FINISHED! - SPAD XIII 1/32 Mission-Ready....

Buckeye

That is just awesome work there!

Mike

Thanks, Mike!

That is just awesome work there!

Mike

Many thanks, Johnny & Steve!

docidle

I can rig a ship but I’m scared of rigging a plane.... anyway, you’ve given me hope to start on one of these bad boys. And again, beautiful work bro.

Like every other part of modeling, rigging seems to get less difficult in direct proportion to the amount of thought and planning that goes into it, beforehand. With pre-drilling of holes...and an excellent set of needle-nose, cross-lock tweezers...the 'wire eyelet and EZ Line' version that I use lets me pre-make most of the lines, then just 'plug them in' once constuction is done.

Having tried nearly every possible alternative over the years, that makes it a lot less stressful, and more like simply 'tidying up' at the end of a project than being a separate, dreaded step on its own!

Thanks again for the positive words.

WOW, WOW and WOW Greg! Absolutely beautiful work and a great WIP too. I’ve started a stash of Wingnut Wings kits but the rigging has me nervous. I can rig a ship but I’m scared of rigging a plane.... anyway, you’ve given me hope to start on one of these bad boys. And again, beautiful work bro.

Steve

Great job!! I love the added "bling". That kind of detailing brings the model to life.

1943Mike

Simply gorgeous! One of the finest biplane builds I've seen!

Thanks, Mike. It was great fun to do.

Simply gorgeous! One of the finest biplane builds I've seen!

Thanks, Chris and Ole!

Ole

And when you start improving even the aftermarket parts.... madness!

What can I say? It's a sickness....

That is probably one of the best WWI models I've ever seen.... so detailed. And when you start improving even the aftermarket parts.... madness! 

Awesome! I love it. That rigging is amazing.

Thanks Goldhammer, John & Lawdog! I appreciate the kind words.

Nicely done, I like it.

WOW!!!!  all that can be said.

Worthy of being put alongside the original.

She's done!

I had hoped to have this puppy wrapped up in time for Armistice Day...but annoying things like work schedules keep getting in the way! Plus...the same old story...I keep wanting to add details.

This is one of those fortunate projects where---thanks to pretty comprehensive photo coverage of the subject (and in color, no less...)---I keep spotting 'new' details even in photos I've looked at dozens of times before. (Like the distinctive bronze-ish color on just the barrel portions of the Marlin guns, with the rest of the fittings in metalized black shades. That one was an easy one to correct, with just a few carefully-targeted swipes of the paintbrush.) Sometimes it's the proverbial 'lightbulb' going on...when you look at the same detail you've either mistaken or puzzled-over before, and it finally clicks: "Ahhh...that's what that is!"

In the meantime...here are a few 'teaser' final detail shots, before the upper wing (at last!) goes on.

Next post---if all goes as expected---should be the completed bird in all her glory. Stay tuned!

Home-made decals on; still have a few touch-ups and color adjustments to do, but it's progressing fairly well.

Fun but seemingly little-known fact, for us modelers: many SPADS...Smith IV included...had different colored roundels on upper and lower wings. (This is a subtlety that seems to have successfully eluded most decal manufacturers....) Upper wing roundels were factory-applied in appropriately-tinted cellulose dope, prior to the camouflage colors being added. Underwing roundels and rudder stripes, on the other hand, were painted on...often using the stock 'French Blue' (a blue-grey shade) insignia color, irrespective of the service the aircraft was actually destined for.

Still have to add one distinctive detail that Smith IV exhibits: I'll have to map and apply the several dozen enemy bullet-hole patches applied to various locations on the original---most painted black and marked by proud ground-crews with a tiny German cross.

Thank you, Toshi!

A fantastic WIP!  Great job sir!

Your friend, Toshi

Thanks, Chris!

ChrisJH666

It's knowing why a particular colour is the way it is that can make all the difference.

Those little details make it fun if you figure them out before you build; my more usual pattern seems to be to find them out after I've finished a project...which only leads to titanic frustration.

It's knowing why a particular colour is the way it is that can make all the difference. Very impressive. Getting rather jealous of some of these biplane models we are seeing, and this one tops the list

CapnMac82

My brain "knows" this is styrene, but all my eye sees is wood, doped fabric and metal.

Which in my mind's eye brings back memories of flightlines, the sun-hot tarmac, the smell of both raw and burnt high-octane avgas and the like. 

Many thanks!

On the subject of 'sense memories,' the one I always recall is from an old newsreel interview with a WW1 RFC pilot I saw as a teenager. The ex-pilot, then probaby in his '60s or '70s, still gave a mischievous grin as he described seeing 'geysers of shredded fabric' (that phrase has always stuck in my memory) as the Boche bullets fired from behind marched along his fuselage. Talk about a pucker-inducing moment!

My brain "knows" this is styrene, but all my eye sees is wood, doped fabric and metal.

Which in my mind's eye brings back memories of flightlines, the sun-hot tarmac, the smell of both raw and burnt high-octane avgas and the like. 

MrStecks

Holy cow!  Your attention to detail as well as your scratch-building chops, really leave me in awe.
I'm loving this WIP!

Cheers,
Mark

Thanks, Mark! I appreciate the kind words.

Moving steadily on, most of the paint ('dope') is now on. It doesn't show much in the photos, but I added a bit of aluminum acrylic paint to the Future I use for the decal prep coat, to replicate the distinctive translucent sheen peculiar to the French camouflage schemes. (The French added a significant aluminum-powder component to their dope colors, to give the fabric some added protection against degrading UV at altitude.)

The metal cowling and access hatches on the originals were painted in oil-based Ripolin paints rather than the cellulose-based dope , so those colors sometimes matched (as on the brown), sometimes varied widely (as on the green)...probably depending on factory stocks at any given moment.

Next up will be 'fun with decals.'

Holy cow!  Your attention to detail as well as your scratch-building chops, really leave me in awe.
I'm loving this WIP!

Cheers,
Mark

Plugging along.

Lower wing, horizontal stabilizer and gear struts are now on, nearly ready to paint. First I made sure to think-through and plot out my rigging scheme, drilled some holes, and added the double 'turnbuckles' for the flying wires adjacent to the fuselage, where they'd be difficult to position (neatly) later; then added a few P-E and scratchbuilt details:

On to paint.

Despite Smith IV's current circumstances, I don't intend to go for quite a pristine 'museum' finish...but prefer a lightly-weathered 'service' look; somewhat as a subtle nod to her 'well used' (i.e., tattered and torn) appearance when I first saw her, in her pre-restoration days. A bit of 'everyday' fading and scuffing here and there should be sufficient.

The mix of colors for the NASM's 1980's restoration were supervised by famed WW1 aviation authority Alan Toelle, who actually supplied the authentically-mixed tint-bases used to apply the scheme. His comments and discussion of the colors involved is accessible on several forums online, and is an extraordinarily useful tool (in addition to the many photographs available) for trying to replicate Smith IV's finish.

Beginning with the undersides, photos of SPADs, both in museums and in daylight, show very little 'shadow' effect of wing structure visible from below. Instead---as with many dark-color-camouflage schemes of the era---the ribs areas on the underside actually appear lighter, due to the double-layer of surface where the rib tapes are. This makes rendering the same in scale a bit easier, since it involves masking mainly ribs, and not having to do the whole wing structure in detail.

My tried-and-true 'standard' CDL (or in this case, French ecru) mix is made up from Tamiya White plus Buff, with a little Dark Yellow added. I don't use a precise formula, preferring to vary the appearance to the individual project or source-material as needed, but it's a dependable mix for an assortment of early-aviation services and types.

Here's the process, step-by-step:

More anon....

ChrisJH666

Amazing build Greg. Coming on really well

Thanks, Chris.

Amazing build Greg. Coming on really well

Thanks, guys.

Until Wingnuts Wings (or somebody else) takes pity on the modeling world and brings us a spiffy kit, it's a DIY situation. As long as the photos are there, we can do the details.