Eduard 1/48th Nieuport 17 in RFC Service
This is Eduard's crisp little Nieuport 17 with a some extra detailing. The kit cockpit is fairly simple, with a flat floor with a step for the seat and molded in heel boards. It looks fine once it's all closed up. However, in an attempt to validate my purchase of the Windsock Datafile I wanted to beat it up a bit.
A new floor, seat mount, trusses, and heel boards were made from plastic card, while some copper wire and molten clear sprue was used to enhance the throttle mixture thingy on the port side. Bracing wires were made from synthetic hair extensions from a beauty supply store- the stuff is cheap and easy to work with.
Detailing on the exterior was limited to a new mount for the Lewis MG, made from a plastic post and some spare p/e metal, two p/e brackets to sling the telescopic sight under the wing, a copper wire to simulate the tubing that runs from the right forward cabane strut into the upper fuselage deck, and a pitot made of .006 brass wire and some plastic. Eduard doesn't provide the type of windshield required for this one, so I made a new one from clear plastic to mount between the aft cabane struts.
Interior CDL and wooden areas were painted with Floquil Antique White & Butternut, then the wood stuff was rendered with Prismacolor pencils and then varnished with a 1:1 mixture of Middlestone and Clear Gloss. Bright Silver mixed 4:1 with Japanese Charcoal Grey was used for the silver dope. Cowling was painted with a 2:1 mixture of Light Blue and Imperial German Calvary Blue, while the base color for the propeller was Midstone with an overcoat of Chestnut Brown. Decals were from the kit.
I also included a photo of various parts resting in a Chinese take-out food container- in my opinion, these are a great way to make sure you're well fed while the carpet monster goes hungry. Some Tamiya tape around the edges prevents scratches.
Sadly, you have made a model of the airplane flown by the greatest con-artist of the Great War. Billy Bishop flew alone, and his word was taken as that of a "gentleman", but his words were lies. The German records for the entire Western Front for the day he "won" the Victoria Cross for attacking three airfields record no airfield attacks anywhere, and no losses that fit any of his claims.
At most, he probably shot down 10, not 72. Fortunately for Canada, the true Canadian Ace of Aces (and Empire Aces of Aces) is the very honorable Raymond Collishaw - a true Canadian.
All that said, you've still made a very nice model of an airplane flown by a 10 victory cad.
I can not get past the Nieuport))! Great model, all done very well!
On the bright side, it's a great looking build with some potentially dark history attached to it. Makes it more interesting to me (Thanks TC, I'd never have known).
Thank you for your article and model. Very interesting. +10
The History is suspect but, the model is "Golden" and captures the look of the A/C. Another inspiring piece of work .