Sea Gladiator

[825]

I've been working on the struts. Drilled a small hole in the ends and inserted some Slater's plastic rod to make pins. I decided to use plastic rather than wire to be able to use liquid cement, which once firm I can see if some cyano is needed. 

 

 

I used the same approach with the main undercarriage legs and oil cooler intake. I've also fixed the cowling. 

 

 

And here are the main struts affixed. I'm waiting for them to set before painting them. Also the upper wing is in the need of some touching up of its paint so need to rush. 

 

 

@dogsbody suggested an Airfix prop.  I thought I had at least one new version of the Airfix Gladiator in the stash so a bit of a search revealed one. There's only one prop in it but it's a Watts with a separate spinner so it was purloined. I'll have to replace it with something when I get round to make it but that's for another day. Looking at the kit I might have been better building it rather than this more challenging Paula edition. It does look the best of the props though. 

 

 

 

[dogsbody]

This two give you both two-blade Watts and 3-blade Fairey-Reed props.

 

https://www.super-hobby.com/products/Gloster-Gladiator-Mk.I-Mk.II.html

 

https://www.super-hobby.com/products/Gloster-Gladiator-Mk.II-plus-Skis.html

 

 

 

You could also ask to see if anyone has the Watts in their spares.

 

 

 

Chris

[825]

Thanks @dogsbody, that's helpful. 

 

The canopy is now on and I've part masked it. As it's fairly straightforward I thought I'd use the 'strips' technique of doing first the horizontal frames then the vertical ones as I'm brush painting. I'm not sure if it's any quicker than my usual method of masking each pane with little strips before attaching and painting as a single piece. Anyway it's always good to try new things. The horizontal frames are now masked and will shortly receive some paint. 

 

 

I am having some challenges as parts keep keep falling off, struts, tail wheel support and exhausts have all fallen off. I'll repair and then leave them off until I've finished handling the airframe to get the canopy done. 

[825]

Canopy finished, wasn't too taxing but took longer than expected. Three paint sessions, one horizontal, one vertical and then the windscreen. Each had 4 coats, one of Kleer to seal, then interior grey-green, then Dark Slate Grey and finally a coat of matt varnish. A lot of drying and curing time. 

 

[825]

Upper wing on. I'm glad I drilled out the struts and wings and inserted spigots of plastic rod. It made fixing the wing pretty painless and it only took a couple of minutes. Mind you I've still to add the cabane struts and I haven't made any modifications to them as I'm hoping a butt join on a fairly rigid set up should be OK. Fingers crossed. I will leave the model alone for a while to let the glue cure. 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Nice repairs Im hoping they hold too. 

[Stew Dapple]

Looking like a Gladiator now mate, nice work

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[825]

17 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Nice repairs Im hoping they hold too. 

Thanks, the wings seem pretty solid and there's no flex or wobble so hopefully will stand the test of time. 

 

8 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Looking like a Gladiator now mate, nice work

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

Thanks Stew, although it's not an easy build it does look pretty good for shape, etc..

 

Now the cabane struts added. I softened the mating points with 3 applications of glue then placed the strut end on the location point on the upper wing, made sure it was attached, albeit not firmly, turned the airframe upside down and gently teased the other end onto the fuselage mating point. Once done I applied more glue to wick round both joints. I then left it a little while before starting on the next one. Seems to have worked. 

 

 

I've also started to repainting the main struts Sky as all the pictures I've seen show them in a light colour not the upper surface colour they stand on. Once that's done I'll break out the cyano and start to add the remaining resin parts and hopefully finish off.  A few weeks to go so should be done. 

[825]

This has been sitting waiting for me to brave the cyano. This morning I realised that although most of the remaining joints involved at least one side of resin, there were only 8 or 9 parts left to add. OK they were fairly important, prop, wheels and guns amongst them but I'd done most of the prep by drilling holes and fashioning pegs from plastic rod. So I girded my loins and got on with it. First the remainder of the undercarriage and wing guns as well as the remaining air breather tube. 

 

 

Then added most most of the remaining parts. And the remaining anoint transfers, the upper wing roundels are from the kit and the serial from an Xtradecal sheet of a slightly later date when 804 was embarked on HMS Furious. The pictures of 804 at Hatson don't show individual aircraft IDs although they had them when embarked on HMS Glorious beforehand and Furious afterwards. But they were probably repainted with Sky at Hatson. 

 

 

 

Thers a little little bit of touching up needed, two tiny pieces of resin to add (which could end up eaten by the carpet monster) and a couple of coats of matt varnish. 

[825]

Hurrah, this is now finished and once I have some decent light I'll take its pictures for the gallery. A bit challenging at times but builds into a nice Gladiator. I did like the Battle of Britain RAF option in the box but once I'd decided on an 804 NAS Sea Gladiator that was the way to go. 

 

[Stew Dapple]

Lovely job mate

 

I look forward to the Gallery pics  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[825]

On 10/20/2020 at 4:33 PM, Stew Dapple said:

Lovely job mate

 

I look forward to the Gallery pics  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

Thanks Stew. 

 

I took some photos for the gallery and the plan was for to pop it into the gallery now. However, the photos all show the mainplane covered in dust so I'll retake them. 

 

 

 

 

Although I do say it myself it does look pretty nice.