Eduard

1/72 SPAD XIII

Kit Number: 7053

Reviewed by  Scott Hollingshead, IPMS# 34786

MSRP: $19.95 Website: www.eduard.cz Direct link to this kit. The SPAD S.XIII was designed by Louis Bechereau as a follow-up to the successful SPAD S.VII. Developed by Societe Pour L'Aviation et ses Derives (SPAD), nearly 8500 copies of this model would end up being constructed by a total of nine different manufacturers by the end of the war. In addition to the French, fourteen other countries purchased SPAD S.XIII planes, and a further three would purchase them after the conclusion of WWI. This model first flew on 4 April 1917, and operators like the United States kept them in service until 1920. The SPAD S.XIII improved upon its predecessor by including a larger and stronger airframe, a more powerful Hispano-Suiza HS 8Be 220 hp engine (later using the HS 8Bee rated at 235 hp), and an additional Vickers .303 machine gun. The plane was 20 feet, 6 inches long; 8 feet, 6.5 inches tall; with a wingspan of 27 feet, 1 inch. It had a service ceiling of 21,815 feet at a rate of climb of 384 feet per minute, could reach a top speed of 135 mph, and could take off with a maximum weight of 1880 pounds. This new release by Eduard as a ProfiPack kit contains two sprues of Eduard's standard tan plastic with a total of 54 parts, a single clear sprue for the two windscreens, and a single photoetched fret with 30 parts, a mask set for the windscreens and wheels, and decals for four French aircraft. The eight page instructions have the typical black and blue drawings for the assembly, and full color drawings on the first page as well as pages five through eight. The first page gives a nice introduction on the SPAD S.XIII, and pages five through eight include a brief history of each pilot, along with the colors and markings for their aircraft. As is also typical with Eduard kits, color references are for Gunze paints. The markings included in this kit that I chose to use are for Lieutenant Charles Nungessar of Escadrille SPA.65 (GC.13) in September of 1918. Nungessar was born on 15 March 1892, and although he entered the war as a hussar, began flying in 1915. He ended the war with 43 confirmed victories, and an additional eleven probable kills. He died on 8 May 1927 in an attempted crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. The other markings included are for Sergeant Fernand Chavannes of Escadrille SPA.112 in August of 1918, Adjutant Marius Blank of Escadrille SPA.81 in the Summer of 1918, and Captain Rene Fonk of Escadrille SPA.103 in the Fall of 1918. Being 1/72 scale, most of the parts for this kit are very small. Eduard went to the level of detail of even providing decals and photoetched bezels for the instruments, as well as a cap for the fuel filling pipe. I had some trepidation when looking at the directions, but I actually had few problems with the small parts (thanks to extra magnification, and good lighting). In a couple of instances, I opted to use the plastic parts instead of upgrading to the PE, as the extra dimension looked more realistic to me. One needs to select which plane they are building early as there are three instances in the instructions where the builder needs to determine which parts will be required for their particular mount since there are different parts used. The cockpit went together without issue, and the PE seatbelts formed easily to the seat. One of my options came in the first step as I decided to leave the throttle that was molded onto the left side of the cockpit, vice cutting it off and replacing it with the PE part. To obtain the wood appearance of my planes interior, I started with a base coat of Testors Model Master Wood, followed by dry brushing some Burnt Siena oil paint. I used Model Master Metallizer Burnt Metal for the exhaust pipes, and their Gunmetal for the Vickers machine guns. I completed painting the entire planes exterior prior to adding the top wing, which seemed to work well for me. I used Model Master Acryl Flat Gull Gray for the underside, and nearly all Gunze colors for the upper surfaces. I started with the recommended "Sand" (H66) first, and when dry, thought that it looked a little too dark, so I repainted it with H85, "Sail Color". The other colors were "Light Green" (H303), "Dark Green" (H64), "Dark Earth" (H72), and I also used Model Master Acryl Aircraft Interior Black. I sealed the paint with Model Master Metallizer Sealer prior to decaling. Prior to installing the machine guns, I touched them up with MIG gunmetal pigment to bring out the high spots, and I touched their tips with a #82 drill bit. My only real challenge of the build occurred next as I installed the upper wing. I first installed the fuselage forward braces (parts B17 and 18), then the two braces in the middle of the wing (both are labeled as part B10). When dry fitting at this point, I found that the fuselage braces were not fitting into their mounting holes in the upper wing. I wound up drilling two new holes in the upper wing approximately 1 millimeter in front of the manufacturers holes for this. With this correction, all of the remaining parts lined up with no further issues. I finished the plane by following Eduard's rigging recommendations (save for the tail controls), and utilized 5-0 Surgical Steel, which looks about right for this scale. As far as my hits of this kit are concerned, I think that once again, Eduard has done a fantastic job with their mold detail on this plane. The level of detail is as good as usual, and the photoetched parts for items like the radiator covers are outstanding. Although small, and requiring patience, the combination of decals and PE bezels for all of the flight instruments really make the cockpit an eye catcher. The markings and histories of the four pilots are also a nice touch, and although I did not use them, the masks for the wheels may have benefitted me. As far as my misses with this kit are concerned, I would have to mention the decals as the biggest miss. I do not know if I did something wrong or not, but the white areas on all of the decals showed spots after being applied. I also had problems with wrinkling on the decals for the tail. I am certain that the molded controls led to this problem, but even with making a small cut in the decals to help them settle, the wrinkles would not go away. The decals did settle down to surfaces just fine with Micro Set and Micro Sol applications, even with the wrinkles. The other miss would be the aforementioned upper wing mounting holes being too far back. Something that just struck me as odd in the construction is that Eduard has you cut the middle wing braces (parts B10) flush at the top of the brace (leaving no mounting peg). This actually is a necessary step, as the wings will not align properly with these braces being any longer. I would not consider this a miss as the manufacturer gives you proper direction to prevent having an issue. Overall, I would highly recommend this kit to fans of small scale WWI aircraft looking to add a French SPAD S.XIII to their collection. The kit builds well overall, and requires the patience of any biplane when installing the upper wing. I would like to thank the folks at Eduard for providing this review kit to the IPMS, to the reviewer corps for allowing me to perform this evaluation, and to you for taking the time to read it.