forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com
WW1 Aircraft Modeling => Under Construction => Topic started by: Dal Gavan on August 19, 2012, 12:47:07 PM
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G'day.
I've fixed up most of the damage to my Pfalz but have to wait until I can get back up to the farm to re-spray the underside and paint a replacement cross on the lower starboard wing. It's a 270km round trip (about 1.5 hours each way), but there's no room in my flat for my compressor and airbrush. Besides, I like an excuse to go and see my horse and escape the city :) .
So I continued doing some detail work on the Spad cockpit. There's a great series of cockpit photo's at http://memorial.flight.free.fr/SpadXIIIuk.html and they show just how bare the kit cockpit is. I also bought the Datafile, which gave me a better insight into how the cockpit and floor should look. I'd sprayed the fuselage insides last time I was up at the farm using Humbrol 103, which seems to be a fair match for the yellowish French CDL.
Armed with some spare sprue, a Waldron punch, Airscale instrument decals and some etched bits and spare fret from Uncle Tom's, I did some scratch building yesterday, adding some of the detail that will be visible in the cockpit. Unfortunately the Airscale decals don't match the instruments in the cockpit, but I've use the equivalents from the sheet. Also, the thickness of the plastic means that I had a lot of fettling to get my scratch-built stuff to fit. The results aren't perfect by any means, but they give the impression of a much busier cockpit than Hobbycraft give you.
Now to add the fuselage bracing wires, the oil lines and some other bits and piece (like the joy stick) and I can close up the fuselage, ready for painting. Then I'll decide whether to extend the wings (for Baracca's aircraft) or do this one as a French aircraft and wait for WNW to release a Spad XIII. I'll be getting FCM's sheet for Baracca's aircraft in any case, once it's re-released, and will need to find some for this kit if I choose not to extend the wings- an on line review said the markings included for Gutnemer's aircraft are also for the earlier version with rounded wingtips.
Cheers.
Dal.
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You're off to a brilliant start, Dal. That cockpit is shaping up beautifully.
Cheers,
Bud
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Excellent start Dal, the instruments look brilliant as does the rest of the cockpit so far.
Des.
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Dal,
Outstanding first progress my friend. I've been looking forward to your SPAD for a while and from today's update I can tell I won't be disappointed .
Keep up the excellent work.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette.
PS: Give us a shout if I can help with SPAD references.
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Looking forward to following this one. I haven't seen too many SPAD builds, and I'd like to do one someday, so this should be interesting. Lots of pictures!
Lindsay
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Nice work there Dal ;)
Andrew
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Ditto the above -- looks like a great start, clean and crisp.
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do you want me to mail you a copy of one of my scratchbuilt resin control panels? i have some copies a few guys wanted them a while ago and liked em. let me know. i used the memorial flight photos and datafile to make an accurate control panel made to fit the hobby craft spad xiii. althought what youve done is quite nice.
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G"day.
Bud, Des, Gregory, Lindsay, Andrew and Tony , thanks for the kind words. It was excellent therapy, actually, and stopped me testing the flight properties of the Pfalz. I'm very impressed with Airscale's decals- they went on and snuggled down beautifully after a couple of seconds in warm water and really give the kit a lift. I think I'll e-mail the link and see if he's interested in adding some of those instruments to his sheet.
Scott, thanks very much for your generous offer! I've learned a lot putting that gear in (and, as noted above, it was great therapy), but it could look a lot better. I'll PM you my e-mail address so you can let me know postage costs, etc.
Thanks again.
Dal.
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While trying to work out how I'd mucked up the rigging on my Nieuport 28 I did a bit of work on this kit, mainly on the cockpit. It's now ready to close up the fuselage and attach the lower wings. I've found a scheme for a late-model XIII that I can do easily, from SPA 68, on page 597 of French Aircraft of the First World War. I haven't used the resin pieces that Scott sent, because I am a little nervous of cutting up the cowl to fit them. I'll wait for Hobbycraft to re-release this kit and use them on that.
As usual, any comments, criticisms or advice is welcome.
Cheers.
Dal.
(http://members.westnet.com.au/DalGavan/T_mine_SPAD_XIII-11a.jpg)
(http://members.westnet.com.au/DalGavan/mine_SPAD_XIII-12a.jpg)
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Hello Dal:
The instruments look pretty darn good. It will dress up that interior nicely. Looking forward to seeing you progress through this build. I have another one in the stash and your build will be referenced when I get back to it.
Best
Mark
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Dal,
Excellent work on your SPAD my old friend. I'm looking forward to seeing much more of this thread.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette
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Mark, so far the fit of the parts has been very good, with the exception of the feeder line to the tank (it's about 1.5mm short and visible). But the cockpit is very basic and will need dressing up. There's some very good photo's at http://memorial.flight.free.fr/SpadXIIIuk.html that should be useful. I just realised I haven't made a cushion for the seat...... I'm also a little worried by the inter-plane struts- they look very flimsy!
Gregory, the only thing holding this build up was finding a scheme I could copy- without a clear goal I lost interest. Now I have a scheme to do, it should proceed more quickly.
Cheers.
Dal.
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Very nice start Dal! I like the extra effort and detailing you have done on the Instruments!
RAGIII
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Very nicely done so far Dal, lovely work on the instruments panel, I'm looking forward to seeing more of this build.
Des.
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Very nice work on the cockpit area, Dal. The instrument panel is
first-rate. You're making great progress on the SPAD. I look forward
to the next updates.
Cheers,
Ernie :)
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Hello Dal,
This is a typical Dal interior, so nicely done. Your bracing wires are magnificent as is the instrument panel. This will be another great build to follow!
Kind regards
Patrick
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Happy Saturday, everyone.
Thanks for the kind words. Up to now there haven't been any real problems. And the cockpit opening is big enough to llow the instrument deck and panel to be easily seen, so it needed a bit of dressing up. It's come out pretty well, so far.
But the fit of the bottom wing was another matter. As moulded, the rear wing-to-fuselage joint is a shocker. The wing sits nearly 0.5mm too low and the sand it down to fit would mean losing a lot of detail. So what I did was to shim the rear of the lower wing with strips of 0.5mm styrene, to lift the rear of the bottom wing up to match the fuselage contour. I also shimmed the bottom of the fuselage where it meets the top of the lower wing, to close the gap caused by the other shims. A bit of sanding is needed to get everything sitting correctly, but in all it took less than 1/2 and hour.
(http://members.westnet.com.au/DalGavan/SPAD13_20.jpg)
(http://members.westnet.com.au/DalGavan/SPAD13_21.jpg)
(http://members.westnet.com.au/DalGavan/SPAD13_17.jpg)
(http://members.westnet.com.au/DalGavan/SPAD13_19.jpg)
There's some small gaps to fill but things look a lot tidier than they did. The red circle shows that the bottom wing now sits level with the bottom of the fuselage. Being lazy and averse to sanding, I'm happy this worked. ;D
(http://members.westnet.com.au/DalGavan/T_SPAD13_25.jpg)
Cheers.
Dal.
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Hi Dal,
Now this is an outstanding correction you made. I'm beginning to see that styrene is quite indispensable for modeling work. You did a great job here Dal. Congratulations.
Kind regards
Patrick
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Nice fix, Dal. I'm a great believer in styrene shims...they save a ton of filling and
sanding...not one of my favourite pass-times. ;) ;D
I look forward to more on your build. Good stuff!
Cheers,
Ernie :)
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That was a terrific correction! That being said I just looked at my very old build of the Hobbycraft kit and everytjing was fine . Actually better than my norm. I don't remember any difficulties in the fit or correcting and sanding. Could it be the Molds have deteriated over the years?
RAGIII
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oddly enuff i dont remember any wing issues either, i have to check later, plus i have aonther i got in the stash unbiuilt
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Strange, I also built one of these a few months ago and had a nicely fitting lowe wing that needed no filler or shims. Just goes to show, plastic being plastic you may have gotten one that warped or coolde differently when they pulled it out of the mold.
Dave
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G'day.
Just back from a trip up to the Snowy Mountains (Berridale), to visit a mate and saw your responses.
Rags, Dave and Scott, the wing didn't look badly moulded, warped nor short-shot. In fact there's been very little flash and the detail on the parts has been nice and crisp. But as you can see, that join would have given a fairly nasty step without the shims.
Perhaps the wing and fuselage were at opposite ends of the tolerances you can get in injection moulder kits?
Cheers.
Dal.
PS Patrick, styrene strip, rod and card in various thicknesses is a must, mate. You'll be surprised at how many taks you use it for. And as Ernie says, using it to make shims so you can fill gaps saves a lot of work.
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Very nicely rectified Dal, I'm now looking forward to seeing your next update.
Des.