Baslee's Nieuport 28 with the Rotec R-3600 is the aircraft that caught my eye. The Rotec engine is just the right size for the Nieuport. It's scale is correct and it produces about the same horsepower (150 versus 160 on the original plane). Of course the Rotec is new radial technology and much more refined and reliable than the rotaries of 1917.
I was looking at this kit about the same time the movie "Flyboys" was released. You may know that four of the Nieuports in the movie were produced by Robert Baslee and his folks. The U.S. Navy employed the Nieuport 28 not in combat, but in the postwar evaluation of operating aircraft from ships. In 1919 the sea service acquired twelve examples for service with the fleet as part of the "shipboard fighter" concept. The relatively inexpensive war surplus aircraft proved ideal for the operations in which the aircraft flew from platforms built on the forward turrets of battleships. After completing their flights, they either landed ashore or ditched at sea, inflating flotation bags affixed to the wings to prevent the airplane from sinking. They were then returned to the ship by boat.
The National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola has a Nieuport 28 painted in post-WWI colors. She has the star and ball roundels over a silver finish. Had I chosen to build the N28, that would have been the paint scheme of choice.
