AirCraft Models : Nieuport Sesquiplan racer. Finished !

[Hubert Boillot 5,704]

I

 

Just back from the stash. I have this kit! I bought it from the Cooper Models guy. I will watch this build with interest. I like vac kits.

Rick

 

IIRC, our own Stephen has also one, which escaped the flames in his house ...

 

Hubert

[vbd 15]

Hi all, et bonjour Hubert !

I scratch built this bird in smaller scale (1/72...) and I searched documentation... I found nothing on the inside of this bird, but I found the fuselage is the same molded wood shell as on the Ni-D29 fighter.

So I made an interior based on the drawings in the Windsock Datafile on the subject, with framing and instrument panel.

Of course, when the fuselage is closed, nothing can be seen.....

My scratch is here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/denisvanb/albums/72157651777228412

Denis

[Hubert Boillot 5,704]

Bonjour Denis,

 

I had seen your build thread, but I can't remember where. Nice build

 

Like you I intend to use the NiD-29 drawings in the Windsock and "Notice technique" to reproduce the cockpit. My only issue is to get more certainties regarding the shape of the IP...

 

But anyway, as you mention, not much can and will be seen ...

 

Hubert

[Hubert Boillot 5,704]

Some detective work ...

 

Well, I have made some progress, and also got a firmer idea after some detective work using the references that have arrived, namely 'The Speed Seekers" and the "French Wings #2" on the Nid-29 and NiD-62 family, plus the Windsock on the NiD-29.

 

It is now clear that pics of the cokpit are as rare as a hen's teeth, but sometimes some pics can give some information. I have pored over the pics of the NiD-29 wrecks in both 'French Wings" and the Windsock datafile, scanned them and then enlaregd them to see what kind of detail coudl be seen relating to the inside of the plane. All thes pics below reproduced under the "fair use" principle.

 

First, this one from a wrecked italian NiD-29. You can see the throttle, the control stick and the guns with their breeches, arming levers and triggers :

 

 

Then this one that shows the shape of the bulkhead betwwen the cockpit and the fuel tank, and some instrument dangling from the wreck :

 

 

And this one shows the control stick again, and the shape of the girders : they were diagonal, which confirms the drawing from the "Notice Technique" below :

 

 

This drawing has a lot more of useful information, like the shape of the supporting structure, the shape of the instrument panel (two slanted side panels and a central one) the position of the stick and the rudder pedals ...

 

This photo next gives an indication of the shape of the pilot seat. This confirms that the seat as proposed by Air Craft is perfectly acceptable ...

 

 

And finally, the BIG ONE ! There is no pic of the Sesquiplan cokpit in "The Speed Seekers", but there are two pics of the racing NiD-29 V (for Vitesse = Speed), one of the pilot Fernand Lasnes standing by his thoroughbred. And there you have a glimpse of the instrument panel

 

I pondered whether the IP was "flat" or made of three panels as indicated by the "Notice Technique" drawing. My conclusion is to keep the 3-panels approach: the instrument on the left seems at an angle compared to the one in the center. Note also the flat panel in the center. Do remember that in the fighting NiD-29s, the two guns ocupied the center and had to be accessed in flight.

 

 

Even this last pic of the NiD-29 V had me doubting my "3-panels" theory, bu in the end, I will stick to it. This is as accurate as I can guess from this detective work

 

Next post will show the progress based in these findings.

 

Hubert

Edited June 28, 2016 by MostlyRacers

[Hubert Boillot 5,704]

So now I have cut some plastic :

 

First the supporting strcuture of the seat, and the rear and front bulkheads :

 

 

 

Then the diagonal girders in the cokpit :

 

 

The rough pencil lines will hopefully provide some shadows when the base color is painted to represent the wood strcuture of the "monocoque", made-up of diagonal tulip-wood strips.

 

I have also filled-in the rear fuselage with some epoxy paste. I will drill through this solid rear to insert the spars for the rear stabilisers.

 

The seat structure and bulkheads loosely placed in one fuselage half. The impression will be largely enough, considering the cockpit opening is only 15mm dia. Note also the interlocking tabs glued on the fuselage joint line. this will give a more robust structure, and more "teeth" for the glue when joining the two fuselage halves.

 

 

And finally the main bulkhead with the spars for the wings :

 

 

... and the pilot seat with an epoxy cushion ...

 

 

That's all for now. Next come the stick, throttle and instrument panel.

Edited June 28, 2016 by MostlyRacers

[LSP_Kevin 24,733]

Nice work, Hubert!

 

Kev

[Leaning_Dog 368]

Nice work, Hubert!

 

Kev

 

 

I'll second that!

 

John.

[LSP_Ray 5,316]

Good progress, Hubert!

[vbd 15]

Really nice job !!!

Denis

[Hubert Boillot 5,704]

Some update, and I confess I did not think it would take that long.

 

Life has been a bit hectic lately, with 2 (out of 8) of my employees on sick-leave for some serious health problems. One of them is the sales secretary, and the replacement matrix of the company has planned that, when she is out, her replacement is the boss, i.e. me ! Now, managing the sales administration side of my business for a few days is OK, but when it lasts for weeks, I am starting to be slightly overstretched. I have hired a temp to replace her while she undergoes treatments, but she needed some time to get up-to-speed, and then it was me who had to enter the hospital for a (scheduled) minor surgery (the same day as our secretary's more serious operation btw)

 

Anyway, I was back at home this friday, and could make some progress on the Sesquiplane, working on the cockpit details. Remember this is mostly conjectural, based on interpretations of the NiD-29 manual, some blurry pics, and the interprettation of wrecks of NiD-29s. And then a lot won't be visible, but I still wanted to try my best, first for the fun of it, and second to try to improve a few techniques, like soldering and turning small metal parts on my lathe. In short, I have tried to see how much I could be "Airscalised" .

 

So here is what I have done over the last weeks , first with a general overview, then some details :

 

 

- two rudder bars. On the NiD-29 they were tubes sliding differentially, with simple cross-members for foot-rests. I did these by soldering some 0,8 mm dia brass tubes and rods They are linked by a cable, so I had to add this one, with the pulleys for the angle returns. The rudder bars are held horizontal by sliding in rails that are fixed to the inside of the fuselage shells. These are simple pieces of copper sheet, cut and bent into shape with the "etch-folder" from Mission Models. When possible these brass parts were blackened by immersing them in Uschi's "blackening solution". It is not as effective on solder, though, and definitely won't act where there is a film of CA glue on the part.

 

- A "leather" seat-cushion, made with epoxy paste bought in a DiY store,

 

- The joystick, with the elevators and ailerons controls. Here again, mostly soldered brass tubes and rods. The grip is a piece of toothpick turned on the mini-drill and drilled to slide over the brass tube of the joystick

 

 

- The throttle quadrant, cut and filed in 0,4 mm thick brass sheet, with the throttle lever and richness levers added, made out of brass cut and filed into shape. The whole throttlel was assembled using Scale Hardware micro bolts and nuts  (yeah I know what you think  when you read "nuts" )

 

 

- For a good measure, I also did a priming pump : a piece of brass rod soldered in a T-shape, and sild into a bigger diameter brass tube. Not sure it existed on this aircraft, but prototypical of the era.

 

- Finally, I did the instrument panel made of a central panel and two angled panels. The instruments were turned on a lathe, with the face slightly recessed from the outer rim. I then added Airscale WWI dials. A first attempt to glass these over with "Soliq" (a UV-curing glue, like "Bondic in other countries) was not very succesful. It never fully cured, and started to dissoble the decals fo the instruments faces. These were removed and replaced, and the "glazing done with Tamiya X-22 clear vanish. When looking at the angled panels, it seemed to me that having the instrument faces parallel to the panels would have induced unbearable parallax issues for the pilot, so I glued most fo them in place facing the line of flight, by drilling angled recesses for them in the panels. I also added two control knobs truned in brass rod, with small dia levers. one is supposed to represent the magneto button, the other one the lever that controlled the Lamblin radiators by-pass.

 

 

 

Finally the lap-belts were done using some lead foil from a Champagne bottle, doing the buckles by shaping and soldering some micro-brass rob.

 

Il also painted the inside of the fuselage to try to represent some wood, as well as the seat, using acrylics, Windsor & Newton oils and Posca paint pens. I am not really satisfied by my work, but the it may be passable when viewed through the small cockpit opening.

 

 

 

One issue I have just discovered though (why did I not think to do this check earlier   ?) . The NiD-29 was made of tulip wood. This has a very yellowish and light color, not at all the reddish hue my "wood" has. I am pondering whether I should strip the paint and redo it, or leave it as is . Most likely, I will keep it "as is", to move on.

 

I have also done the blanking panels supoosed to represent the engine cylinders blocks through the exhaust oepenings on the sides.

 

Finally, although the white-metal prop is a very good representation of the original prop, I have decided to replace it with a genuine wooden prop. At least I will not have to try to represent wood by semi-successful painting attempts. The original propo was made of laminations of wood. So will be my scale one. I have sanded to the proper thickness 3 strips of walnut (an heritage of ship-modelling days), and pressed-glued them together with an offset angle, as per the original practice. The props will be carved and shaped from this blank. More on that later :

 

 

That's all for now folks. Keep-on modelling

 

Hubert

[Iain (32SIG) 9,187]

Gorgeous work Hubert - especially the instrument panel - exquisite!!

 

Iain

[Hubert Boillot 5,704]

Thanks Iain. In fairness, the IP owes a lot to Airscale's gorgeous decals. But turning these tiny dials in aluminium stock was good fun, and an exercise in precision work with my metal lathe...

 

With some thinking time, I think I will finally strip the paint in the fuselage halves. Tulip wood just looks so different from my poor rendition... In the meantime, I have finished my wooden prop. One hour work, and happy with it . Pics soon.

 

Hubert

Edited July 24, 2016 by MostlyRacers

[Hubert Boillot 5,704]

Ans, as promised, pics of the prop carved out of the laminated strips shown above. One hour work with mostly a drum sander in the mini-drill and sand-paper, plus a few knife cuts. Still some refining to do, but the basics are here. I just finished varnishing it and the varnish is still wet (then more sanding), hence the very shiny appearrance.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Hubert

[LSP_Kevin 24,733]

Nice work, Hubert!

 

Kev

[LSP_Ray 5,316]

Beautiful, Hubert. That IP is incredible!