Several years ago I built a Tamiya Spitfire as a gift for my brother (he has a soft spot for Spitfires). I went all out with aftermarket details and it’s the only gift that I’ve ever given him that he really seemed to appreciate. I just found out that he has a similar soft spot for the SPAD XIII, specifically Rickenbacker’s aircraft. So, I got a copy of the Hobbycraft 1/32 SPAD XIII. Reviews of the kit were generally positive, but did note that the kit decals were missing some of the markings for Rickenbacker’s plane. I’ve been searching for aftermarket goodies for this kit, but other than a Kiwi kit and decals from Copper State (both apparently no longer available), I’ve come up empty handed. I hate building straight out of the box (and I have concerns about the kit decals - the box seems like it may have been wet at some point in the past).
I’d suggest custom printing the decals. You could scan the kit decals, redraw them in CorelDraw! and send them to a custom decals shop to be printed for you. This gives you many interesting options - like printing some spares or the whole sheet two times in case something goes wrong, or modifying the kit decals to be more accurate, adding or changing some markings.
Tom’s Modelworks does an etch set of SPAD wingtip ‘pockets’ in 1/32—which apply to the NASM XIII I’m working on, though I can’t recall offhand whether Rickenbacker’s a/c had them or not. Other than that, it’s pretty much ‘scratchbuild city’ for cockpit details, and there’s a fair amount to do.
The good news is that there’s a fair amount of info available online. If you haven’t already seen it, check out France’s Memorial Flight Association website—lots of luscious photos of their restored original XIIIC1. CLICK