TOKO 1:72 NIEUPORT 11C1
Reviewer: Marshall Curtis (mjcurtis@curtis-assoc.com)
HISTORY
Nieuport 11c is a WWI single-seat fighter biplane and was one of the better known French plans of WWI. The Nieuport 11 was built by the French company "Societe Anonyme des Establishment Nieuport", founded in 1909 by Edward de Nieuport. The company’s designer was Gustaw deLage. The plane first entered service on the Western front in August 1915. In spite of its small size, which earned it the nickname "Bebe" (baby), the fighter had good technical characteristics: a high speed, excellent maneuverability and high climbing speed, which made it very popular among pilots. It was the first Allied fighter that was superior to the Fokker E.III. Aces Baracca, Bishop, Ball, Navare and Nungesser all flew the "Bebe" at some point. The Nieuport 11 appeared on the Eastern front due to licensed production by "Dux" (Moscow) and "Antra" (Odessa). The most famous Eastern front "Bebe" ace was Russian Alexandr Kazakov of the XIX flying division "Death Squadron" in Lutsk (17 air victories) who’s marking are included in this kit. The Nieuport 11 was also built on license in Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, and copied by German designers (Euler D.I ). The Nieuport 11 was powered by a radial "Le Rhone" 9C 80 h.p. engine. Its armament consisted of one machine gun "Lewis" 7.71mm. Some Nieuport 11’s were fitted with Le Prieur rockets on the V-struts of each wing for use against observation balloons.
Aircraft Specifications | ||||||
Aircraft: |
Nieuport 11c1 |
Year: |
1915 |
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Wingspan: |
7.52 m |
Length: |
5.90 m |
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Weight: |
345 kg / 550 kg |
Max Speed: |
152 km/h |
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Ceiling: |
4560 |
Engine: |
1 x "Rhone"9C 80 h.p. |
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Crew: |
1 |
Armament: |
1 x Lewis 7.71mm |
THE KIT
Aircraft: | Nieuport 11c1 |
Scale: | 1:72 |
Kit No.: | 129 |
Manufacturer: | TOKO (Experimental Industrial Technologies Plant JNT STK
46) Mashinobudivna, 252180 Kiev, Ukraine |
Parts
The kit consists of 40 pieces on 2 sprues molded in a soft light gray plastic with heavy sprue attachment points. Considering the size of this plane many of the parts are tiny and dealing with the heavy sprues added a great deal of work to preparing the individual pieces for use and could have easily led to the loss of damage of many of these parts. The molding is very detailed with a nice fabric texture for the linen exterior portions of the plane including "puckers" where the fabric was gathered along the rear stabilizer. The cockpit interior has the wooden frames molded into the sides, which are accurate in scale and location. Details such as the Lewis gun and the LeRhone engine are on par with most kits in this scale. The kit contained no clear parts. The windscreen is molded into the fuselage and opaque.
(Note: This particular kit had a large amount of flash that was mainly on the smaller and finder details, rockets, landing gear struts, and cabane struts. This presented some real challenges during assembly cleaning and working with these tiny parts. However, this is untypical of the other TOKO kits I have seen)
Overall Accuracy
The model seems to be to near perfect scale. The struts and supports are also to scale making these some very fine parts that must be handed with extreme care when removing from the sprues. This is further complicated by the substantial nature of the sprue attachment points. The landing gear seems to be somewhat simplified but to scale in overall size and dimension. Since this is a small plane in the field (Wing Span of 7.5m and Length of 5.6m) it is a very tiny 1:72 scale model and not for the unsteady hand.
Instructions
Two pages of book folded B5 paper providing eight pages of history, diagrams and instructions. Page one (cover) has a brief history of the aircraft and technical specification in three columns, Ukrainian, English and German. Page two has sprue diagrams clearly showing the location of all parts. Page three begins the actual assembly instructions (translated as "folding instructions"). The top half of the page outlines hints and the symbologies used in the actual assembly steps. Assembly diagrams are continued on pages four and five. The seven diagramed steps are clear and easy to understand. Pages six through eight are the paint and decal diagrams for the five versions provided in the kit.
Construction
Construction was straightforward and the only significant challenges were the excessive flash on many of the minute parts and the over all small size of the model. The hole in the engine had to be drilled to enlarge it sufficiently to allow it to accept the propeller shaft and turn smoothly. The propeller-mounting hole was also drilled to accommodate the propeller shaft. Assembly of the Lewis gun was the greatest challenge/frustration of the entire kit (I am still not happy with the final Lewis gun but too frustrated to rebuild from scratch). The Lewis parts are minute and were very flash laden. Cleaning parts this fine was a big challenge and the fit of these parts was suspect. Keeping them stable and aligned even long enough for the CA to set was more of a challenge than is appeared and generally resulted in one of the tiny parts glued to me or anything else except the intended part. This final product is well pitted from these gluing mishaps and probably should have been rebuilt. The only fatality in dealing with the sprue removal and flash was one of the rockets which lost about half of is shaft. The easy solution was to use short lengths of scale tubing mounted on the struts (actually more true to reality) and then remove all but enough of the rocket shafts glue inside the top end of the tubing. The fuselage fit together extremely despite not alignment pin and the only part that required filling as a small are on the bottom of the tail and in front of the windscreen. Some filing was necessary in order to get the lower wing assembly to seat completely, however with some careful filing the lower wind fit very well and didn’t require any additional filling. The forward cabanes could have fit more securely but did fit and line up perfectly. The same is true of the wing struts. The upper wing fit very well and everything lined up perfectly (the V strut holes were drilled slightly to enlarge). Much like the cabanes the landing gear could have mounted more securely and also required drilling for the axle to fit through the ends and the wheel drilled to accept the axle. The only additions or modifications to the out-of-the-box kit was the addition of wire rigging. This was done with .002 stainless steel wire. Control horns were made from the sprue remnants.
Options
The only options in this kit are the five-decal/paint schemes and the Le Prieur rockets (anti-balloon).
Versions
The only version provided in this kit is the Nieuport 11c1 "Bebe". Paint schemes are defined with Humbrol numbers. Five decal/paint schemes are included: two Russian, two French and one Ukrainian. The Russian schemes are Alexandr Kazakov XIX flying division Lutsk region, August 1916 and Eugraph Knuten 2nd army flying division Galicia, August 1916. The French schemes are Georges Guynemer Squadron No. 3 Western front March 1916 and Chouteau Johnson Squadron Lafauette Western front summer 1917. The Ukrainian scheme is 1st flying regiment of U.A. Crasne, February 1919.
Decals
The decals went on with no problems (I chose the Georges Guynemer, Squadron No. 3, Western front March 1916 scheme) and included underwing model and serial number stenciling. Rudder decals were slightly oversized and needed trimming with an extremely sharp xacto knife. They responded to an application of Solvaset and conformed very nicely to the molded details.
Comments
This is my first kit from TOKO but I am very please with the overall quality, detail and accuracy of the kit. I have copies of all of the currently available TOKO WWI kits which include: Aviatic (Berg) DI, Hansa Brandenburg W29, Hansa Brandenburg DI, Nieuport 16c, Pfalz DXII, Siemens Shuckert DIII/IV, Sopwith 7F1 Snipe, Sopwith T.F.2 Salamander, Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutter Two-seat Fighter, Sopwth 1-1/2 ?Strutter Trainer, Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutter Single-seat bomber, and Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutter Night Interceptor. Out of the box these all appear to have the same strong detail and accuracy of the Nieuport 11c. I will provide reviews of these kits as I work my way though them.
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