IAI T-270 Drowr (Super Magister)

[Sauragnmon]

No, Chris, it's his Chinese exaggerated cousin.  They upsized him for the difference in perspective for height when they see him.

[Weaver]

Okay, not as much got done as I'd have liked on the Super Mag this weekend, mostly because it fell victim to one of the perils of living in an old house: The Catastrophically Escalating DIY Job. You know, the one that starts out as "can you touch up the paint in the hall dear?" and ends up, after discovering that paper, plaster and bricks are falling out, as "will half the house be re-built in time for Christmas dear?"..............

Anyway, some progress.

1. Real Magisters didn't have ejection seats, and the Airfix kit's rather nice seats are moulded into it's rather nice cockpit tub. It's not credible that an advanced, swept-wing Magister wouldn't have them, and the back seat in my Israeli display team one will be empty, thus exposing it to scrutiny, so something needed to be done. I've gone for the cheat option: add headrests to the exisiting seats and a cushion in the back one (standard seats have an empty pan for a seat-cushion parachute). Tamiya tape straps will follow.




2. Getting to know yooooouuuu..... Canopy and fuselage making the compromises neccessary for a beautiful relationship.......



Other than drilling them hollow, I can't think of any operation I havn't done on those four little bits of Evergreen......

The choice of a display aircraft proved fortunate because it allows me to side-step a thorny issue. Real Magisters have a periscope to give the back seater some forward view, which is installed in the fixed central section of the canopy. Trouble is, my sleek new canopy doesn't have a fixed central section, and I'm not keen on the idea of re-scribing it to get one (I have no spare). However, it turns out that the periscope was left off display team Magisters, so I can use that excuse for mine: more whifjitsu, glasshopper........

Isn't the Airfix Magister a nice little kit for 1975? Detailed cockpit, nice fit, hell it's even got detail on the inside of the u/c doors... It's not perfect: it's over-riveted, the gear doors are thick and the crew legless and under-scale, but it's still hard to believe it comes from the same outfit that brought you their bloody awful Gnat........

[Sauragnmon]

Weave, here's another thought... your canopy is bigger, sits higher, you could always slice the twin cockpit and stagger the heights on them.  Just a thought, it'd also do the forward view thing.

[Weaver]

Actually, the canopy is neither bigger nor higher, in fact a tall pilot in the rear seat would probably be banging his head. I have looked at the stepped seat option, but stepped seat canopies are really a different shape to this one. They're deeper and more bulbous, particularly at the rear. To get this one to work with enough step to make a difference, it would need to be lifted up on a HUGE slab-sided fuselage extension which would look awful.

There are other types of periscope: some Russian trainers have a folding "two-mirrors" type which could perhaps be incorporated in this one.

[Sauragnmon]

What if the answer lies in not jacking the back seat Up, but the pilot seat Down?  Angle down the dashboard, slide the pilot seat lower?

Just in looking, it seems to be set up for a stepped seat, the canopy, but perhaps indeed, the periscope is the option, or, alternately, one MFD with a camera feed from off the nose?  avoids our poor man looking through a periscope to see forward.

Just my random thoughts.

[nev]

Interesting model...

[Weaver]

I have the solution for the periscope problem: split it! The canopy has a "flat" in it, and the periscope head sits on top of that. The up-tube then terminates with a glass plate, 1mm below the flat. The canopy can then slide/elevate/whatever, but the two halves of the 'scope come together and line up when it's shut.

[Weaver]

Okay, not had much time to work on this lately, but I have, in excruciatingly small steps, finished the cockpit:



Magister cockpits are all black with black-faced instruments. Rather than make it a coal-hole, I painted it dark grey, gave it a black ink wash and "highlighted" various bits in black. The instruments got a blob of Clearfix each to give them a glassy sheen. The lighting's a bit deceptive here because it makes the grey look lighter than it really is.



I've no idea what the real Israeli display team wear, but I liked the idea of a sand coloured outfit so he got one. Then the more I looked at it, the more it needed short sleeves, so I carved off the sleeve detail to give him bare arms. Painting his wristwatch was fun! Presumably this is a ferry flight: real Magisters don't have provision for a G-suit, but the Super Mag almost certainly would. When I finally glue him in, he might get strap links from his shoulders to his seat: I painted up a piece of tape on a sheet of glass, so I've got plenty of strap left.



The side console detail in the kit isn't true to life, so I painted a few bits of it red and silver to indicate the real, and somewhat messy, collection of levers and buttons in a Magister's cockpit. Yes Magister straps really are blue and yes, they really do have leather seats! I decided to keep the real-life colour scheme, even though the Super Mag has ejector seats.

[BlackOps]

Weaver, lookin' good! I love the wristwatch!!!  Did you paint the dial with glow in the dark paint? 

[Weaver]

Yeah, but I'm afraid I had to make it a Rolex since I didn't have a brush fine enough to write Brietling on the face....

[nev]

Gotta love the shirt-sleeve order

[sotoolslinger]

That is some superb detail work

[Weaver]

Magister wings taped FIRMLY to Gina wings for u/c door scribing:




And the end result. A bit heavy, but then the pre-exisiting wing scribing is heavy too. Think I'd go a bit easier next time though - live and learn.....




The Secret Life of Fuselages, for those who are wondering why this critter is STILL in two halves:



Note that the ventral strake and tail wheel are gone. The tail wheel will be retractable, indicated by a pair of scribed doors, since it's an in-flight model. I did consider a pair of ventral strakes at matching angles to the tail fins, but in the end I decided that I liked the clean line of the fuselage better without them.

[Ed S]

Looking good.  That pilot looks like a CHP motorcycle cop.

Ed

[Weaver]

Looking good.  That pilot looks like a CHP motorcycle cop.

Ed

LMAO 

It's a shame the end result isn't going to be South American, other wise I could have made an "E. Estrada"  decal for under the cockpit......