Eduard 1/48 Guynemer Nieuport 17By Tom Cleaver |
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History
One of the great classics of the First World War,
the Nieuport 17 replaced the Nieuport 11 in the summer of 1916 and
went a long way to ending "The Fokker Scourge." Between July
1916 and the Fall of 1917, every famous French ace, and many British ones
as well, would make their name in this airplane. Unfortunately, less
than two months after it entered service, the Nieuport found itself
opposed by the Albatros D.I and D.II, which were fundamentally better
aircraft. The Nieuport had the last laugh though as the Germans, impressed
by its performance, prevailed on Albatros to change its inherently-strong
biplane design to the sesquiplane design of the Nieuport, which turned
out to be the fatal flaw of the later Albatros D.III and D.V fighters.
The only other 1/48 Nieuports to be released were a Nieuport 17 by Hawk/Testor, from the dawn of the age of the injection-molded kit, and a Nieuport 11 originally produced by Aurora and maintained in production over the years by SMER most recently. Neither was much more than approximation of the actual airplane. This beauty from Eduard solves the problem of doing an accurate Nieuport decisively.
The Kit
Petitely molded on two trees of dark grey plastic, the kit has excellent surface detail. Propagteam decals provide markings for the first "Vieux Charles" flown by the legendary Guynemer, an overall silver airplane; and a second "Cigognes" aircraft also flown by Guynemer, this one with camouflaged upper wing surfaces. The decals are in good register and the markings appear accurate.
Overall, the Nieuport is a fairly simple biplane
(actually a sesquiplane, since the lower wing has less than 2/3 the
surface of the upper, with only a single spar), and construction appears
straightforward. Built straight out of the box, a modeler will have
a good-looking result. If you have held off
doing World War One aircraft because of their perceived difficulty,
here is one you can do that will give you the confidence to try others.
Conclusion
At the standard Eduard price of US$24.95, this long-awaited release more than lives up to the hopes of those of us who have wanted to have a "real" Nieuport in our collections. Go get it!
