Nieuport-Macchi Ni.10

The Nieuport 10 is one of the less well known of the long line of Nieuport scouts. It was the first Aircraft designed by Gustave Delage, and it first flew in 1915. The Ni.10 was powered by a 80hp Gnome of Le Rhone Engine. It was built both as a single and a double seater, and many single seaters were simply converted from double seater Nieuports. The double seater came in two versions: the 10 AV with the observer in front, and the 10 AR with the observer behind. Ni.10 was initially not armed, but Capitaine Brocard, the future commander of Les Cicognes, managed to shoot down an enemy aircraft with a pistol on July 3, 1915 while flying a Ni.10.

The Ni.10 was used by, amongst others,  the air forces of France, Great Britain, Belgium, Russia, Italy and eventually Finland. The Ni.10 single seater was flown by several budding aces such as Georges Guynemer, Francesco Baracca and Jan Olieslagers before the introduction of the Nieuport 11 and subsequent successful Nieuport scouts.

The Italian version was known as the Nieuport-Macchi. with the company being formed to build the Nieuport IV.G under license. The Nieuport-Macchi Ni.10 underwent a number of significant improvements, and the two-seater Ni-10 served as a trainer until the end of the 1920s. Twenty-six Ni.10s were imported from France, and another 240 were built in Italy.

The Nieuport-Macchis were originally used for defensive purposes of the Town of Undine, but later on additional defensive tasks as well as reconnaissance missions were performed by the Ni.10. The Italians also appreciated the ability of the Nieuports to gain altitude at a decent rate, and both Ni.10s and other Nieuports were used to escort Caproni bombers on missions against Austro-Hungarian targets such as Fiume, Dornberg, Opicina, Gorizia and Trieste from 1916 and onwards. 

The model is a resin kit by the Czech Company HR Model. The Company offers both plastic and resin kits as well as decals and conversion kts. The Nieuport 10 is nowadays aoffered as an injection moulded plastic kit, but I bought this resin kit at Hobbybokhandeln in Stockholm, one of my favourite stores with a good selection of both older model kits and books. This is also the first resin kit I completed, and I did learn one or two lessons from it. The cockpit was lacking detail, but I added air crew instead of detailing the cockpit. I also added rudder horns, a windscreen, an injection moulded Lewis gun from a Nieuport 23, seatbelts, cabane struts that were excluded, rubber bars, a joystick, rigging, and Italian markings to make a Nieuport based on a surviving example in Italy instead of the Belgian and Finnish markings in the kit. The aircrew came from an Airfix Roland Wal and a Sopwith Pup. Certain things did nort work out: the dihedral is not sufficient, despite working over the resin with a hairdryer for some time. There are also some issues with the struts, and one was missing from the kits, so a new one had to be scratch built in plastic. There is not an abundance of details regarding the markings of two- seated Nieuport 10s, so the painting and markings are the result of some guesswork from available sources. 

Sopwith Pup C242, No. 7 Training Squadron, Netheravon 1918

No. 7 Squadron was declared operational on July 28, 1915 at Netheravon, an aerodrome located on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. The aerodrome had been in use by the Royal Flying Corps since 1913, and it was part of the formative phase of the RFC. Several squadrons trained at what was referred to as the "Netheravon Concentration Camp" before being sent abroad. Netheravon was used for the disbanding of squadrons following the armistice. Some of the original buildings are still standing at the site of the aerodrome.

In 1918, training had improved quite a bit with the Gosport System developed by Robert Smith-Barry. The RFC (RAF after April 1, 1918) was capable of graduating 500 pilots per month in five different training areas reporting to a Directorate of Training (DOT). The DOT had 1,203 aircraft in June of 1918, out of which 368 were Avro trainers. A so-called "all-through" system was implemented, which meant that a pilot would remain at one location throughout his training, with the exception of gunnery school. Gone were the Days when a RFC pilots would have three hours solo flying under his belt to qualify as a "good pilot", and the number of training-related accidents had decreased. In the Days of the old Training Division, trainees wrecked a stunning 9.75 percent of the Aircraft on any given day. By the turn of 1917-18, the number was down to 3.11 percent.

A film about training pilots of the United States Air Service in 1918 can be found here.

The Airfix Pup remains a fun build, and it also features a decent cockpit, including a dashboard with instruments and some detailing of the insides of the fuselage halves. I added a seatbelt, a joystick and the floor planks. My previous summary of building a Sopwith Pup can be found here. The cadet is a modified Preiser figure with an added swagger stick.

The Blue Rider decals were bought on eBay, and this was my first real attempt to use decals that actually cover most of an aircraft. The decals were of excellent quality, and they worked well with setting solution, although it remains difficult to join decals over, for example, the wing edges. I did add some weathering to make this Pup actually look like an aircraft that is handled by inexperienced pilots on a daily basis as well as being subjected to inclement weather and rough landings. Matte varnish took away most of the gloss of the decals, making the Pup look less toy-like. By the way, C242 seems to have ended up in civilian use, being registered as G-EBFJ after the war.

Netheravon just before the outbreak of war.

Sopwith Pup C242.