Revell's 1/72nd scale Nieuport 28, as flown by Captain Eddie Van Halen... err, I mean, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the top American ace of the Great War. It's another beautiful kit, as far as I'm concerned, with very nice rib detail, fabric texture here and there, and nicely engraved detail on the cowling and forward part of the fuselage. There is no interior other than a seat, and the machine guns are little lumpy, and as you can see, the decals are a tad transparent, but it's fun and easy to build.I'm a little dubious of the colors, which are mostly Model Master acrylics (olive green, dark green, dark earth, sand and a little bit of NATO black). But I am not richly endowed with reference materials for WWI fighters, and the instructions only call out Revell paints, which I do not use. So this is my interpretation of what the instructions said I should use. My model doesn't look like a Nieuport 28 in French service, that's all I know.
Most World War Two fighters fall into one of two categories: the streamlined in-line engine jobs like the Spitfire, and the chunky radial engine jobs like the F6F Hellcat. I think this is the reason I like the Hawker Typhoon and Curtiss P-40 so much; they're sort of a cross between the two and are thus distinctive. But World War One aeroplanes have much more character, and each one seems to have its own character. Albatros fighters look fast and lean; Spads look powerful and tough, Fokker D.VIIs convey a kind of slab-sided inelegant Teutonic efficiency, Fokker Dr.1s look aggressive and dangerous (to fly against, or to fly in), and Nieuports seem to convey an impression of grace and agility.
3 comments:
Looks great. I am never sure whether WW1 paint schemes are sprayed on or hand painted.
So glad to have tripped across your site.
I am in total agreement with the "like building them better than painting them" school of modelling. Except that you actually face the paint demon and do battle.
I too have ample 'loft insulation', as only the brits could call it. I live in a rural area with a limited population and budget, so I (mostly) get by with amassing insulation material via thrift shops and yard sales. Thus, what I get to build is what I find. This limits proclamations such as "only spacecraft" or, in my case, "only Heller large scale motorcycle kits", which represent as obscure a prayer as one could get to.
What has this to do with the Revell Niewport 28? Precisely nothing. But, how else to stop and say 'hi'?? It's not as if I haven't spent a half hour looking for an email address ...
Bookmarked, and you can increment the Lurker count by 1.
Shine on.
Thanks for stopping by!
I don't technically have a loft, but it's funny how the idea of "loft insulation" is somehow universal.
There should be an email address associated with this blog, but I confess I don't check it very often. "kapitanmors@aol.com" is the one I actually check, if you feel moved to chat!
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