To put a finer point on the modifiication here is the needed move for the air induction pipes. Go to
http://www.mincbergr.net check out his museum sections. See: Snecma Museum Melun

This is not a well known factory museum. It is property of Snecma, a French engine producer. It is situated in Villaroche, near Melun, southeast of Paris. It is part of factory, where is provided final assembly of CFM-56 turbofan engines, which are used on B737 family, A320 family and A340s. The museum is mostly dedicated to French design engines. It is open only during Wednesdays.

Howdy Stephen,

Ohhhhh.......great news dear sir! Make's me most grateful for remembering {something becoming increasingly more difficult at my age} to take my ESP pills this morning.

From your descriptive I have a pretty good idea of your overall plan, but seeing just how you do it will aid those of us yearning to better understand WWI aircraft just that extra notch we all desire.

Many thx .

Tread.

EDIT: {another expletive} Oops!! Paused to eat something...didn't realize you had already responded Stephen.
I can see the difference in the first two photos, but unfortunately I'm gettin' the dreaded red 'X's on the latter two.....

No worries Tread I will just give everyone a road map to the site. Its well worth the trip. AND Yes I will be providing images of my conversion.

Insert Page 4.) Here is where you can add the replacement metal rods I spoke of in Page 2. This will allow you to delete the plastic parts ( B 23 X 2 & 27.) Finish any tail unit rigging at this time. Eduard’s Lewis Gun ( B 12 ) can be augmented by replacing the gun barrels with metal rod.. usually I prefer the aftermarket items from Copper State Models. When your ready don’t forget the triggering and the pull down cables to the Lewis gun assembly. I don’t care for the “over the wing” gun mount provided in plastic ( B 3, 5, 10 X 2 .) Since I have several spares from other Nieuport builds, I chose one of these. If you feel the same way but your spares box is not giving you the needed pieces you could use painted brass rod cut and bent to match the needed parts.

Here are a couple of stock Nieuport 16 cockpit interiors. Sorry for the hazy look folks these were shot on a very overcast day.

Greetings all;

Here are the modifications I will employ to modify the Weekend Series Nieuport 16 kit parts. Effective visually at least. this changes the appearance of the kit rotary from an 80hp LeRhone to a 110hp LeRhone. The 110hp is the engine used for the type 16.

In the modifying of parts B 29 and B16 (face plate only) the surfaces need to be flat. I drilled completely through B29 and then sanded both faces so that the disc is half the thickness I began with. On B16 the rear of the face plate only need sto be sanded flat. The bolt and hex head detail on the plate should be facing forward. I then added a section of rounded sprue through the whole assembly as a propshaft / crank replacement. Any questions?

here is the comparison between the DML and the Eduard modified item.

Here is the frontend view of the kit modified kit engine.




Some fuselages shots before blending the edges of the camouflage.

Greetings all;

While woking on this kit I began working on 2 other Nieuport 11/ 16 kits I had in my stack . These will be finished in he markings of 1131 & 1208 of the N.124 (the Lafayette Escadrille) and will be posting them on the French Multi colour camouflage thread. There are several things to note about the current build of the "Weekend Kit's" markings.

1. Adj. Lenoir's Nieuport 16 can be seen in the book - Nieuport Aces of World War One by N. Franks, Osprey, Aircraft of the Aces #33, 2000.

Though it is seen in a colour profile it only uses two colours in what should be a four colour camouflage scheme. The photo in the refence only shows the rear of the fuselage from the pesonal marking "MAX" to the rudder.

2. Though the instructions show the build with the anti-balloon rockets, we do not have any record that he ever used them.

3. The kit profile shows the undesufaces in grey / aluminum. Indications are that these dopes began being used in the Nieuport 17 second production batch. This machine a Niuport 16, N977 comes too early in the series to have aluminum powder dope applied.

Should be a 4 colours scheme? Four?. I have difficulties to buy even the 3 tho it does look nice.



Mikko

Hello Mikko!
Thank you for dropping by. I know it seems strange but the reference is from a pilot of 1916. Victor Chapman of Esc. N. 124 wrote in a letter to his mother decribing the Nieuport 11 & 16 on their airfield. Two greens, light and dark, two browns light and dark. I have finished the build (without rockets) and may shoot it tomorrow. Wait til you see the ones I am doing for the French multi coloured camouflage thread.

Very interesting! I wonder if there is any other written descriptions of the early French camo. Germans captured at least one Nieuport 11 and one type 16 in this camo. They photographed them from every angle and stripped them and photogarphed again. I wonder if they left anything on paper about these machines?

Mikko

Greetings Mikko!

Actually there are some items in private hands. I refer to these people as the Silent Old Birds. Most of them good fellows. Private collectors like Peter Jackson and a few others. The information on Adlershof testing site has been divided amoung private collectors for years. One such fellow who always gave a great deal to serious research hounds was Peter M. Grosz. (He passed away recently.) German manufacture or captured aircraft always showed up there. They were recorded BUT fabric cover treatment was never seen to be of any importance. Why you say? Black and white film was the media of the day and the social point of view was that the technical aspects were more important. We are lucky to have a short description in a flight or structure evaluation document.

Here it is almost a month in the making. Mostly due to waiting on photo development. Almost out of the box my finished build of Eduard's Kit #8426

Fom the right side.

Now from the pilot's right front quarter

And from the pilot's left front quarter.

I would like to thank;
Rowan for the chance to build this little jewel and Eduard for the kit fo review.

This is the end of my tail, uh er tale!

Please feel free to ask questions or comment.

Nicely done kit, Stephen! I have a question about the control horns on the tail fins though. Did they come with the kit or did you have to scratchbuild them? I wasn't happy with the horns that came with my Strutter, so I cut them off. Not sure what to use in their place though. Stretched sprue was one idea I had, another was to use scrap metal cut from a fret of photoetch. What other options are out there?

Nice job Stephen. Are the figures Eduard also? I have a set of their RFC figures and am really impressed with them.

Roy

Cool build Stephen!

But ... er ... I see only one brown...

Mikko