On Swedish Ski(e)s - Airfix 1/72

[Patrik]

My next project.

 

 

And the ingredients.

 

 

I cut the plastic already, and as with my previous Airfix new tool, I am a bit disappointed. Looks beautiful in the box, but the intakes are heavy and the mould seams are omnipresent. More shortrunish than some of the recent shortruns in this particular matter.

[Hobo]

Looking forward to this Patrik. 

[Courageous]

On 10/5/2019 at 10:18 AM, Patrik said:

I am a bit disappointed.

...and I'm sure you'll overcome the problems.

 

Stuart

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Taking my seat now.  Just love a gladiator. 

[Col.]

Ooh this looks different

[Christer A]

I sure can't resist a J8 Gladiator!

This should be very interesting.

[Patrik]

Finally some modelling time. (Almost) all parts cleaned and ready for the assembly. Whereas the big parts are beautiful (I like especially the wings and the tail surfaces), the small parts have soft details like coming from a kind of less recent short run. The parts from the additional sprue (ski and the Fairey Reed three-blade propeller) look a lot sharper - probably later production.

 

 

The assembly starts - surprisingly - with the cockpit, using the Eduard PE. I am glad I am an observant boy, as though the PE designer did magnificent job, he or she somehow failed to coordinate with the instructions' guy.

 

 

And this - I guess - would also look quite wrong when assembled according to the instructions (in the first picture), and will benefit from the second setup. I am happy the producers are keen in testing our brain capacity. Our hobby would be less fun without small trickery like this.

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2019 by Patrik

[Tomoshenko]

Nice choice Patrik. I built this kit in the Swedish Voluntary Air Force livery with skis too. Lovely kit which goes together well with the exception of the engine cowl and collector ring (well for me at least) so be prepared for some dry fit and testing. Also not quite taken by the machine gun assembly which has you fit them prior to joining up the fuselage. Makes masking a little difficult so I cut off the barrels and added them later. However, as you have aftermarket replacements it looks like you've already accounted for this.

[72modeler]

How in blazes are you going to do that pair of dikes shown on the cockpit floor in 1/72? Ha! (Are any of the detail parts in the Heller kit any better?)

Mike

[Patrik]

Working in the cockpit. The seat is temporary installation, as the complicated PE seat harness setup cannot be completed prior painting. Some of the PE parts are so tiny, they keep me wondering how many years I still do have, before I have to change to 1/48 (or built the kits just OOB🙂). Which did not prevent me from some scratch-build improvement in copper.

 

@Tomoshenko The engine/cowling assembly will be an engineering feat, I am sure, thanks for the warning. The gun barrels belong to the worse parts of the kit. Nevertheless, as I am going to replace them with the Mini World Brownings anyway, they are lesser problem in my build. And the same applies to the interior assembly. Masking is not that important issue while brush painting.

 

@72modeler Dikes - watch and marvel. And concerning the Heller kit - I sold it so many years ago I do not remember the quality of the interior parts - except that they had not been too many of them.

 

Edited November 24, 2019 by Patrik

[72modeler]

Beautiful cockpit- can't wait to see it painted and the harness installed!

Mike

[TallBlondJohn]

Got this in the stash, will take notes. Have to admit that stick looks a little crude compared to the rest of the cockpit, or is that just the angle?

[72modeler]

30 minutes ago, TallBlondJohn said:

that stick looks a little crude compared to the rest of the cockpit,

Doesn't Quickboost make a set of three resin Gladiator control columns in 1/72, or am I thinking of something else?

Mike

[Patrik]

On 11/24/2019 at 8:24 PM, 72modeler said:

Doesn't Quickboost make a set of three resin Gladiator control columns in 1/72, or am I thinking of something else?

Mike

Quickboost produces so many Gladiator resin parts that there would be most probably no original kit parts left - at least not in the cockpit - if you bought them all. But I have to admit that the control column (+ the compass stand) and the gun pods look tempting enough, and I will keep it in mind next time I build the kit.

The control column may look a bit crude, especially compared to the PE parts. Nevertheless please take into account that the real thing is about 6 mm tall, so - depending on your monitor - you can view the stuff easily magnified up to 3-4 times.

[72modeler]

Patrik,

 

The QB set with a control column and compass/pedestal is QB72450, but to be very honest with you, both are pretty simplified and not really much of an  improvement over what comes in the Airfix kit. The control column that comes in the Heller Gladiator is actually just as good as the QB part, and I've got three Heller kits in the stash, so no big deal. The compass and pedestal would be very easy to scratch build, and would be more detailed and accurate than either the Airfix or QB part.

Mike

[#mosquito fighter]

I like this one!

[Patrik]

The interior parts before they are assembled and thus (mostly) removed from the sight of men (and eventually women as well) for ever.

 

 

[Antti_K]

Excellent work with the interior Patrik! This is clearly going to be a stunning model once finished.

 

Cheers,

Antti

[Col.]

Wow!

[Patrik]

After the Siskin research intermezzo, some hands-on modelling again.

I decided to add the (rather apparently) missing blisters behind the gun throughs on both sides. I am quite proud I managed to manufacture and glue the common-tick-sized details without major incident.

 

 

The big parts went together very well, I am happy with the the clever engineering of the kit. A bit of putty was needed under the fuselage chin (most probably my own mistake) and on the wing root leading edges, a bit more on the wing root trailing edges, where the fit of the wing with the fuselage was not ideal. And I allow you one last glimpse into the interior.

 

 

I assembled also the seven-league boots, though their pre-painting had been overly optimistic as the assembly was not exactly puttyless.

 

Edited December 21, 2019 by Patrik

[Courageous]

Some nice work there Patrik with the usual attention to detail.

 

Stuart 

[dogsbody]

The old Matchbox kit had a Swedish decal option.

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Patrik]

Some of the Eduard details are really elegant.

 

 

It looks like the early tail ski(d) differs from the one represented in the kit, I was too lazy to scratch-build new one, so I rather modified the one from the kit. By the way, after dry fitting a few times, it seems to me it is the part D4 that should be used for the "on-the-ground" option and D6 for the "in-flight" option, and not vice-versa as depicted in the kit instructions.

 

Edited December 25, 2019 by Patrik

[Patrik]

After the first painting round, it was a time to assemble the engine and the cowling. Forewarned regarding their fiddly assembly, I went carefully step by step with appropriate technological lulls. Contrary to my natural distrust to kit instructions (instructions are for cowards, as we all know so well), I went exactly as suggested by the steps 10-15 (except for the air intake pipes, which I left for the last step). So it was the engine first.

 

 

Followed by the lower cowling part with the exhaust pipes. By the way, I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent fit, as both the cowling and the exhaust pipes struts fitted to the expected places with no efforts at all.

 

 

Next - after some filling and scratching - the exhaust collector ring.

 

 

Which, no matter how hard I tried, resulted in the undeniable step on the port side, and the likewise undeniable gap on the starboard side.

 

  

 

However, as I suspected that life would not be that easy (and therefore had not prepainted the upper cowling), I glued only the upper portions of the remaining two parts together. Now, I will leave it mature overnight and tomorrow, I will remove it again and make the inevitable corrections before the final assembly. The upper central seam looks far from ideal as well, so though in general I understand the technical reasoning behind the three-part cowling, I am not happy with the solution.

[Patrik]

Biplane at least.

 

 

The cabane struts alone are enough to keep the geometry right, so I decided to remove the cross-bracings between the interplane struts and glue them later one by one. Though the suggested approach looks rather well thought out, the interplane struts belong to the parts mostly affected by the mould seam, so in fact I cannot imagine cleaning the seams effectively after fixing the struts between the wings.