1:48 SPAD VII-XVII Part 1 (wet decals)

A sturdy fighter with an eight-cylinder under the cowling

While its rivals banked on agility, the SPAD banked on strength and sturdiness. The water-cooled Hispano-Suiza eight-cylinder made it a machine that could dive onto a target and climb again without the structure trembling. The French escadrilles flew it through the last two years of the war and the pilots painted emblems on the fuselages that are as well known today as their names.

Eight finishes, eight stories

The sheet covers machines of the escadrilles SPA 15, SPA 73, SPA 86, SPA 95, SPA 152 and SPA 154, joined by an aircraft operating in Italy at the close of 1918. Among the subjects are the fighter of Albert Deullin of the summer of 1917, the aircraft of Michel Coiffard of the autumn of 1918 and the machine in which a pilot died after being hit by his own anti-aircraft fire. The dating keeps to the years 1917 and 1918, that is the period when the type formed the backbone of French fighter aviation.

A note on the build

The finishes differ according to the version of the airframe, so choose the subject first and only then build. The personal emblems tend to be large and they reach across the panel seams and the streamlined shapes of the fuselage, so you will not manage without a setting solution and patience. The doped fabric covering under a decal should be satin glossy, so that the motif does not settle into the structure unevenly.

What the delivery includes

In the envelope there is only the printed sheet. The set does not contain the kit, the bracing wire or paints. Eight subjects from one era and the French air service, however, add up to a coherent theme that looks good side by side on one shelf.