Some nice pics of a Maxford Spad XIII

[Gringotuerto]

Painted like Georges Guynemer's plane, except one detail....he painted his "good luck" motto "Vieux Charles" on every plane he flew except the one he was killed in (serial #504). This is a replica of #504 except I also added the good luck motto. I'm not going to make the same mistake he did. Pictures by our club member F.Sutton.

[PawPaw]

Man, you coulda gone all day and not post those pics! I’ve been eyeing that Maxford Spad for a while now. I’ve got a Balsa USA Spad XIII 1/4 scale still in the box I will start if I ever recover from my heli addiction. You Spad is very nicely done!

[Twowingtj]

Gringotuerto Nice looking Spad! How's she fly and how's the build quality?

[Gringotuerto]

The Balsa USA kit will be a lot more work, but also a much nicer model. One thing I can highly recommend is Modelsounds Inc. soundcard and bright-orange LEDs. My Spad XIII's twin Vickers are fully operational, and the flash is easily visible even in sunlight.

[Jtmasters68]

Whats the wingspan on this beauty? Difficult build?

[Gringotuerto]

68-inch span, which is pretty sizeable for a biplane. It works out to 1 : 4.78 scale, they call it 1/5th. I bought it at the old AMA show, and it was the "floor model" at the Maxford booth, so it was mostly assembled already. But I disassembled a lot of it to put in sound card, motor, and various features. So I can't say I built directly from the ARF, but from what I disassembled and reassembled, it seemed reasonably straightforward. Other than one thing - the decal is a joke, it is ugly and basically impossible to fit on smoothly. I tossed it in the trash and did all this by painting.