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Gloster Gamecock from the Archive.


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This is only around 36 years late, but I've been finding boxes full of polystyrene peanuts and the old show models, some worse for wear, that were usually built from the first vac shots literally "hot off the press" and usually only scant days before the old IPMS UK.Nationals. I usually released three new  1:48th scale subjects for the Nats each year  That year it was Stalag Luft Stoneleigh, as it was known to us inmates due to it's very basic accommodation at Stoneleigh Agricultural Showground.

It really was common for me to cut out, abrade down and glue together and then paint the kits in about three days using only the legendary Midnight Oil. I think that the other two might have been an Avro Tutor and unusually a 1:32 Pitts Special.

 

Taking a leaf from Moa's book...

 

The Gamecock is a survivor, so here it is..

 

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Gamecock%201%20prototype%20model_zpscutu

 

 

 

Edited by John Aero
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Apart from the prop ,engine, main U/c legs guns, tail skid and control column, which were white metal castings from my cobbled up master parts, the entire airframe including the wheels is vacform from an epoxy mould, cast over a pattern I carved out of Lime wood, which was fixed to a thick plywood back board via a silicone rubber sub stage.  The struttery was all Slaters plasticard rod.

Pour Rubber over the wood, to create a female mould, Rubber into the female Rubber mould, with a release agent, to create a Rubber male master, then Aluminium filled epoxy over the Rubber male. Drill lots of vent holes in the "still green" epoxy. When properly hardened there was a production mould and the wooden master was still unblemished.

 

John

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Oh, John- she's a beauty!  Either you were always an incredible model builder, or the rest of us haven't gotten any better since then. That is one gorgeous little Gamecock- thanks for sharing her with us! I actually have this kit, and it's one of my prized possessions; one of these days I will get up the courage to build it, along with my Demon. Hector, and Flycatcher...thank you for producing so many great kits and detail parts  for us over the years.

Mike

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Ahh this is the 1:48th Vac not the later 1:72 injected one, which sadly I broke yesterday trying to adjust a slightly out of alignment wing. Oops.

 

The vac Gamecock has literally traveled hundreds of miles, being taken to around six shows a year for about 30 years and so far has never been repaired. The only one of my kits to have actually flown was my prototype all Yellow civil 1:48 Chipmunk G-JAKE which was spotted by the owner at a Tollerton Airshow and in exchange for which I claimed a ride in the real one. It flew out of Tollerton  just resting on the back seat.

 

I forgot about the promised ride until a few years later when in company with the aviation author W.A. (Bill) Harrison we flew the Rolls Royce club Cessna 150 into Netherthorpe one evening. There sitting on the club veranda like a Tombstone Cowboy was the Chipmunk owner who after a brief intro, dragged out the Chippie and I got the promised flight, with the bonus that so did Bill.

 

John

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Now here's a philosophical conundrum. Is it a model completed from a set of production kit parts? Yes it certainly is.  But also is it a scratch built model? Yes it certainly is.  Because I made or shaped or moulded every stage, starting with either a piece of wood, plastic or metal.

So to which category does it belong?   😕

 

John

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1 hour ago, John Aero said:

Ahh this is the 1:48th Vac

Sorry, John- I didn't realize it was 1/48 😥...as you can tell by my username, it's not my scale, but my comments are still appropriate- that is one beautiful build

Mike!

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Thank you all for the many kind comments,

I was certainly a prolific producer when I was in my early forties.   For a long time I made everything from Masters to moulds and then built the prototypes to put on the trade stand at shows. I developed all my own techniques but often derived or modified from common practice..  My late wife Angela, once said that I should have one word on my gravestone.. 'Modified'

 

It wasn't long before I needed help with kit pattern making so I could concentrate on developing the new short run injection moulded enterprise and the ever growing white metal"bits" range. The talented Brian Fawcett took on many of the Masters and once I'd assembled a first"hot shot" this was soon given to a young Air Cadet who was a talented modeller and who had become an Aeroclub 'groupie'. This was Paul Molloy who then went on to be a regular part of our trade stand at shows. It made a change from his day job with it's blue flashing lights and sirens

 

I ought to write this down for posterity, or would it be posterior

 

John.

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  • 2 weeks later...

That’s fantastic John. I was lucky to find one of these the other day after a long time looking! I can’t see mine coming out anywhere near as well as yours though. My kit only has white metal engine, prop and gun so don’t know if the undercarriage etc is missing. The bag of WM is still stapled to the box.

 

And yes, you should write it all down. It would make fascinating reading for all your Aeroclub fans!

 

Cheers

Glen

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The stable mate to the Gamecock was the 1:48th Avro Tutor which was a Vacform with metal parts and another speed build hence the overall brush painted Humbrol Yellow.  Here it is some 34 years later, untouched but with the exception it's now temporarily on a base.

 

I didn't make this base, as it and the figure were done by my friend Alan Simpson who sent it to me, to spur me into modelling for myself when I retired.  The result was my Gipsy Moth diorama in the Classic forum.

 

I now have a mammoth undertaking under way, The Stackton Tressell Aerodrome Project, of which more anon.

 

John

 

 

 

 

Avro%20Tutor_zpsvlcyx9j4.jpg

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