1/32 Roden Nieuport 28C- Wrapping twinned wires

[coyotemagic]

She's coming along beautifully, Dal, and you did a brilliant job with the decals.  I did the 1/48 scale version of this kit and the decals were horrific.  It was one of my first builds after being away from the hobby for 18+ years and I had yet to learn all of the tricks to applying Roden decals.  I simply soaked them in solvent, sliced the hell out of them and, in the end, had to paint around most of the markings to eliminate the silvering.  Turned out okay, but yours is brilliant.  Way to go, mate.
Cheers,
Bud

[mgunns]

Hello Dal:

Looking good, decals notwithstanding.  When you get those Super Scale decals for Roosevelts A/C you will be pleasantly surprised at the quality and the quantity of stenciling, color etc.  I'm looking forward to seeing you work this through to completion.

Best

Mark

[Dal Gavan]

G'day.

The Superscale decals arrived on Wednesday and I had some time yesterday to apply them.  Printed by Cartograf, they have excellent colour density and went on like a dream.  They also include a lot of extra stenciling, as Mark said, and the little Nieuport insignia add a bit of interest.  I must have nudged one, as it went on crookedly.  I won't try to lift it off and straighten it, that will just damage the paint finish on the strut and destroy the decal.  We'll put it down to the Nieuport factory decal man having a long, damp lunch.


The propeller decals are a vast improvement over the kit decals, and the national insignia have better colour and aren't translucent (see photo's above)



I've started rigging the beast (note to self- stop rigging NOW and spray with satin coat, to seal the decals, first!) and after digging around for info (25 quid for the Datafile is a bit much for me at the mo') I've got two questions I can't answer:

1.  Does the central bracing wire on the undercarriage run up the the fuselage or only to where the cross-bracing wires cross over?  The only photo's I found showed the latter.

2.  Apparently the paired flying wires were usually wrapped (in leather or cloth?), though in some photo's from WW1 (not the museum examples) there just seems to be a central spacer about 1/2 way up the run.  Photo's on Rickenbakker's aircraft show that the wires were wrapped tightly and I'm thinking 0.4mm microtube would do the job.  But what colour to paint it?  Buff leather or doped linen? (the dark colour in photo's could be either)

Bud, thanks for the kind words, mate.  I'm pretty happy with this build, though there's some spots where I should have been more careful/ less impatient.  It's a really lovely looking aircraft (near as nice as a Pfalz D.IIIa  ).  I'm glad you beat Roden's decals, mate.  It was one of your notes on another forum (Aerodrome?) that mentioned using really hot water, and that's the trick.

Mark, you're absolutely right about the decals.  Now they're applied the model looks 100% better than it had.  Once I satin coat it (it's cool and humid here at the mo', waiting for some sunshine to come through) all I need do is the rigging and some light weathering, and she'll be done.  Thanks for your advice during the build, mate, it's been a big help.

Cheers.

Dal. 

[quentin]

small decals add a big plus on the kit, paints look very fine!

[Des]

What beautiful little decals, they certainly add the finishing touches.

Des.

[quentin]

i would like ask you why you paint strut clamp collar in grey, i saw many times in metal color, i'ts not the right material?

[lcarroll]

Dal,
   Regarding your earlier questions on the Undercarriage Bracing Wires and Flying Wires I took a brief look at the Datafile #36:
   
   The centre vertical U/C bracing wire only goes to the cross over point of the cross bracing wires, very clear in numerous photos.

   The configuration/combining of the Flying Wires is not 100% clear however here's some info;
        According to the caption to the several photos of the "Historic Aircraft Collections' Nieuport 28 G-BSKS" the "detail of front flying wire attachments (port side) - wires are doubled with strip wood in-fills taped at intervals along their lengths" In the photos it shows a thin piece of wood (what I would call a lath in Canadianese) inserted between the full length of the wires and then thin strips of tape wrapped around to keep it in place between the two wires. These strips start at the edge of the bottom turn buckles and then there appear to be approximately six of these wraps evenly spaced to the start of the upper turn buckle. The best way I can describe the width of the tape wraps on a 1;32 subject is about 1.5 times the  width of the outside diameter of the .5mm brass tubes I get from von Buckle.
  Hope this is of some help, let me know if I can clarify this info for you. Looking very nice, BTW!
Cheers,
Lance
 




 

[Dal Gavan]

G'day,

Quentin,

i would like ask you why you paint strut clamp collar in grey, i saw many times in metal color, i'ts not the right material?

Short answer, mate, is that I made a mistake.  I read a review on a SPAD that said that the metal fittings were blue-grey and took that as meanig all French aircraft.  After reading your question, I checked photo' sources (contemporary and modern) and most show dark painted collars, though a couple show a light colour that could be natural metal.  I have now re-painted the collars black.

Des, they really are good, as you'd expect from Cartograf.  Tis poarticular scheme is quite colourful anyway, but the logo's add a finishing touch.

Lance, many thanks, old mate!  I understand "lath" and know what you mean.  I found these photo's of Rickenbacker's 'plane on acepilots.com (http://acepilots.com/images/eddie-rickenbacker-spad-cockpit.jpg and http://acepilots.com/wwi/eddie_nieuport_big.jpg ), which look as if the flying wires have been wrapped without the lathes, so I think my idea of using the micro-tube will work.  At 0.4mm it may be a bit thin, but it's soft and will flatten a little (perhaps!  ).  I'll paint it a CDL colour similar to the underside if the aircraft.

If it looks naff, I'll think of a plan B.

Cheers.

Dal. 

[GAJouette]

  Dal,
Excellent work on her new decals my old friend. I'm impressed with these Super Scale decals especially those lovely stencils. Those little beauties really make the overall appearance pop. I'm looking forward with the greatest of interest to the next awesome update .
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[hwells]

Looks great Dal!

[Zabu]

The prop looks great and those decals in the struts are a very nice add.
Great painting job on your Ni too.

Looking great.

Cheers

[RAGIII]

The prop looks great and those decals in the struts are a very nice add.
Great painting job on your Ni too.

Looking great.

Cheers

I agree 100% ! Very Nice!!
RAGIII

[Dal Gavan]

G'day.

After surviving my first ever attack of hay fever (I'd rather have broken an ankle- I turn 100% sook when something starts mucking about with my sinuses) and Round 1 of Spring Cleaning, I managed to get some more done on this beastie.  I've done the initial rigging of the carbanes, tail stays, undercart and landing wires.  I used Kosta's turnbuckles for the wing attachments of the landing wires and simulated turnbuckles, using RB Motion nuts and micro-tube for the carbanes, undercart and stays.  I also sprayed semi-gloss varnish to seal the decals and tone down the gloss coat, though the photo's were taken before I did that.  The Micro Satin I used also tones down the silvery finish of the wires.

Isn't funny how many mistakes you pick up in a photo', that you don't notice when looking for them on the model.... 







I'm pleased with how this has come out.  It's up to the standards of a lot of the builders here, but it's an improvement on my Pfalz, and improving is what I'm trying to do.

Next up is doing the coaming, draping some seat-belts over the spine and fitting the windscreen.  Then I'll fit the top wing and work out how to simulate the laths and wrapping that was put onto the flying wires.  I've tried a couple of things, but they either look too chunky (wrapping with microtape) or are a pain to try to do (using flattened micro-tube) and still look wrong.  Of course, there's option B- leave the wires bare.  Although I haven't seen any photo's of R's with the wires bare, there are a couple of USAAS aircraft without the wrapping.

Gregory, how's things old mate?  The Superscale decals are brilliant to use and look much, much better.  Most of the stencils are on the underside, but there's more than enough to make things interesting on the top.  I haven't forgotten the SPAD XIII- I've just made the trigger housings for the joy stick, put plumbing in the cockpit and I think I've found a late-model paint scheme I can easily do.   

Henry and Zabu, thanks for the kind words.  It's getting there (oh so slowly!). 

Rick,I know it's the boring old Rickenbacker scheme, but I'm only doing the one.    Besides, I like it- it looks clean and simple.  The only question left (apart from "HTF do I simulate the wrapped flying wires?") is whether to weather or not.? I picked up Ray Sanger's Nieuport Aircraft of World War One and the photo's of 94 Squadron's aircraft show them to be immaculately clean- even the undersides of the top wings look polished.

Cheers.

Dal. 

[FokkerFodder]

Hi Dal

Its really starting to come together and looking great - perhaps i'll need to build one next year!!

I picked up you are a resident of our lovely bush capital?? I've started modelling since moving to Qatar at the beginning of 2012, but count  the 'bra as home (north side, Watson) and aim to get home by early 2014. Did I also pick up a reference to an ACT  modelling club - it would be great to join in when I get home.... (homesick sigh).  If you have any contact details etc it would be great for when I get back.

cheers
FF

[Dal Gavan]

G'day,FF.

I've escaped down to the coast now, mate, fleeing the Black Hole of Russell with few regrets.  Fishers Discounts and Crusader Trading have now closed (last year and last month, respectively), so getting the more esoteric supplies (such as Gunze or Lifecolor paint) means mail order.       

Yes, the ACT Scale Modelling Society is going strong.  It's a great bunch of people as well (though I'll deny ever saying that).  Meetings are every second Wednesday at the Hellenic Club in Woden, starting at 1930hrs and the website is http://www.actsms.asn.au.

Grab one of the N.28's, mate.  So far (touch wood) all the problems I've had have been builder-induced.  And it's a nice intro to twin wire rigging- there's only four lots to do.

Sent this reply by PM as well.

Oo'roo.

Dal.