A Red Nieuport (stupid damned upper wing... 2nd May)

[Wirelizard]

Having done a SPAD for the White Russians, I've started on a Nieuport 17 for the Reds.

As with the SPAD, the plane is a basic, cheap 1:48 Testors kit. I really should have built this one first, it's a much simpler kit that the SPAD (not that the SPAD was terribly complex...) with only six struts for the upper wing where the SPAD had twelve of the blasted things!

Anyway, last night I got the plane cleaned up and primed, and this evening I got started on assembly and basecoating. It's going to be silver overall, with a red nose cowling, a white tail, and a bunch of freehand red stars everywhere.

Here's the current state of the plane, propped up on my painting table. Yes, that's a dragon holding the tail up. And some 28mm Cossack cavalry behind the Nieuport.

[smirnoff]

This looks good.
I am trying to source this kit in the UK (without success as yet).
Would you mind telling me what silver paint do you use (and on what undercoat)?

[Wirelizard]

This looks good.
I am trying to source this kit in the UK (without success as yet).

If it helps, the link to Testor's own homepage: http://www.testors.com/product/145060/613N/_/148_Nieuport_17C.1

Would you mind telling me what silver paint do you use (and on what undercoat)?

Two coats (so far) of Reaper Master Series Tarnished Steel, thinned down with a wet brushful of water, over a fairly pale grey spray primer. I'll do a bit of highlighting with Reaper MS True Silver, and maybe some washes with grey to vary the look and tone it down a bit. Using the Tarnished Steel thinned gives a good naturally varying colour, though, so I won't do a lot of additional painting.

At least on my computer screen, the photo above looks a bit more blue-tinted than the plane actually is.

Having seen a few real fabric airplanes finished with "silver" dope, the silver can range from a flat grey to a shiny fully-metallic look. My paintjob is currrently trending slightly toward metallic, but some washes and a final coat or two of Testors Dullcote will dull it down nicely.

[smirnoff]

Thanks very much
Found one in the UK here:
http://www.plastickitswholesale.co.uk/product_info.php/products_id/6326

[Ignatieff]

Nice kit.  Anyone know if they do an equally simple Bristol fighter???

[mpennock]

I love that Nieuport kit. Cheap, easy to build and sturdy enough for gaming. It's looking good so far!

[Wirelizard]

Nice kit.  Anyone know if they do an equally simple Bristol fighter???

Don't think so. As far as I can tell, the only two WW1 fighters in the Testors Classics range are this Nieuport and the SPAD I did up for the White Russians last month.

There's a bunch of other interwar planes, but nothing else from WW1.

[Wirelizard]

It's Friday night, which is just made for staying up until unhealthy hours and doing silly things. Besides, I'm sulking because Salute is a very wide continent and a wide ocean away from me.  

Like six freehand red stars and a tail-full of red stripes!



Having the stars on the white circle was apparently quite common, for pretty much the same reason my model has them - because the plane previously had a roundel (Imperial Russian Air Service, of course) and it was easier to paint over it and use it to lay out the star. This Nieuport has roundels molded right into the plastic, so I took advantage of them.

I used a pencil to put dots around the outside of the circle to mark the points of the star, joined them with very light pencil lines, then went at it with a brush. The insignia need at least one more basecoat then highlighting with a brighter red as well as some cleanup; the tail stripes will need a fair bit of cleanup, painting back and forth with red and white, before a bit of highlighting.

Reaper MS Clotted Red for the base red; the white is Reaper MS Leather White. There's two more red stars on the underside of the main wing.

[koz10]

It's Friday night, which is just made for staying up until unhealthy hours and doing silly things. Besides, I'm sulking because Salute is a very wide continent and a wide ocean away from me.  

But Enfilade, in Olympia, Washington should be in your neighborhood and in coming up next month. Woo hoo!

[Wirelizard]

But Enfilade, in Olympia, Washington should be in your neighborhood and in coming up next month. Woo hoo!

I badly want to get down to Enfilade one of these years. Alas, this is not the year; it's a non-trivial exercise getting from Victoria to Olympia, and my budget won't allow this year. Sorry!

Anyway, insignia is finished and I'm going to curse the upper wing into position a bit later tonight. Here's the top of the main wing and underside of the rest of the plane currently.

[Wirelizard]

May I just say, in passing, that I f*****g hate biplanes sometimes. Frequently, in fact. Especially when the top wing of the damn thing pops one strut free, then proceeds to come entirely loose from the other seven struts when you apply a gentle bit of pressure to re-glue that one strut.

 

The damn Nieuport would have been done this evening, too, if it hadn't decided to shed it's upper wing instead.

 

I've dabbed a bit of extra glue on to reinforce the struts, put the thing aside, and will ignore it until tomorrow evening, then try to curse the upper wing back into place. Wish me luck.

Alternately, I could create a piece of wrecked airplane scenery to add colour and interest to my RCW battlefields...

[Westfalia Chris]

You have my sympathy. Such a lovely-looking concept, those biplanes, but such a hassle to assemble.

Coincidentally, wasn't a weak upper wing a persistent problem with some Nieuport designs (the Bébé and/or the 17, I am not quite sure at the moment)? In that case, your model will be even more historically accurate.

[smirnoff]

Having built  few of these biplanes I think we should lobby the manufacturers to amend their instruction sheet.
Where the fitting of the top wing is concerned there should be an instruction that reads:
'Swear now'.