I'm building one of the 1/72 Eduard Nieuport 17s from the Dual Combo set. I have a few questions and am having trouble finding answers. I have *no* reference books on the Nieuport 17 and would kind of like to avoid buying any. (I have an Osprey title on the Lafayette Escadrille which is nice but not really helpful). I'd like to build the Georges Guynemer plane.

As I build I may have more questions. I hope someone here might help. Thanks in advance to anyone who can.

1) the instructions shows GG's plane with the cone de penetration. I see pictures online with it and without it. The notes say some had it and some don't. Not sure whether to include it.

2) Not sure what color to paint the front of the fuselage - the part between the cockpit and the engine. I'm not sure it's really going to be that visible. Was it metal?

3) It looks like people paint the doped aluminum with a mix of white and metal or grey and metal. Not sure what I'm aiming for with that. I'm assuming only the cowling around the engine is true metal and should be clearly different from the rest? I guess there are a couple of questions in that.

Thanks,
Phil

Over the years, I’ve built several Nieuport 17s in various scales. I’ve also got several books on the subject, although none of them are particularly comprehensive. The research I’ve done indicates the forward fuselage was fabric covered plywood, which gave the aluminum impregnated pigment a slightly different shade than the rest of the fabric to the rear. The upper and lowerpanels were held together with wire “stitching”. Here’s one of the best photos I’ve found of a Nieuport 17, exported to the US in 1917, if you expand the photo, the details are very clear:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Nieuport_17_LOC_hec.09329.jpg

Yes, the Cone ‘de Penetration was used, but it was also often discarded as it interfered with engine cooling, and didn’t do much to streamline the aircraft anyway.

Below is a link to an article I wrote on building the 1/32 Hobbycraft/Academy Nieuport 17 for large scale planes. I’ve listed my references. The cowling was often left in bare metal, as were the access ports on either side of the forward fuselage. Hope this helps

https://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/article.php?aid=3162

VR, Russ

That's a huge help, Russ. I hadn't realized there should be three metallic shades on the plane. Your work is beautiful, too!

Glad to help Phil. The 1917 Nieuport Photo above (I think it was taken at Langley VA) is a great clear period photo, even in black and white. If you enlarge it, you can see a myriad of details that escape the casual look, it’s far better than other period photos.. It’s interesting to note that to service the engine, the top panel of the cowling was unbolted (note the flanges at the top of the cowling), and the cowling was tilted down and lowered to clear prop. Studying that particular photo will yield a lot of information about the Nieuport 17.
VR, Russ