You are right, I am close to the truth. But after fixing the puzzle.
First of all, I have to say that previous research to build a model is one of the most appealing issues related with the hobby. Said that, I am really amazed about the scarce information of Fonck’s aircrafts. If you compare the plethora of Red Baron’s books, drawings and forum discussions, his allied counterpart, Fonck the “as des as” is actually near to ignorance.
Just think about how many plastic models are devoted to Manfred and how many to René. Somehow is understandable: ask someone (your bored acquaintances about your hobby… for instance) who is the best known ww1 german pilot… and secondly ask for the best Great War allied pilot. I did it. Majority will give a right answer for the first question and no idea for the second one.
In my opinion, aside from trouble Fonck’s personality (by the way, like many others), he was an excellent pilot. I want to have a representation of his SPAD XIII as I have a red triplane a usual. Specially the one he flied on 9th may 1918. He scored 6 victories whitin 24 hours! That machine deserves a model. But it is not so easy to build an accurate one.
Let see the puzzle pieces (and research process):
1. 1:72 Eduard Spad XIII (Late) delivers a Fonck Spad 13 (number S7000) schema dated in “1918 Fall”. That is not May. Let’s see if that is the right one.
2. Jon Guttman in his Osprey “
Spad Xii/Xiii aces of ww1” affirm that Fonck had two Spads One labelled with an “VI”and other with a “IX”. Jon doesn’t provide serial numbers.
3. First question:
What kind of Spad was piloted by Fonck at 9th May 1918?. According to this list, he flied a Spad 13 (S700):
http://www.as14-18.net/Fonck4.
Is there any serial Spad numbers list?. Yes, it is:
http://albindenis.free.fr/Site_escadrille/Societe_SPAD.htmyou can see a S700, delivered to SPA 103 ‘Les cigognes’ (Foncks escadrille) in May and a S7000 to escadrille 103 as well!. But month of the late is not registered.
5.
Any reference about colors, numerals and so on? In the
Avions magazine (nr. 166 Nov./Dec. 2008) devoted to French important pilots in 1918, you can find a description of S700 used by Fonck :
“
Spad XIII N° 700 de René Fonck Spa103 Hétomesnil Mai 1918 codé 'VI' rouge insigne cigogne de l'escadrille-Capot vert moyen”
A green band on the cowl instead of a blue one!.
6. Last question:
Is there any picture of such an important aircraft?. It will be good to know which kind of Spad 13 was: a late or an earlier one. Spads 13 were delivered to the front about one year ago (1917 April) and obviously ‘Les cigognes’ were one of the first units to receive the new type. And here come the mess. Two chances:
Early version: If S700 is an earlier spad 13 version it is difficult to distinguish from spad 12 because decoration is equal to S452 and S455, the two 12 canone versions used by René. There is only one important difference: the number of machine guns. One for 12 version and two for the 13. But 12 and 13 (early) have 4 central struts. 12 perpendicular and 13 tiled. General poor quality of contemporaneous pictures give few chances to observe such details.
Late version: Three differences: round tips on wings (early) against squared (late), louvres on front of the cowling and 6 central struts instead of 4 (early).
Finally a recent French (
Le Fana de l’aviation N°595 juin 2019) magazine article (six d’un coup!) about that outstanding 9th mai includes a well known picture previously labelled as a Spad 12 saying it’s Spad 13 S700:
I think you can barely see two machine guns and more clearly louvres on the inferior part of the front of the cowling. Another picture from the same machine shows square tips (late spad). But 4 central struts!:
CONCLUSION: If you want to build a real 1:72 Spad xiii historic exemplar:
- Take Eduard’s Spad 13 late version kit
- Erase a 0 on serial number.
- Take off 2 of the six central struts (the foremost ones).
- Make extra louvers on lateral cowl access panels (on the photoetch).
- Paint the cowl band in green instead of blue
Sorry for the pain, but I would like to show a process to get information to build a more accurate model and not simply follow the drawing included on the Eduard instruction sheet. If accuracy matters.