Biplane v monoplane

No, I'm NOT considering changing the Nieuport 16!

I've become interested in the silk postcards that were produced in The Great War, especially those with representations of planes (fairly obviously!). Seems these were produced in great numbers by the French to be sold to Allied servicemen, but the interesting bit for me is the fact that most of the planes appear to be Bleriots.  I've only come across a few with representations of biplanes (which look extremely fragile) and only one which looks anything like a 'proper' scout and that must have been produced fairly late in the war. Here are a few:

The light of day

At last our ladies get to see the light of day -not just any day but a great Marlborough day when the Russian Rugby Team are due to get 'capped' (a strange ceremony which probably flummoxed the participants whereby each member is presented with a Rugby World Cup  black cap complete with gold tassle). There's still a lot of work to be done but at least it is looking presentable for the duration of the World Cup, so here they are -enjoy!

And here is her sister 'ship', also in an authentic colour scheme, almost fully completed and ready to go:

The Ladies have arrived (Part 2)

Was going to combine both lots but a gremlin decided to get in the way.

Chris is the artist on the right

The ladies have arrived!

I think I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

The first thought

What the hell have I got myself into now??

I have long held a dream to fly and after quite a few decades that dream is slowly being realised. On top of that I have become involved with a syndicate to build a replica Nieuport 16 to microlight standards. "Why?" you may well ask! To try to get a feel for what our grandfathers (perhaps I need to add Great-, if not, Great, great-grandfathers to that) went through in that supposed "War to end all Wars". Which just goes to show that Man just will not learn. And as a by-product of that to give other people a similar feel, albeit from the ground. Only time will tell how successful I'll be in all three ventures (the third one being how I get on with this strange thing called 'blogging').

So this is the start of the jigsaw.............