Adding More Nieuports

Shapeways on left, Table Top on right. Posts and props as well.

For some months I have had a couple of 1/144 Nieuport N.17s awaiting prep, paint, and decals. One model is a Shapeways with the improved print material, and the other is a Table Top Flights offering. With my recent efforts in adding life to three Ares miniatures, I thought it might be nice to add to my Lafayette Escadrille's stable of available Nieuports.

Preparation

Neither plane came with posts, so luckily I did order posts from Shapeways before they declared bankruptcy. A couple of cuts with the X-ACTO knife to remove the pegs from the sprue, some filing to the edge that gets glued to the plane, and then a little superglue, and the pegs are securely in place.

Comparing the two materials - Table Top is smoother and more detailed

Posts added, time for priming

After drying the next step was a coat of primer. Normally I use some AK Interactive gray that I brush on, but last time I used it it had become quite separated, and rigorous shaking yielded undesirable results. Fortunately I had a can of Testers Panzer Gray, which I have used as primer in the past, and I really love the smooth coverage Testors provides.

After priming it was on to painting.

Painting

I already have the "T" and three red bar Nieuports, plus a white band one that I converted from another three bar Ares. Another historical scheme was simply the Seminole Indian head with the national insignia. Okay, that is easy enough. But what about the second one?

My friend Dan (camelbeagle on the Wings of Glory Aerodrome) had a Soubiran version already, using decals from the Valom kit (although I am not certain if the decal's fuselage band color is correct - the decal is black, but the band might actually be red). I also know I cannot pull off letters like "ECP" as that becomes too fiddly and I do not have the ability to print my own decals. One also needs to keep in mind that many of the schemes found searching the world wide web are simply wrong. And the two books I have that include color plates cover the same aircraft I already have or cannot pull off.

And then I remembered - I had bought one of the Nieuports to do a Russian version! And I already have the Russian decals for the scheme I wanted to tackle, and it, too, is a silver doped plane. Sooo, the rest of this post will focus on the Lafayette version, which will simply be a plain plane, with national insignia and Seminole heads!

A close approximation for the silver-doped Ares Nieuport 17 is a mix suggested by Dom from Dom's Decals. Take six parts of Vallejo silver and blend with five parts Vallejo natural steel. I also thin this mix with a little water - metallic paints can be think and I would rather put on a couple of coats of thin paint than a thick one susceptible to clumping. Or, let's make it even simpler - just use Vallejo aluminium (yes, the British spelling). The Model Air range of Vallejo paints are a bit thinner in viscosity, and one does not have to mix paints, and the color is very close to the Ares Nieuports. Plus, we all know that paint widely varied during the war due to weather conditions, and different factories doped fabric differently.

One coat coverage -  the Shapeways version is so shite I am not going to even bother

After the primary color had been applied (and I only needed one coat with a few touchups after), I moved onto the rudder. I used Vallejo white and carmine red, along with Foundry Bavarian cornflower blue (shade 73A).  I was able to use masking tape for the red segment, and I tried lining up a business card to help keep the rest of the lines straight (an idea shared by CrashCraig), but it is still a bit sloppy. And it was the old "Let me fix the white. Damn, went over on the blue too much. Okay, fixed the blue, but got it in the white. Okay, fixed the white, but now I have to correct the red" sort of thing). After doing this several times, I said "feck it" and now it is what it is. From three feet away it looks decent.

While waiting on rudder colors to dry, I added Vallejo flat brown to the outer struts, propeller, pilot, and tail skid. I also painted the machinegun, motor cylinders, and propeller hub Vallejo natural steel. A touch of Vallejo medium sea gray was applied to the tires.

Decals

Now the fun part - the finishing touches that add color to the Lafayette Escadrille Nieuport 17. I used Beacon Publications decals (available from I-94 Enterprises) for the French roundels. Alas, the sizes available do not perfectly align with the Ares planes - for example the top wing roundel on the Ares plane is 7mm, while the closest size Beacon decals are either 8mm or 6mm. I went with the smaller of the two as I did not want the roundel to come across as cartoonish by being too large. Then I applied the Miscellaneous Miniatures Sioux heads to each side of the plane. In both cases I put a spot of Vallejo decal fix on the plane, and after some drying coated the decal with Vallejo decal softener, which allows the decal to conform to the miniature. After drying I then coated the plane with Vallejo gloss varnish to match the other Lafayette Nieuports.

Conclusion

This is the not first Table Top Flight plane I have painted for Wings of Glory (see HERE), and I will say that in every case the material used by Mike at Table Top really does take paint very well, unlike the Shapeways model with it obvious grainy texture. This particular Lafayette Escadrille Nieuport was a rather simple project to take on, and I completed it over the course of three days. The color is a tad off, and perhaps using the mix suggested by Dom might have resulted in a matched aircraft, but overall it works.

Mat - Deep Cut Studio

A Little Wings of Glory Recap

Yesterday was the monthly gaming session of the Wright Flight, and while I was planning on doing Polish-Soviet action using a slew of house rules, the lack of players meant we went with just one table, eventually getting up to eight attendees. 

We did two games of early war action (then why was there an Aviatik D.I on board?), seeing a mix of German aircraft against various early model Nieuports. I pulled out my Escadrille Americaine Lawrence Rumsey repaint for the first game, and in the second game I jumped over to the German side and used my Shapeways Siemens-Schuckert D.I, a copy of the Nieuport 17 but one that performs like the Nieuport 11. In both early war games I took a few hits, gave out a few hits, and jumped off the board before dying in either game.

A cluster of Nieuports, with a new player turning right towards my Rumsey!

Second game's plane of choice!

Nothing to see here (and I survived this passing attack)

Bill, that Halberstadt does make a nice photo.

Matt's nicely painted Shapeways British N.11

Passing planes over the Channel

We played another game with six participants, a later war affair. This time I had a chance to use my little Pfalz Dr.I, and the little beauty performed well. The O Deck is a dream, and I shredded a SE.5a that flew right into my arc. The Allies took a bit of beating...they did shoot down the Baron (well, somebody had to do it) and put some damage on the Fokker D.VII, but with the SE.5a unable to put out its fire and the Camels having taken a crap ton of damage, it would be considered a German victory. We also used my new range sticks from Pro Painted Studios, and they, along with my modified firing ranges, seemed to work well. Next time I'll add in deflection!

The Germans gather

Say hello to my little friend - the SE.5a takes a fire result. I would apologize for my actions, but I wouldn't mean it, and why waste a good apology?

Soon the end of the Baron...no one likes that Prussian anyway

We had a couple of new players, who had a tendency to ignore spatial awareness, or even friendly planes, and plotted turns that caused collisions. Luckily in the late war game my C Damage card was a goose egg for the goose-stepping Pfalz pilot, but Lord, gotta watch those new players!

Belgian Aircraft

While some of the following aircraft might be a tad difficult to find, here are the pre-painted and color printed Wings of Glory planes for the Belgian air force (Aviation Militaire Belge). Some are Ares, some are Nexus, and some are Reduced Aircraft Factory via the now defunct Shapeways. I own most of the following, but still need to add the RAF Strutter, Breguet, and two of the Hanriots to my collection, which should be possible as RAF might have found a new printer for his color printed offerings!

Reduced Aircraft Factory

Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter (4me Escadrille)

Breguet 14A2 (5me Escadrille)

R.A.F. B.E.2c (4me Escadrille)

Sopwith Pup (11eme Escadrille de Chasse)

Hanriot H.D.1 (1ère Escadrille de Chasse)

Hanriot H.D.1 (1ère Escadrille de Chasse)

Hanriot H.D.1 (1ère Escadrille de Chasse)

SPAD VII (5éme Escadrille de Chasse)

Nieuport 23 (5éme Escadrille)

Nexus

Sopwith Camel (1ère Escadrille de Chasse)

R.A.F. R.E.8

Ares

Hanriot H.D.1 (11eme Escadrille de Chasse)

Historical Board Gamer Decals

After a tip from one of the chaps on the Wings of Glory Aerodrome, I thought I had a solution to the 9mm American and Russian roundels I need to dress up some Shapeways RAF colored prints, but alas the decals sold by Historical Board Gaming are actually for 1/285 and smaller scales. If there was a company making quality 1/285 or 1/300 scale quality World War One planes (at reasonable prices), I would be tempted to paint up a slew, but there does not seem to be. CinC - fiddley to assemble, range is limited, and prices are now stupidly high. Hostile Aircraft fail from a quality point of view (and landing gear...yuck). Heroics & Ros, no pictures means no buying from this gamer. Anyway, my search for 9mm American and Russian roundels continues, although these HBG offerings look rather nice. There is a wide variety of decals to be had from HBG, and there are MANY roundels/insignia of various sizes on each sheet. The sheet I believe is one large decal, so one does have to trim around each roundel/insignia.

Hmmm, one option is still available - Mike at Table Top Flights will scale WWI planes at 1/285...maybe that is the ticket! At this point I could use all my Check Your Six "stuff" along with the Colorful Skies WWI mods for CY6. Then there is also Canvas Eagles, which could work. Seemingly when I used to play Blue Max, which is what Canvas Eagles is derived from, there was something about the rules I did not like. Might have to go download Canvas Eagles and give them a lookover.

Well, to further the story, in chatting with Mike at TTF, scaling his WWI aircraft to 1/285th can be done, but the frailty of such a small print, when doing biplanes, is a concern. So still a bit thwarted in my desire to use 1/285th scale aircraft.

Der Blaue Teufel

I have been wanting to create a hypothetical paint scheme for a Fokker Dr.1 for a spell. I decided to order a few aircraft from Table Top Flights, including a Fokker. Mike at TTF I believe has gone to a new printing device, because the quality, which was very good on my Ponnier and Ansaldo A.1s, has become even better. The material is a bit different - the previous planes felt like plastic in a way, and were easy to work with, but also left a few noticeable striations on the surfaces. The new material is more resin in feel, and perhaps then a tad more on the fragile side, but the prints are amazing. Extremely clean, with really very little prep work. The propellers do come on their own "sprue" but are easy to remove. There were just a couple of little nubs to clean off the plane, but beyond that, these are perfect prints! Unlike Shapeways that had a gritty texture, the TTF planes are smooth as a baby's bum.

So, back to the scheme - I have three pots of Foundry paints that I was going to use on some Franco-Prussian Bavarians - I am, after all, fond of my Bavarian ancestry - and so I am going to use one of them as the basis for a very basic all blue Fokker (code 73B Bavarian Cornflower Blue). And having seen a beautiful radio controlled blue and white Fokker (von Raben from Jasta 15) this past weekend at the Dawn Patrol Rendezvous, I decided it was time to start working on this project.

First up a picture of the plane in its basic form. I've clipped the propeller from the "sprue."

Then I applied two coats of the blue. It looks a tad darker in the picture than in person. The rudder will be painted white, and the external struts a brown color to simulate wood. Most likely I will go with balkenkreuz for the national insignia, and I have some Miscellaneous Miniatures Russian white skull and crossbones of various sizes I can add to the fuselage, and perhaps one on the top wing.

I think Der Blaue Teufel will shape up nicely!

Adding Some Pop

A bit of a video describing the process: 

Ahhh, the wonderful colored prints that Reduced Aircraft Factory gave us via Shapeways, I do pine for those planes to be available again. When Shapeways unceremoniously shut their internet doors, I still had planes in the shopping cart, saved for a future purchase. And because I didn't buy the planes then, I lost out on adding to my growing collection of Belgian aircraft for Wings of Glory. 

As much as I enjoyed the prints from RAF, colors at times could be less than ideal. Solid primary colors did not print well, but details such as lozenge patterns were wonderful. In preparation for an upcoming game (the last flight of Werner Voss), I decided to give some of the RAF planes purchased for that scenario some "pop." Adding Mark I Decals and touches of paint, I think the end results were worth it. The texture of the Shapeways prints gave the planes a touch of a haze and a gritty feel, even after a spray of satin and a brush of matte varnishes. When deciding to add decals, I came across some mentions about placing decals on smooth (glossy) surfaces. I had not really had any issues applying decals to matte varnish surfaces in the past, but with the Shapeways prints I thought I would give the areas that would see decals a coat of gloss. Two things occurred - first, it was very easy to align decals with the smooth surface and a dab of Vallejo decal fix, and second, the colors "popped" a bit more. The grit and the haze were much reduced. So I have given these pair of Pfalz D.IIIs a bit of a rejuvenation - decals and gloss.

Upon arrival from Shapeways...

Varnish applied to the decal locations and decals started...

Decals complete (after applying Vallejo decal softener) and a coat of gloss varnish in place...

And the finished product after some matte varnish. They are a tad less shiny in person. The grainy feel is nearly gone, and the texture is nearly 100% smooth. I will be applying the same technique to Voss' Fokker once the appropriate decals arrive, and then onto my Belgian collection.

Mat - GripMats

The Last Flight of Werner Voss - German Planes

There has been much talk and controversy about the colors on Werner Voss's Fokker during his last combat. Author Barry Diggens gives some consideration in one of the appendixes in his book September Evening: The Life and Final Combat of the German World War One Ace Werner Voss. When studying Great War airplane colors, one has to consider what type of film was being used during the Great War.  in which many colors that appear dark were actually light. When looking at Jasta 10's various aircraft pictured during the war, the chrome yellow noses appear black. This is evidenced in this poor quality picture:

The nose looks black, or some other very dark color. But an R. A. F. expert, who worked with aircraft and film from the Great War, clearly identified Jasta 10's noses as chrome yellow from the various pictures he had seen. If Alex Imrie, the most noted expert of Great War aircraft from the 1960s, accepted Voss's Fokker with a yellow nose based on the R. A. F. expert, then there was a very good chance it was. Knowing this, let's look at a picture of Voss's Fokker:

The metal engine cowling looks black, but as the Jasta carried chrome yellow noses on their other aircraft, and film showing light colors as dark, there is a very good chance Voss' Fokker did sport a chrome yellow engine cowling.

What of the rest of the plane? Factory light blue painted over with streaks of olive green. There was more green towards the front of the plane, allowing more of the light blue to be more clearly seen towards the rear of the aircraft. The comments of some of the 56 Squadron pilots of a silvery blue Fokker indicate that the blue was noticed. 

As for the two pilots of Jasta 10 who left with Voss that day Friedrch Rudenberg's Pfalz D.III carried the Jasta's chrome yellow nose, struts, and wheel covers. Rudenberg also had alternating red stripes on the tail and a black band angled around the fuselage. Gustav Bellen's Pfalz was painted in a green and purple scheme, no distinctive chrome yellow to be found. Another pilot, Alois Heldmann, who took off later, sported a similar Pfalz.

Rudenberg's Pfalz D.III by Russell Smith

Bellen's Pfalz

Fortunately before Shapeways went tits up I was able to procure Voss, Rudenberg, and Heldmann, the latter will stand in for Bellen.

A Proper Ponnier

Another project nearly completed - this one being a French made but Belgian used Ponnier M.1. The Ponnier was rejected by the French as they were focusing more on other types (the Nieuport line in particular) while the Belgians were scrambling for whatever they could get their hands on. 

The Ponnier story is one of controversy. I addressed this on the Wings of Glory forum, but will repeat here.

Table Top Flights' Ponnier M.1

One of the smallest of Great War fighters, which might have led to its perceived poor performance as being nose heavy. Nungesser disliked the plane after flying it in January 1916 with the initial smaller rudder, and the unknown (at the time) Willi Coppens did not want to fly it either. But Coppens would have had no "clout" in 1916, and Nungesser was performing acrobatics at 200 meters in an unfamiliar plane that led to him being injured. Jean Navarre also mentioned the plane was demanding to fly, but then again so was the Sopwith Camel.

However, I feel that the Ponnier has been unfairly represented.

As a American Civil War historian, I often deal with those who cling to misconceptions that permeate history, such as Braxton Bragg was a terrible general and everyone hated him. But the historical data does not back that argument as many of his soldiers, writing private letters home, wanted Bragg back in command during the Atlanta Campaign, over Joseph Johnston. You see a small but vocal portion of Bragg's army that did indeed dislike the man, but many in his army respected Bragg. Much like Bragg I have a feeling that there is a misconception for the Ponnier due to one bad report that other pilots gravitated towards without understanding the circumstances, and without having flown the plane themselves.

Noted Belgian aviation expert Walter Pieters in his definitive account of the Belgian Air Service (The Belgian Air Service in the First World War - Aeronaut Books, 2010) includes two photos of the Ponnier, with the caption of stating that the Ponnier was used by two Escadrille de Chasse (the 1st and 5th). No derogatory commentary is included. Pieters, in his book Above Flanders' Fields (Grub Street, 1998) provides one brief mention of how a Ponnier was tested during the summer of 1916, and mentions that several Belgian pilots were photographed with the plane. A thought to ponder - if the plane was so bad why would a pilot be seen in a photo with this plane? Pieters goes on to mention that Jan Olieslagers convinced higher authorities to not purchase the plane. However, there is no evidence I have been able to source that Olieslagers ever flew the plane, and perhaps was simply using Nungesser's comments. So, has the Ponnier been given the short end? It is rated by the Unofficial Stats Committee as a K Deck for maneuverability, and only six points of damage, again, as far as I can tell, based on the common misconception taken from Nungesser's flight in an unfamiliar plane at low altitude. The Nieuport 28 was not highly thought of, with the fabric shredding issues, until its pilots learned how to use the plane more effectively, and two of its squadrons wanted to keep the Nieuport instead of taking on the SPAD XIII. The Ponnier was not given much of an opportunity, but could it have performed, in the hands of a pilot who knew how to use it, like the Nieuport?

I suggest a revision to the Ponnier - as it used a rotary engine it might be considered for an I Deck. That might feel extreme to those who look through Nungesser lenses, so perhaps a compromise of a J Deck is in order? As for damage, if we believe that this plane has been given an undeserved reputation, then an 11 or 12 for a light 1916 plane is in order.

The coat of primer applied - one can really see the print lines that are enhanced by a digital camera

I've toyed with obtaining a Ponnier for years now, but Kampfflieger is was the only Shapeways option before they went tits up, my dallying about kept me from picking up a SRAM version when they were still available. However, the Shapeways version was offered in white natural versatile, which to me is code for "too damn grainy" and "too much damn prep work." Being a relatively lazy modeler, I like to spend less time in prep and paint and more time gaming. So when camelbeagle brought me a Ponnier from his recent trip to Origins, I was ecstatic! You see, this version is made by member mikejr74 (Table Top Flights), who produced his model in a high quality material that feels a bit more like plastic and is certainly less grainy than white natural versatile.

Base colors added - Vallejo cork brown and AK Interactive clean doped linen (version 2)

I have since painted the rudder with the Belgian colors and have added decals to the top wing. Once I have completed all the decals I'll hit the rudder with another coat (the yellow I have is very thin and needs several coats) and apply matte varnish overall. 

103rd Aero - Decals

Before adding decals - notice the muted roundel and rudder colors

Before Shapeways' recent demise, many of us in the Wright Flight were buying printed color aircraft from Reduced Aircraft Factory. These planes were filling in many gaps in our respective collections, but the colors, due to their very printed nature, were extremely muted or even slightly off. This was particularly noticeable in the primary color ranges, where blues, reds, and other solid colors simply do not come out as vivid as in real life. Usually the details for squadron markings and lozenge patterns were excellent, but the Sioux Indian heads on these 103rd Aero Squadron SPAD VIIs got lost in the mix. To rectify that somewhat I bought decals from Miscellaneous Miniatures to add to the planes, giving them a bit of a "pop." While the Indian heads on the decals are the early Lafayette Escadrille Seminole version, the decals came out looking rather good.

After, but before adding decal softener

The I.A.R.80/81 in Check Your 6!

Appearing three times in the Battles Above 2 scenario book, the Romanian (or Rumanian if you prefer) Industria Aeronautică Română 80/81 series of aircraft were steady performers on the Eastern Front, and continued to serve even after being outclassed by later fighter designs. While modifications were made during the life of the I.A.R.80/81, those changes were not significant enough to greatly improve its performance. Decently agile, moderate in the amount of damage it could sustain, but light in armament, the I.A.R.80/81 soldiered on into the 1950s. The I.A.R.80/81 faced off against a variety of aircraft during its service life, ranging from I-16s to P-38s. It was used as a fighter and dive bomber on the Eastern Front, as well as a home defense fighter at Ploesti. Four hundred and fifty I.A.R.80/81s were built during the war.

Check Your 6! gamers have made some attempts to rate this aircraft to varying degrees. One overly optimistic gamer rated the plane an A4 + 3, making it far more agile and maneuverable than the aircraft was historically. The ratings in the Battles Above book seem about right, B4 + 2 with no penalty to agility at maximum speed. This allows the I.A.R. series to dogfight with most enemy fighters and hold its own from a performance perspective. However, the Rumanian pilots, while brave, did not have as much experience or training as their German allies, and should be throughout the war rated with just slightly better aircrew quality as their Soviet counterparts, with home defense squadrons being nearly on par with the Germans.

What follows is a fairly comprehensive yet still in progress listing of the I.A.R.80/81 variants in game terms. The information was gleaned from The I.A.R.80 & I.A.R.81: Airframe, Systems, & Equipment written by Radu Brinzan. Published in 2011 by SAM Limited, it is an extremely detailed look at the indigenous Romanian fighter, and is replete with color profiles.

My preferred scale for air combat games is 1/285th, and hence my preferred manufacturer is Raiden, owned by I-94 Enterprises. Alas, there is not a Raiden I.A.R.80/81 being offered at this time. However, there are other options, MSD Games (1/300 scale) and Shapeways (wwwitalik). I like the MSD line fine enough, but the scale difference does make itself apparent when comparing the MSD castings to the Raiden range (I have a few Heinkel He.112s that confirm this). The Shapeways version has the landing gear in the extended position, so one would have to carefully cut away the gear.

Scotia Grendel (Collectair) also make a 1/300 scale I.A.R.80/81, for a very reasonable price. Leading Edge Miniatures also made the I.A.R., but those planes have long been out of production (although I do have ten), and are overly large.

The I.A.R.80/81 is an oft overlooked option for gamers but one to consider for use on the Eastern Front.