Nieuport 16 N.1208 Paul Pavelka N.124

[davecww1]

Here is another of my Nieuports, this is part 2 of my Nieuports over Verdun series.  I have already completed the Victor Chapman N.1148, and in this photo it shows that I did 4 sets of wings and tails to start the series. 


Wings and tail seen here are for Victor Chapman's N.11, Paul Pavelka's N.16, Georges Guynemer's N.11 and Jean Navarre's N.16.

[davecww1]

Here is the kit used, Eduard #1103 Nieuport 16.  This kit has also been released as a Weekend edition but does not include the photoetched sheet or the decal options for Belgian and British versions.

[davecww1]

The references I used were:
Over The Front Volume 24 No 4, which has 2 useful articles by Alan D. Toelle, "A White-Faced Cow and the Operational History of the Escadrille Americane N.124 to September 1916"  and "Lewis Guns in N.124"

Nieuport Flyers of the Lafayette by Jon Guttman

The first has a story about Paul Pavelka's odd camouflage, which is supposed to be a cow hide! It even has his "brand" on the fuselage side.  the second article shows the correct Lewis gun used on this aircraft by Pavelka.

Both of these books have artwork by Robert Karr, Bob Pearson and Ronny Bar, which are really helpful when painting this odd looking plane.

[davecww1]

The rudder stripes were used from Americal Gryphon's Lafayette Escadrille Early Nieuport sheet, but from the above references I would conclude that the medium blue used in the decals does not match the dark blue used on the Nieuports.  I mixed up my own batch of a darker blue with a violet tinge, and brushed it over the rudder stripes and cockade centers. 

[davecww1]

The main difference in the Nieuport 11 and the 16 is the engine, the N.11 had an 80hp LeRhone 9C and the N.16 had a 110hp LeRhone 9J.  The Eduard kit has a beautiful 80hp engine, but for the N.16 kit they want you to turn the engine around and put the intake tubes on the back side of the engine... Looks ok but is not too accurate, as the tubes will be going on the wrong side of the cylinders, and would mean the 110hp engine would rotate the opposite direction as the 80hp.  This is a bad design by Eduard, they should have retooled the 110hp engine used in the N.16 and N.17 kits.  Instead they tried to save money and have an inaccurate engine.  But luckily Taurus Models offers a resin kit of the 110hp LeRhone engine, which is what I used.  After assembling the cylinders it was able to fit inside the cowling.  I sanded down the inside of the cowl a little thinner to allow the rockers to fit properly.  My resin kit had a couple of the spark plugs missing, but when the cowl is installed only the bottom 4 cylinders plug are visible so I decided to mount the engine without allowing it to rotate, so the bottom cylinders will be fully detailed with plugs and wires but the upper ones under the cowl will not have plugs.

[davecww1]

Just a note on the cowl, the Eduard Nieuport 16 instructions call for cowl A14 to be used.  this is incorrect, as it is the early N.11 cowl, the larger 110hp engine required a larger more open cowl.  I suggest you use part A18, which is called out as a DO NOT USE part, and A8 would also work.  Both need the inner edge to be thinned a little to give it a scale edge and allow the cylinders to fit between the firewall and front of cowl.

[davecww1]

For the interior, I used the photoetched sidewalls and added a d shaped strip of styrene rod to represent the round tube that the throttle and oil pulsator were mounted to.  I scratchbuilt the pulsator from stretched clear sprue, and added a resin seat with cushion and belts as well as a resin foot trough to allow the floor to be seen below the foot trough.  I added a few wires and gauges and all else is out of the box.  I tilted the stick a little to the right as well as the rods that work the alierons to match my posed ailerons on the wing.

[Modelnut]

I like the camo version.

[RAGIII]

WOW Dave! Fantastic array of wings and tails, all beautifully done! I love your interior, just enough for 1/48th! The wood color is perfect and I can see you intimated the strips in your painting. All VERY WELL DONE!
RAGIII

[Des]

What an awesome job you have done on the wings, all beautifully painted, and the interior work is excellent.

Des.

[coyotemagic]

Brilliant start, Dave, and, as usual, awesome innards!
Cheers,
Bud

[xan]

Hourrrah! 4 nieuport!
I'm fan! at 1/48, great!

seeing the wing , naverre Ni-16 is the n° 1136 isn't it? I wil have to doit too so I take a chair...

One thing the camo you use is quite strange to my eyes and seems the french WWII three tone camouflage



you use grey colour? it seems to me that it was two tone of green and two tone of brown isn't it?



In my personal opinion you should repeint the ligt grey in ligt green...

Xan

[davecww1]

Hi Xan, for the light green I used the Misterkit French gray green.  This is very close to the color in the Belgian Nieuport Autochrome you posted, if you look at the right wing next to the cockade it is similar to this color and it is also close to the light green as shown in the profiles in my two references.  The gray in the ww2 scheme is not what I used, might be the light in my workshop making them look gray but there is definitely a green shade to my eyes.  The colors that I used are the 4 color scheme as written about by Alan Toelle in Windsock International. Two browns and two greens, with light blue undersurface and horizon blue outlines.
Thanks
Dave

[ALBATROS1234]

looks great dave. these are good kits but like you said inaccurate engines for the 16s an 17s. they could have made a small separate sprue with the dr.1 engine and it would have been better, but you taurus looks super.

[radio]

Exellent work Dave.
Martin