SPA Modeler

Inspired by Cherrylock's Nieuports, I dug my one and only World War One build out of the cabinet, and thought, what the heck, take some pics of the old girl. It has never been photographed before, and it looks pretty rough in many ways. It is the ancient Testors kit of the Nieuport Type 17 C.1 sesqui-plane built probably around 1994 or so. It has my first attempt at rigging, using fine guitar string. I did scratch-build an entire cockpit, including sidewalls,floor, headrest and instrument panel. The exhaust is drilled out solder and I added some oil filler caps. The bungee cord shock absorbers are thread coated with thinned white glue. I also made the elevator horns and added the control cables, again from fine wire. The gun sight ring is copper wire.

I believe the paint is Floquil Old Silver and the engine cowl is probably Humbrol polished aluminum (just can't recall for sure). The cockpit sidewalls are painted in some linen enamel. I used the kit decals. That pilot figure is probably 55 years old at least and originally came with the old Aurora Spad, iirc. I added him just to give a sense of scale and of course he still wears the paint job I gave him all those years ago.

The base is something I threw together after I got home from work. I'm using our new Nikon D3300 and don't really know what I'm doing, lol. I experimented with the macro mode and automatic and one can see why I usually take my pics outdoors. None of these are that great but I had fun shooting them. With a bit of trepidation, I hope you take a look...just not too close!
Gary































slide show:
http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Texgunne ... 17%20C%201

That is one splendid bird!

Most excellent. Two dollar, fifty cents from petty cash for you. keep your receipts.

Very nice and pure Nieuport!

Like the paintwork a lot, the silver looks really good!
Nice rigging, how exactly did you attach the rigs into the wings / fuselage ? Just with CA glue, or drilled a hole or ??

- Kari

so nice und so good work on this biplane.

pleace more of those

Thank you all very much! Your comments do mean a lot to this old man.

Kari, I believe I did drill most of the holes, a few might've just been glued to the strut...man, this was done soooo long ago! Not long after this model, I built the Impact/Linderg Hawker Fury Mk I and I distinctly remember drilling holes for that rigging. It turned out pretty well and is currently "in the shop" for some radio aerial re-doing. Maybe I can get some new pics of it soon. Here's what I have for now:





Cherrylock, you are a man who knows his way around a bi-plane, thanks! As for more like this? I don't know. When I built this bird, I didn't even wear reading glasses and had no arthritic fingers, lol. I don't know if I could even pull off this level of work today. I have three model cars, 1/24 scale, headed my way from Europe. I hope to start one soon; it will be my first model car since ...1976!

Thanks again my friends!
Gary

Great bi-planes! I like the guitar string for the rigging.

I have a Nikon D3200 which is similar to your D3300. I use mine mostly outdoors too for my fishing and backpacking trips.

I'm no photography guru, but one tip I can give you for shooting your models is try setting the camera on aperture priority mode then use the thumb dial on the back of the camera to adjust the f/stop higher. The higher the f/stop number the smaller the aperture and deeper the depth of field, which translates to more of what is framed in the photo being in focus. You may have to use a tripod and the timer on the camera if you try this as the smaller the aperture the slower the shutter speed. Possibly too slow of a shutter speed to keep the camera steady by hand.

Muzzy, thanks twice! I appreciate the biplane compliment very much. And, I sure do appreciate that camera tip too. After years of using "point and shot" digital cameras, I feel pretty intimidated by this Nikon. Before digital, I had a couple Canon SLRs, and took thousands of pics with those (two kids growing up=a buttload of photos!). Your suggestions will be heeded I assure you. I've been able to get some good digital pics of my model planes, and of my gun collection, with much less capable cameras and I know I'll get better with this DSLR too. Thanks again!
Gary

That is a stupendous looking Nieuport! I am stunned; it far surpasses anything I could do in that scale. Way to go!

Dang Duke, ya keep that up and I'm gonna start believing it myself! Seriously, I sure do appreciate the nice words my friend. I doubt I could pull it off today, well, it would mostly be done under the magnifier!

I'm glad so many of you like that old Nieuport. I posted the same pics over at the FSM forum; 87 views and just one reply. Thanks for that Stik! I guess it's not everyone's "cup o' tea". There are so many great guys there, as here too and a lot of overlap as well. I appreciate the camaraderie on all the modeling forums I visit. And, learn from all of them too!
Cheers!
Gary