Amodel 1/32 Nieuport 16c

The Nieuport 11 was basically a smaller, neater version of the Nieuport 10 - designed specifically as a single-seat fighter. Like the "10" the "11" was a sesquiplane, a biplane with a full-sized top wing with two spars, and a lower wing of much narrower chord and just one spar. A "Vee" interplane strut joined the lower wing with the broader upper wing on each side. The main drawback of this particular layout is that unless it is very strongly built, the narrow lower wing is prone to twist and bend under stress. This was a problem with all the "Vee-Strut" Nieuports, as well as the German Albatros D.III,V and Va, which adopted a generally similar wing design.

Nieuport 11s were supplied to the Aéronautique Militaire, the Royal Naval Air Service, the Dutch air service, Belgium, Russia and Italy. 646 were license produced by the Italian Macchi company. Although its own operational career was short, it was the first in a line of single seat "Vee-Strut" Nieuport fighters - the most important being the Nieuport 17, 24bis. and 27.

Nieuport 16

In 1916 an improved version appeared as the Nieuport 16 which was a Nieuport 11 airframe powered by the 110 hp (92 kW) Le Rhone 9J rotary engine. Visible differences included a larger aperture in front of the "horse shoe" cowling and, at least in some cases, a pilot headrest fairing. Later versions had a deck-mounted synchronized Vickers gun, but in this configuration the combined effect of the heavier 9J engine and the heavier Vickers gun compromised maneuverability and made the craft decidedly nose-heavy. The next variant, the slightly larger Nieuport 17 C1, was designed from the outset for the heavier engine, and remedied the 16's c.g. problems, as well as providing an improved performance..

Amodel has obviously seen how profitable it is to produce large scale models and this is their first. Yes, I know this is #2, but the plastic is identical to the #1 boxing released at the same time. This boxing is for French ace Andre Chainant, but all I was able to find out about him is that he had 10 victories in Nieuports and survived the war.

There are nine sprues of various sizes for this kit and as you can see, there are bits that will not be used on this particular version. The molding is quite good though I did find a couple of small sink areas on the fuselage opposite some interior detailing. There isn't much in the way of optional pieces at all, in fact I could find none. I did find that a couple of the parts had to be folded or bent in order to be used. The seat back has to be curved into shape and what I assume is a fuel tank or ammo bin has to be folded prior to gluing. Thanks to the somewhat soft plastic, this should not be a problem.

The cockpit is quite complete for the scale so no one should be disappointed by the this area. Building the engine, you'll notice that it has separate cylinder heads and a complete set of push rods. The ending is designed to be mobile if one takes care inconstruction. The rest of the kit is quite straight-forward in its construction. The kit has some very fine injected pieces instead of using photo etch, so care needs to be taken removing the parts from the sprue.

Instructions are for the box art aircraft with a camouflaged upper wing and fuselage. There are color references throughout in Humbrol paint numbers. The decal sheet is well printed and matte. Interestingly, though the painting and markings sheet only show under wing roundels, there is a set for the upper wing as well. kit is for

It seems like Amodel wants to go up against Roden in terms of 1/32 WWI subjects and I have to say that for a first kit, this one is very nice. It has all the detail you want and should build into a superb replica.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nieuport_16

February 2010

My thanks to www.scale-model-kits.com for the preview kit. Get yours at the link and at a discount.

Thanks to If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note toContributors.

Back to the Main Page

Back to the Previews Index Page