Nieuport 17

A little propeller. What plane will it belong to? Well, I guess I ruined it by telling it in the title. Ha.

Here's one picture, the rest is behind the jump. Klick on the orange text saying "Click here to read the rest of this story!" and read the rest of the story. It's not that long and it also isn't really boring. I also tell a little about the plane.

source: Wikipedia

The French Nieuport 17 was one in a long series of quite similar looking planes in the second half of the First World War. This one was a little larger and better than its predecessor, the Nieuport 11. it came into service in 1916 The most interesting thing about this line of Nieuports was that is was a so-called Sesquiplane, a "one-and-a-half-decker. The idea was that it combined the lesser drag, the lightness and agility of a monoplane and the sturdiness of a double decker. The lower wing was half the size of a regular wing. It was a good plane, about 3600 were built.

Now for the model. Of course it was designed by Fabrizio Prudenziati. Andf it is always big fun to build a Zio plane. This one's no exception.

So, the prop. This photo demonstrates well how I build my props. For the prop itself I used Leif Ohlsson's "simple prop" model, which consists of two parts that make the blade, and two parts that make the front and rear parts of the axle. A rolled-up cylinder is the guide for the needle that will be the actual axle. A couple of beads, also in the holes in the card, takes care of the lining out of the prop shaft.

 
A drop of CA on the bead at the end keeps everything together.
And it spins.

I didn't make photos of the build. It was pretty straightforward except for my own scratcheries that eventually detailed the model.

So, the final product:

 

The wings were slightly and shallowly carved along the lines perpendicular to the leading edge, and rolled up with the printed side inward. When rolled out, it gives the surface a more accentuated feel as if it is a wooden wing skeleton with linen skin. (the shadow you see here is the print, though. But you can feel the ribs.)

The cowling is cut from aluminium coloured paper. I used the Zio parts as a template. The three rings are edge glued on top of one another and the 2D engine printed on a circle is inside the largest ring.

The wheels of the landing gear can actually roll. A discarded guitar string, sturdy and steel, runs through the paper axle shaft. The wheels have little beads inside, guiding the wheels themselves on to the axle.

The propeller is, as already said, Leif Ohlsson's design. A very realistic looking prop which takes a little more effort than the simple double-sided 2D prop that comes with Zio's model. It is a little difficult in 1/72 scale, but the result is so good.

 

 

The guns were partially scratch built. The handle and the ammunition drum on top of the upper wing gun are self-made. The barrels of the upper wing gun are made from two pieces of steel wire and the nozzle of the bigger machine gun behind the cowling the wings is from a piece of guitar string.
Something that I rearranged, is the placement of the small struts in front of the cockpit. In Zio's drawings they both were on the side of the fuselage pointing outward but all the photos showed the struts as an inverted V, so I changed that in the model.

And that's it. There's some tropical weather going on so i don't know what my plans will be for the coming days (besides work). No big projects soon, anyway.

Until next time,

stay safe, and be kind to one another. Slava Ukraini.

--PK