Ares Games
  • Building 4 Nieuport 11

    Hello everybody.

    The following post will be quite long, so try to bear with me.
    It's meant as a how to, but I wanted also to show what errors NOT to make...

    A good friend asked me to build 4 Nieuport 11 from Reviresco, with all the markings of the "escadrille N.3".

    These are all the pieces, before removal of any excess metal:

    Two closeups of the parts with the most flash on them:



    This is the heap of metal I took away. All in all, for 4 planes, it's more than reasonable...


    The same parts, cleaned.


    And put in separate compartments of a toolbox, just to be sure I'm not loosing any part.


    First error: the instructions talked about placing a ring around the propeller shaft, but was none.
    As there was a small incision in each shaft, I decided to bend the metal so that the shaft couldn't be removed from the motor-block.

    I realised later that, although it would permit for the propeller to turn, the big blotch of metal would come through the hole provided for it in the front of the fuselage...

    Assembly of the fuselage:


    Joining the motor-block with the fuselage (after having corrected my error):


    and putting some simple filler to fill any residual gaps.


    While the putty dried, I painted the pilots (they do look 100 times better in real size...)



    Now that the putty was dry, I've filed and sanded the fuselages:


    Then I attached the bottom wing


    and the horizontal stabilizer.


    Then I prepared the top wing by placing all the struts, etc.


    [No picture of the base coat and the actual painting, sorry!]

    I inserted the pilots into their cockpits and prepared to join the top wing to the plane.


    Painting some details on the propeller (this is 1/144... I'm crazy!)


    Not to forget: the hole for the pin that will receive the altitude peg. I'm using a 2mm acrylic rod.


    Adjusting the last details to the engine before placing the top wing.
    Before

    and after...


    Now to the bottom of things: the wheels.



    And this is the result before application of the decals.


    On previous pictures (top of the wings), on can see that my dexterity in "plugging holes" is somewhat less that perfect. It stems from the fact that I have tried to do it for the first time just with cyanoacrylate glue (Zap-a-Gap). Clearly, I need to refine this technique.

    This can be seen in the following two pictures as well.



    In the following pictures, I tried my very best to get a consistent set of tail flashes on the planes.




    I have more or less succeeded...


    END OF PART 1!!!



    PART TWO:

    Now, the HARD PART: the decals!!!

    The four first are easy-peasy: top and bottom wing roundels.



    The numbers on the top wings are just a tad more difficult to place, but nothing major.


    But this! This is murder!
    Dom's Decal are quite delicate to manipulate, are not delimited (i.e. you have to cut around as closely as possible so as not to have any "clear decal" on the mini) and some of the parts are about 1mm˛ in size (look on the white of the tail):

    Needless to say that the amount of expletives uttered during the placement of these decals was astounding...
    (I realize that the roundels on the fuselage should not be there, but it was done by special request of my friend, Twix in this forum.)

    This is the end-result:



    Up to the next ones!

    This article was originally published in forum thread: Building 4 Nieuport 11 started by petitbilbo View original post
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