Glencoe 1/48
Nieuport 28C.1

Background

The Nieuport 28 was designed on the experience gained with the Nieuport 27. The aircraft retained the round cross-section fuselage that was tapered at the tail, but received new wings that were braced with parallel struts replacing the Vee-type of earlier designs. Power was from a 160 horsepower Gnome Monosupape rotary engine and the aircraft was armed with a pair of synchronized Vickers machine guns.

Nearly all of these aircraft were assigned to the new American Expeditionary Force (AEF) squadrons, making the Nieuport 28 the US's first fighter aircraft. 298 of these aircraft were delivered to the AEF, and first combat was 14 April 1918 when aircraft of the 94th Aero Squadron shot down two German aircraft.

The Kit

The Glencoe 1/48 Nieuport 28C-1 kit has been around for a while. This kit was originally from Aurora, the molds of which were rescued from the scrap heap by Glencoe. What you might not notice in their absence are the molded-on markings. When Glencoe restored the molds, the roundels and such were carefully removed without affecting the rib detailing.

This 1/48 scale kit was very detailed for its day. It featured a reasonably detailed engine that could be tweaked by an experienced modeler, a seat for the interior, and options for a seated pilot and a crewman figure.

The majority of this kit is molded in medium gray, with the engine and wheels molded in black styrene.

The ribbing detail on the upper surface of the wing is not bad by today's standards. There is no ribbing detail on the undersurfaces of the wing - such was the molding state of the art back in Aurora's day.

Clearly the most impressive part of this kit is the Scalemaster decal sheet. This rather large sheet contains markings for seven different aircraft:

• USAF Museum replica of #16, 95 Aero Sqn
• #2, 95 Aero Sqn, Raoul Lufbery
• #5, 95 Aero Sqn, Wentworth
• #10, 147 Aero Sqn, Ralph O'Neal
• #10, 94 Aero Sqn, Douglas Campbell
• #16, 94 Aero Sqn, Eddie Rickenbacker
• #1, 94 Aero Sqn, Eddie Rickenbacker

Conclusion

With a street price of around $8.00 USD, the Glencoe kit is an easy build for modelers out to have a little fun and not ready to get wrapped up in more complex renditions of this interesting aircraft. For those who are more content with the more complex kits, then you'll definitely want to buy this kit for the decal sheet and give the model to one of your kids to build alongside of you. In either case, it is nice to see such inexpensive kit options still available to modelers.

My sincere thanks to Glencoe Models for this review sample!