Print Scale 1/72 Nieuport 17-24 Decals
By Matt Bittner
Print Scale has lately come out with a number of WWI-related decals. This set, covering the Nieuport 17, 21, 24 and 24bis, has a number of what I consider colorful schemes; the French aircraft being mostly from Escadrille N 561, flying on the Italian front (an excellent reference for this Escadrille 561 is the Aeronaut Books title Foreign Fronts of the French Air Force 1914-1918). The aircraft covered are:
- Nieuport 24, N 4663, Escadrille N 561, Sgt André Lévy
- Nieuport 21E1, No. 4227 Advanced Pilot's School In Grudziadz, July 1921
- Nieuport 23, Russian, 2nd Lt.K. Krauze's, 8th Fighter Airborne Sqn, Summer 1917
- Nieuport 23, N 2903 Escadrille N 561, Slt Marcel Robert
- Nieuport 24, N 4393, Escadrille 561, MdL (NCO) André Loyseau Grandmaison, The Chimera
- Nieuport 23, N 2750 Escadrille 561, Jean Bignon, "Pinocchio"
- Nieuport 24 bis, N 3772, Escadrille 124, baptized "BAT" of Sgt Andrew C. Campbell on the Ham field in May 1917 - He was pilot of squadron N 124 "La Fayette" from April 15 to October 1, 1917 - He was killed in combat in the vicinity of Malmaison, October 1, 1917
- Nieuport 17, N 1831, Escadrille 077, captured by the Germans when Lt. Santa Maria of Esc. N.77 was brought down in combat. The earlier pilot's personal insignia on the side of the aircraft has survived
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While overall these decals are nice, covering some pretty interesting schemes, there are a few errors. First, while the site (and my text above) for the last Nieuport 17 states the aircraft was assigned to Escadrille N 77, the instructions state N 86 which is not correct. In addition, the current thinking is the color of the "comet" was actually red, and not black according to this page of the Albin Denis site.
For the Nie.24bis of Douglas Campbell, the stripes behind - and on - the headrest were not on a background of blue, instead being painted directly over the aluminum-doped airframe.
While I know that most Nieuports on this release were aluminum-doped, Print Scale shows the Polish bird in a different color; however, they don't mention what color that is. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any information about this Nie.21 so it's possible it was some type of overall-gray, like Print Scale has shown.
One item missed by most decal manufacturers when it comes to Nieuports, are the small "stencils" that are placed throughout the airframe. This stencil consists of the serial number of the aircraft on the top, and the words "Type 17" underneath the serial. Because the Nieuports were hand-made, these stencils existed on all flying and control surfaces, to ensure each part was placed on the correct aircraft. These stencils were on the underside of the upper wing near the ailerons and on the ailerons themselves; on the trailing-edge tip of the lower wing; on the non-moveable part of the horizontal tail surfaces as well as on the stabs themselves; and finally on the port side of the fuselage underneath the stab. Unfortunately Print Scale has not included these stencil decals.
Even with these quibbles, overall this is a really nice set of decals for Nieuports. I definitely will be finishing a couple of my models using these markings. What's really nice is that Print Scale has separated the upper-wing roundels so they can be placed on the ailerons without having to cut the decal after their application on the upper wing. A nice touch. Another nice touch is including the rudder serial as a separate decal, allowing one to either use the supplied rudder-stripe decal, or paint the rudder themselves and then apply the serial.
I definitely would like to thank Print Scale for allowing me to review this sheet.