Great start Louis, you must be sick of sanding by now. Have posted 2 photos of Albert Ball's Nieuport 16 A/C, a bit gravelly but may assist. Note in the first photo of the airman at the port wing with what looks like a cigarette, WTF?

2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Hello again everyone.

Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)
Yes indeed these images were a surprise to all of us when we looked at them later.

Tom Cleaver (@tcinla)
I have read some articles that stated Bishop did embellish his records. One source stated that he actually had 27 "confirmed" victories, but most have the actual number much higher in the 40's to 50's range as a total number confirmed for him. Many of the German records were destroyed on purpose, rather than have them fall into Allied hands after they lost territory to the advancing Allied troops in 1918, and even more were destroyed (or hidden like the Fokker D-VII and "Flying Razor" D-VIII / E-V) to keep them from being discovered after the war was over.

But the ones that still exist do have discrepancies.

These are the decals that came with the kit. I wanted to build a British Nieuport 17, to go along with the French Charles Nungesser plane, so it fit the bill. If I had a good set of markings for Raoul Luffberry I would have preferred making a model of one of his planes. But I don't, so I have to use what I have, hoping they don't shatter when submerged in water because of their age.

John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
Yes I was also surprised by the number and size of the pins. I didn't expect this curve. But when you get served apples, the best thing to do is make apple sauce. I'm going to try and make the best of it. Yes sir, the apparition is strange.

Earlier today I was looking at the picture I posted that I took of the German soldiers in the trenches. I believe there might actually be something there as well. It looks like another "figure" (or possibly two) may be present there as well. It is the first time I noticed that one.

Plus there's a bright light in another one of the Nieuport 28 photos, that looks like it may be what some call an orb. Weird stuff for sure.

The kicker is that we never saw any of this with our eyes. It was only when we looked at our pictures later was the one visible. Then today I noticed the other things I mentioned. I spent some time today looking at the pictures when they were enlarged on our computer screen. I don't have any explanation for this.

IAN Convey (@firelockg)
Thank you for posting these pictures. I have saved them to my computer now for future reference. It does indeed look as if the soldier is smoking... times were not as strict back then.

This is the first time I have ever seen these. In my Osprey book on Nieuport aces, it has a Nieuport 17 illustration wearing similar markings. It is supposed to be an artists interpretation of how his plane would have looked. It was listed as a Nieuport 17 though.

I tend to agree with you that his plane was an earlier Nieuport 16. It looked similar, but had a smaller bulge on the side of the fuselage behind the engine. The N-17 fuselage side was more streamlined. So I went to Wikipedia and searched out the two planes to see if they listed any other differences...

Sure enough there were some. The biggest thing is the size difference. The wingspan is about two feet wider on the N-17, and the overall length is about 8 inches longer. This doesn't include the length of the spinner, or it would have been even greater.

I don't think I can build a Nieuport 16 using a N-17 kit. Sad, because I do like how these camouflaged planes look. From what I read, some of the early N-17's were also camouflaged in a similar manner as the N-16. Later on in the production run, they started painting them in an overall Aluminum dope color. Some of the N-17's were also camouflaged in the field. I'm learning so much about this plane, which is cool. It's part of the fun for me. The research part is just as much fun as the building.

Thanks again !

George R Blair Jr (@gblair)
Yes sir, this poltergeist is a strange thing to see in your pictures. I think I "may" have uncovered yet another one. It's visible in the photo I took of the German soldiers in the trenches. It's not as defined as the first one is, but it does look (at least to me after I studied the photo for a while on our computer monitor), like something might be there too. This is the first time I saw it after all of these years.

I posted these pictures again tonight, and added a few descriptions of what "might" be there. This is definitely odd.

Maybe it's my mind playing tricks on me... Who knows ? Definitely odd because none of us saw this with our eyes. It was only visible in the photos. We did all notice how cool the room got though. It happened at the same time I snapped these pictures. We were there at Fantasy of Flight in July of 2011. It was a very hot day, so something cool was highly noticeable. There were no air conditioning vents in the area where I took the photos.

I made sure to look for them later in a subsequent trip we made back to Kermit's place. We didn't find any present.

I took your advice and ran with it. I was thinking the same thing. We are on the same page, and yes this will be a miniature model of it's own right.

Today I didn’t get as much bench time as I wanted to. But I did get some stuff done on the Nieuport.

I sanded off all of the details on the inside of the fuselage. The ejector pin marks were removed at the same time. Luckily for me they were raised and were fairly easy to remove.

I cut a piece of balsa wood and shaped it to fit as if it was plywood that was used on both sides of the cockpit directly behind the engine. I will need to make two more of these for the second Nieuport kit. This will be stained before I glue the framework in place permanently.

The fuselage frame was also started. Using my years of building balsa wood flying model experience, I'm cutting enough parts to make two separate frames for this model, and two more for the other one. I will be staining this wood too, and adding cable bracing to make it look as if it were the real thing.

I have a larger balsa wood 1/6 scale flying Radio Control N-17 that I designed plans for and scratch built everything. The framework mimics the real thing and has scale spacing for the wing ribs and fuselage formers. However, it has not yet been flown, as I need to add the electronics in it and install the out runner electric motor in it for power. I also have to build the upper wing and install it. It's a pretty cool looking plane, and has been one of my favorites for many years now. I'll try to grab a picture of the fuselage for it tomorrow and post it as well. It's also wearing the markings of Charles Nungesser.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have more done on the Hobbycraft / Academy kits.

So please check back again soon.

As always, comments are encouraged. Thanks for stopping by.

Some very good progress, even without too much benchtime, Louis @lgardner
That wooden interior looks really nice.

That’s a great idea using the wood, Louis.

Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)
Thank you for the kind words. Tonight I have been experimenting with various wood stains, trying to get the shade I wanted to use. So please stay tuned.

John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
Thank you too John. I am very pleased with how the wood looks after tonight's experiments. I think you might like it too.

IAN Convey (@firelockg)
Thank you SO much for posting this. I wanted to build a camouflaged Nieuport 17, and wanted it to be flown by a well known / high scoring Ace. I also wanted it to have simple markings. This fits the bill perfectly. I had an illustration of a single "Port" side view. Now if I can get the tail codes worked out, I should be good to go.

Thanks again.

John Healy (@j-healy)
George R Blair Jr (@gblair)
Thanks John and George.

The original idea came to me way back in 2017. Back then I was building a Werner Voss F-1 prototype Fokker triplane.

I was using the ancient 1/28 scale Revell model, and did a lot of scratch building in the cockpit because it just wasn't cutting the mustard.

So I scratched the fuselage tubing as well. In hind sight, these tubes were too thick and should have been thinner in diameter.

I got the idea because at the same time I was also scratch building a RC flying 1/6 scale Fokker D-VII that I drew the scale plans for, which mimicked the original framework and rib spacing. Plus I had recently drawn up plans for a matching Fokker Dr-1, also in 1/6 scale.

Here you can see the fuselage of the Fokker D-7. In the background is another RC plane. It's a 1/6 scale Bleriot XI that I drew the plans for and built.

I had the balsa wood nearby, and the rest as they say, was history.

Thanks my friends ...

I almost forgot the pictures of the scratch built balsa wood 1/6 scale flying RC Nieuport 17.

If you look really close, you can see the tail section of the 1/6 scale Curtiss Jenny in the background. (That one will have an 88 inch wingspan). The N-17 is currently parked on top of a smaller electric powered Dare kit of a Curtiss Jenny that has a 40 inch wingspan going from memory.

It also wears the markings of Charles Nungesser's plane. This is the fuselage and tail feathers. The lower wing is stored in a bag to keep it clean of dust and I still have to build the top wing. I drew up scale plans for this one. It also has a scale type structure and follows the same construction techniques as the real thing.

This one will have a 54 inch wing span when completed, going from memory. The planes hanging in the back ground are 1/18 scale and fairly substantial in size to give you a comparison.

Enjoy !

Excellent result on the balsa staining, my friend @lgardner! Impressive collection of RC planes!

Today we stopped by Hobby Lobby. As luck would have it, they had a 40 percent off sale on their oil paints.

So I grabbed some that I thought I could use to replicate a wood grain on plastic or even wood. This will be a first for me on plastic, so I will practice on some scraps before I try it on the actual model. I wanted to get it down to a science before I attempted anything on my other project which is a Werner Voss Albatros D-III.

Here I have tried using oil to stain the wood. This is on the back side of the part I cut for the other side. You can see where it was previously stained because the area is a darker shade. This was a practice attempt.

I also picked up some pre cut strip wood. This is bass wood, which is stronger that the balsa I was using to make the frames for these Nieuports.

I will be using the smaller 1/16 square strips to build a new fuselage side. Here I have zoomed in on the ends of the 1/16 square bas strips.

The original fuselage frame I built for one side earlier was made using hand cut wood and made of balsa. I think it was too thin in diameter / cross section. It was not the same thickness down the length of the strip either.

So a totally new part is in order.

The bass wood is also stronger than the balsa. I am curious to see how it stains as well. I will post up some pictures when we get to that point.

I picked up several different sizes so I could use the wood on some other models, such as the Hobbycraft SPAD XIII that I have a build log started for in the group.

Finally, I picked up some aluminum tubing, and also some plastic tubing. I needed to scratch build the framework that is just ahead of the pilot's seat. I might try to use the aluminum tubes as part of a home made / scratch built turn buckle for the rigging.

Thanks for stopping by, and as always, comments are encouraged. Good night.