Hello everybody,

I'm soon starting up a build of two HobbyCraft Nie.17 kits, and I wanted to know a bit more about the engines of these...

I will probably do one of them up as a Nie 23, as far as I know there is very little visual difference – gun slightly offset from the center, and some more vents on the lower cowling.

– But would the engine have been the same (at least visually) between the type Nie 17 and 23?

Also – I have a couple of left over Oberursels from Roden's Fokker D.VI, that I might want to use...

Now – looking at various pics from different sources, it would seem to me that the engines could be very similar looking – then again, some pics claiming to be LeRhônes have very differently shaped front panel.

So whats the deal are we talkiing different HPs and series of manufacture for the LeRhônes and which ones would have been appropriate to the Nie 17 and 23?

As usual a very longwinded question to whats probably a pretty easy answer – any help is very appreciated.

Warm Regards

Mikael

I will try to answer your questions.

The difference between the Oberursel Ur.II (licence built copy of the LeRhône) and the face plate on the Oberursel was separate from the propshaft. On the LeRhône the face plate had a prop shaft / spindle incorporated in to it as one unit.

The Nieuport 17 was powered by Le Rhône 9J, 9 cylinder, rotary, 110 hp.

The Nieuport 23 was powered by Le Rhône 9Jb, 9 cylinder, rotary, 120 hp.

The 23 was essentially a 17 with a higher horsepower motor. The 17 still retained the flat sided fuselage of the 17. It was on the 21 bis that the fuselage was given a rounded appearance.

Thank You Stephen – As always a great source of knowledge.

Aha – then I understand why the faceplate differs between the two, I shall bear this in mind when I do the engines. I also found a beautiful 3D rendering of the Le Rhone 9J, by Mark Millar – this will also be a great help.

The problem I have with various images I tend to find on the net, is partly that I can never be sure they have been labled right by the author. Also that they don't always give a specific mark of which engine – simply saying its an "Oberursel" can confuse things.

Then its a great help when someone who knows can give a more specific information.

Warm Regards

Mikael