Greetings all;
Proceeding with this build I have closed up the fuselage and drilled all required pilot holes for the simulated rigging and control cables. Noting that this build is meant to show off the basic kit and predominately the decals. Also I am taking the opportunity to embelish this build with some left over Eduard photoetch.
Since serial numbers have been applied to the movie birds and are present in the kit I decided to do a bit of digging. There is no biographical detail provided in the kit as to the colour schemes and personal markings. As a matter of fact even if you have seen the Flyboys website it is difficult to understand except if you have seen the movie what aircraft belonged to who. For our European builders this is a bit unfair so hopefully the following will help a bit.
"A" scheme is Cassidy's machine N1723. The red striping on the engine cowling is reminiscent of No. 1 Sqdn RFC in about August,1917. The "W" on Cassidy's top wing was copied from Harold Willis' SPAD VII of the original Lafayette Escadrille. In the line up image at the beginning of this article you can see that they tried to employ every cowling marking variation they could on the Nieuports. The Cassidy character was the embodiment of Raoul Lufbery from the original Lafayette Escadrille. The markings of R. Soubiran were replaced with the two tone inverted “V” with the #2 at its interior. These personal emblems on the Nieuports were vinyl stick-ons and were changed regularly. Also it is unknown as to what machine this serial (N1723) was originally assigned to in 1917, but probably a Nieuport 17 acording to where it falls in the production batch.
“B” scheme is the "early in the movie" version of Blaine Rawlings’ machine N1653. (This number may have been on a Nieuport 11 originally.) Note his wing markings are similar to the French ace Ltn Charles Nungesser. The tricolour wing stripes were added to his aircraft in June 1917 after an accidental combat where his black and white personal marking was mistaken for a German aircraft. The double “R" marking on Rawlings' Nieuport is similar to Charles Dolan's CHD monogram on his Lafayette Escadrille SPAD VII and his SPAD XIII used in 1918 when was in an American unit.
“C” scheme is N1074 was used for Porter's machine. The Flag / pennant should be black and white with a Bible verse from 2 Timothy quoted. (This number may have been assigned to a 2 seater Nieuport 13 originally.) and instead of the aluminum cowling this movie machine is also known to have red stripes on the metal cowling similar to the Cassidy machine during the filming.
“D” scheme is supposed to be the William Jensen’s N1407. But should have a black knight's helmet instead of the blue falcon. (This serial number was assigned to a Nieuport 16 in the Belgian Air Service and named “Fox - Trot”.)
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