SPAD XIII Esc 67 - get on with it!

[RLWP]

Chocolate brown is done:



And I think I understand why the gloss paint is matte. I painted over that dark green triangle, and the new green paint is noticeably more intense and slightly gloss. I haven't been putting on enough paint

Richard

[Monty]

I'm watching your five colours go on with great interest, Richard! You have some interesting colour shades there... but they look good together! Regards, Marc.

[RLWP]

I'm watching your five colours go on with great interest, Richard! You have some interesting colour shades there... but they look good together! Regards, Marc.

Remember - they may not be accurate, they happened to be what I had

Richard

[Borsos]

This is looking very nice and for me the shades look correct.
Andreas

[RAGIII]

Continuing to look great Richard!
RAGIII

[ebergerud]

Glad I checked in. Had no idea Hobbycraft made a Spad. That's the origin of the Academy/Italeri Camels and Nieuports right? OK kit - not too fiddly - and not offered by WNW: good recommendations. (I think the supply of WNW is pretty limited right now thanks to too many people having too much time. Unless you've got deep pockets and go to eBay anyway.)
Eric

[RLWP]

The sprues are marked 'Hobbycraft Canada'.

There are two kinds of kits in this stable. This kit, the Nieuports and the highly elusive Clerget and LeRhone camels are all very good kits for their time. Compared to a more modern kit, they lack detail in the cockpit

Then there is the very common 'Academy' camel which has horrible wing and coarse details. The quality suggests that kit is around 20 years older than this SPAD

Richard

[ebergerud]

You're two thirds right about the heritage of the Camel, Nieuport and Spad. According to Scalemate the Hobbycraft Camel was new tool in 1990, the Nieuport 17 1992 and the Spad 2002. As far as the Academy Camel goes, it was my first biplane and it looks pretty good from five feet. I exchanged emails about the kit directly with Des - he said it was a decent kit - and I believe a photobuild of Des' version is on the home page here. However, I'm certainly not quibbling with your assessment of the accuracy of the kit. Twelve years is a long time in the modeling world. (Not sure if Hobbycraft still makes kits. However, a 1/48 P-26 is on eBay and that's very tempting.)
Eric

[RLWP]

I had one of the Academy Camel kits, it's one of the few kits I have actually thrown away

Compared to the Hobbycraft one, it is very crude. Anything can be made into a good model with time and effort - that just didn't seem worth the effort

Richard

[RichieW]

It's coming together Richard, the colours look fantastic!

[RLWP]

This is white primer for the cockades.

I'm undecided on these, I have masked off for the kit decals. However I might spray the cockades and tail stripes instead

Richard

[RAGIII]

Nice!
RAGIII

[ebergerud]

Lovely kit building up here. That's a tough camo scheme - even worse than WWII RAF patterns which call for masking galore. (I've found Panzer Putty to be useful for really complex stuff.) I do like the color mix - it certainly looks the part. (Wonder how uniform paint colors were from different factories?) This build includes an added bonus - it led me to check out the Smithsonian page and enjoyed their 35 color photos of their Spad XIII "Smith V." (The plan was to use Rickenbacker's plane, but it was destroyed in a fire while on display some years back - luckily they had also obtained the Spad flown by Ray Brooks.) Like all of the Smithsonian builds it's a treat to the eye and shinny as a new silver dollar. Also found out that this kit appears to be the only 1/32 Spad XIII out there. Hope I can stumble into one on eBay.

[RLWP]

More masking, I've decided to spray the cockades



Richard

[RAGIII]

Good choice on painting the roundels. I am looking forward to the results!
RAGIII