Nieuport 28 - 1917

MAC FELSING
Been taking my time working on this one. The propeller is formed. Waiting a coat of shellac and Golden Oak stain. Note: The instructions for forming the propeller - diagram is wrong. The Front view of the propeller in the diagram is backwards. Looks like they pulled it from the Camel instructions. The leading edge of the prop on the Nieuport 28, according to my research and photos of the real thing, should be the straight edge, not the curved one. Also, the detailed prop diagram was not on a 1:1 scale as noted in the diagram. It was much bigger. Will post a couple of pictures soon.

MAC FELSING
First coat of shellac applied and sanded. Applied the Golden Oak stain. Will put two more coats of schellac on and polish. Overall shape is consistent. I am happy with the way the propeller has turned out.

MAC FELSING
Uploaded a couple of pictures of the propeller Fairly satisfied with result. Couple of lessons learned. Don't use gorilla glue for lamination. It tends to be too thick.

MAC FELSING
Propeller has been finished for a few weeks. Three coats of shellac and a lot of sanding with 12000 grit sandpaper and various grades down to that size make for a very nice finish. Been working on the cylinders of the engine, adding the spark plugs then filing and fitting the heads to the cylinders. All of the heads have been sealed with clear coat. I will be using Model Masters steel, non-buffing metalizer, then do some shading and weathering. Also, did not like the cast push rods. Am working on scratch-building the push rods. Have the 9 rods cut to length. have the connector sleeves to shape, file, and glue. I am taking my time and having a lot of fun with this build. Check out the pictures of the album.

MAC FELSING
Will post a couple more pictures soon. Been away from the workbench for a while. I have the the engine together in unpainted form - minus the push rods. Will clear coat, then paint and weather. Add the push rods, still trying to decide whether to scratch build them or just clean up and size the ones from the kit. Lot of filling and little bits either way.
Looking forward to getting that completed and start working on the wings.
That is probably a month or two out as I am traveling quite a bit for now.

MAC FELSING
At this point, I have the engine assembled, except for the push rods and spark plug wires. I have sealed the metal with clear coat and am going to start painting and weathering. I will build the push rods from scratch, just not sure, how yet. I don't like the kit ones. I will share more photos as I go. Looking forward to starting on the wings.
I have a lot of wings to do, I have all six of the of the Model airways kits, including the DR1.
I found some really good pictures of that show the scallop pattern of the leading edge of the wing. They are hard to find.

Mike Grant
Looks great so far – that prop is amazing.

MAC FELSING
Added some new photos. Starting on the wing. Going to continue dealing with the push rods. Have an idea how to put them in correctly without too much fuss. Really enjoyed getting back to this. It's been too long

MAC FELSING
Did more work getting organized. Completed two more ribs and rib caps. I'm using white glue to start and hold one end of the rib cap then medium viscosity CA glue, applying with a thin piece of photo etch, to the strip a little at a time until the cap is in place. then repeat for the other rib cap (2 per rib). Any gaps or loose ends I refasten with CA glue. When dry, i sand lightly with 500 grit sandpaper to remove any remaining slivers. So far, everything seems to be the right size, according to the plans. I also Cut the two wing spars. Will need to taper the last couple of inches to fit the outboard ribs. I wasn't sure if I was going to stain the rib caps, but i will at least be sealing them with shellac. That's all for today.

MAC FELSING
Dec 5 completed six more wing ribs and caps. It's getting easier now. Only 4 left to do on the upper right wing. Then the leading and trailing edges and forming the wing tips and center section. Bending and laminating the wing tips and center section. I decided to just shellac the wing rib caps. I will be staining the spars to match the ribs.

MAC FELSING
Dec 8 Shaped the wing spars - taper the ends to 5/64, stained the spars, completed the rib caps for all of the spars on the upper right wing. Noted a couple of spars that don't seem to be cut to match the plans and may cause some alignment issues. nothing seemingly major. Check out the photos

MAC FELSING
Dec 8 - started laminating the upper wing tips as well.

MAC FELSING
Dec 9 - Upper wingtips both formed. Turned out well and seem strong. need to seal the edges with a little CA glue. Happy with the outcome.
Next up is to make a CA glue application tool using a double pin vise and a couple of needles. with the eyes cut to form a half loop. Then will use that to start gluing the rib caps to the spars and forming the wing.
In the lineup are the other ribs - need to sand edges, apply rib caps. Used Jim Landon's build from 2005 as a guide and excellent resource. The kit has been modified since then, so some of the issues are not the same but it is a great source of build tips.

MAC FELSING
Dec 11 - Glued #1 rib to the spars, fixed the spars and wings to the building board with pin, Glued #2 and #3 ribs to the spars. The rest are in place, I used a pin vice and a needle to make a super glue applicator which worked really well to glue the ribs to the spar. When I made the glue applicator, I clipped both ends of the needle - I cut the eye of to make a holder for the glue and clipped off the point just so I didn't accidentally hurt myself. 😉

MAC FELSING
Finished gluing ribs to the spars, test fit and adjusted the wingtip fit. Included a picture of the glue applicator as well. It was a lifesaver and made the task of glueing the ribs relatively easy and neat. Next step is cutting, gluing and shaping the leading and trailing edge, and matching up mitered joints to the wing tip. Wingtip has to be trimmed/sanded significantly on the trailing edge to provide a smooth transition from 3/16 on leading edge to the 1/16 or so of the trailing edge.
Changing the way I am doing things on the next 3 wings to simplify construction. I will share as I go. Check out the pics.

MAC FELSING
Added leading and trailing edges. Started to shape. Adding a couple of layers of laminated to the leading edge of the wingtip to match up and shape the wingtip more easily. Pics added.

MAC FELSING
The wingtip is on, leading and trailing edges shaped, mostly, and false ribs installed. Next up, are the nose ribs that go in between each of the ribs, front spar and leading edge. Not sure if they need cap strips on the bottom, will have to do some research on that. Then the leading edge cover that goes back to the front spar, then creating the scallop for it. In the meantime I'm also starting the rib caps on the upper left wing and laminating the trailing edge center cutout.

MAC FELSING
Half o f the false ribs added to the upper right wing. Shaping the center trailing edge. waiting for eyebolts to mount on the wing spars to tie the turnbuckles onto. Also trying to figure out how the compression bars will be mounted and how to affix the turnbuckles to those as they are not cast the way the instructions say they should be. Almost have the left upper ribs capped and will be adding them to the spars in a day or two. The wing is really starting to take shape.

MAC FELSING
Created a collection of all of the model airways kits that I have. check it out. I will have a couple of them displayed with smaller scale models going forward. check out the ideas and feel free to comment.