Academy Spad XIII Decal Explosion....

....there ARE a number of decal schemes for Spad XIII here.... 

...enter this very inexpensive kit from Academy.... 

so....i bought 8 of them..... 

.......one evening look at the Academy Spad...note the styrene pieces in the wing slots to fill them up...easy but needed....Mr Surfacer will go after the wing slots to get it to blend in but keep in mind this version is about speed, not looks.... 

...as a test, using the paint brush bristle rigging method, the entire left wing was assembled and rigged in little time....so, if you can live with obvious mounting slabs on the wings (fill with putty, etc?) the kits go together super easy and would work for most of these crazy decal schemes....note the distinctive flap controls for the Spad scratchbuilt here for fun....an Eduard kit styrene and PE flap controls are there to compare... 

...this is a nice little kit but the wing center pieces are just too big & a bit too far forward and have to be cut and/or sanded down to match the wing supports...be careful...it is easy to go too far...i filled in the slots in the upper wing but that is optional....in fact, a good modeler could create a new mount for these pieces...go for it....it is not hard.....meanwhile..... 

...the final Academy version tip involves the random holes in the bottom where the wheel supports go...which might have had meaning at some point but there are no corresponding pegs...i just sanded down the wheel struts to a decent angle and set in place with glue...filling the holes is optional but easy.... 

....add a prop, a tail with some easy braces and you are done...the whole thing is a one day project....but, there are still possibilities for the adventurous.....for me...it is a good decal base to show off these crazy designs and is a good way to take a break...there are 6 more to build! 

....a bit overdone with the dark color on the Academy and overdone a bit on the lighter blue color for the Eduard tail...handy sprue extensions provide good paint test areas for more tests on the tail paint...the Academy version will go forward a bit dark (the instructions called for Dark Green but this is a too dark).... 

.....all done with Academy Spad number 1....a scheme from a French squadron....chosen because it was easy and did not call for a separate cowling painting..(the cowling was already attached)...obviously, the Dark Green of the instruction graphic is not the Dark Green of any paint...not sure which i should have followed... 

...the group was known as the Greyhound Squadron...easy to see why.... 

....in all, given this was a deconstructed prototype and rough around the edges...not bad and a neat way to show off some decals...more schemes to follow
 

....time for another decal example.... 

....a post WWI Spad sent to Siam..... 

....just a lark 

....the writing on the side in the Siamese language reads "Chaopukrong Nakom Nam Tin Neng 1" the letters on the tail say "B1" 

....the camo schme was French.....so its a standard setup....