Hi all,
As I'm close to finishing the Hansa-Brandenburg W.20 float plane, I thought I'd start on a 'Planet Models' resin kit.
This model represents a Ponnier M.1 ‘Le Vampire’ of the Aviation Militaire Belge, as flown by Abel De Neef from the Ten Bogaerde (Koksijde) airfield in 1915.





Before WW1, Louis Alfréd Ponnier was a Director of one of the companies of René Hanriot.
In 1913 Hanriot decide to temporarily quit his interest in aviation and Ponnier took over the factory under his ’Avions Ponnier’ trade mark.
The Avions Ponnier company attempted to win a pre-WW1 contract from the French military with their 1913 Ponnier L.1 scout, designed by Alfred Pagny, but they were unsuccessful.
In 1915 Pierre Dupont was hired as an aircraft designer and in 1916 the Ponnier M.1 was tested by French ‘Aviation Militaire’ pilots, including Jean Navarre and Charles Nungesser.
During flight testing, Charles Nungesser was severely injured when the aircraft entered a flat spin.
In the ensuing crash, Nungesser had both legs broken as well as his jaw.
The crash was thought to have been caused by an incorrect centre of gravity combined with a rudder which was too small.
The French lost all interest in the aircraft after this incident.
However, the Belgian Air Force were desperate for fighter aircraft and so ordered the type.
At least twenty Ponnier M.1s were produced by S.A. Française de Constructions Aéronautiques, Ponnier's successor company to Avions Ponnier.
Most of these, probably more than eighteen, were bought by the Aviation Militaire Belge.
However, the Belgian ace Willy Coppens found the aircraft to be ineffective, despite modifications, which included a larger empennage and removal of the propeller spinner.
The aircraft, like those remaining with the French, were rapidly discarded.
Those that were left had their lower wings stripped and were sent to the pilot training school in Etampes, where students used them to learn how to taxi.
As an aside, René Hanriot returned to the aviation business and his designer, Emile Dupont was instrumental in bringing about the much better Hanriot HD.1 fighter.

Mike

An unique and good looking kite. Looking forward to it!

Thanks for the History Lesson Mike;

We not only get to enjoy your builds, we also get an education at the same time!!

Yeah he was always doing that for laughs. A vain, attention-seeking, womanizing drunkard. I like him very much.

Bagger, this is one kite I've never heard of ! Unsurprisingly, as it turns out. Thanks for shedding some light on this interesting failure.

Fascinating. Thanks for posting Sandbagger.

Hi all,
Some progress on this model.
Information on the cockpit detail is non-existent as far as I can tell, so I've built the cockpit as supplied.
All I've added rudder control lines and pipe to the priming pump.
Getting the two fuselage halves to fully close around the cockpit assembly required some fairly heavy scraping of resin from the cockpit side panels.
I also added 1.0 mm thick plastic card strips around one fuselage half to help positive alignment to the other half, as as usual being a resin kit, there are no locating pegs and receptacles.
The ailerons in the upper wing were cut out and pinned with 0.5 mm diameter rod, so that the ailerons could be positioned.
The tail plane, fin, rudder and elevators were all drilled and pinned with 0.3 mm diameter tube. The elevators are positioned down slightly.
As the engine can hardly be seen on the completed model, I decide to use the resin engine supplied in the kit, even though it's not the best representation of the Le Rhone 9c.
I've added 0.4 mm diameter Nickel-Silver tubes for valve push rods and tube with copper wire for spark plus and ignition leads.

Mike

Great detail as always Sandbagger - looking forward to this obscure model which, I have to admit, have never heard of before this thread went up. A fitting name, "Le Vampire." I've been doing some casual reading in the meantime and even the Russian Imperial Air Service rejected this one - which perhaps says something about its lack of stability considering that the Russ. Service did end up with the M-S Type N, and even more interestingly (and in greater numbers) the M-S Type I, with the scalloped trailing edges on the wings and the Vickers M.G. - and that, apparently, was even more difficult to handle than the Type N "Bullet."

Cheers all,
Von S

Hi all,
The engine cowl and the two side panels have been added (the engine will fit inside the cowl).
Also the kit supplied resin carburettor air intake pipes have been replaced with chamfered 1.8 mm brass tube.
This was done as the tubes are angled downwards from the fuselage sides and have chamfered ends, unlike the kit parts.
Also added the filler cap as it needed to be sanded away during the fuselage assembly.
Finally the lower wings had just one small resin locating stub for locating against the fuselage sides.
I replaced them with 1.0 mm diameter rod - the front rod passes through the fuselage into the opposite wing.
The rear rods locate the wings at the correct angle to the fuselage, which was not feasible with the original single locating sub.

Mike

Very nice wood interior.

Hi all,
The landing gear and wing struts supplied in the kit are molded in white metal.
Consequently the landing gear in particular bends extremely easily and I suspect may not even take the weight of the model.
Therefore I recreated the landing gear struts and axle using brass tube, rod and styrene sheet.
The struts are 2.0 mm tube formed around 1.mm rod and soft soldered then filed and sanded to shape.
The axle is 2.0 mm tube crushed flat on one aide around 0.8 mm rod.
Styrene strips off 0.5 mm thickness were glued to the front and rear of the rod, then sanded to an aerofoil shape.

I'm not sure yet whether I'll replace the wing struts - we'll see,

Mike

Hi all,
I decided to replace all four interplane struts as the kit parts were also soft white metal alloy.
Made from 2.0 mm diameter Brass tube and 0.5 mm diameter rod, soft soldered the profiled,

Mike

Very nice metal work Mike. You made a good call on that one. Sure do enjoy watching you build “out of the box”! You must have a barrel full of extras by now.

Hey Mark,
Yeah, I guess my stash of 'bits I'll probably never use again' is building up.
A bit like your wood pile I imagine

Mike

Hi all,
Just a few updates.
The kit supplied resin propeller was base coated with 'Tamiya' Buff (XF55) then had 'DecoArts' Burnt Umber acrylic brushed on.
Finally a sealing coat of 'Alclad' Light Sheen (ALC311) mixed with 'Tamiya' Clear Orange (X26).



Forward fuselage and spinner base coated with 'Tamiya' black gloss (X18) then over coated with 'Alclad' Duraluminium (ALC-102).
Slot cut forward of the cockpit to house the 'GasPatch' Lewis machine gun.



The brass created struts were base coated with 'Tamiya' Buff (XF55) then had 'DecoArts' Burnt Umber acrylic brushed on.
The four interplane struts were then clear gloss coated to have 'Xtradecal' 1.0 mm wide black decals applied to represent the linen bindings around the struts.
Finally all of the struts were sealed with a coat of 'Alclad' Light Sheen (ALC311).



Now it's onto pre-shading the model prior to applying the CDL and plywood effect decals,

Mike

Hi all,
I've pre-shaded the parts ready for applying plywood effect decal to the fuselage and linen effect decal to the flight surfaces.
The fuselage if the aircraft was covered in plywood but it's difficult to tell if the plywood was applied as single sheets or as separate panels.
One photograph seems to show a panel join, so I've gone for separate panels.
Panel lines scribbed with nail lines added each side using a 'Rosie the Riveter' (1.0 mm).

Mike

They look beautiful Mike!

Hi all,
I've applied the decals.
The Clear Doped Linen are the '‘Aviattic’ CDL aged varnish (ATT32094),
The plywood fuselage are the ‘Lukgraph’ Dark Plywood (DEC004) - from their Friedrichshafen FF.33L kit (32-30).
I still have to finish weathering and maybe darken the wood decals,

Mike

Wow! Really looking sharp.

Hi all,
Just a few updates.
I've applied and sealed the weathering ('Flory Models' Dark Dirt clay wash).
Also added the pilot's foot plate, made from spare photo-etch) to the lower port wing, which is not in the kit.
The replacement 'GasPatch' Lewis Mk.1 machine gun has been fitted.

Now onto the pre-rigging,

Mike