Nieuport Ni-23

[woody37]

Nieuport Ni-23

Eduard 1:72 Weekend Edition

The Nieuport Ni-23 was one of a successive range of aircraft produced by the French company leading up to and throughout WWI. Nieuport was originally set up in 1902 to manufacture and supply parts to the aviation industry, but later went on to produce aircraft as well. The company went through several evolutions of management, in part due to the death of two of the Nieuport brothers in flying accidents. The Ni-23 was a development of the Ni-17 using a lighter Le Rhone 9J engine of 120hp which gave a better power to weight ratio. One of the significant features of the Ni-23 was a lower wing of much shorter chord than the upper wing and only having 1 spar to reduce weight, however several were lost as a result of wing failure causing the design to be upgraded with strengthened wings. Synchronised guns were fitted to fire through the prop, however the RNAS continued to use the tried and tested arrangement of fitting guns above the wings. The Ni-23 saw service with 7 countries, including France, Britain and the USA.

The kit

It's small ! However, it's also very nicely moulded in typical Eduard style. Construction starts with the assembly of the cockpit which is then sandwiched between the fuselage halves. Assembly of the wings is then built around the fuselage including fitting the engine then the cowling over the top. The engineering is very good with a lot of detail being crammed into this tiny kit. The ribbing on the wings is subtle as is the surface detailing. It seems that Eduard were careful not to exaggerate the detail which would of made it look very toy like. From pictures of the Ni-23, it appears to be quite accurate. Being the weekend edition, this lacks the etch sheet that is otherwise available.

As normal with the Weekend Editions, only one scheme is supplied and it is that flown by Kibanov of the Russian Imperial Airforce in 1917. The decals are vivid and well printed with excellent register, fortunately, they are quite large, so applying them should be relatively straight forwards.

Conclusion

I'm very impressed with the detail and quality of this kit. The small size will make it not everyones cup of tea, but anyone who likes to make 1/72 WWI era aeroplanes really needs this in their collection.

Review sample courtesy of