Revell Spad XIII 1/28th scale

Well in between suffering from "puppy brain" i thought i'd give this a go...

The kit itself has a fair few parts and it's really a shame that it's so badly moulded. there's a fair bit of flash and a lot of bits suffer from being "offset" so i'm having to trim a lot of spare plastic off, the prop was terrible and had a 0.5mm overlap each side with a large seam to clean up.
Not sure how old the kit is but that could explain it.

Anyway it's all part of the fun eh?

Box and sprues (which i forgot before starting it doh!)




The engine went together really well after a clean up of excess plastic, had to lop off the alignment lugs to get the cylinder halves level.

Basic instructions for motor (1-5)

end result, didn't do any extra wiring or add anything as you can't see it when the aircraft's together unless you squint through the louvres behind the prop





The prop after being cleaned up was roughed up with some heavy sand paper, this will add to the wood effect when complete


not too bad detail, can work with it.



Gave it a coat of light brown


When dry i gave it a dark coat of brown, when the paints almost dry then i drag the paint remainders in the direction of the grain with my favorite (completely buggered (excuse my french!)) brush






Just need to paint the metal work in the centre and give it a coat of hairspray (basically thin acrylic lacquer ... but much much cheaper)

Thats it until the puppy lets me have a bit more "Me-time" :)

Today i've been putting the fuselage together, there' weren't many places to fill surprisingly.


Drilled the exhaust ends and gave them a rough coat of brown ready for the surface tarnishing and rusty areas.

Another great biplane ! The technique you use on the prop is excellent.

I agree the prop is excellent. Nice workmanship through out the build.

Thanks Guys...

Exhausts are given a tarnished / rusty effect.



The seats very basic so i thought i'd just give it a crinkly leather look with some laggers tape.
The cockpit assembly in the image is very basic also, not sure if i'll add any bits to it as i don't think you'll see much when its all together.

I have this on in the pile so I have the ready and waiting.

Looking good so far Colin.

Just one thing. While the exhausts look good and rusty, methinks they are maybe a little to much so for an in service aircraft.

Skid wrote:Just one thing. While the exhausts look good and rusty, methinks they are maybe a little to much so for an in service aircraft.

You are correct sir, now they've got the main rust and colour on they'll be having a wet and dry and this should flatten it down into a nice heat discoloured patina.
Would have helped if I'd have mentioned this above really eh

Ya think???


Good man, as they are, they look like they've been in the ground for 500 years the dug out and dried!!

Looking forward to the end result.

How did you create the effect?

It's a mid brown base coat, then a dunk in black wash, sprinkle with bicarb, then a thin dark brown and rust wash here and there letting the bicarb soak it up. (obviously drying between stages)
Next step is to sand off the excess leaving a thin layer of varying colour on the surface, touch up any spots that need it and then use hairspray to give it a dull shine.... This should look like a dull heat treated patina.... Well it did when I came up with the idea for a railway engine tanker I did for a friend ages ago.

Ok then, after a bit of research it seems the exhausts were a steel type and not brass sleeved as i first found reference to. In restored versions there seems to be a habit of painting the exhausts black, i'm going for a steel type with some slight corrosion through use, they used to rub the exhausts with a wire brush to clean them and so there would be a rough pitted surface albeit polished to some extent



The instrument panel "surround" is very basic and i thought giving it a wooden type finish might help, the bezels are just very vaguely moulded and so i'm going to chop them off and attach some round ones in their place ...



The cockpit was again very basic and therefore i gave the seat a worn look and some belts, also made up a centre consul with a control stick (just a basic design as not much can be seen when the all the body panels are attached)
added a bit of dirt in and around as a lot of the exhaust gasses used to congregate in the cockpit apparently.

Made some bezels from some tubular soft plastic, painted silver, mixture of black and white faces and added the kit decals.
think it looks more detailed than the original, as i say it doesn't matter too much how it looks as you won't see that much

Nice work Colin.

Where does the coffee cup go?? LOL

Nice work on the interior, Colin. The exhausts look greatly improved, now. Good work.

Ahhh coffee cup holder ... knew there was something i missed !!

Well Mike, the interior is going to be closed up now and so i've got a couple of photos for prosperity lol






Because you can see ... precisely ..... diddly squat !!!!

Great interior or cockpit. It's a shame it's all covered up.

Completely covered Buck unfortunately, i thought the grill at the front was louvred but it's solid...... don't look too bad painted up though.



More body panels on and the centre struts for the top wing.



Got the braces done and rigged (using the twine that came with the kit as it's not that bad at all). Also got the vickers together, minor fit problems with the two halves not lining up but with a little shoving and pulling they're not too bad.



Undercarriage .... lovely looking assembly when together, not bad moulding / detail either.

Nice one Colin, those Vickers guns look good.!!

Continuing to look good, Colin.

Interior and motor are such nice pieces to be hidden away on the larger scale planes.

Looking good.

Thank you guys

the main colours on the upper surfaces and fuselage.

Camo pattern is a little way off the norm .... which i like.







Next up is some finer details added and bang it all together to rig it.

Your a true craftsman Colin, I dont know how you do it but yep, you do! looking good chap looking good.

I like to think a good brush, a steady hand and tons of luck is the key Ash :-)

Different, not in a bad way. I can't remember seeing a camo in those colors.

Great work in bringing out the details. Agreed, the undercarriage/wheels look very nice!