Hobbycraft 1/32
Spad XIII

Background

The Spad XIII was ultimate fighter to reign supreme in the skies of WWI Europe. Developed as a second attempt to improve on the earlier successful Spad VII, the Spad XIII had the right mix of power, speed, armament and maneuverability that eluded the Spad XII.

With over 8,470 examples produced, the Spad XIII was the mount of the aces including Georges Guynemer and "Eddie" Rickenbacker. Entering service in May 1917, the Spad XIII served in the air forces of France, Italy, Belgium, and the United States. These aircraft would soldier on into the 1920s.

Powered by a 235 horsepower Hispano-Suiza engine, the Spad XIII was armed with two synchronized Vickers machine guns firing through the prop arc.

The Kit

Hobbycraft has released their 1/32 Spad XIII in its 'International' boxing which really translates into a nice kit with the markings of the famous French Ace Georges Guynemer as well as the markings of Italian Ace Francesco Barraca.

The kit is molded in light gray styrene and features some very nice details on the kit including a nice fabric texture for the majority of the airframe. The wingtips are of the later squared-off type and you'll need to round yours out a bit to render an earlier production machine.

The kit is beautiful in its simplicity and will build nicely straight out of the box, yet there is so much room in their that you can grab your favorite reference and superdetail the heck out of the cockpit. Either way, the model is an easy build and will look great when finished. In fact, there is a nice online build article over on Roll Models' site here.

Markings

Markings are provided for two examples:

• Spad XIII, SPA 3, France, 1917, as flown by Capt Georges Guynemer
• Spad XIII, Italy, 1918, as flown by Major Francesco Barraca

Conclusions

You can't find many nice kits in 1/32 scale these days without having to spent lots of money to acquire the kit. Here is a very nice kit at a very nice price (and if you shop around, you'll find the street prices even lower). Have some fun and add a World War I warrior to your scale flightline.

Definitely recommended!

My sincere thanks to Hobbycraft Canada for this review sample!