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Gladiator mini group build - new Airfix Gladiator finished


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Hello All,

I was looking for another straightforward OOB build to follow the Airfix Heinkel 111. So off to Ebay to order a brand-spanking-new Airfix Gladiator:

imagejpg2_zpsf8af1cb9.jpg

However, I wanted to do the 72 Squadron colours, so I ordered, again off Ebay, a cheap old Airfix Gladiator (thanks guys!) with a really good decal sheet that includes the scheme:

imagejpg1_zpsb5acb7c0.jpg

So, a really cheap alternative decal sheet and I have al the things I need for a straightforward build, right? Throw the old one away and off we go??

Well, then I got to thinking,,, I could do a three-blade propeller Sea Gladiator scheme. The spare armoured windscreen canopy from the new kit could be used to replace the dire canopy in the old kit:

imagejpg3_zpse98c05fe.jpg

... but it's a lot thinner:

imagejpg4_zpsbb270350.jpg77

So whereas the old canopy fits the old fuselage (yes, I've started sanding)....

imagejpg5_zpsddb6a5de.jpg

The new canopy can be made to fit the old fuselage if it's sanded down to reduce its width:

imagejpg6_zps0ec25308.jpg

The fin shows how much has been sanded off to make the canopy fit. I've lost my "pilot on a shelf" in all the sanding and I've sanded down the cowling in preparation for some more fettling.

And then I remembered this:

imagejpg7_zps817c433f.jpg

I was in LA at the end of last year and made a trip to Everett's model shop in Santa Monica. I spoke to a very nice man behind the counter who used to be in a band that toured the UK (but I never asked him what the band was - doh!) and I picked up a Life-Like re-pop of the Inpact Gladiator. So I thought I might as well drag this one out as well. It's beautifully moulded (as are all the Inpact kits) but it is missing a windscreen (no problem, I will make some new canopies) and it has short-shot interplane struts (slightly bigger problem but hey that's the hobby).

Ah, this isn't going to be OOB any more, is it? Maybe next time!

Thanks for looking,
Adrian

Edited by AdrianMF
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I'm looking forward to this, but why in heaven's name are you flagellating yourself by building those two antiques? :shocked:

Mitch, the Inpact range of 1/48 kits were lovely mouldings, and they were miles ahead of their time (mixed metaphor?) when they were released. The cowling and engine are fabulous and all the contemporary manufacturers could learn a lot from them in terms of simplicity of assembly (one-piece cowling!), and fabric rendition is very nicely done (if a little over-textured).

Fair cop, the old Airfix Gladiator I have no excuse for...

Regards,

Adrian

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Mitch, the Inpact range of 1/48 kits were lovely mouldings, and they were miles ahead of their time (mixed metaphor?) when they were released. The cowling and engine are fabulous and all the contemporary manufacturers could learn a lot from them in terms of simplicity of assembly (one-piece cowling!), and fabric rendition is very nicely done (if a little over-textured).

Fair cop, the old Airfix Gladiator I have no excuse for...

Regards,

Adrian

Airfix had no excuse for that, never mind you! Did Inpact do a Hawker Fury in the same range? I have a recollection of building a 1/48 Fury when I was about 7 or 8, which seemed very nice at the time (forty odd years ago...)

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They had a Fury, Bulldog, Flycatcher and Gladiator, plus five pre-1914 aircraft. They are all wonderful, although apparently the Merit/Airfix Fury is more accurate - the fuselage is a bit short in the Inpact one, but it is a nicer kit otherwise. I just picked up an Avro triplane off Ebay after seeing the one in Manchester Science Museum. 1/48 isn't my scale, but my Dad and I built several of them when I was a nipper...

Regards,

Adrian

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Thise 30's biplanes were lovely and origintaed from Inpact Kits who also did Those magnificent Men in thier Flying machines aeroplanes. All top quality kits for the time !

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Go the Glad!

Looking forward to more.

Nostalgia got the better of me and I "nearly" got an old Matchbox 1/72 Gladiator on Evil Bay....

When I say nearly ......I got a 1/32 Lysander instead!!!!!

I'm sure I can pick up the Gladiator as well somewhere down the road. :winkgrin:

Chocks away

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I've got some paint on the two cockpits now:

imagejpg3_zpse2b241b5.jpg

imagejpg1_zpsf942b2be.jpg

imagejpg2_zps459eb73c.jpg

The old kit has a few raised lines to show the fabric covering on the fuselage. I wanted something a bit more realistic, so after I thinned down the fuselage profile I scraped in some fabric. Good enough for a rough old kit with camouflage, I reckon:

imagejpg1_zps3e87bec8.jpg

imagejpg2_zpsefd113a4.jpg

imagejpg3_zps1145bd73.jpg

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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Hello All,

Here's the wing and fuselage, next up the smaller components.

imagejpg1_zps55f43095.jpg

The fuselage is done by scraping, the wings are done with Solartrim strips followed by a slug of spray primer.

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

Edited by AdrianMF
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Hello All,

Had some time before work this morning, so I gave the top wing quite a thick coat of Halfords Grey Acrylic Primer out in the garden. The cocktail-stick-glued-in-strut-hole broke and I dropped the soaking wet wing into the grass, ruining the finish!

Brought it back inside, tried to remove the (still wet) primer with Fairy Powerspray (pan cleaner), got this:

DSC00018_zps148de5c7.jpg

White spirit has no effect either. So I've cleaned the paint off my hands and come to work whilst it dries.

I don't know if the powerspray didn't work because it was wet, or if it doesn't work on primer. So I guess I'm going to have to re-do the tapes, but does anyone know what will fetch the primer off the plastic without a whole bunch of sanding?

Regards,

Adrian

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Hello All,

Had some time before work this morning, so I gave the top wing quite a thick coat of Halfords Grey Acrylic Primer out in the garden. The cocktail-stick-glued-in-strut-hole broke and I dropped the soaking wet wing into the grass, ruining the finish!

Brought it back inside, tried to remove the (still wet) primer with Fairy Powerspray (pan cleaner), got this:

DSC00018_zps148de5c7.jpg

White spirit has no effect either. So I've cleaned the paint off my hands and come to work whilst it dries.

I don't know if the powerspray didn't work because it was wet, or if it doesn't work on primer. So I guess I'm going to have to re-do the tapes, but does anyone know what will fetch the primer off the plastic without a whole bunch of sanding?

Regards,

Adrian

I Use Spray oven Cleaner.

Coat the part in the cleaner, Put the part in a poly bag and seal it and leave it overnight. the paint should wash off the next day.

Selwyn.

PS By the Way if your pilot is flying a pre war gladiator, I would think he would be wearing the white overalls not his blue uniform?

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Thanks Selwyn!

This is going to be a Malta sea Gladiator (if I get my top wing back...) so I think blue is OK.

I'm saving the silver finish for the new Airfix Gladiator. I bought this one originally just to get the 72 Sqn decals for it, but I couldn't bear to throw the plastic away!!

Regards,

Adrian

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello All,

I've just got back from a work trip and finally got the primer disaster (and the rib tapes - doh!) off. In the end, it seems Mr Muscle oven cleaner needs to work out more (hardly any effect), Fairy Powerspray fetched off quite a lot but I had to resort to wet and dry sandpaper to make it all disappear. I can thoroughly recommend Halfords grey primer!

So I re-taped the upper wing and taped the tailplane and fin/rudder with Solartrim, then went outside and c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y sprayed some primer on all the surfaces. No disasters, no bad language! I've re-profiled the rear fuselage a bit and re-shaped the fin and rudder, but I haven't done much to the tailplanes, which are a bit too triangular:

glad1_zps3ad5ae99.jpg

I drilled and cut the engine out of the cowling a while back, and this is how it looks after a couple of hoops of 20 thou card have been added at the front and sanded down. I was thinking about the engine - now that the opening in the cowling is smaller, that covers up the destruction I caused getting the thing out. So I added some plastic card shims to the worst-hit cylinders:

glad2_zps142e88c3.jpg

Then I trimmed the card down and added some pushrods from sprue:

glad3_zps4c5b0f29.jpg

That looks good enough for me in 1/72. I will add a reduction casing to the front of the engine (the 3-blade prop collar might do with some filler in it) and add the induction pipes, gun chute cutaways and those two intake pipes at the bottom. For the cylinder head bulges I am going to try painting a blob of PVA for each bulge. No idea if it will work, but it's easy to pick off.

Of course with all this going on, the new Airfix kit (I only bought this one for the decals, remember?) is going nowhere. And I've got a trade show next week, so even this one will not be going too quickly!

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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and I picked up a Life-Like re-pop of the Inpact Gladiator. So I thought I might as well drag this one out as well. It's beautifully moulded (as are all the Inpact kits) but it is missing a windscreen (no problem, I will make some new canopies) and it has short-shot interplane struts (slightly bigger problem but hey that's the hobby).

Ah, this isn't going to be OOB any more, is it? Maybe next time!

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

I know you liking making bits Adrian, but the Falcon canopy set has canopies for the Gladiator,

http://falconmodels.co.nz/clearvax/set31.html

Might be worth asking for one of those?

The Airfix Magazine Guide book on WW2 fighters had an extensive rebuild of the old Gladiator, even then it was an antique and featured as description of the skills used

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Airfix-Magazine-Guide-25-Modelling/dp/0850592623

cheers

T

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Thanks guys. I think Troy was talking about my missing Life-Like Gladiator canopy, which is (would have been?) 1/48. The Airfix new 1/72 Gladiator has early and late (armoured) canopies, which set me off sanding the old kit down to fit the new canopy!. I actually happen to have that 1/72 Falcon set. I will be passing on the 1/48 set as the temptation to buy more kits to match the canopies would be too great!

Thanks,

Adrian

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They had a Fury, Bulldog, Flycatcher and Gladiator, plus five pre-1914 aircraft. They are all wonderful, although apparently the Merit/Airfix Fury is more accurate - the fuselage is a bit short in the Inpact one, but it is a nicer kit otherwise. I just picked up an Avro triplane off Ebay after seeing the one in Manchester Science Museum. 1/48 isn't my scale, but my Dad and I built several of them when I was a nipper...

Regards,

Adrian

Hi Adrian

Great to follow theses builds, I am surprised you are not going for the Norwegian one that was so famous as well !

Was the Impact series of kits the same as the Pyro ones also in 1/48 ? I have a few of these if memory serves.

Cheers Pat

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Was the Impact series of kits the same as the Pyro ones also in 1/48 ? I have a few of these if memory serves.

Hi Pat,

Yes, it was the same series. They were made by Inpact (with an 'n') and then the moulds were passed around Pyro, Life-Like and Lindberg. Merit were also making 1/48 aircraft at the time, but they were a separate organisation with their own original kits.

Regards,

Adrian

[Edit] "If memory serves"..... now there's a man with a stash problem!

Edited by AdrianMF
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Hi Pat,

Yes, it was the same series. They were made by Inpact (with an 'n') and then the moulds were passed around Pyro, Life-Like and Lindberg. Merit were also making 1/48 aircraft at the time, but they were a separate organisation with their own original kits.

Regards,

Adrian

[Edit] "If memory serves"..... now there's a man with a stash problem!

Hi Adrian

Guilty as charged ol mate, must have a clear out, serious hoarding problem I'm afraid, let me know if you are looking for anything there's a good chance I have it, but finding it, that's a whole different story !

Cheers Pat

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