Tycho build Cohabiting with Eclipse RCP

The context: I have embraced Eclipse Tycho to automate the build of my small clutch of plugins. It does a great job. Part of the Tycho migration included removing all Eclipse .project and .classpath files from SCM.

The problem: To work on my plugins in Eclipse I must import my projects using "Import => Existing Maven Project", however the resulting Eclipse project has a very different shape:

It lacks any Eclipse plugins required to compile it
though my sources lie in the usual directory src/main/java the project is not configured use this as a source directory.

My question: How can I build a .project and .classpath combination that will get me back to pre-Tycho IDE productivity.

I have tried mvn eclipse:eclipse which says "eclipse-plugin" no longer supported, but does Tycho have something similar that is?
mvn clean install builds successfully

Solution

In retrospect the solution seems obvious, and my many thanks to oberlies for the clue.

To develop Eclipse plugins you must be using the Eclipse RCP/RAP edition or the Maven/Tycho import will not prompt you to install the Tycho configurator that maps the Maven project back into an Eclipse RCP project.

Repeating the steps outlined in my question, using "Eclipse for RCP and RAP Developers" prompts the developer to install the configurator, after which Eclipse requires a restart, and leaves perfectly useful RCP plugins projects.