Roden 1/72 Nieuport 24bis

The Nieuport 24 introduced a new fuselage of improved aerodynamic form, rounded wingtips, and a tail unit incorporating a small fixed fin and a curved rudder. The tailskid was sprung internally and had a neater appearance than that on earlier Nieuports. A 130 hp Le Rhône rotary engine was fitted.

In the event, there were problems with the new tail, and most production aircraft of the type were of the Nieuport 24bis model, which retained the fuselage and wings of the 24, but reverted to the Nieuport 17 type tailplane, tailskid and rectangular balanced rudder. The new tail was finally standardised on the Nieuport 27.

A batch of Nieuport 24bis were built in England for the Royal Naval Air Service.

In the summer of 1917, when the Nieuport 24 and 24bis. were coming off the production line, most French fighter squadrons were replacing their Nieuport 17s with SPAD S.VIIs – and many of the new fighters went to fighter training schools, and to France’s allies, including the Russians, and the British, who used theirs well into 1918, due to a shortage of S.E.5as. A few French units retained the Nieuport through late 1917 – the type was actually preferred by some pilots, especially the famous Charles Nungesser.

Some of the Nieuport advanced trainers bought by the Americans for their flying schools in France in November 1917 may very well have been 24s or 24bis. (At least Roden thinks so as that is one of the markings options.) 

You get three sprues of plastic with this one; an A, B, and R sprue. The A & B sprues carry all the bits and pieces that are peculiar to the Nieuport 24. Molding is superb with just a small section of wing that has some crud on it. Easy enough to sand off. the fabric representation is quite well done. I'm not a big fan of fabric parts that show every frame detail under the fabric. The interior is small and sparse, just like on the real aircraft. The R sprue is obviously for a number of WWI kits as there are multiple bits on it, only a few of which are actually used on this kit.

It looks like construction could be done in an afternoon, however, as it is a biplane, it will look a bit silly without rigging. The kit instructions provide an excellent rigging diagram and like the other Nieuport sesquiplanes, it is pretty simple stuff.

Markings are provided for three aircraft, all in silver dope with metal cowlings. The box art plane is from 97 Escadrille in 1917. There is a full color painting and markings guide for this on the back of the box. The instructions have the other two markings options. One is a US plane from late 1917 with an unknown training unit. The other is a Russian plane from the 13th Fighter Detachment in 1920. Lots of red stars on this one. The decals are really very nicely done with crisp details and no obvious registration problems. How they stick, well, one can only try and see. I shall be optimistic.  

A very nice addition to Roden's 1/72 WWI line-up of kits and a plane that never really got a lot of press. I think you'll like it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nieuport_24

January 2011

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