As mentioned in the review of the 1/48 sheet, the Magister is an aircraft that has been widely exported. Not only that, but it has been 'recycled' rather successfully as well. Often times aircraft have been pulled from service and still have a number of useful years left on the airframe. Customers for these planes are sought and when sold, the airframes are thoroughly reworked and rehabbed as needed before sending them on. Several of the aircraft on this sheet fall into that category.

For you modelers, there is a pretty good kit from Heller. Back in the mid 1980s, Heller was producing a number of new kits for the market. It included a lot of French aircraft, both older and modern. Some Heller kits are not that great in terms of fit and finish, however the Magister is one of the good ones and builds into a great little kit. (I have been reminded that Airfix also made a 1/72 Magister, though I have never seen one and don't know what the kit is like.)

One thing that has not been available for some time is a decent decal sheet. Other than the kit decals and an elderly ESCI sheet, there has been nothing. Thanks to Max Decals, enthusiasts now have a quality sheet that has a superb selection of aircraft on it.

This sheet covers 14 aircraft from 9 countries

The first is  a Bangladesh Magister from 1989. It is overall yellow with light orange panels on the wings and tail. The nose ad tip tanks are in da-glo red. A very colorful bird!

Next is a Gabonese AF Magister. I'll assume it is in silver as no color info is given on the sheet. Two nose marking options are given for this plane.

The third scheme is from the Togolese AF from 1980. It is in sand, green, and brown uppers with a light grey lower.

An Irish Air Corps Magister is next. It is in overall silver with daglo red nose, fuselage band and tip tanks. You get markings to do any one of the five aircraft of the Silver Swallows aerobatic team aircraft from 1997.

There are five different aircraft from the Finnish AF. All of them are overall silver, but four of them have slightly different markings on them; mostly having to do with the daglo stripes/bands or lack of them. These stripes/bands are not provided on the sheet but can be either painted on or cut from a solid color sheet.

There are two Luftwaffe schemes included on this sheet. One is a normal overall silver bird. The other is from the FFS A display team and has red, yellow and black bands on the tails and tip tanks with large red areas on the wings.

A Lebanese AF Magister is next in overall silver with daglo nose bands.

A most unusual Magister comes from the Katangan AF circa 1961. This short lived nation had its Magister in overall silver with dago nose, fuselage band, and tip tanks.

The final scheme is not shown, though it is on the instruction sheet and can be found on the website listed below. That is a Moroccan Magister in sand, brown and green uppers with white undersides.

Any one of these schemes would look great on your Heller kit and is a most welcome addition. As with other Max Decals, it is printed by Propagteam and is to the highest quality of clarity and registration. 

Max Decals has color copies of the instruction sheet at their website. Just click on the hyperlink below to access it. Max Decals informs me that their decals are being distributed by Squadron so obtaining them should not be a problem.

Review copy courtesy of Max Decals. Thanks for your support

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