Nieuport Ni.21 flown by Podpolkovnik Yevgraf Nikolaevich Kruten

The Nieuport Ni.21 was only marginally different from the Ni.17 in appearance, often with an added headrest and parallell flying wires. Internally, the entire aircraft was lightened and powered by an 80hp Le Rhone Engine, since the Ni.21 was planned to be a bomber escort. As it turned out, French doctrine changed, and the Ni.21 mainly served in a more traditional scout role.

The Ni.21 was also produced by the Russian Dux factory for use with the Russian Imperial Air Force. It was also flown by Raoul Lufbery in 1916 as well by the RNAS as the Nieuport Type 17B. The United States Air Service operated 198 Ni.21s as trainer aircraft.

This kit is manufactured by the Ukrainian company Bat. The model was generously given to me by Lt. Col. Forterre after working in Latvia in 2017, and it had both pros and cons. On the upside - and this is a big one - the upper wing is molded in translucent plastic, which means that the transparency in the middle of the wing could be faithfully replicated. The proportions are correct, the interior is good, and the decals are superb, but there were some issues with fitting, and I recommend careful dry fitting and patience. Also, as with most kits, there were no seatbelts, so I made a belt out of masking tape. The figures are  from the Orion WW1 pilot set, and for some reason, the facial features of the pilot are quite distorted, making me think he survived some horrible cockpit fire.

Lt. Col Kruten, whose Bogatyr (medieval Knight) adorns this aircraft, flew both a Ni.17 and and a Ni.21 during the summer of 1917 before he crashed to his death on June 19, 1917. He scored seven victories between 1915 and 1917, and he also served with Felix Brocard's Escadrille 3 on the Western Front, where he scored one of his victories while flying a SPAD VII. After flying with the French, he claimed that "there's nothing about flying that we can learn from foreigners."