The Fouga Magister is one of my favourite aircraft which is why I’ve made this several times. If you want a review f the Heller Kit in full then I’d suggest my previous article you can read it here. This article however looks at HaHen’s decals to make the Red Devils version!

It’s interesting that Heller have re-released Kintetic’s Fouga in 1/48 with both Patrouille de France and Red Devils markings – I really hope that we see this in 1/72…and that HaHens get a hand in that!

HaHen’s decals cost €12.85 (as of June 2023, plus shipping) and is a great set of decals. The above image from their site shows what you receive. The top part is the colour instructions which are actually a full A4 sheet, the second part below that has all the non-white decals which makes it a lot easier than masking and painting it. The white decals are the line that goes across the aircraft for which the emblem of the team goes over.

The decals are interesting because they include the underwing sections for yellow and black – this makes it a lot easier to make the model rather than masking and worrying about bleed over. What I think is even better is that these decals allow a more novice modeller to essentially paint an entire model red and just stick the decals on! This is perhaps also helpful for people with less dexterity too.

I found the decals to apply very easily with a massive amount of strength to them. You could push and pull these around without any tearing. I did have some pigmentation loss but that was from my handling rather than anything else. I did find that the decals were not quite as dense as I’d have hoped meaning the red shows very slightly through but it’s not significant enough to concern me.

I applied mine with water and found no issues with them coming off the backing paper. It is worth remembering these are not pre-cut and so whatever shape you cut from the main sheet is the shape of the decal – but I find these easier to just cut down and shape afterwards – especially on wings or tails. I’m somewhat experienced with this as I’ve done many Dekls sheets too. But I don’t think this is a massive barrier.

Buy or Fly?

100% buy these decals. Obviously it only applies if you want to build the subject, but these are reasonably priced, well packaged, and come with great instructions. I think this helps make an extremely smart and pretty model. Adore it and love it!