*, aren't they? 

Quote from: Pellson on January 01, 2024, 01:20:44 PMDidn't the Israeli do an armed version?

I think Rick Lowe is right there. I have picrures of armed versions, as I think they were also offered from the factory with the option to have guns and 4 hard points.

I like that camo. Very nice work, Chris! 

Quote from: DogfighterZen on January 01, 2024, 07:06:03 PMI like that camo. Very nice work, Chris! 

It does look good 

Nice one (two) Chris! 

I did an attack Magister back in the day, but I cut the canopy down to make it a single-seater and added a pair of 20mm in side-bulges with the ammo boxes in the back seat position, the inspiration being the MB-326K Impala.

The biggest problem with any armed Magister is pylon space and ground clearance. They sit so close to the ground that you can't physically fit a lot of stores that are theoretically light enough to carry. I made square-section 9-round 68mm rocket pods for mine, just in order to get two more rounds per pod than the 7-round circular-section real ones that are all that will fit without scraping on the ground. As for pylon space, the undercarriage bays are very wide (since the whole leg+wheel is within the wing) and outboard you have the arrays of quarter-circle spoilers that extend from the top and bottom of the wing, so you can't have pylons there either. From memory, the Israeli armed Mags only had two pylons. You might possibly be able to get four on, but they'd be very close together, thus creating yet another space limit.

Wikipedia, even google translation of the Hebrew page, does not mention more than two hardpoints.
Israeli Magisters and Tsukis were trainers, and their use as light attack aircraft was brought about by necessity as some ground forces would otherwise have had to fight without any air support.

Thanks for the input guys 
I added a level tablespoon of whiffarite to the mix with these two. I have seen actual.photographs of magisters with 4 pylons, inner ones had small freefall bombs, the outer had unguided rockets on them. In my wiffworld, these aircraft were custom built from new by the manufacturers, to the customers specifications. They were used to train pilots and ne able to a modest payload for close air support. I remember seeing your magister Weaver, and it did have some influence over these builds, as I did consider making the rear cockpit into an ammo box, and adding heavier guns. The 7.62' in the nose are sufficient enough for what they get used against though, which is unarmoured vehicles and ground troops. I have seen a film set in 1960's Africa, where they used a magister with wing root mounted guns, and I very nearly did that with my two. It would have been easier than drilling the correct angles and glueing the tubes into the noses.

Quote from: chrisonord on January 02, 2024, 05:36:27 AMI added a level tablespoon of whiffarite to the mix

Liking this term, and I may have to purloin it at some stage...

It sounds like it's time for the old-school Cooper Bombs to make a comeback.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_bombs

I imagine even something like a Magister could carry a decent quantity of them.

Quote from: Rick Lowe on January 02, 2024, 12:25:48 PM

Quote from: chrisonord on January 02, 2024, 05:36:27 AMI added a level tablespoon of whiffarite to the mix

Liking this term, and I may have to purloin it at some stage...

It sounds like it's time for the old-school Cooper Bombs to make a comeback.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_bombs

They're still around. They're called the BDU-33 practice bomb.  Shouldn't be too hard to put a real explosive charge in them, instead of black powder and talc.

Ah, that's what those racks are in the swag of ordnance I got one time - I figured they were practice bombs, but didn't know exactly what they were. Thanks.

I was going to do my veeeery old airfix meteor as a CAS aircraft, and suitably up arm it too, and maybe use a heaped table spoon if wifferite mixed in with it conception. But its canopy has gone walkies, so it will have to wait until I can find it.

Quote from: chrisonord on January 02, 2024, 05:36:27 AMThanks for the input guys 
I added a level tablespoon of whiffarite to the mix with these two. I have seen actual.photographs of magisters with 4 pylons, inner ones had small freefall bombs, the outer had unguided rockets on them. In my wiffworld, these aircraft were custom built from new by the manufacturers, to the customers specifications. They were used to train pilots and ne able to a modest payload for close air support. I remember seeing your magister Weaver, and it did have some influence over these builds, as I did consider making the rear cockpit into an ammo box, and adding heavier guns. The 7.62' in the nose are sufficient enough for what they get used against though, which is unarmoured vehicles and ground troops. I have seen a film set in 1960's Africa, where they used a magister with wing root mounted guns, and I very nearly did that with my two. It would have been easier than drilling the correct angles and glueing the tubes into the noses.

IIRC the backstory for my Magister was that is was originally an Israeli project and they tried 30mm DEFAs at first, but the recoil and blast was bit much. However when they then up-gunned their Skyhawks with 30mm DEFAs (really happened) they had a stack of spare 20mm Colt Mk.12s left over, so they used some of them on the Magisters. I think in real life a lot of them ended up on Maxon AAA turrets in place of the original 4 x .50 cals.

I don't know how you'd get any kind of gun into a Magister's wing root: it's pretty much full of spar and wheel well, and the chord is notably short. I suspect a bit of "movie magic" was at work there...

What occured to me to get more pylon space was to re-design the wingtip fuel pods along the lines of the Su-25 tip pods with airbrakes on the back end. Then you could take the quarter-circle airbrakes out of the wings and gain room for another pylon.