Lance Carroll's review of the Roden 1/32 Spad XIIIc1

[Dave W]

Roden 1/32 scale Spad XIIIc1



Reviewed by Lance Carroll

Item #:  RO 634
Scale: 1:32

Price:   Sprue Bros: $54.95 USD Plus Shipping; Mega Hobby $61.95 USD Plus Shipping; Hannants UK Pre-order  47.24 GBP Plus Shipping. Available through quality model stores world wide

Contents:
Eight page black and white Instruction Booklet, single page (front and back printed) color profile sheet for four subjects with a Vallejo Color Code Table, nine light grey styrene injection molded plastic sprues containing 149 parts and a separate clear styrene sprue with four classic Spad Series windscreens. Plus a Decal Sheet containing markings for four different subjects: two Italian, one French, and one RFC.


General Comments:
This Kit is the first release of several planned 1:32 Scale WW.I aircraft subjects announced by Roden some months ago. The subject was selected from a poll of our membership, the SPAD XIII being the design most desired. Roden are to be commended for this unique process of selecting their next release, the first time to my knowledge such a customer based and complimentary selection process has been utilised by the industry. Following the demise of the largest manufacturer of WW.I Aircraft Models in the larger scale this bodes well for our niche of the model Building Hobby. The future, in my view, looks much brighter than six months ago!

Despite requiring a little extra work and more studied approach I enjoy building Roden’s Kits very much. They generally are free of any significant inaccuracies, they are well engineered and fit together nicely, and they build up into models to be proud of. My favourite Build is their 1:32 Scale Siemens Schuckert D.III which garnered a Gold Medal and a Special Award for Best WW.I Aircraft at the Western Canadian Regional model Contest 5 years ago. In my judgement it is overall an excellent Kit and representative of this classic large scale line.


The Subject:
The Spad XIIIc1 as represented in this Kit was developed from the original and successful SPAD VII design. It was the direct result of a need to improve on the in service Spad VII’s which were becoming badly out classed by their opposition. The XIIIc.1 version featured, most significantly, a more powerful 200 or 220 HP Hispano-Suiza engine which provided an average increase in speed of 15-20 MPH and two fixed synchronised Lewis machine guns thus doubling the firepower of it’s predecessor. It was slightly larger, had some structural differences, and featured rounded wing tips on the “Early” version as represented by this Kit.
Some 8000 of these aircraft were built and operated with the French Air Force along with those of mainly Britain, Italy, and the USA who fielded 16 Squadrons of the type.
The two significant problems encountered with the new engine, overheating and severe vibration, detracted from the operational impact of the type. The former problem was largely solved during it’s earlier service but no final solution was found for the latter condition.
   
The Package:
My kit arrived from Roden in the Ukraine in a damaged box; I was pleasantly surprised to find the contents undamaged with the exception of two clear windscreens separated from the sprue  with some chipping at the sprue joints. The box, identical to Roden’s previous packaging, is of light gauge cardboard stock, top opening and has an attractive box top art rendition of Georges Guynemer’s Escadrille Spa3 “Les Cigognes’ mount in 1917. 

The Instructions Booklet:
The eight page A4 sized Instructions are more or less typical of previous Roden issues and appear to be adequate to successfully assemble the model. It has Ukrainian, English, and German written instructions and generally well laid out “exploded view” part assembly diagrams. A sprue portrayal is included to aid in parts location.


Typical diagrams for several of the assembly steps:




And the Rigging Diagram, basic but judged adequate:

No Reference Publication recommendations are included.

The Color Key and Profile Sheet;
New to this line of products is a very nicely done color sheet of the four marking options for the kit which also contains the Color Key to the Vallejo Line of paints. It is of high quality and far superior to the former black and white detailing profiles of previous Kits in the 1:32 Roden Line.



The Decal Sheet:
The inconsistent reliability and generally poor quality of Roden decals are, sadly, well known in the Scale Model Aircraft building community. Until this release the decals were most often entirely abandoned by this Hobbyist in favour of After Market products. The decal sheet supplied with this Kit appears to offer thinner and generally better detailed individual decals then those supplied in previous Kits however the national markings are poorly registered with color overlaps and poorly filled white areas. The latter condition manifests in streaked and transparent white areas on all of the national markings.


There is a “streaking” through the transparent thin white section of the roundels. Note also the lack of a “crisp” delineation between the colors, the secondary dark red outer outline, and the imperfection at the 11 O’clock position.

My recommendation is that the personal aircraft markings on the supplied sheet should prove quite useable however the national markings should be sourced elsewhere.
The Kit Parts:
The quality of the kit parts is generally very good. Flash is minimal, and smaller details are well represented on the major components. Smaller parts are well detailed and appear accurate. Rib detail on the flying surfaces is subtle but I judge it adequate. Ejection pin marks and protrusions are limited almost exclusively to the Sprue “Trees” and where not to the interior surfaces of the parts. The only pin marks that should be filled and sanded are on the inside of each fuselage half (one each side) immediately behind and above the seat.
The left fuselage part has a large Photo Panel which is incorrect for this version. It will have to be sanded off to match the straight fabric of the real aircraft. Also the undercarriage spreader bar is a stripped version, and will have to be covered or filled in to be accurate.
I have seen comments regarding apparent mold misalignment which causes double edges on parts. On my Kit this was apparent (but not terribly pronounced) on only the rudder and wingtip parts.
The Hispano-Suiza Engine sprue contains a very impressive array of small components and should result in a very nicely presented version of the power plant. It is, however, the identical sprue to that supplied in Rodens earlier Spad VII Kit. I have not researched the differences in appearance between the two versions of the engine used in the aircraft. Addition of some wire and smaller “plumbing” detail, though a nice feature, should not be required to improve this area unless the cowl panels will be left off the model.

The overall dimensions and shape of the subject matches Reference Diagrams nicely on a cursory comparison.
The fuselage and tail sprue …….

Note the raised Photo Panel on the lower fuselage half (bottom) and the frame of the Undercarriage spreader bar above the props on the right side.
Wings, upper decking and panels ……

Engine, Landing Gear, and Struts etc. The engine sprue is identical to that in their Spad VII Kit.

The clear styrene Windshield sprue with the two components found detached …..

Small mold misalignment “ridge” on joint face of wing tip part. Left portion is mostly flash
The raised “Photo” panel should be easily removed with no loss of adjacent detail.

Detail on engine side panel/cowling.

Subtle wing rib detail on upper wing.


Summary:
This is the first release of a new 1:32 Scale Aircraft Kit by this company in 11-12 years. I judge it as somewhat better than the Hobby Craft offering and as slightly improved over the other models in this line. I was able to directly compare, part for part, this model to the earlier produced Spad VII and judge it as a slight overall improvement in general quality. This Kit is well presented and of very decent quality overall. It’s moderate price is well worth the return. With a bit of extra effort and a few After Market additions (Decals and Vickers guns come to mind) this Kit will build into a very nice model.

Recommendation:
Recommended for modellers of mid level experience.
(Review Kit provided by Roden Ltd. of the Ukraine.)

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