Silver Wings Gloster Sea Gladiator

[Shar2]

Gloster Sea Gladiator

1/32 scale Silver Wings

History

The Gloster Gladiator was to be the last biplane fighter for the RAF, but was also the first fighter with an enclosed cockpit. By the time it was issued to squadrons it was already becoming eclipsed by The first generation of monoplane fighters, the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire.

A modified MkII, the Sea Gladiator was developed for the Royal Navys Fleet Air Arm, with an arrestor hook, catapult points a strengthened frame and an under-belly fairing for an inflatable liferaft. Of the 98 aircraft built as, or modified to Sea Gladiators, 54 were still in service at the outbreak of WWII in 1939.

The Model

This all resin kit comes in quite a sturdy top opening box on which is depicted a side view of one of the options covered on the decal sheet. On opening the box you are confronted with the instruction sheet, which is in A4 landscape format. The instructions are very clear with all colour callouts in English but with no specific paint range denoted.

The rest of the box is full of resin filled plastic bags, all held within larger bubblewrap bags. The fuselage halves are taped together for security. The detail is very nicely done with recessed panel lines around the cockpit and forward fuselage. The aft fuselage has well defined fabric covered frames. Now, whilst the upper fuselage joint looks like it will need little or no work at all, the under fuselage joint will need some fettling to get it to fit tightly, maybe with a small amount of filler.

In the next bag are the wings. These come in 9 parts, two upper and lower, four ailerons and the mid-upper section. No worries about getting a smooth leading edge as there is no join to fix. All the wings are crisply moulded with some fine detail on the leading edge and surfaces of each wing. The trailing edges are lovely and thin. In fact these wings are far superior to many injection plastic wings I have come across.

The empennage is also beautifully moulded and comes with separate rudder and elevators, again with very fine trailing edges.

Within the nine smaller ziplock bags are the masses of smaller parts that make up this great model.

The engine is made up of the nine cylinders, (some will notice that i have ten in my kit), block, separate push rods and exhaust stubs. Silver Wings have been very helpful in getting the angle of the separate prop blades correct by providing a one piece moulded jig on which you place the prop boss in the middle and fit the blades whilst resting on the jig. The engine cowling comes in 5 parts with the cowling and collector ring plus the two exhausts. Fit shouldn’t be too much of a problem with just some minor cleanup of the parts and some dry fitting before gluing it all together.

The cockpit consists of the fuselage framework, seat, floor, rudder bar, oxygen bottles, battery and several parts that make up the control wire

bars/radii. There is also the fuel tank and ammunition boxes which feed the two browning mounted in the forward fuselage, represented by the guns breaches. The instrument panel is made up of one resin, four etch and four acetate sheets for the instrument faces. More detail parts for the fuselage are held in two smaller bags including items such as the control column, throttle quadrant, and levers.

The clear resin canopy, whilst very thin and clear, will need some cleanup before fitting, but nothing really to worry about.

Being a biplane, the model comes with resin struts, but these wouldn’t take the strain that would be required of them, so Silver Wings have reinforced them with wire so should be more than capable for the job. The undercarriage struts are also done this way, with the exception of the tail wheel yoke.

For addition detail, where resin couldn’t be used a small PE sheet has been included. On this are items such as the already mentioned instrument panel, seat belts, engine cowling fixtures and radiator.

Lastly the is a nicely printed decal sheet with serials and schemes for three aircraft, one based on HMS Glorious 1939, one based at Luqa, Malta 1941 and the last based at Hal Far, Malta 1940

Conclusion

All in all this is a beautiful model of a wonderful, iconic aircraft. This is the first full resin aircraft kit I have bought and will definitely be buying more from Silver Wings in the future if this kits standard is anything to go by. This company deserves to be congratulated on producing such finely made models. So, even though the price is pretty high, it is well worth it and I can thoroughly recommend to all modellers who have at least some experience with working with resin, although it could be a good kit to start with to see what you’re missing if you haven’t.

This kit is from my collection.

Edited March 24, 2011 by Shar2

[Iain Ogilvie]

Crikey - that looks nice!

Iain

[jRatz]

Oh, that is sooooo tempting !!!

Nice review -- thanks !!

[mick]

that looks very nice

[ollieholmes]

Crikey - that looks nice!

Iain

Ive got one and i totaly agree.

[Radleigh]

Nice kit, wonder what else they do...!

[Don McIntyre]

<sigh>

[DougN]

Excellent review Dave!

Silver Wings has also recently annouced a Gladiator I/II and Hawker Hart in 1/32 scale, as well as their other kits, which you can find on their website here: http://www.silvewrwings.pl

Cheers,

Doug

Edited April 1, 2011 by DougN

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