Building/Correcting/Converting the Revell/ESCI 1/72nd Nieuport 17.C.1 and Variations

The Revell/ESCI Nieuport (Nie) 17, although not 100% accurate, can be made into an excellent example of the diminutive French fighter. Along with correcting the kit to scale exactness, it can also be made into other WW1 fighters with few modifications. It can be made into the Nieuport 11, 16, 17, 17bis, 21 and 23, as well as the Siemens Schuckert D.I. This article starts off by explaining how to modify the kit into what it was intended: a Nieuport 17.C.1.

Important Note: The Rosemont/Roseplane items listed in this document are currently out of production. However, new molds are going to be cut, and they will be re-released at a future date. Watch the Rosemont Hobby Shop site for release details.

Nieuport 17.C.1

Correcting the upper wing (refer to the scale drawings in Nieuport Fighters, Vol. 1):

Correcting the lower wing (refer to the scale drawings in Nieuport Fighters, Vol. 1):

Correcting the fuselage (refer to the scale drawings in Nieuport Fighters, Vol. 1):

Corrections to Smaller Details (both kits):

  1. Undercarriage. Make the undercarriage struts out of .010" plastic card (Evergreen or your favorite source), and the axle and spreader bars out of .020" plastic rod (available from Evergreen and Contrail). The wheels can either be replaced by Aeroclub, Rosemont or XtraParts, or they can be taken from the Airfix SPAD VII. Note that Rosemont now makes replacement landing gear struts.
  2. Cowling. Remove the molded-in engine and replace either with an Aeroclub, Rosemont, or suitable alternative 110 hp Le Rhone 9J. Thin down the inside edges of the cowling, adding cooling holes and seam lines (dependent on the particular aircraft being modeled), and filing "half-moons" where the cowling meets the undercarriage. Note that this step can be avoided by buying the replacement cowling from Rosemont Hobbies and follow the directions that come with the cowling. However, the “half-moons” still need to be filed for the undercarriage.
  3. Horizontal tail surface. Decide if you want to modify or scratchbuild the horizontal tail surface. If scratchbuilding, follow scale drawings. If modifying the original kit part, then first thin. Cut out slots where the top-most control wires pass through. Round off the tips since they are too “pointy”.
  4. Vertical tail surface. Since the entire rudder is wrong, this will need to be scratchbuilt out of .010” plastic card. Follow scale drawings.
  5. Struts. All struts need to be thinned and for the interplane struts, reduced in cross section. You may also wish to scratchbuild all struts and/or use the new Rosemont replacement interplane struts.
  6. Armament. Replace the kit's Vickers with that from Rosemont or Aeroclub. Also be sure to check the machine you're modeling since some Nie.17's carried an extra Lewis gun on top of the upper wing. Again, either Rosemont or Aeroclub come to the rescue.
  7. Other. Some 17's carried a "spinner"-like attachment to the front of the propeller. This was called a cone de penetration and, unlike a spinner, did not spin with the propeller. This can either be scratch built, modified from an Airfix Albatros D.V or a Revell Albatros D.III, or can be bought from Rosemont and used as is. Refer to sources for the machine being modeled.

For a more detailed explanation of how to upgrade the Revell kit, refer to Windsock Vol. 1 No. 3, The Best of Windsock Vol. 1, or Scale Models, August 1981.

Nieuport 21

After accurizing the kit to 17.C.1 standards, make the cowling a horseshoe, add an 80 hp Le Rhone and you have a 21. Viola! Even easier is to buy the replacement cowling for the Nieuport 11/21 from Rosemont and follow the included instructions.

Nieuport 23

This is the easiest derivative to make from the 17. Perform all steps to correct the basic Nieuport 17 kit. Once all Nie.17 modifications are made, slant the centrally mounted Vickers gun to starboard. There was also a difference in engines used. If modeling a French Nieuport 23, then use a 120 hp Le Rhone 9Jb. If it's British, then stick with the 110 hp engine. Again, it is imperative to study all sources for the particular machine being modeled.

Nieuport 11

All modifications are based on the ESCI kit only, since it is easier to modify an ESCI Nie.17 than a Revell one. Notes are also supplied on how to “correct” Rosemont’s replacement parts.

Note that there are now kits available of the Nie.11. Please see the page Known 1/72nd Nieuport Models for more information on these kits.

Modifying the upper wing (refer to the scale plans in Nieuport Fighters, Vol. 1):

Modifying the lower wing (refer to the scale plans in Nieuport Fighters, Vol. 1):

  1. Thin trailing edges.
  2. Lightly sand away all “fabric representation”.
  3. Cut off the outer portions of the lower wing at the "fuselage section", which is the portion of the lower wing where the wing sections appear to meet part of a “molded in” fuselage.
  4. Glue the center section onto the fuselage (after you complete the modifications to the fuselage) and fill in the gap to the fuselage line.
  5. Remove approximately 2mm from each end of each outer wing piece.
  6. Correct wing tips.
  7. Since there is more of a sweep back on the Nie.11 than the Nie.17, the ribs will no longer be “parallel” with the fuselage. You can live with it, or sand off the old ribs, and replace in a suitable fashion.
  8. Once all modifications to the fuselage are complete, and Step 7 is finished, add the outer wing portions directly to the fuselage, ensuring the correct amount of sweep back.

Modifying the fuselage (refer to the scale plans in Nieuport Fighters, Vol. 1):

Modifying the cowling:

  1. Remove the bottom fourth to expose the lower part of the engine.
  2. Remove the molded in engine, adding a Rosemont, Aeroclub, or suitable alternative Le Rhone 80 hp engine.
  3. Sand down the edges of the cowl to scale thickness.

Alternatively, you can purchase the Rosemont replacement cowling (which is included with their Nie.11 fuselage) and forego these modifications.

Modifying smaller details:

  1. All tail surfaces will have to be scratchbuilt.
  2. Most struts will have to be either heavily modified, or scratchbuilt. The interplane struts are available from Rosemont as resin replacements.

Nieuport 16

The only differences between the Nie.11 and the Nie.16 are the addition of the headrest (dependent on the machine), and a different engine, a 110 hp Le Rhone. It is very important to study photographs of the machine you're building to get everything right. Once again, Rosemont comes to the rescue with a replacement fuselage and cowling, which needs the same attention as their Nie.11 replacement fuselage.

Nieuport 17bis

Now for the most difficult conversion. With this plane, the manufacturers moved away from the square fuselage incorporating the spar and fabric, “faired” type. One could suppose that the easiest way to model this one would be to sand down quite a lot of the fuselage, adding spars and stretching .005" plastic card over the spars. The rest of the Revell/ESCI kit still needs to be brought up to Nie.17 standards.

An even easier way to model this plane is to purchase the Rosemont replacement 17bis fuselage and follow the instructions included. There also appears to be two "corrections" to the Rosemont fuselage. The same wedge still needs to be added to the rear portion of the fuselage as the Revell/ESCI Nie.17 kit, and the exhaust channel will need to be added to the front.

Nieuport Triplane

This is an odd looking plane guaranteed to raise a few eyebrows and spark a few comments. For this conversion, the easiest thing to do is buy two ESCI kits. Seems like such a waste for what you'll use the other kit for, but it is quicker and easier. You will use the two wings from the second kit to make the middle and top wing of the Triplane. That's it. That's all you'll need from the second kit. Granted, the shape of the wings are quite different, but shouldn't be much of a hassle to correct. Besides needing to make new struts for the wings and finding markings for the aircraft, you are done with this conversion. However, you still need to get the rest of the kit up to 17.C.1 standards. This conversion has not been done, and is based on studying the drawings and the kit.

There were two variants of the Triplane. A "regular" version and a bis version. To forgo the fuselage modifications up to 17 standards, you could purchase Rosemont's replacement fuselages for either the bis or the "regular" version. For more information, refer to the paragraph on making the 17 and 17bis above, as well as Windsock International, Vol. 7 No. 2.

The "standard" Nie.17 Triplane conversion is no longer necessary since Rosemont has released a resin kit of it.

Siemens Schuckert D.I

A variation on a variation is the German Siemens Schuckert Werke (SSW) D.I. This was a German-built copy of the Nieuport 11. Modifying the kit to make it an SSW D.I isn't entirely easy.

Note that there were two kits out for the SSW D.I, both unfortunately out of production. Aero Productions out of England, and Meikraft. The Aero kit is all resin - and besides a few sink holes, all parts are clean. The only major discrepancy is the rudder which is too small and should be scratchbuilt. The Meikraft kit is injected plastic, and - besides using a “different” type of plastic on the fuselage - isn’t too bad. For more information on both the SSW D.I and models available, visit the Nieuport Clones page.

Modifying the Upper Wing:

Before performing the necessary surgery on the top wing, it is best to remove the molded in ribs and control horn which will be added later. The top wing should be cut apart somewhere close to each aileron control horn. The best recommendation is to line the center of the wing cockpit cut-out over the scale plans, mark off where the two joining ribs should be and then cut off the outer-most part of the wing and sand down the center section. Then lay each outer wing over the scale plans, lining up the inside aileron line and the leading edge. Mark off where each outer wing should be sliced and cut in order to get the size of the wings correct, which comes out to approximately 1 - 1.5 mm for each section. It will look a bit weird, but it's best to have the shape correct. Refer to the scale plans in Windsock International, Vol. 5 No. 3. The upper wing is cut up in this fashion because the center section has no sweep back, while the outer-wing sections do. After the wing is cut apart and re-sized, and the locations for the control horns are cut out, cement all three sections together, ensuring the correct amount of sweep back. Correct the shape of the wing tips and fill and re-scribe the aileron-to-wing joint (or just cut off at the new position if wanting to position). If the ribs were sanded off, replace in a suitable fashion.

Modifying the Lower Wing:

The lower wing should also have the center section removed. Once this is accomplished - and the fuselage is together - cement the removed center section to the fuselage and fill and sand as necessary. Remove plastic from the inside edge of the wing (where it will join to the fuselage) to approximately the first rib, ensuring the right amount of sweep back, and glue to the fuselage. There is now one problem with the lower wings - the ribs are no longer parallel with the fuselage. If it isn't a problem, don't worry about it. Otherwise you will have to make new ribs from scratch.

Modifying the Fuselage:

Before performing the major surgery on the outside of the fuselage, it is best to remove the molded in cockpit "tub" (the same as the Nie. 17 correction, above). This will help once you start sanding down the outside. The port, forward fuselage needs the asymmetrical section filed down. Once this is accomplished, the forward part of the fuselage then needs to be filed flat. When looking at the scale drawings for the D.I, the entire forward fuselage is "flatly" faired from the cockpit to the cowling, as opposed to "bulging out", or “semi-rounded” as per the Nie.17. The cowling will also need to be modified. It is the shape of a "horseshoe", as per the Nie.11/16/21, and there is a "spider" attachment to the front that should be scratch built out of .010" card stock. Again, refer to scale drawings. It might even be feasible to use the 11/21 cowling replacement from Rosemont and just adding the "spider" to the front. The engine on the original was a Siemens-Halske SH geared engine which is not yet a separate molding, so your best bet is to modify any engine. Dependent on the machine being modeled, a spinner might also have to either be scratch built or the Rosemont Nie.17 spinner could be used as a start. Since there are no known photographs of the cockpit, a best guess would be to model it after the Nie. 11, using the references listed.

Modifying the Tailplane and Smaller Details:

The entire tailplane - stabilizer and rudder - needs to be scratch built out of .015" card stock. Ribs will need to be added to both, as well as an aerofoil shape. Finally, scratch build the undercarriage. Refer to the paragraph on the 17 above, as well as scale drawings.

Refer to Windsock International, Vol. 5 No. 3 for the SSW D.I conversion.

All variations

Things to think of when building any Nieuport variant. Some planes had the middle portion of their upper wings "cut out". They removed part of the fabric and either replaced it with clear cellon or left it uncovered. Also, check your sources when adding the weapons. Most 17.C.1's had at least a Vickers mounted in front of the cockpit. Some also had a Lewis mounted on the top wing. There is also at least one example that had the one Vickers in front with TWO Lewis' mounted on the top wing. There could be any variation of these weapon schemes, so pay attention to your sources. Your best source of cockpit information again, is the Windsock issues on the 11/16 and the 23. Since the 17/21/23 and 11/16 were so similar, the cockpits seem pretty close as well. Using the 11/16 source as well as that for the 23 will not be too far off when adding cockpit details for the 17.

Decals

There aren't too many after market decals for French airplanes. The best sources are Blue Rider, Americal/Gryphon and Pegasus. See the page Known 1/72nd Nieuport Decals for more decal information.

References


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Last Updated Friday, October 1, 1999.