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I decided to have a crack at one of these a few weeks ago. Not sure why but I think the re-release of this kit from Mark1 in December triggered an impulse somewhere. This comes from the Malta boxing. N5525 flew with 802 NAS when it was based at HMS Grebe (or what is now Alexandria Airport) when HMS Glorious was stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1939. The black tail indicates it was a Squadron commander's aircraft. The record is slightly hazy but I think it was then boxed up and dropped off at Malta with a bunch of others when HMS Glorious was recalled to the North Sea to take part in the Norwegian Campaign in early-1940 (where Glorious was sunk). It was never actually re-assembled but was used as a source of spare parts to keep the handful of other Gladiators flying in defence of Malta. I built one of these Malta Gladiators at the start of Covid lockdown in 2020. This is the first Gladiator I've built since then. I decided not to do the full photoetch treatment I did with the previous build, but added a few external bits a pieces from the spares box, like the step (quite proud of this - made out of 1:700 ship railings). There were a few bits about the last Gladiator I built that bugged me afterwards, which I have rectified, or tried to, here. First was shaving down the canopy rail fairing behind the cockpit - this is very pronounced as it comes in the box, giving the tapering rear fuselage a curiously boxy shape. So I sanded this right back to what reference photos suggested was about right. Second was replacing the kit-supplied cabane struts with plasticard. Less telegraphpoleish. Otherwise I made all the the other changes I made then, including shortening the undercarriage and main wing struts, and closing the cowling opening a bit. Rigging was Uschi Van Der Rosten thread. Gladiator rigging is quite complex but it was satisfying to finish it. Painting was fairly simple. I painted the areas not to be silver and then sprayed AK Dull Aluminium over the rest. There are some superb photos of this aircraft in flight, taken mine armament and before it was delivered to 802 NAS (see above) but which show all the stencils. I used Shelf Oddity's excellent set of Hurricane stencils. The rest of the kit decals worked nicely. And with another Alex resident from three years later. And there she is with another pre-war RAF biplane, the (by comparison) extremely dainty Hawker Fury. Thanks very much for looking. I really enjoyed this build - a satisfying end to 2023. Happy new year to you all! Angus

Hello good people I just finished this for a 1940 group build on Kampfgruppe 144 and thought I would also post here as I haven't seen that many finished examples of this kit. There's a WIP thread here if anyone is interested. It is the Mark1 Models Gloster Sea Gladiator. I used the Marabu Design etch set which was brilliant. The Mark1 kit needs a bit of work to correct some obvious accuracy issues. I haven't completely managed to sort everything, but it's as good a shot as I could manage. I have to say, I slightly surprised myself with this build - not only was it less arduous than I'd imagined (I think Marabu do most to the work for you) but it was also quite enjoyable. A complete contrast to my previous Gladiator build which was - on the face of it - much simpler, being an out of the box build. I took a gamble doing the rigging with the top wing temporarily off which worked really quite nicely. I may try this approach more often with 144 biplanes. I will confess that I'm really rather happy with the outcome with this. Yes it is not a perfect Gladiator and there are some shape issues from the Mark1 kit that still could be addressed (the cowling is too bulbous and I think the forward fuselage is also a bit too shallow and too long, but I'd need to check against drawings). But overall I think it is pretty Gladiatorsome. And to finish, one of the smallest allied single engined fighters with the largest. Thanks very much for looking! Angus

This is an early-mark Beaufighter night-fighter which I finished recently. It is of 89 Squadron while it was based at Abu Sueir in Egypt in Spring 1942. The Squadron only wore the WP lettering for a very short period of time. This aircraft is that of Squadron Leader Derek Pain. On the night of 2/3 March 1942, Pain and his Navigator, Sgt. Briggs, shot down a Heinkel 111 over Jebel Mariut near Alexandria, his second victory; the squadron's long-awaited first. Pain went on to become a night-fighter ace, while 89 Squadron was to be one of the highest-scoring nightfighter units of the war with 141.3 victories (second only to 600 Squadron with 180 kills). X7671 was also flown by the future ace Nevil Reeves and the superbly named Flg Officer 'Moose' Fumerton RCAF in 89 Squadron. It was transferred to 46 and then 227 Squadrons before being struck off charge in the second half of 1944. The Mark 1 kit has its few vices, noted elsewhere. It's still a lovely little kit though. I used the Marabu etch for the aerials and other details (although I actually didn't bother with the etch interior or dropped flaps on this one) and can highly recommend this. Will eke this etch set out for the next few Beaus I build so the next should have dropped flaps and the final one I'll try and detail the interior. Paint was Humbrol 225 and 29 - no real problems and a good match for middlestone and dark earth to my eye. I found a spare Balkenkreuz kill mark in the spares and decided to add it, possibly spurious but I could find no references to suggest this wasn't added in March 1942 and it livens things up. My wife (who is excellent, by the way) kindly gave me a bunch of 1/144 Coastal Kit bases the other day, just for taking the odd photo with. They are very nice, I think. Matt-textured and high-definition printed - good for photos like this and for goons like me who lack the requisite skills to make a full diorama of similar proportions. You'll probably see a few more from me in due course. Thanks very much for looking!

This is Mark 1 Model's 1:144 lovely Beaufighter which I finished to take a break from rigging my Gladiator from the same company. A great little kit - lovely build that took practically no time at all. If you haven't tried one I urge you to do so - this is Mark1's most recent RAAF boxing of the Beau, featuring a brace of Mk.Xs and a pair of DAP Mk.21s. The resin conversion parts consist of dihedral tails, extended carburettor intakes, a replacement rear gunner hood for one of the Mk.Xs and a dolphin radome nose that is not used in this box at all. And that funny bulge thing on the nose in front of the cockpit. This is a Mk21 of 93 Squadron RAAF, stationed at Labuan airfield in Northern Borneo in the summer of 1945. I wanted it to look like a properly beaten up and knackered old warhorse so I did a fair bit of weathering - washes and pastel fading, but didn't go overboard with the chipping. Not all of it has come out in the photos (foliage green seems to be a hard shade to photograph), but I'm happy with it. 93 Squadron were involved in a number of anti-shipping strikes in late-July to August 1945, but arrived quite late in theatre so saw limited action. Most used rockets for shipping strikes, so I stole some from an F-Toys Beaufighter and used putty to build up the warheads. It builds up well with no real vices (a small step in front of the pilot's windscreen to be aware of) and no huge amount of filler (having just finished the Mark1 Buffalo I was expecting more). Thanks for looking - sorry for the terrible photos, I've found RAAF Foliage Green very hard to photograph! Angus

For something so small this took quite a long time - mostly because I kept getting distracted it must be said. A good build with decent- if unspectacular-fitting parts. It's great that the ventral window is provided but it's a beggar to fit and keep fitted. I was impressed with a lot of the detail though - especially the wings and cowling. The decals are also excellent. Not something for a weekend, sure, but a great little kit. Built out of the box, but added a few things that are conspicuously absent: - pilot's roll-cage and radio equipment in rear cockpit - exhaust stubs - pitot - telescopic sights - opened up guns in cowling Painting took most of the time on this. I had a nightmare with the white on the tail for some reason and have ended up obscuring much of the panel detail there. Matching the green for the decals also took time. Decals were great and settled down well - even the wing stripes were well behaved despite going over that awkward-shaped lump thing. It was supposed to be a double bill, as I was hoping to build two pre-war livery yellow/silver buffaloes from the Mark 1 F2A-1 box but the decals provided will only cover one US version out of the four on offer (unless you can source additional mice, stencils and so on). I shall get another box to complete the decals in due course (unless anyone happens to have some spare?). I can see a few more of these appearing on my shelves in the coming years... Especially if they produce a F2A3 that I can do in Midway colours. Thanks for looking!