Great dual entry, my friend @lgardner! Looking forward to them!

Spectacular choice!

Great choice of the Nieuport 17 Louis, Have always fancied one done as Albert Ball's A/c, but getting hold of 1/32 WW1 models in Australia at the moment is almost impossible, shall have to import one I guess.

Here are some pictures showing what has been done with these N-17's.

The engines were assembled.

This was easy to do since they were made using only 4 parts. It looks pretty decent, and will only get better with some paint.

There's a very noticeable ejector pin mark on the horizontal stabilizer / elevator part. I had an idea on how to fix this with minimal work involved. The bonus is this will also make the model look more realistic and lifelike once completed.

I scored the hinge line. Then I bent it away from the pin mark so it would be easier to sand out. I used some tape to cover the raised lines that represent the stabilizer frames.

Some quality time with a nail file and a polishing stick... and it was done. I didn't take any pictures during the process.

But I do have some pictures showing the end result. The ejector pin mark is gone, and the elevator is now drooped, which is how Nieuport's looked when parked on the ground in most pictures we see of them.

Here is a before and after photo. One still needs the attachment points cleaned up and the work done to remove the pin mark.

The engine cowlings were cut away from the plastic trees. There is some flash present, but it's not too bad overall. More quality time with the sanding stick is in the future... 😉

The fuselage halves were also removed from the trees.

Inside the fuselage are some more ejector pin marks.

These pin marks are very big in size, and chances are they will be very noticeable.

So I have to do something about this. I have an idea... (his famous last words)

Here is a close up showing the various pin marks. There are a lot of them... There are some weak lines molded into the inside of the fuselage half which are supposed to be the cable bracing wire.

Next to these cable lines there is what is supposed to be the framework. The details here are very soft.
My idea:

I'm seriously thinking about sanding all of this off the plastic on the inside of the fuselage and making it all smooth. Then I will build up a scale wooden frame that mimics the real Nieuport fuselage framework and floor, using balsa wood. I will add miniature cables, and scratch build a new seat too. The kit supplied one is rather lame and it needs all the help it can get.

The wheels were cut from the plastic trees. I'm currently sanding the attachment points on the tires and the seam that runs down the middle of the tire. There are also some more ejector pin marks on the face of the fabric spoke covering. 4 pin marks are present per wheel.

This shows how it looks after some careful sanding. It can be done but it eats up a lot of time... I still have a little more work to finish this one completely. One of the pin marks is still barely visible.

The lower wings were removed from the trees. The attachment points still need cleaned up, and then these parts will be drilled for the rigging holes.

The same thing goes for the upper wing. I will probably cut the ailerons away from the wings, and pose them a little off center... possibly and not for certain. It depends on how much I get bogged down on this project. Time will tell.

The wing ribs look decent, and should be OK under a coat or two of paint.

The under camber portion of the wing looks fairly nice too.

It looks like these two Nieuports will need some TLC, but then they should shine brightly.

I'm happy the parts count is low. I'm also hoping the fit is good. I should know more about that soon.

As always, comments are encouraged.

Thanks for stopping by.

You read my mind, Louis (@lgardner). I was going through some boxes of stored models, and I pulled out the old Revell 1/28 scale Dr.1 and the Roden 1/32 Dr.1. I may do one of these after the armoured car.

Some years ago we visited Kermit Week's Fantasy of Flight museum. This was not too long after the movie "Flyboys" came out. He had some neat stuff on display there, as he always does.

This is a picture I took of an original Gnome Rhone rotary.


This is his replica Nieuport. It might have been used in the actual filming of the movie Flyboys, but I'm not 100 percent sure about that. What is so incredible is just how SMALL these planes were.

Now this might sound a bit strange, and I don't want you all to think I'm a bit nutty, but we had an odd experience while waking through his Great War trench setting.

This is a picture I took just as the temperature dropped...and we were not standing under an air conditioning duct either when it happened. If you look close at it, you can see what looks to be an apparition. A "ghost" if you will. You can see the outline of what looks like a person that is transparent. It appears to be a male with a military style haircut.

This "thing" has it's back to me when I took the picture, and it appears to be looking over their right side.

The "head" of this apparition is lined up with the lower US red / white blue roundel located under the top wing at the top of the picture.

No one was standing in front of me when I took the picture either. It's not a double exposure and I took the photo using a Sony digital camera.

Keep in mind that I didn't see this with my eyes. Only the camera picked it up...

You can see the Nieuport 28 in the background. It is supposed to be made up using parts of three or four original Nieuport 28's.

These are three other pictures that I took of Kermit's Nieuport 28 while standing in this general location.

Once again you can see how the pictures have something odd glowing in them. This was not visible to the naked eye. It only happened when we were in this location. The rest of the pictures I took that day were normal. The settings were not changed on the camera either. I can't explain it, other than to say it was "odd".

In addition to this, my younger sister took several photos of the plane as well, taking hers just as I was taking mine.

In one of her photos of this same Nieuport 28, there is something odd in it that looks like / resembles a person who was riding on the Port side wing, and getting ready to jump off. However it was also not visible to our eyes. Only BOTH of our cameras picked it up.

This is just plain Weird !

I will talk to my sister to see if she still has the picture she took that I'm talking about. I will ask her to email it to me if she does. If she does, I will post it too. This happened way back in 2011...

I have been to see Kermit's collection on several occasions since this happened. However, nothing like this was ever encountered again. This would have been the perfect Halloween post.

This last picture is one that I took of his WW1 trench scene. You can see how it also has an odd red / orange glow to it as well, just like the others I took of the N-28. The Nieuport 28 is hanging from the ceiling in this same room. These German soldier figures are looking at the Nieuport 28, so you can get an idea of where it is located.

These are the only photos I took that day that have this weird glow to them.

It's strange...

A few years ago I picked up this 1/32 Roden Nieuport 28 from Sprue Brothers. If time permits me to, I’ll build it up to go with this story and pictures.

Just for the record, Billy Bisop was not Canada's top ace; he was Canada's top BS Artist though, for managing to both convince the Royal Flying Corps that he had inflicted major damage on German fighter bases throughout the British sector of the front, with a total of 200 rounds of ammo total in his airplane. This was in the days of the "lone wolf" so there was no wingman for verification, and also an officer was a gentleman whose word was his bond. And so he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Nobody said anything after the war when the German records were examined and there was no report of any attack on any German airfield along the entire Western Front that day.

The top Canadian ace is Raymond Collishaw, all of whose claims are verified in the German loss records.

I'm sure one of our Canadian members will come along to tsk-tsk me for sullying Bishop's reputation, but even Canadian aviation historians agree with this.