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Hi guys,

Bought the 1/32 Academy Nieuport 17 (and another Sopwith Camel, just in case) today :lol:

The Nieuport 17 kit appears as good as the reviews suggest. Relatively simple break down, not too many parts. The molding (e.g. rotary engine) while not exactly delicate, seems nice enough. The kit is also cheaper than my 1/48 Eduard (Nieuport 17 in Russian Service boxing) :monkeydance:

Since this is my first bi-plane kit parts. I intend to follow the instructions. I also have the Eduard instructions to cross refer to :D:.

Much of my background research is done on line. I have the windsock book on the way. And, most importantly, I have expert help (thanks to Old Man for your kind PM) !

So, I will kick off with the cockpit... photos to follow shortly.

:thumbsup: Giles

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Hi guys,

1st photos

AcedamyBoxing.jpg

The 1/32 Academy Nieuport 17

Proof that much of my background research is done on line ;)

Myresearchtools.jpg

I found Starflyer's excellent WIP very helpful.

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....ieuport+17+1/32

Further proof that I have done at least something... other than reading other people's builds on line :sunrevolves:

uphillsanddowndales.jpg

originallowerwings.jpg

I don't know what scale effect ribbing on a WWI biplane should look like. Without getting into the "hills and valley" vs "taut freshly doped linen" debate, I thought the ones on my kit looked a little heavy handed. I am not sure... my 1/48 Eduard Nieuport 17 and Sopwith Camel have equally obvious ribs whereas my 1/48 Roden S.E. 5 had very subtle ribbing. I wonder whether the ribbing is dependent of the aircarft type :monkeydance:

:monkeydance: Giles

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First baby step... and, I cheated...

Photocopied my 1/48 Eduard Nieuport 17 PE fret, scale the copy up to 1/32, then used the PE for seat back as a template to punch out the holes on a very thin plastic card.

Cut the kit's chunky seat back off, trim the seat pan (too deep) to the right size (based on the scaled up copy of Eduard's PE seat pan).

Glued the punched plastic card seat back to the kit's trimmed seat pan.

Et voila! True to scale plywood backed pilot's seat. Certainly looked good enough for me. The PE may be OK for 1/48 but didn't look so right to me in 1/32.

Sorry no photos, photobucket was acting up and I am going to bed. Will try to upload pictures tomorrow.

Giles

[edited for typo]

Edited by giles
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slick95 and Old Man, many thanks for your kind comments and encouragement!

I'll try not to disappoint :whistle:

First of all, apologies for the crappy shots... I need to learn how to take decent photos...

templateplasticcardandkitpart1.jpg

PE template scaled up from 1/48 to 1/32. My punched out plastic card for plywood seat back. And, the corresponding kit part (cut off) .

templateplasticcardandkitpart2.jpg

You can see clearly that my punched out plastic card scaled out better than the kit part ^_^:

Next, I will tackle the cockpit interior details...

Giles

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Thanks moeggo!

I might have veed off on a tangent... most of the aircraft structural framework will not be seen once the fuselage is closed, I could not resist getting sidetracked... I had to try it at least once :cheers:

My DIY jig is made from photocopied Rosendaal's Das Nieuport-Jagdflugzeug scaled to 1/32. I only made the sections of the frame that are remotely likely to be seen peeping into the cockpit.

IMG_5775.jpg

First, I made the left and right sides from square section evergreen strip styrene to simulate the wooden frame on the actual aircraft (the tubular metal frame replacement for the kit part is made from round evergreen styrene rods). After the sides have set firmly, I moved on to fix the bottom.

IMG_5780.jpg

Finally, I fixed the top. The tubular curved metal frame for the instruments fixture was formed around a wine cork, dipped in a cup of hot water, (process repeated until the right curvature is formed). I drank the by-product - wine :cheers: and tea :wacko::

Next on the agenda, the bits to go with the cockpit (throttle, control stick, rudder and other instrument)...

Giles

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Thanks Gregory and moeggo (encore!) for your kind comments.

Today, the Noppy bit back...

After a few attempts, I managed a very decent looking throttle quadrant frame (I don't know what you call that thing stuck on to the left of the fuselage frame ) lovingly carved out of a thin plasticard. I dare say it looked even better than a scaled up version of the Eduard 1/48 PE. I surfaced it with Mr Surfacer 1200 to get rid of the nick marks from the X-acto blade and left it aside to dry. When I went back to sand that plasticard throttle quadrant frame, it was gone! :whistle: Vanished into thin air!!

I am sure at least a few of you have very similar stories to tell... Well, my story is unique... it ain't the carpet monster because there isn't even carpet in the room!

I am sure it will "eventually" turn up. So, I am going to bed now... If it doesn't turn up soon enough, I'll just make another one.

Giles

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Excellent work, Sir! This is looking to be a wonderful build.

The surest way to find that quadrant is to make a new one. Seriously, though, that is one of the odder things about scratch-building; you can always make the replacement, and to the same standard to boot. In my scale, I often make the littler pieces especially several times, and them pick the best of the lot....

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Thank you for your encouragement Sir!

I hope I will not disappoint...

structuralframeworkfromside.jpg

The structural framework unwrapped.

structuralframeworkfromtop.jpg

If you look carefully, the frame behind the pilot's seat is not exactly "square". But, never mind, my excuse is you can't see much of it once the fuselage is closed, so I am not going to fiddle further with it. May be it has something to do with being fueled by Glenmorangie :wasntme:

mockup1.jpg

To prove to you that I wasn't fibbing about the throttle quadrant frame. Here is a mockup of the "last" throttle quadrant frame against the wooden structural frame.

Oh well, I guess I'll take your advice to make a new one.

Giles

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That is very choice, Sir!

Keep this up, you might be able to dispense with a kit entirely and simply cover the thing in five thousandths inch sheet....

Ha, ha :wasntme: I did think of that...

But, best not to try on one's virgin outing...

Cheers,

Giles

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Thanks Gregory and Mike for your kind words.

Gregory, I have build models before this one :rofl: My builds in the past were mainly quick shake and bake OOBs. It was more than 20 years ago after all... This time round, I am inspired by the excellent work here on the forum and will try my best on this one.

Mike, I think the Acedamy Nieuport 17 is a pretty good kit - simple and robust enough for a virgin biplane build, but with enough details to satisfy even if build OOB. I saw so many excellent stuff and ideas, I wanted to experiment a bit. I just hope I don' get too carried away... My last two GB also began OBB-ish but never got completed... I want to complete this one.

Old Man, I took your advise and made a replacement throttle quadrant frame last week. Somehow, I lost the momentum and did nothing further over the weekend. Finally, stretched some sprue and detailed the throttle assembly yesterday. I am really chuffed :) with the result. Will take some photo and post later.

Giles

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IMGThrottleQuandrantAssembly.jpg

Finally uploaded the promised photo of the replacement throttle quadrant assembly.

I keep only the (overscaled) throttle quadrant of the kit. The frame is curved out of a thin plastic card. I deliberately overscaled the added details slightly to match the kit's throttle quadrant (using stretched sprue instead of more scale correct copper wires). I reckon overscaled details would look more impressive to someone peeping into my Nieuport’s cockpit. Will add an oil pulsometer (to be made out of a transparent stretched sprue - the real one is glass) later after painting.

For references, I relied on photos of a real Nieuport 23 in a Brussels museum.

http://users.skynet.be/fa233213/En/RealAir...alAircraft.html

And, Mark Miller’s excellent 3-D rendering.

http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Miller/re...port/index.html

I ordered the Windsock datafile when I started, but it is taking forever to arrive...

I will work on the rest of the cockpit instrument and fittings (visible ones only promise :lol:). I know the Ni-17 does not have an instrument panel in the traditional sense. Does any one know whether French Ni-17 were fitted with other dials besides a round dial (believed to be a tachometeron the right side of the cockpit) mounted on curved metal bar. I could not find any pictures to show any other instrument or fittings. Seems weird not to have at least a fuel gauge and a clock :unsure: . And, oh yes, where is the MG trigger?

Cheers,

Giles

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Thank you Peter!

I don't think I am brave enough to attempt this in paper though!!

I have kinda stalled at the cockpit because the Windsock has not arrived :)

So, I turned my attention back the the structural framing...

IMG_5923.jpg

I wanted to add some more details...

IMG_5918.jpg

So, I added some more support structure for the MG pintle mount last night...

I'll have to think about how to do a wood finish pretty soon... :woot.gif:

Giles

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  • 3 weeks later...

I am back in the cockpit after three weeks enforced break (I was traveling for work). I wanted to paint the frame but it was too flimsy to pack along in the luggage :shoot:

The Windsock has arrived in the interim. Am actually a little underwhelmed... some nice photos really... but what I managed to skim off the internet in the meantime was pretty impressive to start with. I think the Windsock will come in handy when I need to cross check some details, but I definitely don't think it is essential for the build.

As for the actual build, I had to turn my attention back the structural framing... after breaking it more than once :whistle: while trying to fit it within the kit's fuselage halves and trying to close the halves...

It was a classic case of 20/20 hindsight. Old Man was right on the money, may be I should have attempted to skin the frame instead!

I was so happy with my virgin attempt on the internal skeletal framework that I neglected to factor in the thickness of the kit's fuselage. The end result is a clash of scale correct structural frame with Academy/Hobbycraft's idea of engineering that sacrificed scale thickness of the fuselage skin for the rigidity of the fuselage assembly. I didn't feel like making another frame (I was too lazy, may be the novelty just wore thin...) so I resorted to sanding the inner surface of the fuselage. It isn't pretty, but I think I managed to sand enough plastic away to make the fuselage translucent :thumbsup: without making too many holes in the two halves. The frame fitsnow (barely) within the fuselage halves.

I guess I'll have to chalk this one down as experience.

I stabalised the weak spots of the thinned fuselage halves with Tamiya plastic cement and left the halves to dry over night. We'll see how to clean up the frame (broken joints) tomorrow... With a bit of luck, I might get round to trying my first wood grain over the weekend...

Giles

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My Nieup is crawling along mostly...

I am somewhat happy with my much sanded translucent fuselage halves that I primed the interior and even sprayed a sand coloured base coat today to prep it for the wood graining. I am still fiddling the shape of the front end of the bottom fuselage (near engine cowling). the shape is off in the Academy kit. I'll post picture when that is done.

In the meantime, I shot some pictures of the similarly prepped internal frame (breaking more joints in the masking :) and spraying process).

S6305997.jpg

S6306001.jpg

I am a little apprehensive of trying my first wood grain... I don't know what to expect... I might go and make myself some rotary engines first, but that is also something I am totally cluelees about...

Giles, the cluless biplane bimbo :wave:

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Giles,

Here's something that may be of interest to ,this is a article from Stormo by a friend of mine Davide Splendore.Davide has done as excellent job on his Nieuport 17 in the marking of Francesco Baracca.Your N 17 just keeps getting better with each new update my friend.Keep up your excellent work.

Regards,

Gregory Jouette

Here's the link to Davide's article http://www.stormomagazine.com/ModelArticle...Ni17_DS_1a.html

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Hi Gregory,

Thanks for the linky.

Actually, I found Davide Splendore's in progress build notes here too. Davide's excellent Ni-17 was the original inspiration for my build. I hope to build mine as N1831 which was captured and later flown in German markings. I only hope my model will be half as good as Davide's :thumbsup: .

Giles

Edited by giles
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