1/32 Academy Nieuport 17

Started by Louis Gardner · 80 · 6 days ago
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    Louis Gardner said 4 weeks, 1 day ago:

    IAN Convey (@firelockg)
    I am 100 percent sold on your way of doing this. It seems to be a whole lot easier and this also means faster. Faster is good when I will be making a lot of these for the various builds I have underway. It's times like this one wishes they were building a Fokker Dr-1 or perhaps a D-VII... something with minimal rigging ! 🙂

    Thank you SO much for the advice. It will be taken to heart.

    It was very nice of my doctor to give me two weeks worth of bench time. I will be OK. I have a good feeling about this. Now I will go find some wood to knock on for good luck.

    Thanks again.

    John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
    Thank you for your compliments, kind words and thoughts. The more I do on these kits, the more I want to do. It's contagious. I was taking some measurements on the width of the fuselage cross braces. Soon I will be gluing the fuselage frames together, starting from the front and working towards the rear. Hopefully I can post some updates soon.

    Take care my friend.

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    IAN Convey said 4 weeks, 1 day ago:

    Louis, I cannot take credit for the eyelet method, I found it on a site called ww1aircraftmodels.

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    George R Blair Jr said 4 weeks, 1 day ago:

    Hi Louis (@lgardner): The anchors look like a good idea and seem fairly easy. I don't think the D.VII have many inter-wing wires, so I may be off the hook now.

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    Louis Gardner said 3 weeks, 6 days ago:

    Hello Ian. IAN Convey (@firelockg)
    I made a tool that is very similar to what you have. It works great ! It’s also much faster and easier to use than my original setup. Thank you. Idflieg would approve ! 😉

    George George R Blair Jr (@gblair)
    The anchors are very easy to make and it’s not very time consuming either. I think you have chosen an excellent example of a subject to start out with.

    Either a Fokker D-7 or a Dr-1 Triplane would be great examples to start off with because of the minimal rigging.

    I do believe that you are off the hook.

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    Louis Gardner said 3 weeks, 6 days ago:

    Today’s episode will feature some interesting experiments.


    I started out by spraying the underside of the wings and horizontals with some Tamiya Flat White paint from a rattle can.

    I had an idea that I wanted to try out using oils.


    I started out by giving the entire surface a very light coat of a pale yellow color. The color I used is called Naples Yellow.

    I let this dry for a few minutes, and then I came back using a Tan color that is called Sand. I applied this to the entire lower wing surface area, even where the wing ribs are depicted.


    Using a paint brush, (and sometimes my fingers), I gradually blended the two colors together until I was happy with the results.

    The final step was to use this last color which is a lighter shade of Brown. The color I used is called Yellow Ochre.

    Sparingly I applied it directly on top of the wing ribs and no where else. Then I lightly blended it in along the wing ribs. This gave a darker tone to the ribs and makes it look as if a shadow is there.

    This photo shows a before and after comparison. The wing on top has been painted White, but no oils are applied. The bottom wing shows the completed version.

    This is a similar photo, but this time the wing has been placed under different lighting. I think this may just pass muster for a "Clear Doped Linen" finish on the undersides of Ball's Nieuport.

    I think this will work good enough for Captain Albert Ball's N-17, especially when the upper sides will be in either a French camouflage or possibly depicted as a British repaint wearing PC-10 on the top sides. Ball's plane will be a camouflaged plane, while the other N-17 will have an overall aluminum dope finish.

    As always, comments are encouraged.

    I would also like to hear what you think about the upper colors used on Ball's Nieuport.

    Thanks in advance.

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    George R Blair Jr said 3 weeks, 6 days ago:

    I love using oils, Louis (@lgardner). Try blending them with Odorless Turpenoid. Not only does it make your workspace a nicer place to work, but it also dries flat (with no shine).

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    Louis Gardner said 3 weeks, 6 days ago:

    George R Blair Jr (@gblair)
    Thank you for the tip ! I will definitely give this a try, because there is always room for improvement. I will have to give these planes several coats of gloss because they appear to be very shiny in the original pictures I have seen of them in my books and online.

    Do you know if Future can be sprayed on top of oils ?
    Thanks 🙂

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    George R Blair Jr said 3 weeks, 6 days ago:

    Hi Louis (@lgardner): I think it would be fine, but let the oils dry first. They take a long time to dry, so I would give them a couple of days, just to be sure. I don't use a clear layer over the oils, so you may want to test it on some scrap plastic.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 weeks, 6 days ago:

    Very nice use of oils, my friend @lgardner!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 weeks, 6 days ago:

    Really nice result with those oils, Louis @lgardner
    I should try this approach on my Nieuport as well.

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    Louis Gardner said 3 weeks, 3 days ago:

    George R Blair Jr (@gblair)
    I took your advice and boy what a difference it made. It might not look like much of a change, but the speed in which I was able to get this done and the consistency was head and shoulders above my previous attempts.

    Thank you so much for the recommendation. Dully noted... I have allowed the oils to dry for several days but I will likely let them sit for about a week before I attempt to spray anything on top of them. Much obliged !

    Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)
    John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
    Thanks my friends. John, I do think you will be pleasantly surprised when you give this method a try.

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    Louis Gardner said 3 weeks, 3 days ago:

    Here is what the lower wing sections and horizontals look like on the Albert Ball Nieuport 17.



    It may not look like much of a change but I wanted to go for a more subtle look.

    This is the original example.

    This shows the new application. Here you can see how the lower wing panel is still left in Tamiya Flat White primer paint for a comparison.

    I thought the oils were too dark on the original application, (and therefor would have looked out of place), especially when the upper portion of the surfaces were going to be painted in either PC-10 color, or the original French camouflage.

    The jury is still out on that one, but right now I am leaning towards leaving them as they would have been delivered to the French.

    In a time of war I don't think the extra time would have been taken (not to mention the costs and resources available at the repair depots) to change these planes up other than to add the National RAF roundels, possibly change the orientation of the rudder flashes, and adding a RAF style serial number on the airframe.


    Here you can see the tonal differences between the various colors I used. I was amazed at just how quick and easy this was to do. I can see myself using more of these oils in the future. The more I use them, the more I like them.

    I will leave you with this close up of one lower wing.

    That's all for tonight. Please check back soon, for I should have another installment up soon.
    As always, comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for stopping by.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 weeks, 3 days ago:

    Looks really great, my friend @lgardner!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 weeks, 3 days ago:

    Looks perfect, Louis @lgardner

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    Louis Gardner said 1 week ago:

    Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)
    John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
    Thank you my friends. I sincerely appreciate your kind words.