Page 1 of 2

Academy 1/72 Spad XIII FINISHED

Posted: December 25th, 2012, 2:45 am
by Nax
Just as the title says, I'm attempting my second bi-plane, I think I've had enough time on the mono's to have a go at another string thing.

Not sure if I want to do the kit paint and decal scheme.

Image

Image

Had to fill a gap in the front with card, and shim the tail plane. ;-)

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 25th, 2012, 4:47 am
by Barry
Hi Steve. As you've probably realized by now this is a real dog of a kit. Cheap enough though and good enough to find out if you really like the 'two wings/lottsa strings' things. If you do, Eduard's Spads will knock your socks off. I'm guessing that also applies to their German machines, but the Spad XIII's are the ones I've had my hands on. Looking forward to seeing this one finished.

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 25th, 2012, 5:27 am
by Nax
Thanks for your input Barry, your right about the dog thing, the struts are sloppy, there is no real locating place's for the wheel struts and the fuselage/machine gun area is a very poor alignment, the ribbing is to heavy (IMO) and there is nothing in the interior and no colour ref's for the paint scheme, other than that is was $3.99 and that was the number one factor in the purchase.
I'm going to do a "whatiff" paint scheme because I mostly want to build it for the experience with string things.

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 25th, 2012, 10:11 am
by MerlinJones

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 25th, 2012, 10:52 am
by Nax
That's it Bruce, can you tell me what markings are in the kit? I have no idea. These are 3 swastika's on the decals and roundels as well, the swastika's would have me thinking it's German but on the box art there is a German Fokker going down in flames in the background.

I'm going to do mine in H74 Linen with red and yellow checkers around the engine from a Tamiya Mustang, tail decals from the Aichi Val, and various other decals from armor and aircraft kits. ;-)

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 25th, 2012, 10:55 am
by Nax
Where's your avatar gone Bruce? and while I'm asking questions, are those old articles in SAMI written by Bob Jones a relative of yours? ie- father? ;-)

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 25th, 2012, 1:17 pm
by MerlinJones
Hi Steve...there's only one scheme in the box and they are not Swastika, they're Asian (and beyond) good luck charms. Note that they are reversed from the Nazi symbol.

Swastikas on the roundels:shock: You sure?

Image

Image

My Avatar went when my account was deleted and I couldn't be bothered replacing it...and I am the B leyland-Jones, with the occasional bit in SAMI.

Regards,
Bruce

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 25th, 2012, 1:18 pm
by spitfire31
Nax wrote:That's it Bruce, can you tell me what markings are in the kit? I have no idea. These are 3 swastika's on the decals and roundels as well, the swastika's would have me thinking it's German.
No, no, no! The German Nazi party kidnapping of the age-old swastika symbol of good luck is from the early '30s!

Not having seen the kit markings, I'd guess that included swastikas would either be personal markings of the pilot, or air force insignia of either Finland or Latvia – they both used the swastika (Finland in light blue and Latvia in maroon colour) from 1918 well into the '40s. And quite irrespective of the Nazi use of the symbol.

Kind regards,

Joachim

EDIT: Now that I've seen the markings, it's clear that they're personal (or perhaps unit) good luck symbols. The swastika was frequently used as a good luck charm by early aviators. In fact, the word' swastika', translated from sanskrit "svastika", means "wellbeing, to be good". Everything (and perhaps more) you've always wanted to know about the swastika symbol can be found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika;.

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 25th, 2012, 1:23 pm
by MerlinJones
spitfire31 wrote:No, no, no... age-old swastika symbol of good luck is from the early '30s!
:-D Calm down, Joachim, calm yourself down. "Age-old" and "from the early 30's" does not quite match up! ;-)

Regards,
Bruce

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 25th, 2012, 1:26 pm
by spitfire31
MerlinJones wrote:
spitfire31 wrote:No, no, no... age-old swastika symbol of good luck is from the early '30s!
:-D Calm down, Joachim, calm yourself down. "Age-old" and "from the early 30's" does not quite match up! ;-)

Regards,
Bruce
I wrote that the Nazi kidnapping of the age old (from neolithic era, how's that for old? ;-)) symbol, the swastika, is from the early 1930s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika; for anything you want to know about historic and contemporary use of the swastika…

Kind regards,

Joachim

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 25th, 2012, 3:25 pm
by Nax
Yep their backwards, bugger I was going to use them for the tail of my 1/72 Heinkel He115.

I have got some base paint and some detail painting finished, clear coat after an overnight drying, then some decals (hope it's not to wild) and then more clear and then THE RIGGING :shock:
Hopefully the rigging won't be to hard to do, it's a simple rig job, IMO it's simple compared to the RE.8 sitting in the stash anyway.

Image

Image

Thanks for looking.

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 30th, 2012, 11:08 am
by Nax
The decals on, then weathering, then clear coat and now my goth niece from Melbourne's contribution, her thick long black hair, she says I'm queer and wants me to send her pic's of her involvement in the build.

Image

Image

Now the fiddly bit, get the wing on without gluing some of the rigging hairs to the struts and try to make it look like one of Merlins. ;-)

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 30th, 2012, 11:30 am
by Saxon
Looks good, am glad I steered clear of Academy kits when I was amassing my WW1 kits though!

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 30th, 2012, 1:26 pm
by MerlinJones
Given the fine nature of your 'thread', I could see no problem in you rigging before adding the top wing.
You'll also have a better chance of pulling the 'thread' tight, over the cross bars.

Regards,
Bruce

Re: Academy 1/72 Spad XIII

Posted: December 30th, 2012, 2:26 pm
by Nax
I'm hoping that it doesn't pull out of the top wing.
Fun building bi-planes isn't it :evil: fuselage struts busted off while I was trying to put the top wing on, once I started I wasn't gunna stop.

Image

I'm nearly there ;-)