“L’as la Jambe de bois” Finished

[Andwil]

Paul Tarascon was a French ace of WWI with 12 confirmed and 10 probable victories.  Tarascon was an aviator pre-war and had suffered a crash while learning to fly in 1911 which  resulted in the amputation of his right foot.  He continued to fly with a wooden leg and achieved success firstly with Escadrille N.3, the famous storks, alongside the likes of Duellin, Hertoux and of course Guynemer and then with N.62 which he led. Flying Nieuports and later SPADs, he had most success with the little rotaries gaining his nickname of “the ace with the wooden leg”.  Tarascon’s rooster badge was adopted by N.62 as its unit marking and Tarascon named his aircraft “Zigomar” after a fictional criminal popular in France at the time.  Paul Tarascon survived the war, fought again in WWII with the French resistance, was awarded the Grand Croix of the Legion d’honneur in 1955 and passed away in June 1977 at the age of 94.

 

For this group build I will be building Eduard’s excellent little Nieuport 17 as Tarascon’s Zigomar 4.

 

 

 

 

A start has been made prepping parts for priming.  Some of the parts are very fine and great care needs to be taken removing them from the sprue, naturally, being ham fisted I managed to break one of the aileron push rods.  It should be fixable, but a timely lesson on the need for care!

 

AW

Edited October 2, 2021 by Andwil

[Wez]

Great choice!  An attractive scheme and a great tribute to a brave man.

 

Welcome to the GB and good luck.

[Andwil]

Cockpit painted and assembled, I only have to attach the seat belts and the fuselage can be closed up.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Cockpit installed into the fuselage:

 

 

most of which cannot be seen once closed up:

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Never realized how narrow the wings were on these. 

[Andwil]

5 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Never realized how narrow the wings were on these. 

The Nieuport 10-27 series were “sesquiplanes” “one and a half wings” and were effectively parasol monoplanes, the single spar lower wings were really only there to carry the interplane struts to support the upper wing.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Undercarriage and tailplanes attached today.  The elevator was lightly scored and gently bent into a drooping position.  I have also drilled some tiny holes for the rigging, made a bit of a mess with a couple of them which will need fixing.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Brandy]

Nice start and a great lead in story. Quite a man!

 

Ian

[Andwil]

The cabane struts have been attached and everything has had a shot of primer:

 

 

 

Engine, this is the rear view.  Paint pot for scale:

 

 

looks much better to the naked eye!  Not much will be seen behind the cowling so I’m not overly concerned that the pipes don’t attach to the cylinders.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

I have sprayed the Nieuport with Vallejo Metal Colour White Aliminium:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Old Man]

Great job on a great little kit, Sir!

 

Looking forward to seeing this one complete.

[Andwil]

Rudder painted gloss white in prep for decals.

 

 

Yesterday I sprayed the cowling aluminium and sealed it in.  Today I gave it a spray of hairspray, then painted it red.  After the red a dried, I set to with a cocktail stick and a course brush (it was an old make up brush of some sort of my daughter’s) to chip the red away.  Photos of Zigomar 4 show very heavy chipping, I did not go quite as far as I did not want to tempt fate and ruin the part.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Engine and (rather battered) cowling attached:

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[nimrod54]

Looks fantastic AW, the paint chipping on the cowling is very effective.

 

John

[Andwil]

On 9/8/2021 at 8:15 PM, nimrod54 said:

Looks fantastic AW, the paint chipping on the cowling is very effective.

 

John

Thanks John, kind of you.

 

Real life has limited the time available for modelling, but I have managed to attach the machine gun and windscreen and do a little detail painting.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

I wasn’t happy with the upper surface of the top wing so I rubbed it back and res prayed the white aluminium.

 

 

Much happier with this.

 

Wheels and Cone de Penetration ( not a spinner, it was stationary, attached to the shaft around which the engine and propeller rotated).

 

 

I think she’s ready for decals.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

Great work AW

Looking at the Decal sheet, is the aircraft big enough to fit them all on ?

Cheers Pat 

[Andwil]

On 9/14/2021 at 7:38 PM, JOCKNEY said:

Great work AW

Looking at the Decal sheet, is the aircraft big enough to fit them all on ?

Cheers Pat 

Just about squeezed them all on:

 

 

 

 

Still have the cocades on the top wing upper surface to do after it is fitted and rigged.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[2996 Victor]

Looking fantastic, if I may say so! I particularly like the effect on the cowling, its extremely realistic and convincing.

 

I didn't previously know that the cone de penetration was stationary - I'd always presumed it rotated with the propeller. The whole idea of having a stationary crankshaft and having the engine itself rotate gives me the heebie-jeebies, all that mass rotating eugh!

 

Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Andwil]

On 9/16/2021 at 9:02 PM, 2996 Victor said:

Looking fantastic, if I may say so! I particularly like the effect on the cowling, its extremely realistic and convincing.

 

I didn't previously know that the cone de penetration was stationary - I'd always presumed it rotated with the propeller. The whole idea of having a stationary crankshaft and having the engine itself rotate gives me the heebie-jeebies, all that mass rotating eugh!

 

Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

Cheers,

Mark

Thanks Mark, the cowling was a bit of an experiment with the hairspray technique, I’m quite pleased with the result.

 

Rotaries must have been a handful to fly, but had terrific manoeuvrability, especially in the direction of the rotation.  The Camel in particular was noted for very rapid right hands turns.

 

Top wing on and a start with the rigging.  The whole is very fragile, the connection points between the top wing and the struts are tiny, I have already knocked it off a couple of times.  Getting the rigging line through is quite tricky, I have decided to forgo the bracing between the cabane struts, my tweezers just will not fit between the wing and fuselage.  This is a very small model!

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

The wing rigging completed.  I had some trouble with the lines pulling out and realised I had used the wrong drill bit resulting in holes that are a little too big   Filled with CA.

 

Now I can move on the undercarriage and tail.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Finally can call this one done.  I have spent a bit of time attempting to fix the mess I made with the rigging holes.  I’m not really happy with how it turned out and it certainly won’t do anything to repair Franco - Australian relations.

 

For better or worse it’s in the gallery.  Don’t look too closely at the ugly hole filling.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[John Masters]

Perfect AW. I'm convinced that better kits will always make better builds, and in the hands of an expert--even more so!

[Andwil]

9 hours ago, John Masters said:

Perfect AW. I'm convinced that better kits will always make better builds, and in the hands of an expert--even more so!

Thanks John, too kind, I don’t consider myself an expert!

 

AW

[exdraken]

Very nice!