Spad XIII Early 1/32 Roden Speaking Italian

[Bughunter]

Oops, where is my comment?
Sorry Marc, not the first time I forgot to press "Post" after "Preview"! I wanted to comment your lovely wooden interior, looks really nice!
Your build is another invitation to start an own SPAD build one day.

Cheers,
Frank

[KiwiZac]

Lovely work Marc! I'm lucky in that I think my kit is warp-free, but I'll check that later today just in case.

Zac, yes, some careful fitting needed, I haven't shown how I tackled the engine yet, but that needs some care...

That's where I'm bucking the trend: for better or worse, I'm assembling mine without the engine and will make a stand to display it alongside instead. We'll see if this is a stroke of genius or digging my own grave! 

[RAGIII]

Lovely work Marc! I'm lucky in that I think my kit is warp-free, but I'll check that later today just in case.

Zac, yes, some careful fitting needed, I haven't shown how I tackled the engine yet, but that needs some care...

That's where I'm bucking the trend: for better or worse, I'm assembling mine without the engine and will make a stand to display it alongside instead. We'll see if this is a stroke of genius or digging my own grave! 

Nice work on fixing the slightly warped wings! Assembling without the engine shouldn't present a majoe issue as the exhaust pipes are held in place by the holes in the fuselage.
RAGIII

[KiwiZac]

Assembling without the engine shouldn't present a majoe issue as the exhaust pipes are held in place by the holes in the fuselage.
RAGIII

That's what I was hoping, otherwise I'd have trimmed the manifolds and just put sheet styrene over the inside of the openings. Thanks for the heads-up, Rick!

[Monty]

Good to make some progress on this one! Yes, Zac, the engine really just holds the prop shaft in place, but see my earlier post and you can see a slightly bigger diameter prop shaft - it works - and works better with the prop. And yes, make a plan for the exhausts, I would even suggest a false piece of plasticard to represent the cylinder blocks! But it may just work with the exhaust apertures in the cowling sides... Hi Frank, I frequently press post before preview... big mess... But Thank You for checking in!

Here is the next bit of progress...


The inner surface of the upper cowling got some metallic colour, hope it's just about right, and carefully fixed the poor surface of the lower connector of the lower wing... Don't bother... it's not visible at all, wasted time... then started on the instruments... here we use smoke and mirrors.. and just use some paint and clear varnish... There are generic WW1 instruments available as decals in 1/32, but they are too big for these instruments... French ones I can't find... we may get resin or 3D print instruments with decals in the future... I'm not holding my breath... so this will have to do...

And then onto the fuselage sides rigging... Smoke and mirrors again, Stretched sprue here, but little will be visible... Note I use a fair amount of gloss in this interior, I always do... after a lot of discussion with fellow modellers we feel the interior should "twinkle" and throw some light back, otherwise it just becomes a black hole... discussion on this welcome!!



Heading really close to closing up the fuselage...

Regards,
Marc


 

[RAGIII]

Really Looking great Marc. As for the exhaust pipes, I left off the cylinder head covers and the holes for the pipes held them nicely 
RAGIII

PS: I sent both you and Zac a PM

[kensar]

Same here about the exhaust pipes.  I don't think they actually touch the engine on my model.

[PrzemoL]

You are making the fine progress, Marc. The interior sides look very realistic.

[Stuart Malone]

Marc,

You're really moving along.  It's all looking very nice.

Stuart

[KiwiZac]

Lovely work Marc, she's really coming to life!

Same here about the exhaust pipes.  I don't think they actually touch the engine on my model.

As for the exhaust pipes, I left off the cylinder head covers and the holes for the pipes held them nicely 

Yes, Zac, the engine really just holds the prop shaft in place, but see my earlier post and you can see a slightly bigger diameter prop shaft - it works - and works better with the prop. And yes, make a plan for the exhausts, I would even suggest a false piece of plasticard to represent the cylinder blocks! But it may just work with the exhaust apertures in the cowling sides

I know this is Marc's thread and I don't wish to take away from his model, but thank you all for those words - a lot of relief here right now! I'll be doing a lot of trial fitting before committing to a solution.

[gbrivio]

[...] Note I use a fair amount of gloss in this interior, I always do... after a lot of discussion with fellow modellers we feel the interior should "twinkle" and throw some light back, otherwise it just becomes a black hole [...]

I never thought about this but it's a great idea worth further research and development. I usually just preshade black at bottom and white under upper area of cockpit and openings!
Ciao
Giuseppe

[Monty]

Thank You everyone for joining in and the cxomments - it is always appreciated! Yes Giuseppe, you have a very interesting way of lighting up a dark cockpit, I will definitely think about it and try something similar in a future build. Zac, those comments are so useful for me and save so much time, I will promptly stop worrying about where the exhausts fit! It saves lots of effort... Thanks Stuart for your comments. Hi Przemo, I do really appreciate your comments as I can never hope to emulate your super neat and detailed interiors! Ken and Rick, your prior knowledge of this kit is surely making it a much easier build for me! Thank You! Well, now I get the fuselage together; firstly the fuselage halves are cemented together and allowed to dry thoroughly; Next, the lower wing is attached as it has quite a positive fit and is indeed the cockpit floor too:


Next the fuselage was flipped over when that stage was dry and the wooden seat and bulkhead assembly fitted in and glued. The fuselage sides are flexible at this stage to this could be located correctly, I glued it with Microscale Krystal Kleer as it is strong but still slightly flexible:


Note the join in the fuselage halves is reinforced with superglue on the inside, this can be seen in the rear fuselage. Then I flipped it over and added the two lower fuselage front pieces; the fuel tank and front bit with all the louvers...


Then flip over again and add the wooden cocpit surround with instruments, and this is the last view of the interior. Note all the grey patches where I had to cut things down so the fuselage top would sort of fit;



And then I could add the front radiator assembly and the engine: Radiator glued on with liquid glue and lots of Kristal kleer to add the engine to the engine bearers as the fit was far from precise! Then I dry fitted the fuselage top and now I'm going to be trimming, squashing, bending clamping filling and sanding to get an acceptable result, but the joints are all visible and easier to work on...


So that's how far I've got, more soon, I hope!

Regards,

Marc

[KiwiZac]

Great progress Marc!

[RAGIII]

You are steadily moving forward with this one Marc. Your work looking great.
RAGIII

[Monty]

Thank you Rick and Zac for your encouraging comments! Thank you Rick for the photos that seem to prove there were four point seat belts in the 13... I will take note during the next build! And just a small update, the fuselage top was glued on and this join is far from perfect and will need lots of putty and sanding! The tailplanes are only dry-fitted, but seem to fit just fine... a little step forward! Regards, Marc.