Revell 1:28 Spad XIII as Luke's plane, at least the one he was photographed near

[FAf]

Great improvement to both kit details and your first attempt ( and some more unseen ones I gather 😃).
/Fredrik

[smperry]

Thanks Fredrik.
Some of the best motivation to improve is seeing just how bad some first attempts can be. The whole key to scratch building details is knowing you can throw away as many attempts as it takes to get it right. Makes me wonder how many 1:28 scale Hisso plug wire harnesses would it take to fill the trash can under my bench? I only need three more.
sp

[kensar]

Great start on this, SP.  Sometimes making the details correct is the easy way.

[smperry]

Thank you Ken.
Maybe not so easy. I did a Google search on Hispano Suza Engines and came up with more photos than you can shake a stick at. I noticed at least 3 different styles of plug wire harnesses. One was like the molded on detail of the CSM kit. One was like the straight conduit with wires coming out like I made and there was one that was simply the wires bound together with little bands just before each wire peals off to it's appointed plug. That last one has the appeal of the 4 wires going direct from plug to magneto and not having to attach 4 wires to the back of the 0.6mm brass tube as they go to the magnetos. Hmmmm. This may be a better option.

Only way to find out is to try to make one and see if if it looks better or worse. The COVID19 has stayed away from here so far, but it would seem the dreaded AMS has struck. So far it is fun, but if it ceases to be fun, I will build one of those SnapTite, no glue needed model kits.

Unfortunately I didn't see any plug wires on the older looking, unrestored examples, so this may all be an exercise in futility, (as is much AMS driven detail dithering). So I will make a third harness primarily so that not having made one will not come back to haunt me after I have moved on with the build.
sp

[RLWP]

Are the ones down the inside of the vee different to the ones on the outside?

Richard

[smperry]

Richard
On every photo I have seen with the harnesses, no matter the style, they appear to be the same inside or outside the V.
sp

[Gene K]

I had not realised that Revell used the same box art for the 1/28 Spad as the 1/72 model

Here are 14 different box arts : https://tinyurl.com/tz2vdxy

Nothing beats the original 1957 issue, however.



Gene K

[smperry]

Looks like Revell has gotten a lot of mileage out of those molds.

I spent the day working on a different plug wire harness. Do a Google search on Hispano Suza Engines and you will find one with yellow leads and no conduit. Like I said earlier, both my examples are restored and the plug harnesses are likely not exactly like the originals. (As a pilot, spark plug leads are something modern I would want in a flying replica). So I don't know where to go. Any unrestored engine photos that do show plug wires, show them as nasty looking hundred year old wires semi attached.

So here is the harness supposedly representing yellow wires held together with small black clamos and no conduit.



And here are the two harnesses for comparison.



Both are equally tedious to make and both have contrasting colors that stand out. If someone point me at a period photo that shows the harnesses when they were in service I would appreciate it. I'm going back through all my books and looking to see if there is a shot that reveals something useful. Otherwise I will have to decide which of the two restorations I will use.
sp

[RAGIII]

Excellent SP! I don't think I have any further info for you but I will at lest double check!
RAGIII

[smperry]

Thanks Rick. I couldn't find any shots that showed the harnesses in actual service. I'm thinking they were more likely to have used some sort of conduit, so I decided to go with the white conduit with red wires. I did my due diligence and found no definitive photo of a plug wire harness in wartime service. which almost certainly guarantees somebody will come up with one right after I glue the final harness in place. So I will use only a little bit of glue and pry them off when references surface showing a different style harness. :-)

Filing notches in the brass tube made gluing the wire leads much easier. The catch here was to get all the notches evenly spaced and on the same side of the tube.  First I measured a line and then marked the locations for the notches. This was covered with a piece of scotch tape. THe brass tube was cur to length and then another piece of scotch tape with one end folded over so it could be easily peeled up was placed over the tune exactly on the marked guide. The trick is to take a pair of fine tweezers and run them down the side of teh tube forcing the tape as tight to the tube as possible. This and a fingernail pressing down keep the tube from rotating while filing and ensures all three notches are on the same side of the tube. The wire pieces were glued in the notches by putting a tiny drop of kicker on the notch , dipping the end of the wire in CA and bringing the two together. I was surprised how well that worked.

Tape over the marked guide.



Tube taped to guide.



Filing the notch.



All three notches filed on the same side of the tube.



Wires added and painted. Will trim wires just prior to attaching the harnesses.



As a side note, There were a couple of misfires along the way that left me with some bits of tube with notches filed in them. Just out of curiosity, I bent the tube at the notches and it bent to a right angle. A tiny dot of solder would hold it perfectly. Who's up for a strip down Fokker in 1:144th :-)
sp

[RLWP]

Thanks Rick. I couldn't find any shots that showed the harnesses in actual service.

I wouldn't let that put you off adopting any particular method. The wires in tubes were used on cars of the era, and it's likely that changes at unit level happened

Richard

[RichieW]

Some very delicate work going on here SP (Saint Peter? ).

Will tag along with this one, I do like a Spad!  Am contemplating a Roden 1/32 at some point in the future.

[RAGIII]

I don't know if this will help. Obviously a Model and not a war photo. Our own Des made this one:

https://www.ww1aircraftmodels.com/page5.html

RAGIII

[smperry]

Doh! I forgot to look on the forum site. Well, I lack an assortment of tiny tubes, so I guess an order to Albion Alloys is in order. In the mean time, I will work on some other part of the model. If Des could do that in 1:32, I should at least make an attempt in 1:28.

OK the three parts, crankcase & cyl. banks, are all taking a bath in brake fluid and everything else is bagged and awaiting additional supplies. I will be spending some time prowling the shop, micrometer in hand, looking for sub mm size wires and bits of plastic tube and insulation to start an organized, labeled collection.

Another concession to age and failing short term memory is to set up a TV tray in the shop to hold my laptop. The shop is in a separate building with the garage and a surprising number of details get lost in transit. One minor up side of the cat killing my laptop is that I now have 2 power supplies. I only have to carry the laptop back and forth without bumbling about with plugs and wires each trip.

I find myself firmly in the monkey see, monkey do school of modeling. I can't figure much out for myself, but I can darn sure copy a procedure I have been shown. As the photos show, Des had an incredible talent for model making, but I believe his real genius was in sharing what he knew. The clear photos and text just jump off the page, (screen), and scream, "You can do that!" Well, we're going to see.

Rick, thanks so much for pointing out that engine build, and Richard, thanks for the clear photo of the plug wire harness. That is an ungeared Hisso and perhaps the geared Hisso in the Spad XIII had conduit for it's plug wires. At this point it is less about making an exact miniature and much more about learning to work to a much greater level of detail than I have ever done before.
sp

[RLWP]

Rick, thanks so much for pointing out that engine build, and Richard, thanks for the clear photo of the plug wire harness. That is an ungeared Hisso and perhaps the geared Hisso in the Spad XIII had conduit for it's plug wires. At this point it is less about making an exact miniature and much more about learning to work to a much greater level of detail than I have ever done before.
sp

Oh I doubt there's much variation between the engines, however your aim to improve your modelling is a much better argument

From what I have seen of their use on cars, the tube is likely to be made of cardboard, probably varnished to keep water out. It's an insulator, won't damage the leads and is easy to work with. Choose your paint accordingly

Richard