Amodel 1/72nd SPAD A.2 By Matt Bittner

History

I won't delve too much into the history of the SPAD 'pulpits' suffice to say it was an interesting solution to the problem of having the gun fire in front of the propeller, prior to the invention of the synchronizer gear. The French and Russians were the primary users, and only the Russians kept flying them long into (and after) WW1.

One thing to mention right up front. The SPAD A.2 drawings in the Mini-Datafile are wrong. I measured them against all published specifications (luckily all references agree), and the drawings just don't match up. The odd thing is that the A.4 drawings in the same book are fine.

The Kit

The kit consists of 41 injected plastic pieces with only one decal option for the overdone "Ma Jeanne". Amodel has also released this as the A.4 with the different wings and tail, as well as an A.4 version with skis.

Construction

The name of the game with this kit is Thin! Thin! Thin! Thin the undersides of the flying surfaces to bring them more into scale. (To be truthful, I don't think I thinned the wings enough.) Thin the "cheeks" that sit at the side of the fuselage behind the engine. Thin the main struts - center and undercarriage, at least. Either thin some of the smaller pieces or replace them as needed.

Naturally construction starts with the cockpit. While the insides probably could be thinned to be more in-scale, it's not needed as once the fuselage is closed up it will be difficult to tell how thick the sidewalls are. Since the cockpit that comes with the kit is poorly represented, I scratchbuilt most of the cockpit - outside of the sidewall detail (which is what's provided with the kit). The "floor" - per se - isn't where the seat sets (regardless of the Amodel instructions). There is a "shelf-like" structure that the seat sets on which is basically two curved sides that meets the part that the seat sets on. Difficult to actually describe so refer to the supplied photo of my built-up cockpit. The kit comes with rudder pedals but not a control stick, which was also scratchbuilt. In addition I added some rigging that would be visible from the outside of the cockpit. I used the kit's "instrument panel" as well as the firewall. The seat was replaced with a resin replacement from Rosemont.

At the same time I worked on the pilot's cockpit, I also worked on the inside of the nacelle. Since there are no known photos of the gunner's cockpit, anything could practically go. After thinning the inside I added some structure with doubled-up wood-grain decals then added an Omega Russian camera to make this more of a reconnaissance machine than a fighter. Since I didn't like the kit seat I added a resin Rosemont seat to complete the inside of the nacelle. Remember the theme of this article? Instead of the tedious task of thinning the floor of the nacelle - since I was going to drill and cut out the plastic for the underside window - I cut away the floor and replaced with .015" thick sheet styrene. I glued on the floor at the same time I glued the nacelle halves together. Now all struts on the nacelle were thinned considerably before this was set aside.

It was at this time - naturally - that the Part photoetch (p/e) set was released. This is an awesome p/e set, probably the best I've seen from Part yet. I obtained the Part set, at first to guide me with the rest of construction, but in the end I ended up using a lot of the exterior pieces provided.

Now that I had the fuselage halves assembled it was time to move on. Amodel was very intelligent when it molded this kit. They molded - in situ - the center section struts and the main landing gear legs with the side cheeks. This was an extremely intelligent decision in that it provides a very strong assembly. All of the other SPAD 'pulpit' models I have seen have all of these struts being "butt-joined", resulting in a kit that won't be as strong as the Amodel. Before I glued on the cheek/strut pieces, though, I thinned the inside of the cheeks. If you don't sand the inside of the cheeks they won't have the typical "see through" (if you actually can) effect that was evident on the real thing. So, using the trusty, cordless Dremel I thinned the inside of the cheeks. Not all the way, but enough to provide the right effect without sacrificing any of the strength inherent in the kit parts. This is one area that I personally wouldn't use the Part p/e for. Part has you cut off the struts from the cheeks and replace the plastic cheeks with photoetch pieces. This is no better - strength wise - than any of the other 'pulpit' kits. Once I glued on the cheeks - using a combination of liquid cement and CA - I then drilled out the kit's representation for the carburetor intake pipes (important to note that these are not exhausts).

Construction then moved back to the nacelle. Prior to using the Part photoetch set, I was sent some other photoetch mesh by Andrei Koribanics that would have looked great installed. Because of this I created semi-recessed "holes" where the mesh would go to give it more of a "hollow" look. However, since I decided to use the Part p/e I used the photoetched nacelle sides. I believe the reason why (at least in my opinion) the Part mesh looks good on my model was because of these "holes" I carved in. Part etched the nacelle sides - for some reason - with "framing" around the outside of the sides. This didn't exist on the real thing, so I thought I would be smart and flip them, meaning the framing was glued to the nacelles. This was a bad idea, in that any pressure added to the p/e sides meant they "squished" in. Fixing that was a major pain. There are two alternatives to my "barbaric method" I used to fix these. You could either be sure to fill the entire p/e with glue as you put it down reversed - so the glue fills the area between the framing, or you could sand away the framing either before or after installation. Next time I put one of these together (probably when I'm retired) I'll try to sand the framing away.

While I used 3/4ths of the p/e parts meant for the nacelle, I didn't use the replacement steps that mounted on and between the underside struts. These I replaced with wire. I also added the p/e frame that went around the underside window (which I used Kristal Kleer to fill after final model completion).

For the struts on the underside of the horizontal tail I drilled holes all the way through the fuselage and replaced the kit parts with .010" thick Plastruct rod and bent them into shape. This worked extremely well, and drilling all the way through made sure that both sides were aligned correctly. I removed all control surfaces, posing them dynamically before starting to paint.

Since Amodel's "stringered" effect on the upper turtledeck was poorly molded - and didn't exist on the fuselage underside - I replaced the "stringered" effect with sheet plastic "embossed" with the stringers from the inside (I believe Harry Woodman was the first to pioneer this technique). What I did was photocopy the plans from the Mini-Datafile (actually the drawings for the A.4 and not the A.2) and cut out the turtledeck areas from the photocopies. I then temporarily tacked these plans to a sheet of styrene, and using a metal ruler and the back edge of an Xacto #10 blade (being sure the edge is flat and perpendicular to the plastic), I "pushed" on the plastic using the ruler as a guide set on the drawn lines representing the stringers. After done with all "stringered lines" I flipped the plastic over, and that's the side that sits up - the side that was "pushed in" is the side you glue to the fuselage. This took four attempts - the first two didn't turn out well, the third attempt I used the wrong glue, and the fourth attempt was the keeper. You could use either CA or epoxy to glue the new turtledecks on - I opted for CA only because I don't like the smell of epoxy. One thing you might want to do is fill in all the engraved lines with CA so when you're handling the model you won't accidentally push back in one of the embossed "stringers". I created a new "turtledeck" (turtlebottom? turtlebelly?) not only for the top but the underside as well.

After I thinned the wings on the underside I scribed in lines to represent the rib locations. Once that was finished I added the lower wings to the fuselage as well as the horizontal tailpieces.

Prior to painting I also wanted to add the "fishplate" photoetch pieces that represent the plates that connect the landing gear and underside struts to the main assembly. I also added a new cross-rod to the underside nacelle struts since the kit one wasn't well molded in my kit. Plus I scratched a new undercarriage "axle wing" between the main landing gear struts as I destroyed the kit one trying to clean it up, and every picture I saw of the A.2 showed that this was actually covered and not left open as the kit part represents.

Final Assembly and Painting

Now I could proceed with painting. I used Mister Kit paints exclusively - their French CDL and French Yellow, both very decent colors. After painting both colors was finished I started on the weathering as well as painting the struts wood - all but the center struts, which were left Yellow. Once dry the struts were subject to "graining" with two applications of oil colors - Raw Umber and Burnt Sienna. The main assembly was also weathered primarily with oils, but also with watercolor pencils, which were used to highlight the "high" areas, such as ribs and stringers. It was actually difficult to highlight the wing ribs because there was very little relief to the plastic; in other words the ribs weren't very pronounced.

After initial weathering was accomplished I sprayed a coat of Future over everything to get the model ready for decaling. The roundels came from the kit while the rudder serial and nacelle number were ALPS generated. Once the decals were dry then another coat of Future was brushed over them to seal them in. Now I could attach the upper wing using the kit struts. The major point of modification here is with the outer wing strut closest to the trailing edge. Sitting perpendicular to the strut is the actuating mechanism for the lower wing ailerons. Amodel doesn't have this quite right but luckily Part provides the "sheath" that "envelops" the actuating strut. This was added to the strut prior to painting and was given a coat of brown to represent leather. (It appears that on the later SPADs this was actually made of metal, but not on the A-series.)

Since the center struts are in-situ with the fuselage the upper wing was attached to them first. I found I had to deepen the holes on the upper wing where the center struts were to attach to. After this was dry I started with the inner most struts and pushed them into place. (In all actuality these aren't struts, but instead are used to keep the rigging separated and in the right spots.) Once relatively dry then the outer most struts were glued on, being sure to capture the aileron-actuating rod with the trailing edge strut.

Now that the upper wing was added I wanted until it was dry and glued on the scratched axle fairing and wheels to the landing gear struts. Now it was time to glue on the nacelle. The struts leading from the upper wing to the nacelle were scratched, and this area I have a little bit wrong. It's easy to tell that these struts are airfoil shaped instead of the round rod I used. Oh well, something I have to live with now.

Part is ingenious with the nacelle. With the proper mounting of all their p/e brackets and fishplates, you can actually have the nacelle move "on and off" ("up and down") the main airframe. Unfortunately I was growing tired of this model and wanted it finished so I opted not to try this. Still, it's something to consider if you have the time and patience. It would definitely be a conversation piece later on. (Imagine a contest judge's surprise when he or she looks at the model at one point with the nacelle up, and then when he or she comes back and the nacelle is down. Maybe this will stop judges from picking up models <snicker>.).

I used a Martin Digmayer real-wood, carved prop, which was added before the nacelle was stuck on, and the only exterior piece missing from the Part fret were the leather handles used to lift the tail up, which are located toward the tail, about midway down the fuselage. Before assembly began I marked the locations of these with #80 drill holes. I then used some left over p/e brass seat belts to make these handles, painted them leather and glued them on. The leather headrests in both cockpits were formed from epoxy putty, glued onto each part and painted and weathered.

Conclusion

The Amodel SPAD A.2/A.4 is the most accurate of all the pulpit kits out there. However, it will take some work to build this. Don't let that stop you, though. Coupled with the Part photoetch set and plenty of patience (and sandpaper) this can be made into a stunning model.

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Diego Fernetti for the drawing of what the nacelle's interior might have looked like. Witold Kozakiewicz for creating the Part photoetch set. Part for supplying the photoetch set. Erik Pilawskii for the ALPS decals. Pedro Soares and Steven Perry for being patient with me (and letting me know it). Rosemont for supplying their seats. And finally to the rest of the WW1 modeling email list for the camaraderie and the general help during all WW1 builds.

References

Davilla, Dr. James J. and Arthur M. Soltan, French Aircraft of the First World War, Flying Machines Press, 1997.
Avions #46-50 and 70
Windsock Mini-Datafile #4 SPAD S.A-2/S.A-4.
WW1 Aero #s 117, 127 and 180