forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com
WW1 Aircraft Modeling => WW1 Aircraft Information/Questions => Topic started by: Softscience on February 09, 2018, 01:47:19 PM
-
Hi folks,
A few questions regarding painting of a Spad xiii in CDL.
1) Are the wing ribs just tapes or are we dealing with something else here?
2) if the answer to the above is yes, then what's a suggested method to simulate rib shading on such closely spaced structures (it's. 1)48 Spad I'm building)
3) Was the rear half of the fuselage fabric or plywood panels?
4) on CDL spads, were the metal bits up front just painted a tan color to match the CDL?
Any help would be vastly appreciated.
-
not an expert, but I will give it a go...
1: as far I know all ribs everywhere had a version of tape or extra fabric. But for the riblets I am not shure and the exact way Nieuport went is not my expertise
2:really hard to do the riblets (smaller ribs on front between the wing ribs) but the rib tapes are mostly done with masking with very small masking tape and then spraying a very fine shading
3: fabric
4: take a look at the instuctions of the WnW Salmson kits, they have very detailed instructions on how the French painted the metal and fabric with almost similar but not exactly matching colours. You can easily adapt that concept to 1/48
-
My advice is to keep it very subtle. Like you said the ribs are very close together and there are a lot of them. If it gets too bold a pin stripe look will be the result. JMHO. As for the overall CDL SPADS, yes a close match for the metal and wood portions. Some look more beige and others yellowish when looking at artwork. There are photos of Guynemers SPAD VII on line that might be a help.
RAGIII
-
Hi folks,
A few questions regarding painting of a Spad xiii in CDL.
1) Are the wing ribs just tapes or are we dealing with something else here?
2) if the answer to the above is yes, then what's a suggested method to simulate rib shading on such closely spaced structures (it's. 1)48 Spad I'm building)
3) Was the rear half of the fuselage fabric or plywood panels?
4) on CDL spads, were the metal bits up front just painted a tan color to match the CDL?
Any help would be vastly appreciated.
Hello!
Perhaps you could find informations here, there are pictures of the wing and fuselage structure being restored ( and 170 other pictures ) :
http://memorial.flight.free.fr/respadphoto.html (http://memorial.flight.free.fr/respadphoto.html)
Regards
-
Most of the research available to me, including Smith IV in Smithsonian, shows the French painted the undersides of the SPAD XIII either a pale yellow (ecru) or gray. Rib taping would be painted over and contrast between painted fabric would be almost indistinguishable. Therefore, modeling techniques we use for unpainted surfaces such as British aircraft are not necessary.
-
As for CDL SPADS, the fabric overall was painted. Check the Musee de l'aire in Paris website. They preserved Guynemer's SPAD VII in its original fabric and photos show it was painted.