Novo/Frog 1/72 Miles Magister, previewed by Scott Van Aken

The Miles M.14 Magister is a two-seat monoplane basic trainer aircraft designed and built by the British aircraft manufacturer Miles Aircraft. It was affectionately known as the Maggie. It was authorised to perform aerobatics.

The Magister was developed during the 1930s to Specification T.40/36, itself based on the existing Miles Hawk Trainer which had been ordered in small numbers. The first prototype's maiden flight was on 20 March 1937. It quickly became praised for its handling qualities, and was ordered into quantity production.

Entering service barely a year before the start of the Second World War, the Magister became a key training aircraft. It was the first monoplane designed as a trainer to be used by the Royal Air Force (RAF). During the war it was purchased in large numbers for the RAF, the Fleet Air Arm and various overseas military operators. It proved an ideal introduction to the Spitfire and Hurricane for new pilots.

After the war surplus Magisters were exported in large numbers, with many converted for civilian use.

THE KIT

Back around 1976, Frog went out of business. A Soviet company bought the molds for all their kits except those of German aircraft, which were picked up by Revell of Germany. The Soviets released these kits under the Novo brand and for many years, these were widely available. As time went on, the quality of the kits became worse and worse as obviously the Russians did not take good care of the tooling and the kits became even more and more inundated with flash. Some did not have decals but had them printed on the box with the builder required to use that for kit markings. Other kits simply came in bags with no box, instructions, or markings. This was not the case with those picked up by Revell of Germany. I'm not sure who has all the tooling now as I've not seen a Frog-based kit in quite a while.

The Magister was one of those that was offered in a header bag. Apparently there were enough decals left over for this kit to get a set. The kit does include instructions with the usual pictogram construction steps. All exterior painting info is on the back of the header and is for the box art plane, which seems to have a civil registration.

The kit itself is quite simple without any measurable fiddly bits. The interior is pretty non-existent and you are provided a couple of figures to fill in the emptiness. A pair of clear windscreens are provided. Unusual for this type is that the kit does not include the normal wheel and landing gear fairings. I believe that Aeroclub at one time provided these items in cast metal. What was a standard feature of Frog kits is separate control surfaces so you can pose them in a more dynamic presentation if you so wish.

Probably not everyone's go-to kit for this aircraft as both RS Models and Special Hobby do 1/72 versions and they are much newer tooling. However, if you have one or run across one on the cheap, don't hesitate to build it as it can turn out quite nice as you can see from this one I built some 35 years ago.

KIT #:	F-153
PRICE:	$
DECALS:	One option
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	Header bag kit