Our man Lukas is finished his build of the new Copper State Models 32nd scale Nieuport XVII (Early version) biplane. This part of the story shows how he finished the rigging and final touches in this, the third part of his build guide here on TMN.
Build Guide: Nieuport XVII Early version
From Copper State Models
1/32nd scale
Kit No # CSM32-001
Kit includes:
-5 plastic frets
-Instruction in colour
-Film for windscreen
-Photo-Etch parts included
-Decals for 4 markings printed by Cartograf
Price: € 75.02
Product Link on the CSM Website
Previous Parts in this story:
- Guide Pt.II: Painting the wings & fuselage
- Today: Pt.III: To the finishing line - last touches...
Here I start where I finished last time. And great start it wasn’t. The various area that have acquired masking went really well but then luck run out and a piece of the decal was taken away. A silly mistake that delayed me a little. Lesson learnt - don’t forget to seal the decals.
Out of the few things that were brought to my attention I decided to skip quite a few of them but really like the idea of wiring the centrepiece of the top wing. It would be a lot smarter to do so before I assembled the wing but I came up with way around it - thin wire cut to size and pushed into the corner. I was happy with the result
Here is the bottom side of the top wing after wiring is done and initial weathering finished as well.
After that being done I moved my attention to finalising fuselage and especially the part between the engine and cockpit. I painted the leather around the edges of the cockpit using acrylic paint and oils for that “leather” look.
Next was to finishing cowling and the engine. I had engine finished for quite some time as I decided to use resin one from CMK which I originally intended for another project. Having said that I would probably not do that again but my “resin” me wouldn’t let it go.
Here is a picture between resin(left) and plastic (right) out of the box. Considering how much is visible both engines will do a great job.
Cowling has been painted aluminium and than Tamiya blue has been chipped away using the hairspray technique.
Some adjustments of plastic parts and cowling are necessary to fit the resin engine so again, the original piece would be way easier.
Windscreen comes in three pieces and three materials. The main rim is plastic, thins clear foil is also plastic(some kind) and than there is PE part. Clear foil is sandwiched between those two. I used PVA glue to avoid any accidents. You can also see the fixed red star on the left side of the fuselage.
Getting very close to make this a biplane. The picture is taken to show the effect of withering on the wing and it’s different compare to unweathered bottom wing.
Before assembly, I played out all important parts together and planned the most important step.
I attached all struts to top wing first and then attached it to bottom wing and fuselage. Tamiya thin allowed me quite some time to get it right into its places. I only left properly cured overnight.
As it turned out I was creating setbacks myself for making this longer than necessary. After I attached the wing I realised that I am missing the rigging between front fuselage struts. I added a wire that Tried to shape to fit into its place but one of them doesn’t look too good
Onto the rigging. I created some turnbuckles and little o-connections and proceeded with the fishing line.
The landing gear on WWI aircraft like this was pretty easy and wheels were rather fun to paint. Here is before and after weathering and attaching both of them together.
Main gear before and after some oil paint weathering.
From here pictures are rather spars as I found it quite difficult and awkward to move it around and twisting it. Simply afraid of another mistake. Nevertheless, here she is on its own wheels.
...And the last final piece to this puzzle was propeller and from propeller cover. Propeller painted with various tones of oil paint on Tamiya dead flat deck tan colour and white cover chipped in the same way as blue cowling.
Finally, gun attached and final pictures of the kite were taken...
This was a great build. And for many reasons. We have another contender in 1/32 WWI aviation area - even more so after recent announcements of future projects from CSM. As I said in part 1, I think this is an excellent choice of subject and greatly executed for some of their size. I am looking forward to seeing what their far future line up will be.
Lukas Kasuba
