Merit 1/24 Spad XIII - a build for me

[Monty]

There was less than great excitement when Merit announced their range of 1/24 WW1 aircraft - in fact they seem to be largely ignored by the modelling media - but, surprisingly, they sell, in some fairly large numbers. These Merit kits seem to be an off-shoot of the Trumpeter/Hobbyboss empire, the layout, instructions presentation and decals all seem fairly familiar. The tooling is familiar too, and Trumpeter have released some really lovely kits. This, alas, is not one of them. A well respected author, publisher and Master modeller had only this to say about this kit: "Oh Dear". I suppose you get the idea now. It explains the lack of reviews, on line builds and detail and enhancement parts for this kit. I am on my own. There is always the question of cost. It is indeed a large kit - how does it compare. Well, in the Western World, the cost seems to be the same as a small WNW kit, but here in the New World and Southern hemisphere (Read, BRICS, Antipodes, etc...) it seems to be quite cheap, one half in comparison.. This may be due to preferential trading agreements... Well, I decided to give it a whirl anyway, kind of a review and test build at the same time, only fixing the things that really bugged me...

Nice box art... Kit contents can be found easily on line...



I started on the cockpit, but also decided to improve the prop: I removed the rounded(??) trailing edge to the prop blades and added a strip of plasticard: This I need to carve into a sharper trailing edge and improve the shape overall:



Sorry, the focus is really bad, only saw that now. Then I reshaped the trailing edge by scraping and filing, and filled the mistakes with putty:



Aah, that focus is better!

I started the tidy up process on the wings: Lots of detail missing...



The cockpit here a bit more advanced:



Well, that's as far as it goes so far. I am extremely confused by the markings: I will be doing Rickenbackers mount, very well documented, the markings look OK but the underwing roundels look a little small and no tri-colour stripe on the lower wing. The markings for Rene Fonck look like his Spad 12 - not 13 - am I missing something here? The blue on the sheet looks OK for the AEF, but too dark for French markings... Any advice?

Regards,

Marc

[Des]

Nice to see a build of this kit on the forum and what you have done so far is very good Marc. It will be very interesting to see how this kit shapes up, looking forward to seeing more updates.

Des.

[lcarroll]

Marc,
    This should be an interesting Build; there's so much potential for detail in that large scale. As for the markings sourcing some masks to your basic measurements for the roundels might work; I've had both Mr. Mayfield and von Buckle do some basic ones and they are very reasonable about cost. Are the personal markings in the Kit useable?
Cheers,
Lance

[ALBATROS1234]

i'm interested in watching

[Manni]

Thank you, Marc for beeing the guinea pig.
I won the Fokker and also there are lots of mistakes in the kit. Si let's see how this one turnes out.
Manni

[Monty]

Thank You, Des, Manni, Scott and Lance for checking in. I must confess I'm not going to correct most of the many errors in the kit, I will only fix those that bug me a lot! I do have the WS Datafile, and I'm actually scared to size up the great plans and lay the parts over that 'cos I'll probably dump the whole kit! But I may achieve something that says: "Spad - at least from four foot!". If it looks like a 13 too, that's a winner! Manni, I think the DR1 is better than this kit, but the SE5a is probably as inaccurate... Lance, in the spirit of a review, I'll try to use the decals, masks are "plan B"!
Well I had some fun time just cutting out the control surfaces etc and glueing the halves together - everything you see in the pic comes in two pieces in this scale! I scraped off some gross surface details - less is better, even in 1/24 - help! my glue bottle is already half empty! The wheel centres have a fairly unrealistic dished centre, I will leave well alone, the markings will cover it! Big kits are more work, this took a few hours...



Regards,
Marc

[RAGIII]

Nice start on this one! It is a shame that Merit seems to be missing the mark by so much! The potential for detail in this scale is there and all they really had to do is get the basics correct. You have done a great job on the prop. I am looking forward to more updates.
RAGIII

[Monty]

Hi Rick! Thank You for the encouraging comments, it always is a pity when kits are tooled from obviously wrong plans and info, but we can't choose, can we? I can't help wondering if the research and initial tooling was done quite a while back? Never mind, I'm on the way, as best as I can! I have all the wing top and bottom surfaces together, I used a rather big hairy stick (old paint brush) and a Lot of liquid glue, these large kits just demand it! But after a bit of scraping everything went together well, here shown in comparison to a 1/48th Junkers D1 I'm doing on another thread - this is a dinkum Wee Beastie!



I also finished the plastic parts for the cockpit, kind of barely adequate, but should look OK once painted, I guess....



That's all for today...
Regards,
Marc.

[Monty]

It's weekend so I could get something done. To my surprise I was ready to do the first layer of paint on the interior.... Dark yellow, sprayed with some gloss, a great undercoat for wood tones, the 13 has a lot of it in the cockpit! I always mask joining surfaces that could get accidentally sprayed... the cockpit comes apart easily for spraying and can be clicked together again and does fit exactly as advertised in the fuselage halves... I need to make a plan with instrument faces and seat belts... Hmmm... I think I'll be fudging those a bit!



Need to let it dry now...
ATB, Marc

[lone modeller]

That may not be the most accurate of kits but you are certainly sprucing it up to look something rather better. I cannot get over how large these 1/24 scale aircraft are - and consequently the amount of detail that can be put in.

Stephen.

[GAJouette]

 Marc,
I had high hopes for Merit's new SPAD XIII before its release. Now not so much though. That being said I'm looking forward to following this project. Your progress to date has been outstanding my friend. I've no doubts that I'm watching the process of turning a sows ear into a silk purse.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[RAGIII]

Really nice work to date. I am going to focus on how nicely you are doing rather than what the kit lacks!
RAGIII

[Monty]

Hi Stephen! Thank You for checking in. Yes, these kits are large, a great scale for the smaller (fighter) aircraft, not so sure about the Gotha's and AEG's! I do apologize for not going crazy on the detail, yes, it is easily possible and would make a great difference to the final appearance, but I want to finish it as quickly as I can - just to see how it goes together...

Hi Gregory, it's always good to have your comments! You have totally expressed the way I feel about this kit - I want to improve it with simple techniques, just a bit of plasticard, tape and paint, but not a major rebuild of all it's errors! I doubt there will be a silk purse at the end of the build, just an acceptable kit!

Hi Rick! Thank you for that really encouraging comment! I build in hope... I hope it turns out acceptable!

Well, I started on the wood effects on the cockpit... there is a lot of info on line on the two preserved American examples, but please remember they are restorations and many, many companies built Spad 13's ... so we can't be pedantic about the details... So here I added the "wood effects"with oils, it may look scruffy, but still needs a brushing out when mostly dry, and will need coating with Tamiya Orange Clear Acrylic when properly dry - hopefully this weekend... The panels on the fuselage sides may look strange, but the forward portion looks  like they are the metal panels on the outside, so I will paint them later...



All the Best,

Marc

[Suffolk Lad]

Hi Marc - I've just 'come in' on this one, late as usual 

You've got off to a real good start despite your feeling of it's short comings as a kit. Once its together I'm sure it will look the business and at 1/24 quite an impressive size to boot.

Looking forwards to more progress

Tug