FFSMC Productions 1/72 SPAD XIII*2 Spa 48 Decals
By Matt Bittner
In a first for me, I now have 1/72 decals from FFSMC Productions covering two Spa 48 SPAD XIIIs: Capitaine Armand de Turenne and Adjutant Jacques Roques. There are enough decals for both aircraft on this sheet so you may build both and not have to worry about sourcing other decals. I'm not sure if these were originally ALPS-generated but I sense a little bit of "dithering" in the roundel blue. Plus one of my roundels has a very thin, unprinted line running through it. But aside from these two problems - which may just be on my example - the rest of the decals are fine and nicely done. (My apologies for the blurry images, I'm still getting used to a new camera set up.)
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Note that for Roques' machine FFSMC includes just the numbers and letters for the rudder so you can paint the rudder yourself and apply the decals. These are for both of Roques' 13s: S.1893 and S.1215. I'm not finding any information about S.1215, but S.1893 was well photographed and appears in Martin Schütz' volume 1 book on the Spad 13 C1. S.1983 was an early Blériot-build bird so definitely reference Schütz' book to understand the differences with that manufacturer and series of aircraft.
While the decal set doesn't include serial numbers for de Turenne's aircraft, Schütz shows the serial as S.507 and it was a SPAD-built early 13 so again, reference his book to see the differences and what needs to be done to make an accurate model. You may have to source the numbers and typical Spad rudder weights chart from somewhere else.
All in all I'm pleased with these decals and whichever Spad I decide upon will look great when finished. Even with the small mistakes made I can definitely recommend them.