MAC 1/72nd SPAD VII
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The Kit
Ever since I started building SPADs thirty years ago, there has only
been one SPAD 7 to choose, the Airfix kit, which was decent enough for
it's day, but the corrugated wing-surfaces were a constant source of debate,
what to do about them? Those days are behind us, for SPADophiles the new
MAC SPAD VII is the answer to our dreams. I'd heard some worrying reports
about thick trailing edges, so was expecting something of a short run
kit, luckily it was much better than I expected. I got the Roden SE5a
at the same time, and of the two I'd say that the MAC SPAD is a better
kit. The molding quality of the Roden is slightly better in some areas,
but the MAC is also petite in details, and interestingly more sharply
molded. The Roden will need a spot of light sanding to smooth out a little
surface roughness, that isn't necessary on the MAC, we're talking Hasegawa
cleanness here! Other places where the MAC kit scores is the inclusion
of a useful set of P/E parts and (marginally)  nicer
decals. Problems on the MAC kit are just three that I can see so far,
the nose side covers are a little too thick, we really need a P/E set
for these! And the lower wing to fuselage connection will be weak unless
one fits a metal pin. Finally the wings are a little thick, only at the
trailing edge, and not so bad as I thought. I compared it to the Ian Stair
Windsock plans, because I had them handy, wings are spot-on, interestingly
the nose of the kit is a couple of mm shorter, I'm pretty sure this is
correct, I think this kit follows the same Czech plans as Special Hobby's
1/48 scale kit does, and these are better than Ian Stair's. I checked
the Stair plans against some photos, and decided that he has missed the
slightly pug-nosed appearance that the SPAD 7 actually has.
They have done a really good job with the cockpit interior, what is
visible is in the kit, no throttle but that's invisible beneath the shelf.
I call that sensible. And not only that, the P/E parts fit! What is missing
are instruments and they are tricky for a kit manufacturer, being spread
out all over the place. The completeness of the MAC cockpit interior meant
that I found the energy to do something about the more visible parts of
the cockpit. I made instruments by punching out some small plastic circles,
which I varnished, then applied Reheat instrument dials, finally I added
a Fotocut "jolly good bezel", glued on with thin varnish. The
most difficult thing is fiddling them into place on the shelf. I also
stuck an instrument dial in the middle of that strange holder so often
seen in SPAD cockpits, it makes a change from the usual empty holder.
I got the fuselage glued up next, it was a perfect fit, I'm afraid I
have to give Matt Bittner right, the central seam was difficult to get
right looking. The problem is that there is a stringer right down the
centre, I added a new one from stretched sprue, but I'm not really satisfied,
and am looking forward to the Eduard SPAD that doesn't have that problem
(I bet it has a few others though!).
 What
is going to cause pain to some people is the butt joint between the lower
wing and fuselage, I'm surprised that MAC didn't do a simple tab here,
if only to ensure that the correct angle is obtained. I drilled tiny holes,
and inserted thin steel wire reinforcements.
The other problem with the MAC SPAD is the slightly thick trailing edges,
the wings themselves are fine, nice and thin with lovely rib detail. I
sanded down the trailing edges on the underside, and then I started replacing
the detail with a roll of sandpaper, just sanding new grooves where the
old ones disappeared, it took a week! What I ask myself is if it's even
a good idea, I think removing the lot and doing decal strips would have
been more sensible, and probably more realistic, oh well, we live and
learn! In fact with paint on, the undersides don't look at all bad, the
only reason I didn't take a photo, was that I forgot to!
I had a hiccup when I looked below the fuselage, there is a blank square,
then I realised this is as Tomasz Gronczewski describes on late SPAD VII's,
so great, another plus for MAC there. But this brings us to a problem
of my own making, after a tortuous process of choosing a colour scheme,
I decided on De Guibert's early SPAD? Tomasz kindly helped me with some
comments on this aircraft's features, here is what Tomasz said: "You
won't escape from panels with 32 louvers, but at least upper left panel
has one row of louvers. As for me I use thin sharpened screwdriver to
make small louvers. Don't be very concerned about their uniformity. The
S.P.A.D. engineers weren't either. The SPAD was driven by Levasseur prop.
Right half of the early wrap around windscreen had been removed."
Now this is a problem with the MAC SPAD, the nose side panels are correct
for normal SPADs but not for these early ones, also they are a little
chunkily molded, so I just sanded them off completely! So do we have any
bright ideas for restoring them? Apart from hoping that they will be included
on a future Part sheet, I had an idea involving, decal paper and a photocopier,
also perhaps drawing them in pencil straight on to decal? This worked,
but they just didn't look good. The jeweler's screwdriver method works
too, but is hard work and I found it difficult to keep straight and evenly
spaced. On fewer louvers, and bigger scale it would be perfect.
Finally I cracked it. As usual when in trouble I started thinking of
what Harry Woodman would have done, and then it struck me. Kitchen foil!
All I need is a good pattern, and I found that on an Airfix SPAD 7. By
rubbing kitchen foil on to the louvers you get a perfectly formed reverse
pattern that can easily be cut out and stuck on. Problem is I want more
louvers, but I discovered that the underchin cowling on the Airfix kit
is covered with (wrong-way) louvers, so emboss on that, draw in the outline
with pencil, turn over and glue on! I tried strengthening with CA, but
that didn't work very well, and wasn't really necessary. I just stuck
them on to the nose with Microscale metal foil adhesive. Here's how they
looked before painting:
Note also the holes for wing reinforcements, and the high standard of
the kits molding.
The spinner which is rather unique for this plane, was made from the
tip of a Junkers 88 propeller, just cut off and sanded flat.
Painting
After reading Alan Touelle's masterpiece on the Breguet 14, I decided
to go for an off-white finish, the yellowness is due to aging of varnish,
and this is a new aircraft. I used Humbrol 41, and then mixed in some
brown for the metal panels. I had the "coq sportif" on a sheet
of Americals for Jasta 4 (of all things!), the rest of the decals were
home made in various fashions. I have a supply of Tango-Papa decal paper,
and I highly recommend this, because I always have plenty of scrap decal
nowadays. I sprayed a nice bright red (Revell 31) and blue (Humbrol 48)
on the sheet, so I  had
enough for plenty of mistakes, bright colours because I don't believe
in toned down French roundels. Then using a compass with a small blade
cutter, I cut out the roundels, I had prepared vague white circles in
the appropriate places, so red and blue was enough. I cut out paper patterns
for the striping, when I was satisfied they would fit, I transferred the
pattern to the decal, and cut out with a (very) sharp knife. The spinner
was done with the same technique as the roundels.
 I
found the tail markings on the MAC decal sheet, I just had to remove one
figure, and I had the correct number, I also used the MAC decals underneath
the wings, yes I'll admit, I don't really give a damn about the undersides
of my models, just so long as they're respectable. Also I now know that
the MAC decals go on very well, no problems with them.
Woodwork
The interior woodwork is painted, here's a photo of the three stages,
first orange paint, then linseed oil mixed with medium brown pigment and
a little milk, finally linseed oil with dark brown pigment. A friend,
Roger Forsmark taught me this, it's an old Swedish profession, he's done
his whole apartment with this technique, it looks like a stately home.
It also works very well on models. Here's a little demo he made for me:
Real wood is easy to carve if liberally soaked in CA first, here are
my struts, and the beginnings of the propeller.
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There is nothing wrong with the MAC struts, they are very petite, but
well, if anything can be done more difficultly then I'm all for it! This
SPAD had a Levasseur propeller - they had straight leading edges and curved
trailing edges (contrary to Gallia or Chauviere props). Also, Levasseur
props had squared tips (thanks again Tomasz for that information). The
propeller was carved from 4 layers of mahogany model ship planking, glued
together with CA, then roughly carved by knife, and finally sanded to
shape using varying grades of sandpaper. I had the same kind of prop on
my SPAD 12, so I used that as a pattern, constantly checking that carving
is in the right place and direction. Despite this, my first prop was too
short on one side, so I had to do another one, it didn't matter because
I so enjoy carving. Here are some pictures that illustrate the transformation
from block to prop.
Assembly and Rigging
Assembly worked very well this time, because I stopped mucking around
with epoxy, and went back to my first love, tube glue! It's nice and sticky,
dries fairly quickly, yet slow enough for adjustments, I then put on a
dot of CA at each joint for added strength.
Rigging is with stainless steel wire, I won't repeat the description
of my method for double rigging, it's in my old SPAD
12 article.
On this one, I used stretched sprue for a spacer, the same diameter
as the steel wire I use, I didn't bother with a flat profile spacer. This
is quite good enough in 1/72, and simplifies things a little. The trick
of covering the whole package with decal worked very well, a thin strip
of decal laid over the  package,
will wrap itself around, if enough microsol is applied. keeps the package
together nicely, I was worried it might dissolve, the white glue the package
was glued together with, so I gave them a coat of thin varnish, so you
think why not paint them instead, paint doesn't stick to steel wire, that's
why! What colour the decal cover should be is debatable, after studying
period photos, I went for black, rather than tan.
After that there was just a whole heap of fiddly little things to be
added, which I spent a few days doing.
Summary
It is a marvelous little kit, despite a few problems, even straight
from the box it will render a SPAD VII model that really looks like a
SPAD VII, and that's a first in 1/72 scale!
Finally a big thanks to Tomasz Gronczewski - his help has been invaluable
- and as usual thanks for support to the whole gang over on the WW1-list.
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