Nieuport Ni-23: Odd "Bob"? - Eduard 1/48th

[ChocksAway]

This is my third attempt at a WW1 aircraft in 1/48th scale. This time I chose the Eduard Nieuport Ni-23 (kit number 8075) which looks like it has now been discontinued (as at time of writing). I'm not a great fan of Eduard's "basic level" instruction sheets for these kits - I was looking for an out-of-the-box build and found myself trawling the web on a number of occasions to find out the positioning of a number of parts, particularly in the cockpit. Perhaps I just need to build more WW1 kits to become more familiar with these areas? Anyhow, it was reasonably straight-forward to build once I worked out what I had to do and where things went.

The main colour was actually sprayed this time from a Humbrol rattle can - Aluminium. As an introduction to "air-brushing" it was quite easy, but it's as far as I'll be going in that direction. Everything else was the traditional brush work. The wood effect was a variety of browns smeared and wiped around whilst wet. The decals though were far from simple to apply - every single decal I applied bar one split into two or more parts once wetted. I've no idea why, but it was a real pain. Too thin for their own good, maybe? Rigging was of the "knitting-in elastic" variety. Weathering was a mixture of acrylic artist powders and Tamiya weathering plus some zip brushable pen work (e.g. the wing rib shading). She was given an overall matt varnish spray to finish.

The scheme, according to the kit is for "A DUX built Nieuport 23, flown by Kpt. Brodovicz, 10th Squadron, Imperial Russian Air Force, Spring 1917". There's a slightly different alternative in Eduard's 1/72nd combo kit (7073) that has this aircraft being flown by Lt. Boris "Bob" Guber - the roundels are different and it has a serial number applied. Either way, I prefer to simply refer to is as "BOD", not "BOB", though it's more likely "ODD BOD" for my model. I'll live with the fact that any resemblance between this model and the real thing is coincidental.

This is how it came out ...

Comments, criticisms and advice always welcome - particularly on suitable weathering techniques for WW1 aircraft.

It is back to the Harrier Project now and the Sea Harrier FA2.

[Dave Fleming]

Nice, I like Nieuports. One thing about WW1 aircraft is that the cockpit fittings tended to be put in random places!!

[Shar2]

That looks really good Graham. You wouldn't know you had so many problems with the decals.

[HOUSTON]

SWEET!! Really lovely rigging work... FANTASTIC. Finish...

[Amo Aero]

Nice! I like the shade of aluminum you achieved. Though I have no factual evidence to back it up, in my mind's eye it seems right for a WWI aircraft in Russia.

[Shar2]

Grham kindly brought this round last night and it looks even better in the plastic. The rigging was superbly done.