1/72 Airfix Gloster Gladiator Sprue Pictures from Wonderland Models

[Richard M]

Airfix A02052 1/72 Gloster Gladiator (Scheme A) built by "The Stick"...

From Airfix Facebook page for those who don't FB.







Slideshow link with more pictures;
http://s1097.photobucket.com/user/ATFPictureGallery/slideshow/Airfix%20Built%20Models/Gloster%20Gladiator%20%20A02052

[stevehnz]

A superb looking model, obviously some very good modelling but also a very good kit to begin with. Theres certainly a couple of these in my future. Thanks for the link Richard.

Steve.

[justplanecrazy]

The first deliveries to Ireland had green fuselages and aluminium wings but I've never seen that scheme suggested for the Chinese Gladiators in any of the documented sources. It is an interesting possibility. There are at least four known photos of Gladiators in Chinese service and two were reproduced in Andrew Thomas' 'Gladiator Aces' for Osprey but none of them are especially clear. The one showing an aircraft being wheeled out after assembly does show a "light" coloured leading edge on the lower wing that might be interpreted as aluminium but all the Chinese sources have them painted initially in overall dark green. One photograph (see links below) shows an aircraft with "light" coloured struts and undercarriage legs which have been interpreted as the under surface light blue in a later two-tone scheme. Personally I doubt there was much time to re-paint them once they entered service but there are two distinct differences in the way the four-digit aircraft numbers are displayed - with either large white numbers on the fuselage sides or small numbers on the fin.

A single colour painting showing Chin Shui-Tin in Gladiator 2809 ramming an A5M with his undercarriage on 3rd August 1938 over Liang Chia-tien, Hupei, depicts a dark green scheme with standard blue/white sun insignia on both wings, blue/white rudder stripes, large white fuselage numbers and a red spinner. Major Chin claimed 5 destroyed and 3 damaged in the Gladiator. Wong Sun-Shui also had claims for 5 destroyed and 2 damaged in the Gladiator. Both pilots were American citizens with Cantonese parents who were taught to fly privately in the USA and then volunteered to join the Cantonese Air Force. The Cantonese Air Force was absorbed into the (Nationalist) Chinese Air Force in July 1936. More about Chinese gladiators here:-

http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/gladiator_china.htm

and here:-

http://cwlam2000.0catch.com/caf34.htm

There are decals available for various Chinese Gladiators from Bestfong and previously from Kora with a resin spinner-less prop. The new Airfix kit usefully has a separate spinner as some Chinese Gladiators were flown without it.

Definitely worth modelling as the Gladiator's combat debut was in Chinese service and their story is a fascinating one that I shall be featuring at my blog shortly.

Nick

Look forward to this Nick as a Chinese Gladiator is on my to build list. I have a Matchbox Gladiator pencilled in for this with Bestfong decals but may have to substitute this kit! By the way, Do you remember that SB.2 I swapped with you about 15 years ago?

Nick

[Squatty]

Gladiator with a three blade propeller is the thing that would make me reach for my credit card. I hope we'll see that from Airfix. Until then I'm sticking with the old Matchbox kit as it seems totally buildable.

[Adam Maas]

Gladiator with a three blade propeller is the thing that would make me reach for my credit card. I hope we'll see that from Airfix. Until then I'm sticking with the old Matchbox kit as it seems totally buildable.

Next boxing should have the 3-blade prop as well as skiis.

[John]

If you can find the previous Gladiator at a good price it will give you a superb decal sheet and a 3-bladed prop. I bought a few at £1.99 each recently, well wort it just for those parts.

John

[Seahawk]

If you can find the previous Gladiator at a good price it will give you a superb decal sheet and a 3-bladed prop. I bought a few at £1.99 each recently, well wort it just for those parts.

John

Interesting thought: tempting. What subjects are covered in the old Airfix boxing (it's gone from the Airfix website) and is the prop up to a standard that won't look out of place on the brand new kit?

[Spitfire31]

Maybe John of Aeroclub still has one of these?

P088 Fairey Reed 3 blade 10` Gauntlet/Gladiator

Kind regards,

Joachim

[Nick Millman]

Interesting thought: tempting. What subjects are covered in the old Airfix boxing (it's gone from the Airfix website) and is the prop up to a standard that won't look out of place on the brand new kit?

Pre-war K6142 of 72 Sqn RAF Church Fenton 1937 - per the original kit and the three Malta Sea Gladiator aircraft 'Faith', 'Hope' and 'Charity'. IIRC the reliability of the decals depends on the colour of the backing sheet - can anyone confirm this?

The three-blader needs cleaning up but looks ok to me - but then I think the recent Airfix Spit IX and Academy XIV are "ok" too whereas in fact both are fatally flawed several times over - apparently...

Nick

[stevehnz]

Interesting thought: tempting. What subjects are covered in the old Airfix boxing (it's gone from the Airfix website) and is the prop up to a standard that won't look out of place on the brand new kit?

This might give you some idea. Being ex FAA Gladiators, as I understand, the Malta Flight ones would have had Fairey Reed props from the start. I believe that at some point they were fitted with Blenheim constant speed props via some jiggery pokery by a very talented engineer who adapted their fixed pitch prop Mercury into a cs Mercury as in this thread. This site gives a picture of the prop, Fairy Reed & a bit undistinguished to my eye. I'd be wary of the colour calls too. Dark Earth & Extra dark Sea grey on the top wing? Maybe substitute Dark Slate Grey for the Dark Earth & you'd be OK I think.

Steve.

Edited June 2, 2013 by stevehnz

[Seahawk]

This might give you some idea.

Thank you. John spoke no lie: looks well worth picking up if the price is right. Same thing goes for the last (Red Box) outing of the old Airfix Bf 109E: lovely transfer sheet with full stencils and it has the 4 x SC50 bomb option which none of the boxings of the new kit offer.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Seahawk

[stevehnz]

Same thing goes for the last (Red Box) outing of the old Airfix Bf 109E: lovely transfer sheet with full stencils and it has the 4 x SC50 bomb option which none of the boxings of the new kit offer.

I reckon that'd have something to do with why I bought one.

The colour of the Gladiator decal backing in the Model-making.eu link is a worry, aren't the brown backed ones 'sposed to be a bit suspect? I've not long since bought the Pavla update set but still feel tempted to pick one of these up while they're about. What to do with the rest of it though ?

Steve.

[mhaselden]

There was an article many, many moons ago in Airfix magazine that showed how to convert a Gloster Gladiator into a Bristol M1C Bullet. You could try that, I s'pose!

[Richard M]

The colour of the Gladiator decal backing in the Model-making.eu link is a worry, aren't the brown backed ones 'sposed to be a bit suspect?

Steve.

The brown backed decals can be troublesome. The trick for me was using very hot water to soak them in rather than the usual lukewarm. I used the ones on the brown backed paper no problem that way. With lukewarm water they seem to stick to the backing sheet and disintegrate when you try to remove them.

In-box of the contents of the last Airfix original Gladiator release;

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=291&t=9369

Test image of one of the brown backed decals straight onto plastic;

Finished model with brown backed decals;

[Sgt.Squarehead]

As Rich says, use 'em one at a time and keep the water good and hot.....As soon as it cools the hassle begins.

[stevehnz]

Thanks for that info, a nice Gladiator Richard though I'm still doubtful about the Hu29 colour call for the upperwing & fuselage. I probably don't need it but I probably will track one of these down, just 'cause. & try to remember the hot water tip.

Steve

[stevehnz]

There was an article many, many moons ago in Airfix magazine that showed how to convert a Gloster Gladiator into a Bristol M1C Bullet. You could try that, I s'pose!

Nah, probably give it to a kid to play with, the jump from Glad to Bullet is a bit far for me, 'sides which the Bullet has never really appealled to me, cutting edge though it was for the time.

Steve

[mhaselden]

Hi Steve,

Well it was worth a try...I think hacking a Glad into a Bullet would be several steps too far for me, too! I'll try to come up with something more useful/constructive next time!

Cheers,
Mark

[stevehnz]

All joking aside, I reckon it'll be quite a good starter for a kid, they go together alright if your standards aren't too high & & are quite a good canvas for some experimental juvenile model painting. Its got to be all in a good cause.

Steve.

[Michael louey]

Revell (ex-Matchbox): RAF & RAAF

Hi Marcel,

Can you supply more details of the boxing of the Revell Gladiator containing RAAF decals. My google searches of the current boxing show the Revell Gladiator with pre war RAF markings (one option only).

Regards

Michael

[Procopius]

Did Battle of Britain Gladiators have the three-bladed or two-bladed prop?

[Max Headroom]

Did Battle of Britain Gladiators have the three-bladed or two-bladed prop?

Three bladed. Ray Rimmell built the Heller kit for a series of builds of BoB planes for Scale Models in the 80's. I think he robbed a Frog Swordfish prop as the Heller one is underfed.

Trevor

[Vulcanicity]

I picked mine up in Boswalls Oxford this weekend, and having built the lovely but dated Heller kit recently, I am VERY impressed. The surface detail is excellent, with beautiful recessed panel lines (perhaps a touch finer even than this year's other releases), very nice restrained fabric detail, and lots of details which earlier kits omit, such as the fuel(?) filler cap on the upper starboard cowling, and extra strut on the footstep.

They've also made an excellent stab at the complicated cockpit interior, it's nice to see a correctly proportioned seat, diagonal structural members with trim wheel, and pedestal-mounted compass. The corrugated heel-boards are nicely represented, and there's a good IP decal (remains to be seen if it's the right size unlike other recent kits).

The engine is streets ahead of the Heller offering, and it's good to see a choice of three oil cooler(?) intakes for the aperture under the cowling.

It remains to be seen how the linked interplane strut assembly will work. As others have said, there's an "x"-shaped bit of sprue moulded between the struts which are in correct alignment on the sprue. The idea is that you leave this in place and fit the struts as a pair to the wing, then once the wing is dry and secure you can clip the "x" out. It's an unusual idea, and I can certainly see this saving effort if it works, although as Nick Millman pointed out, the attachment points are rather thick, and cutting out the "x" may be rather difficult.

One thing I can't see happening is a Sea Gladiator, because as far as I can tell the arrestor hook was recessed into the rear fuselage underside, and there is no optional insert for this area included in the kit. You would also need the three-bladed prop, as discussed, for many Sea Gladiators, and the dinghy pack mounted between the undercarriage legs. Since these would be an easy addition to the moulds, it's a shame they didn't take this opportunity.

Decals may not please everyone, but hey, the Irish example is really unusual, and they'd be foolish not to take advantage of the Shuttleworth marketing opportunity. At any rate, I've always thought that the pre-war 73 squadron flash is very attractive. Decal quality, is of course, excellent.

Last but not least, the rigging diagram is excellent, with multiple mini-diagrams each focussing on just one subset of the rigging. This is much easier to interpret than a single diagram showing a full profusion of wires!

Airfix have also included tiny dimples on the wing to indicate where to drill for the wires: these will hardly be noticeable under a coat of paint if you don't want to rig your Gladiator, but they're a nice touch for those who do.

[Marcel]

Hi Marcel,

Can you supply more details of the boxing of the Revell Gladiator containing RAAF decals. My google searches of the current boxing show the Revell Gladiator with pre war RAF markings (one option only).

Regards

Michael

I am sorry Michael, my fault, I was just looking at the fuselage insignias (no red centers), the Revell boxing contains two RAF options.

[dogsbody]

The engine is streets ahead of the Heller offering, and it's good to see a choice of three oil cooler(?) intakes for the aperture under the cowling.

These would be the carburator intakes. The oil cooler is the long corrugated section on the upper right side of the fuselage, ahead of the cockpit.

Chris