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Special Hobby 1/48 Nieuport 10


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I have several early Great War aircraft in the pile and have the bug to get a few completed.  I've posted shots of my completed Tabloid and here's a start on the SH 1/48 Nieuport 10 that's just been released as a two seater.   While the instructions show the top wing with the hole SH elected to remove this part from the kit.  Looking at the Datafile and period photos I added it back in the wing provided in the kit.  The attachment points for the bottom wings is almost non-existant so I added some wire to beef it up but am still going to the hardware store to get some epoxy glue to strengthen the joint.  The observer sits in the front and the pilot on the rear seat.  I have a GasPatch 1914 Hotchkiss to mount on the top wing.  Apparently this configuration didn't last very long as the  observer standing up through the wing interfered  with the air flow  to the rudder and the pilot's ability to see ahead.   I've got some blue decal sheet ordered to do the taping around the wings and fuselage; initially I thought of masking with Tamiya tape and painting the tapes but was concerned the yellow might pull up in places.  

 

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Sergey, It will be a French a/c.  Just a plain finish however; the yellow linen color, French roundels and the blue grey taping.  What photos I've seen during this early period of the war don't show many squadron markings and the Datafile on the Nieuport 10/12 mostly cover British a/c..   

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I've found out today by trial and error the cabane struts are too long  and need to be reduced in height.  I have the Datafile handy and am measuring the height using dividers.  So far I've removed about 2mm from the front and rear tops of the struts and drilled and added a brass wire to act as the top pin.   Wing looks high but it matches the GA drawings and in some of the photos it appears to be right.  We'll see how it looks as I add the outer 'V' struts - I know these must be reduced in height as well in reading other comments on the web.  

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Am working on the tape outlines on the wings, fuselage, etc.  initially tried masking with Tamiya tape but the Vallejo blue gray bled under the tape so I removed it and ordered some Microscale Amtrak Blue and outlined the top wing with a very narrow band of decal.  After it dried I hand brushed the Vallejo blue gray over the decal and the brush seemed to do a good job of not running off the decal.  I'll tackle the bottom of the top wing next. I need to touch up a few spots on the fuselage with the light tan but it's too cold to paint in the garage right now.  Thinking the decal work will keep me busy for a couple of evenings.   Will post some photos this evening.  

 

What's nice about these WIP is the encouragement you get from the other modelers to keep going when a project might stop due to mistake or the interest goes 'elsewhere'.  

 

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Edited by cduckworth
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The only Nieuport I've built so far was a IV so I haven't had the pleasure of the edge tapes yet. Well worth the effort to get them right though.

 

Ian

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I've found out today by trial and error the cabane struts are too long  and need to be reduced in height.  I have the Datafile handy and am measuring the height using dividers.  So far I've removed about 2mm from the front and rear tops of the struts and drilled and added a brass wire to act as the top pin.   Wing looks high but it matches the GA drawings and in some of the photos it appears to be right.  We'll see how it looks as I add the outer 'V' struts - I know these must be reduced in height as well in reading other comments on the web.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I was heads down into this build when the postman delivered the Spin Sage 2.  I got completely diverted and built it in a week (I have a 'wip' and post in 'ready for inspection' if you're interested in such strange flying beasts); so back to the Special Hobby Nieuport 10. 

 

As most of you are aware, French built Nieuports of this era had colored tapes running around the outside of the wings, stablizer and fuselage.  For years on the CDL and pale yellow doped aircraft this has been shown as black, brown and recent research suggests a blue gray similar to the color on the French Adrian helmets.  I decided to go with the recent blue gray theory and initially tried masking off the edges with Tamiya tape but the Vallejo paint bled underneath so I opted to lay down a blue decal stripe and then hand brush the Vallejo Blue Grey over it.  So far the top wing is completed and the bottom wing is finished on the top.   The Special Hobby decals are quite thin and lay down nicely.  As you can see I need to respray the top deck on the fuselage as I wasn't pleased with the finish.    

 

The model was laying in its box, minding its own business, while I was drawn to the Sage 2.  I'd forgot where it was and placed a box of oil paints in the Nieuport box and broke two of the cabane struts.  The breaks were clean so acc'd the damage and these will be ready for the top wing once I get the tapes decaled and painted.  One thing I'd learned with building WWI models is it helps strengthen the model in drilling holes and adding brass pins where ever you have a strut.  

 

There's not a lot of photos I've come across of Nieuport 10's in French service; the Datafile is full of British and Italian Nieuports and the large volume of French aircraft by Flying Machine Press doesn't have many illustrations of French Nieuport 10s either - my only point is none of these shown any markings on the fuselage so the model will be fairly plain when finished.  

 

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I don't know what I didn't think of this last week when I was painting the stripes on the wings but I decided to see if I could use the blue gray Vallejo paint into a decal for the fuselage.  I gave the Microscale Amtrak Blue a light coat of paint and cut out a decal and  placed on the fuselage and it worked great.  So this stage of construction will go faster than planned.

 

 

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I don't know what I didn't think of this last week when I was painting the stripes on the wings but I decided to see if I could use the blue gray Vallejo paint into a decal for the fuselage.  I gave the Microscale Amtrak Blue a light coat of paint and cut out a decal and  placed on the fuselage and it worked great.  So this stage of construction will go faster than planned.

 

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Nice sharp edges on the wing tapes. I've found painting decal paper and cutting it in straps works pretty well, but add the curve of the leading edge and it's trial and error territory again!

 

Ian

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2 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Nice sharp edges on the wing tapes. I've found painting decal paper and cutting it in straps works pretty well, but add the curve of the leading edge and it's trial and error territory again!

 

Ian

Ian

Things were going 'too' well with the blue gray striping and decals; I decided to expoxy the top wing onto the cabane struts and was pressing down too hard and broke one of 'V' front ones which allowed the other three to come apart as well.  :rage:I knew this was going too well.  Been modeling 50+ years and still making stupid mistakes.  So out comes the acc and I redid the brass pins, replied the broken 'V' strut and this time I used gap filling acc to the top wing and 'lightly' held it in place.  This time no issues.  Added the outer 'V' struts (brass pins were added to the three end point as well) with acc as well.  So far so good.   Only thing I've thought of is I have several Nieuports in the stash (Eduard 11, 16, 17, Karaya 24 and a 28) so am hoping not all of them require taping. 

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9 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

The model is looking great but I don't envy you having to do the tapes on all those other Nieuport kits you have.

 

Martian

Well, after looking over several books on Nieuports it's not as bad as I initially thought.  The 10's and 11's generally show the tapes in a contrasting color but the later 17's, 24-27's and 28's don't.   

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Looks great now, and it appears your repairs went well.

I have looked through my Windsock Datafile on Nieuport Fighters and come up with the following which pretty much confirms your findings:

The 11 and 16 need tapes. Camouflaged 11s & 16s also had "light edges". The aluminium dope is believed to have been applied first to the 17 and was not carried on the 11. The camouflaged 17's had no tapes on the undersides but usually carried a lighter edge on the upper surfaces (masked off when the camo was sprayed?). From 23 onwards I don't see any sign of tapes in pics in the book. Of course there were always exceptions....

 

Ian

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Down the home stretch - the taping is finally done.  I always feel like the model may actually make it when I get the undercarriage glued on.  Still adding decals to the rudder, need to paint the prop, add the rigging and figure out how to mount the machine gun.  The only photo I've seen of the Hotchkiss being fixed to the top wing is on the prototype in the Datafile, the general arrangement drawing does have a drawing of the mount but I'd like to see a photo as well.  I've bought a GasPatch resin M1914 version and it's a very nice casting.  

 

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I cut up the serial numbers on the decal sheet to come up with a lower production number to somewhat match the early version with the hole in the top wing.  The propeller will need some additional detail as the nuts and hub are almost nonexistant.  I've got some sheets of Tom's Model Works and others I've saved over the years and should have something in the spare parts bin.   

 

I looked in Harry Woodman 'Early Aircraft Armament The Airplane and the Gun up to 1918' this evening and he makes reference in the French chapter to the Nieuport 10 where 'the gunner was in the front and was required to stand on his seat and fire through a large hole in the center section'.  He says this was later changed to a smaller hole, with the gun frequently fixed to fire diagonally upward (an arrangement  associated with the single seat version of the Nieuport 10 and one used on British and Russian Nieuports.  So am thinking for the time being I'm not going to mount the Hotchkiss on the model as I'd just be guessing as to the arrangement.  

 

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