Note: Originally this was posted: Sunday, September 17, 2006 - 10:16 AM

Recently I have had two modelers approach me concerning the various issues of the Eduard 1/48 Nieuport 17.

For clarity Eduard appears to have two separate Plastic molds for their Type 17. While the “B” sprue seems common in all previous issues, the “A” sprue is set up for specifically either including or excluding the Vickers machine gun mounting and its associated equipment. That includes empty cartridge chute, empty ammo belt box, and ammo box facade.

Go to the Eduard site and check out all of the images for their Nieuport 17 kits where they try to show you what you get in the box. There are several instances where they show the wrong fuselage sprues with a kit. Kits that are just supposed to have the Vickers machine gun show instead just the Lewis gun installations sprues.

Recent discovery
Well Eduard has apparantly got these sprues mixed up as evidenced by last May's issue of kit #8431 with the wrong decals. In the Eduard 1:48 Nieuport 17 weekend kit #8431 the main problems are between Dorme's aircraft and what you get in the kit.

8431 Nieuport N.17 $10.95
- Different upper wing (transparent centre section)
- Different engine cowling
- Cone de penetration on the propeller
- Fuselage-mounted Vickers MG instead of wing-mounted Lewis.

As one modeler has pointed out:
". . .Points 2 and 3 are easy to fix as the alternative parts needed are included on the sprues (though the instructions tell you to discard them!). Point 4 isn't hard to fix either if you have a Vickers in the spares box (just fill in the locating holes for the Lewis mount on the upper wing). . . you might use a different decal scheme more suited to the kit parts. . ."



I note that Eduard has deleted the kit listing and its not even in their cancelled catagory.

I thought something strange when i added this kit (8431) to my stash back in august. I noticed that some kits appear (as according to eduards pics) have the induction tubes piece for the engine and some dont. I remember seeing it on the basic sprue with the rest of the bits, but my kit did not have this version of the sprue. At the time I supposed that this weekend edition was marketed to sell remaining old stock. I wasnt going to complain for $10, just scratchbuild some pipes as their absence will bother me. I hadnt previously noticed that the instructions didnt match the profile as far as the upper wing and gun are concerned. All parts for either version appear to be in my kit. ....Except of course the pesky induction pipes bit.

Thats definately the early first issue sprues. The induction pipes came in a later issue.