Roden 1/32 Nieuport 28 By Paul Thompson

Introduction

Firstly, apologies for the lateness of this review - probably the last review of this kit to hit the ether. I had to take time out for the terminal stages of my mother's illness just after receiving the kit. Thanks to Matt, Bob and Chris for waiting. Without further ado, here's the review.

I hope everyone knows about the Nieuport 28 - it equipped 4 AEF squadrons during the war because there weren't enough SPADs to go around and the French didn't want it. It was a so-so design, but in the right hands could be very effective. Very photogenic though, and thus very popular with modellers, the first Nieuport not to look like a Nieuport. Anyway, I'm not here to pot the history, you can read about that almost anywhere (except the back of cornflake packets. Don't look there. That would be silly).

In the Box

What you get in the box is a set of virtually flash free, cleanly molded parts in slightly flexible medium-grey plastic. This cuts and sands very well. There is a very slight pebbly surface texture in the kit I received, but this disappeared when brush painted. The mold release agent was very hard to remove though, and despite washing twice with detergent and warm water I had more trouble with beading of both enamel and acrylic paints than I've ever had with a plastic kit. More of a problem was the warped fuselage and wings, although all the other parts were okay. The fuselage front was out of the round, and although I got it mostly fixed with hot water and bending, it still threw the fit of the cowl a bit. The top wing was completely flat, and the lower one had about 10 degrees anhedral. Fixed, but it came back to haunt me later. Fit of parts after careful cleanup was excellent throughout apart from the results of the warping a already mentioned. No-one else whose reviews I've read mentioned warp or grease problems so I'm hoping this was a one off.

The decals were very sharply printed. as were the liberty posters. The colours were close enough for me.

Build Time

In the time this build has been pending there have been several excellent online builds incorporating many bells and whistles, so my approach was to see what could be done with the mimimum of modifications. The only additions and corrections concern the cockpit, and a light sanding of the struts to reduce the over-stated tape wrapping. You could mess about with the wing rib treatment a bit for some improvement, but I didn't think it worth the effort. For all the cockpit work, be warned that all that's visible under normal, non-destructive circumstances, is the seat.

First I made up the 2 part cowling so it could be painted separately, then the motor. Despite only having one spark plug per cylinder this goes together very easily and looks the part. It was painted with various metallic shades and washed with dirty thinner gunk, the sort magazines always warn you against, and in place of which real modellers probably use some commercial preparation costing an arm and a leg. Some copper wire was run to the plugs, but I don't think you can really get stuff thin enough to be in scale and now wish I'd taken the time to stretch some thin sprue. Still, you can hardly see it anyway with the cowling in place. I do recommend replacing the push rods though. The kit items are a little clunky. If I ever do another I'll use pins instead.

The firewall comes in 2 parts. To ensure they set up at the correct angle I taped the fuselage halves together and taped the firewall in place before the glue had cured. Then it was removed and painted, after which the engine could be attached.

Roden supply a fairly full cockpit, with one error, two main omissions, and a simplification. The error is one I've seen on all Nieuport 28 kits, which is the rather nice rendition of a trapezoidal control panel, with a few instruments provided as decals. This panel was something that was added to the NASM restoration to carry some temporary test instruments, so I removed it. I left the other widgets in place for a bit of interest. The decal for the instrument that IS in the original (a tachometer) looks more like a modern artificial horizon, so I replaced it with an Eduard prepainted 1/48th tach that was more or less the same type as seen in photos, and also happened to be about the right size.

Omission one - most of the fuselage structure is there, plus lots of nice tankage that won't be seen when implanted in the fuselage but which does stiffen the assembly and locate it centrally in the fuselage. You could also add an ammo tank, but it would be as invisible as the rest, so I didn't. However, there are two slotted wooden fairings right under the cockpit opening which are very visible but not included, so I eyeballed some 10 thou plastic card into shape to fit. It's clear from the photos that I should have spent more time on this, but it's good enough. Just.

Omission two - seat belts. Not really a complaint, since at present it's more often than not that you find no seat belts in a modern kit. Matt kindly threw in the Eduard French set, which look lovely, but unfortunatelt they're all lap belts. Asking around, the consensus was that a late war machine such as this should have a 4 point harness. Easily fixed, I used the simplest Eduard belts, of which there are luckily 2 sets. I modified the buckles a bit and made a central clasp from a couple of Reheat PE leftovers. Instant 4 part harness. You can't see where they attach once installed, so they were just draped over the seat in likely places.

Now for the simplified bit - the chair. Roden supply a solid seat, whereas the French supplied a peach-basket affair made out of strips of wood. As of this review there are no PE sets available in the right scale. I've seen a couple of lovely bits of scratchbuilding to replicate the seat, but knowing my limits I modified the kit part instead. First I sanded it as thin as I could, then chain drilled and cut away the back, leaving the outline as in the photo. The slats were glued in with MEK and the re-inforcing strips added the same way, all using some RIKO plastic strip I bought some 38 years ago, which had gone a bit brittle but did the job. Waste not want not, eh? After painting I added rivets from a Fotocut custom set of oddments I got from Lance Krieg some years ago. A cushion was made from plastic card and white glue.The seat isn't very accurate but once entombed in the fuselage and draped with belts it's good enough for me.

The pulsometer in the kit was replaced with a scratched item using clear sprue, and a bit of wiring added. The controls were offset as per the deflected control surfaces, some bracing wires added, and the whole cockpit assembly, er, assembled. The kit is designed so that you can add this lot after joining the fuselage halves, but just to be sure I added it before. Makes no odds really. I added some stringer detail behind the seat, but it, too, is now invisible. I also scored the inner fuselage to represent the strips of tulipwood covering, but you need a flashlight to see this. The fuselage was then glued together and the firewall/engine assembly added. Due to some of the warp in the forward fuelage returning at some (unknown) stage, on the completed model the motor is only central when turned to a certain position, so I may as well have glued it in centrally to begin with. Blowing on the prop to make it spin only earns me funny looks from my wife. Oh well.

The ailerons were deflected (one razor saw cut, gentle flexing so as not to sever the hinges, and fixing with MEK) and the lower wing added. I left the model for a few days, and on return saw that the anhedral was back. Harder to undo at this point, with much cursing and bending I finally got rid of it without unduly bending the wing. There was a large step needing sanding away at the front of the wing join with the fuselage, and since the front fuselage had warped back out of the round this was attended to as best I could with judicious sanding. In contrast, the joint aft of the cockpit only needed careful scraping away with a knife. I added the tailplane, having previously drooped the elevators.

At this point I painted everything except the top wing. I wanted to use Mr Kit paints, and having trashed 2 airbrushes trying to spray the stuff , this time I used a hairy stick. Camo on Nieuports was hard edged anyway. I tried something I picked up from the wwi mailing list, thinning the somewhat old and paste like paint with Future/Klear. This worked very well, re-inforcing the finish, improving the brushing qualities (geek-speak for doing away with the brush marks), and also somehow improving the covering power, so that instead of the usual 5 coats I only needed 2. It also stopped the paint from beading (remember the mold-release monster?). The undersides received some oil pastels, smeared about and largely removed with cotton buds, to break up the otherwise monotonous colour a bit. You absolutely cannot see this in the photos. After a coat of Klear the decals were added. I used the kit decals for N6169 of the 94th Aero Squadron, flown by Major J Huffer and 1/Lt E Rickenbacker, from May 1918. This is illustrated in Windsock Datafile 36, and there are a few small differences in the pattern shown there to that on the paint guide. The decals were the best I've used from any source and settled down perfectly with just a touch of Micro Sol used over the bumpier bits. I didn't correct it, but note that the hat-in-the-ring decals should have the hat higher in the ring. Since the ring is a little too large anyway it should be easily fixed by cutting a bit out of the top ring. Although it was staring me in the face I didn't notice this until the decal had set. After a sealing coat of Klear, it was on to...

Final Assembly

Having painted the bands on the cowl this was now added, some rigging holes drilled, the strut holes deepened, and the main undercarriage added to prevent the underside paint from scraping off . I used a bit of scrap PE to make a blast shield for the top Vickers, but only one since I'd noticed that sometimes only one was installed for some reason, and I'm lazy. The guns were then installed. I'd decided to represent the wood-faired flying wires with strips of painted plastic, so drilled double holes in which to half bury some random Eduard turnbuckles. I've never seen a PE turnbuckle that did it for me, but the real attachment is quite large, and something needs to be there to suggest there are actually 2 wires involved. So, this was the best I could come up with given my usual clumsiness, even in 1/32nd. Which brings us to adding the top wing.

The cabane struts were added to the fuselage using tube cement, and after going off a bit I inverted the fuselage and guided it into place on the top wing, suitably propped up. I'd put gel-type CA in the top wing strut holes just before, and after checking alignment left it all to go off.

Next day - pick up model, set right way up, spring interplane struts into place, drop jaw on floor and start banging head against wall. The anhedral was back, and the top wing had lost all it's dihedral. Damn thing looked like it was flapping it's wings. So, off with the top wing and severe bending ensued. The wings, not me. Since the paintwork and decals were finished I had to be very careful, but after some quality swearing, careful clean up, and reattaching everything, it looked just about alright. After all, in many photographs it looks almost as if there is lower wing anhedral due to the eliptical shape of the wings, and defelected ailerons can add to this..........so on to the rigging.

The cabane rigging was just steel wire attached with white glue. I then added the pre-painted plastic strips in place of flying wires using CA, and for all other wires used the last of my ceramic wire again with white glue. Added rudder, tail skid and wheels, first adding the missing bungee axle binding outboard of the legs - a strange omission since Roden do a good job of the inboard sections. In fact there is nothing but the axle to which to add the bungees, and I was going to fill the ends with white glue, but with the wheels in place you can't see that anyway. Fusewire makes convincing bungee rope. Feeling smug, I set the model on it's undercarriage and got on with life, until...

Next day (sound familiar). Disaster. flat top wing, anhedral on lower, flying wires adopting an 'S' shape and one end of all the landing wires pulled loose. Exercising great restraint, I went for a walk (pausing only to rant on at length to a few email modelling buddies, whose ears I severely bent - sorry, chaps). I don't think the problem is the strut lengths, I think it's peculiar to my sample of the kit, and is all down to the warp re-forming. I've included a shot that shows how everything is okay if you hang the model from the wing tips, but pear shaped on it's undercarriage. The solution was simple, but only just good enough. With the model hung by the wing tips I replaced all the plastic strips with the thinnest gauge brass Strutz material, superglued. I then reset the ceramic wires, also with super glue. The top wing is now propped up by the brass, which is just strong enough not to bend. Yet. The lower wing is pulled up to justaboutokay status by the interplane struts. The landing wires help keep it there.

Finishing

The last bits in sight. The acetate windshield was folded up and painted, to be added after the model was varnished. The airscrew had some sinkmarks filled and sanded, then since I could find very few photos showing light laminations, and some showing what appeared to be mahogany props, I just gave a coat of the old Humbrol no. 10 overall, and picked out the hub with some metallics. Before installing, I gave a brush coat of Humbrol satin varnish and left a couple of days to dry. This was Another Mistake, because it dried with the highest gloss I've ever seen. This has happened once before, and when I sprayed a duller coat over it there was a reaction that trapped millions of microbubbles, or for all I know micro piglets, in the varnish. Didn't want to risk it, so although in real life the model is bright enough to use as a searchlight I've managed to minimise reflections in the photos and am leaving well enough alone. No additional weathering. Done.

The Bit Where you Sum it all Up and Draw Conclusions to Help Live a Better Life

Actually, although very disgruntled straight after I finished, having been away for a week and seeing the end product anew, it's better than I thought. Despite the problems I had it was a thoroughly enjoyable build, and I must stress that the kit itself is utterly brilliant and highly recommended. If you are unfortunate enough to get one with the bendy problem, I'm sure that structural rigging will avoid any stress. Just wash the thing 3 times while on the sprues and the non-stick effect should go away as well. The kit is very well engineered and the instructions work quite well. If you've got a 1/32nd pilot to install, there's no point doing any cockpit work and the whole thing can probably be built and painted within a week. In my case, it took 4 days building, about twice that painting (mostly the interior), and a week fixing the recurring warping.

Thanks very much to the IM folks for the review sample, and the seatbelts, which will be very useful in the older SPAD and Nieuport kits I have from Hobbycraft and are very well executed. And many thanks to Roden for producing such an excellent kit.

Finally, if you want to see how this sort of thing should really be done, Tom Morgan and Lance Krieg have been building the 1/48th version of this kit, with results that make it look as if I did mine while wearing very large gardening gloves. At the time I'm writing, an article by them is rumored for the last Windsock of 2008. Until then, have a look here.

References

• Windsock Datafile 36, Nieuport 28, by John Guttman

• Photo archive at the WWI Modelling page website

• Various photos from that there Interweb