1:32 Amodel Nieuport 16c

[lone modeller]

Just been looking through this thread and am very impressed by your extreme attention to detail. I agree with Ken that sometimes we can become too focused on minutiae when the details that we spend so much time over can rarely be seen. It is one of the reasons whay I made cut-away models for my large scale projects - then at least the parts can be seen.

However as the saying goes "it is your model" and you are the person who ultimately has to be satisfied.

Keep up the first class work.

Stephen.

[RAGIII]

Like Many of the others I would have been good with the Mark I seat  I do admire your desire to get things correct! Looking forward to the next seat Iteration!
RAGIII

[AngryJazz]

Great work - well done! Impressive craftsmanship 

[Dutch522]

Thanks for the support, Stephen & Rick & Ben! I’m working on the Mk IV seat now, and while the radius of the "arms" is still a bit off I'm much happier with it overall when compared to the 1:1 seat:



The sloppy edges on the bead molding on the top edge are actually unsanded white Tamiya Surface Primer to fill in a slight gap in a couple of places. One of the reasons I was unsatisfied with the earlier versions was that I couldn't get a even curve in the seat back, which I solved by immersing the flat blank in boiling water for about twenty seconds, bending it around an AA battery, and then running cold water over it to "set" the shape; no stress fractures this time (visible on top of the back of the Mk III seat, second from R) I'm also starting to play with colors and ply finishes on the previous attempts (Mk IV at R, unpainted):



I guess I could move on to a Mk V, but we may have hit the point where the Law of Diminishing Returns kicks in. We'll see how the paint comes out on the current version. In the meantime I've been also working on the props—we're up to like a dozen now—and profile. Updates on those sub-projects soon.

Dave V.

[Dutch522]

RE: my last post, it's been a while since I've worked on a model, and apparently I've forgotten one of the basic rules of the sort of semi-scratchbuilding I tend to do: To wit, don't spend time making anything until you know it's going to fit where you intend to put it.

When I started building the "box" that the short seat sits on last night, calculating the dimensions from the inside of the Amodel fuselage, it immediately became apparent that all my seats—Mks I thru IV—were 3-4 scale inches too wide to fit on the top of the box. I should have built the box first, then the seat... I'd based the width of the seats I was making on two sources, a) the 70-year old Bergen Hardesty plans of the N.17 that I'd saved from some 1960s-vintage model magazine (the old Scale Modeler IIRC), which showed the dimensions as roughly 17x18", and b) the seat from No 1 Son's Hobbycraft N.17 that was the first model he ever built on his own, back around the turn of the century. How different could the N.16 be, I figured?

But the good news is that I've made so many seats now I was able to knock the Mk V out in about a half-hour, which sits mocked up on the box with a basic un-cooked Super Sculpey cushion and a pair of plastic card brackets and looks... well, sort of okay at this point:



It needs final shaping, filling, priming, paint, and all that good stuff (as well as the holes & pulleys for the control mechanism & cables, etc.) but I think I may be able to move on from here with a clear conscience, detail-wise. Anyone have any suggestions on French seat-belts?

I think I'll unwind by having a glass of rum and Rose's lime juice to celebrate the 225th anniversary of the Battle of the Nile. Down with Bonaparte!   

Dave V.

[the great waldo]

More work on the props, the upper one is the one I'm using to develop a finish that approximates the pigmented shellac (still too red, working on the color), while the bottom represents my best attempt to date at capturing those sexy Levasseur curves. The bottom prop isn't tinted yet; before applying the copal varnish I'm filling the grain in the mahogany with the old woodworker's trick of applying a drying oil (Watco Danish, in this case) with 500-grit sanding film. The extremely fine wood-dust gets incorporated into the oil, and after it dries you repeat the process as many times as necessary to fill up the open grain and leave a smooth surface for the varnish.



I'm also working on the profile, and looking for photos of the Esc. N.37 chasseur I plan on building on the website of the Musée de l'Armée Invalides in Paris. Having only seen it in black and white it's tremendous fun to see what the little bird might have looked like 107 years ago... the colors and camouflage pattern are strictly provisional at the moment, much research still to do on that front.



DV

Hi Davos
You can use thin super glue wiped on with a sponge as a grain filler. You'll have to work fast as the glue can set very fast on the sponge (watch out for the fumes that can come from the sponge when the glue dries as it can be acrid on the eyes and nose) You can even use this as a finish and it ccan be buffed and polished after fine sanding and it's very fast.
Cheers
Andrew

[Dutch522]

Thanks, Andrew! I'll have to give that a try the next time I work with an open-grained wood, it'd be perfect for the walnut I was experimenting with when I started. The cherry and Swiss pear I'm using now has such a close grain that I don't really need to fill it, but that's a useful trick to add to my arsenal of sub-miniature cabinetry techniques!

Dave V.

[RichieW]

Bravo Dave, seat Mk.V looks fantastic. Your comment about making sure things fit made me wince and chuckle at the ame time. I spent a week making a wicker seat for my BE2 only to find there was no way it was going to fit.

Speaking of things nautical I visited the Greenwich Maritime Museum last week and saw Nelson's dress tunic and ceremonial sword amongst other things. There was an amazing painting of L'Orient exploding in the Battle of the Nile. If you ever visit London I think you would enjoy a visit.

The prop shape looks beautiful, all this care and attention is very inspiring to see.

Richie

[Dutch522]

Thanks, Richie. I know I'd love to see the museum in Greenwich... as a huge fan of the O'Brian novels it's been a goal of mine to visit it (and go on board Victory in Portsmouth) for years. I'm also a member of a model ship forum, and fantasize about doing a plank-on-frame kit before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

But back to airplane stuff; I was excited to get my prop hubs from Alex at Proper Plane in Kyiv today, they're brilliant!



No way I could have scratched them. And RE: the seats for the BE, I feel for you... at least I didn't have to weave mine, just drill out some styrene card!

D.V

[RichieW]

Haha, I'm up to The Fortune of War in the O'Brian  novels and have been dreaming about making a plank on frame ship model too! That's a discussion to be had elsewhere though, sorry for the thread drift.

The Proper Plane propeller boss is superb. Definitely the right decision to buy the part. Trying to scratch that would have been a horrible experience.

Richie

[Edgar]

Greetings
May I ask you to check the top wing for me?  11/16 had non-equal spacing between the ribs is it the case with your model?
Also which markings have you picked?
Different Nie 11/16 had early (long) and late (short) type side panels

[Tim Mixon]

Keep up the good work Dave.  Your prop is beautiful. The Proper Plane hubs will really accentuate it. The Mk IV seat is spot on craftsmanship as well.

All the best,
Tim

[Dutch522]

Thank you for the support, Richie and Tim!

Edgar, I checked the top wing, and the spacing on the Amodel ribs (from the center of the wing to the actual wingtip) is approximately as follows: 7.9mm/11/9.5/9.5/9.5/12.7/9.5/9.5/11/11/11.

When I compared it to Ian Stair's drawings in the Nieuport Datafile Special I was horrified to see that the drawings showed 11 ribs, versus the 10 on the model (black lines indicating rib stations on the Stair drawings, orange arrows showing those on the model):



So I checked with the best photo I have of the N.11/16 upper wing, and was happy to see that it showed 10 also:



So it looks like Amodel got the correct number of ribs, do you know if their spacing is correct also?

The side panels on the kit are 41.2mm from the back of the cockpit to the firewall, and have trapezoidal access panels just aft of the aluminum "cheek".

RE: markings, I'm doing my model as the machine flown by Sgt. Henri Barnay of Esc. N.37 in May of 1916, a photo of which is shown on pg. 21 of the Datafile Special. I've been working on this profile of it:


 
... although there's more work to do on it. I'm still researching and trying to decide what version of the early camouflage I'm going to do, but for now I'm going with brown and light/dark green. A few posts ago I put up a shot of several different variations...

All best,

Dave V.

[uncletony]

Nice work Dave!

[Dutch522]

Thanks, Unk! I'm having a great time with all the problem-solving, which I guess is why I like the more basic kits.

D.V