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Roden Gladiator - Rigging, Check!


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Well, after the 6 month Blenheim build I finished a little while ago, I fancied something quick and easy and a change of scene, so out came the 50th Anniversary Apollo 11 kit from Revell that my wife had bought me for my birthday. Even something as basic as this ancient kit had its difficulties though, and I agonised over the very basic paint instructions that Revell supply!  A very simple kit, but little things like cutting and fitting the windows out of plastic sheet, and fixing the gold foil to the lander, were still challenging. Seeing these shots has reminded me I forgot to take the masking off Eagles windows ...🙄

 

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50th anniversary Apollo 11 Revell kit by Mike, on Flickr

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50th anniversary Apollo 11 Revell kit by Mike, on Flickr

 

And all the while this pleasant distraction was going on I was wondering, as always, what to build next. While researching one of my pet subjects, Schneider racers, I discovered Special Hobby make a couple of Sopwith float planes, in my favourite scale, 1/48! I'm still struggling to acquire their military Schneider or Baby float planes within my budget, but a Tabloid has been purchased, for under £20 posted, and it looks like a lovely kit, with resin and PE parts. I'm currently reading Sopwith: the Man and his Aircraft which is a mine of information.

Another new kit that fell into my lap was the 2010 Revell 196A-3 Arado float plane, a charity shop find! I have Tintin on my shoulder here telling me to paint it yellow, which is very tempting. I'm going to sit on it a while and think.

 

And another sub-£20 kit I found a few months ago, the Roden Gloster Gladiator, which I've decided is next on the cutting table, although I'm still undecided what colour scheme to go for - silver dope or RAF temperate. The kit has two options for prewar/Phoney War, my current go-to.

Detail looks good in places, not so good in others. The wings and tail surfaces seem devoid of any detail at all. My current financial situation means building OOB is preferred, but I see there are a couple of PE options available - Brengun and Eduard. Are they really worth the extra expense?

 

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Roden 1/48 Gloster Gladiator - assessment by Mike, on Flickr

 

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Roden 1/48 Gloster Gladiator - assessment by Mike, on Flickr

 

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Roden 1/48 Gloster Gladiator - assessment by Mike, on Flickr

 

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Roden 1/48 Gloster Gladiator - assessment by Mike, on Flickr

 

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Roden 1/48 Gloster Gladiator - assessment by Mike, on Flickr

 

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Roden 1/48 Gloster Gladiator - assessment by Mike, on Flickr

 

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[/url]Roden 1/48 Gloster Gladiator - assessment by Mike, on Flickr

 

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Roden 1/48 Gloster Gladiator - assessment by Mike, on Flickr

 

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Roden 1/48 Gloster Gladiator - assessment by Mike, on Flickr

 

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Very nice choice, the Tabloid would be interesting not seen one built before,  but what ever you choose it will be good.  The Roden Gladiator is nice, the Eduard PE was good too and does help enhance the cockpit somewhat.   I have one of the Eduard boxings and am going to do the Sea Gladiator option. 

Looking forward to what ever you choose. Space models look good too

Chris

 

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Two new books for the library. The Hawker Aircraft was picked up at Battlesbridge antique market the other week for a couple of quid. I'm currently halfway through the Sopwith history, and hankering to attempt the Bat Boat, as well as the 1914 Schneider racer.

 

As of yet, I've unusually not got any reference books for the Gladiator!

 

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It would be a no-brainer for me, Mike: it would have to be the Sopwith. I also have the Sopwith book, and it's very good indeed. I've browsed through the various 1/72 plans umpteen times - one day I might actually commit to building something from them! An Antelope, maybe... Definitely have a look at Moa's Batboat build here on BM - it's fantastic.

 

The Glad is a little bit too late in timescale for my current tastes, but only just; you can't get better for a Gladiator than one of the pre-war silver schemes.

 

As for the aftermarket vs OOB 'dilemma', I'm pretty sure that you don't need it, that you can get a very satisfactory result OOB with either of those kits and, if you really need more detail, you could enjoy the satisfaction of scratching it while avoiding unnecessary expense.

 

Whatever your choices, this will be interesting to watch.

 

Jon

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11 minutes ago, Moa said:

YES!!!!

I did the Bat Boat a few months ago, beautiful machine, but a bit complex.

The Schneider one is glorious.., please build it!

 

(Completely biased for the Luminous Side of The Force)

 

Thanks Moa, I shall revisit your impressive Bat Boat thread. I must admit, that since following your builds on here it has sparked more of an interest in civil aircraft. My focus has shifted from when I was a modeller first time round, in the 80s, where all of my builds had guns and bombs. While military history still holds me in it's grip, I find peacetime aircraft more intriguing now, or where military hardware has been repurposed for a civil postwar role. (I say military history, but really I see it as social history, as we fought two world wars with civilian conscript armies.)

 

There are some superb early Sopwith builds out there!

 

A slight thread hijack, but it's my thread, so ...

 

https://www.baesystems.com/en/heritage/sopwith-tabloid

 

http://www.modellversium.de/galerie/23-flugzeuge-ww1/15270-sopwith-schneider-special-hobby.html

 

https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=6745.0

 

https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=10756.0

 

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26 minutes ago, Jonners said:

It would be a no-brainer for me, Mike: it would have to be the Sopwith. I also have the Sopwith book, and it's very good indeed. I've browsed through the various 1/72 plans umpteen times - one day I might actually commit to building something from them! An Antelope, maybe... Definitely have a look at Moa's Batboat build here on BM - it's fantastic.

 

The Glad is a little bit too late in timescale for my current tastes, but only just; you can't get better for a Gladiator than one of the pre-war silver schemes.

 

As for the aftermarket vs OOB 'dilemma', I'm pretty sure that you don't need it, that you can get a very satisfactory result OOB with either of those kits and, if you really need more detail, you could enjoy the satisfaction of scratching it while avoiding unnecessary expense.

 

Whatever your choices, this will be interesting to watch.

 

Jon

 

I agree with you Jon. I think the slightly simpler Gladiator is a good warm up for the more technical earlier builds I'm more leaning towards. After seeing some of the outstanding builds out there I really want to do the kit justice, and my skills definitely need some practice before I jump in. (Also I fancy converting it the the 1914 Schneider race winner)

The decals for the silver dope MkI Gladiator are for early '39, in Palestine. Less colourful than the home service squadrons with their gaudy markings.

 

 

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1 minute ago, Quiet Mike said:

simpler Gladiator

Of course, that could be plan B:

https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/Stock-Images/Rights-Managed/MEV-11952545

 

https://previews.agefotostock.com/previewimage/medibigoff/0b3f8fe48d62a828097ed2657f29bcf2/mev-11952543.jpg

 

I have bought Airfix's new kit for this purpose (but it's number 1,457 in the cue, so it would be by 2067)

 

(I think you may be starting to feel sorry you asked...)

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11 hours ago, Moa said:

I have bought Airfix's new kit for this purpose (but it's number 1,457 in the cue, so it would be by 2067)

 

(I think you may be starting to feel sorry you asked...)

 

😂

Big stashes are not a surprise to me, but having them queued up? So you don't spend several weeks struggling to choose which one to build next? Or go in blindfolded, spin around, and pick one at random?

It sounds like you keep a record of them all, but more importantly, does an Excel spreadsheet actually go up that high?? Concerned, of Southampton.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54423988

 

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7 hours ago, Quiet Mike said:

 

😂

Big stashes are not a surprise to me, but having them queued up? So you don't spend several weeks struggling to choose which one to build next? Or go in blindfolded, spin around, and pick one at random?

It sounds like you keep a record of them all, but more importantly, does an Excel spreadsheet actually go up that high?? Concerned, of Southampton.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54423988

 


Just a figure of speech .

I only have 479,467 kits. And that's just the aircraft.

 

(Kidding, I have about 60 kits, but I scratch quite a bit)

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On 10/22/2020 at 1:01 PM, corsaircorp said:

A Norway campaign will be great !!

 

Not from the Norwegian campaign, but such a cool photo I decided to share anyway 😎

 

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Work on the Gladiator has progressed, but nothing really worthy recording in photographs. I'll take a snap today before I close the fuselage up.

 

I'm currently part time furloughed as my work load has evaporated during Covid. My work are looking into my options as the furlough scheme ends this weekend, as I just don't have full time work to go back too yet, but we're using this downtime for me to retrain on some new software. I currently use a program called ArchiCAD to produce 3D architectural renders of prospective builds. It does an OK job, but I'm not getting the photorealistic results we really need in our business. The industry standard in our business is Autodesk 3ds Max, and my current downtime makes retraining ideal. The last couple of weeks have been melting my brain though, as it is such a complicated program for an old luddite like myself! I have gone from producing half decent renders, to making things that look like Duplo blocks. Hopefully things will eventually start clicking into place but that seems a long way off from here! Anyway, it's made time on the workbench at home is a blessed relief working with my hands doing physical building, rather than struggling doing the same thing digitally at work.

 

https://3men2.co.uk/our-work/architectural-cgis

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A few shots through the unflattering eye of my 50mm with a macro ring added. You wouldn't think this was over a weeks worth of building.

After careful deliberation I decided to avoid the expense of aftermarket PE goodies and build OOB, just making a few scratch bits inside to add a little detail, like the harness out of pie tin foil. Etch belts would look much better, but £10 is a lot right now!

I also knocked up a piece for the bulkhead behind the cockpit, using scrap plastic from a margarine tub. Canopy masked too. I'm looking forward to closing the fuselage up now!

 

 

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1/48 Gladiator cockpit by Mike, on Flickr

 

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1/48 Gladiator cockpit by Mike, on Flickr

 

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1/48 Gladiator cockpit by Mike, on Flickr

 

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1/48 Gladiator cockpit by Mike, on Flickr

 

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1/48 Gladiator test fit by Mike, on Flickr

 

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1/48 Gladiator canopy masked by Mike, on Flickr

 

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On 10/30/2020 at 7:27 PM, SAT69 said:

That cockpit looks great! Love the detail!

 

On 10/30/2020 at 10:23 PM, Alex Gordon said:

That's looking good.I've got one on the go in the MTO GB at the moment,anything done to fill out the cockpit is a good thing.Keep up the good work :goodjob: .

 

Thanks chaps. It was good to close the fuselage up at last! I did feel I was chasing my tail a bit with the interior, and not actually getting anywhere.

The fuselage on this kit doesn't have any locator pins, which is a new one on me. I added a few bits of plastic to the inside just to help on this front. It did pop apart a bit after the first glue, and needed a couple of goes to stick properly. There are no bulkheads internally, which would help I think, as it's easy to press the sides in on such a round body. Once it was together I thought applying different bases for the aluminium top coat would help make the canvas and metal parts stand out. It does a little, but it's very subtle. Too subtle for photography! You need to move it in the light to see any difference.

 

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Roden 1/48 Gladiator by Mike, on Flickr

 

As I wanted the canopy open, I had to do a little adjustment on the rear section. I sanded the bottom very slightly, just so the sliding canopy would still sit on the rails when on top. It's stopped it looking like a small hat on a big head. This is Tamiya aluminium, and it's a bit grainy? I'm sure there are smoother metalic paints out there!

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Roden 1/48 Gladiator by Mike, on Flickr

 

And the rigging is really killing my mojo! So far, other than drilling lots of little holes, this is all I've done. I had some elastic thread kicking around in the sewing box, but I don't like it. It's too thin, and too fragile. I'm going to ditch all this and start again ... I am really struggling with my fat fingers and limited tools. (Basically some cocktail sticks and old bent tweezers from a nail care kit.) I definitely need some of those fancy tweezers that grip. And I need to look into getting either more suitable elastic thread, or monofilament fishing line, or even pushing the budget and getting some EZ Line.

You can see the kit is getting a bit battle scarred, from my clumsy handling while trying to rig it. And the tail is the easy part! The main wing rigging will be a real test! But hopefully with better tools and line it won't be quite so painful. As I'd like to make more early aircraft and float planes, I really need to crack this rigging malarky.

(Also, I'd like to add a flory wash, and need to do this before I do any rigging!)

 

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Roden 1/48 Gladiator by Mike, on Flickr

 

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Roden 1/48 Gladiator by Mike, on Flickr

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  • Quiet Mike changed the title to Roden Gladiator - Rigging headaches :-(

EZ line is very stretchy but easy enough to use. 
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used on my 1/48 triplane. I found if I attach one end then leave it to set, then stretch and glue the other end, working my way round in pairs it was easy enough. I reckon it may be a but thin for 1/48.

 

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I think this is (almost) my preferred method, monofilament with a blind hole at one end through hole at the other. Yes you have to fill and retouch the through holes, but it’s much more positive and is also structural and can be used to straighten or brace things.


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Last but not least my Little Airfix glad done with beading thread and through holes, hard to get and maintain rigging tension with this method.


On my next outing ( the Taube) I’m going to try a bit of both but with UV cure adhesive.

Edited by Marklo
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Three self locking dental tweezers and a roll of .08mm monofilament on order ... Lets see what round two brings! Until then I'll add transfers and give it a tap with the Flory stick.

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On 11/2/2020 at 2:45 PM, Marklo said:

On my next outing ( the Taube) I’m going to try a bit of both but with UV cure adhesive.

 

Yeas, I'm following your Taube build Marco. I'm going to try usig this monofilament, and see how I go. If that goes pear shaped I'll try the EZ line.

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Hey. Great choice, I have “almost” this very kit. I think most of the parts are the same. I just checked for the butt join on the fuselage and it’s the same. I think I have a few extra sprews. One with a three pronged prop ans some skis! 🤩

 

looking forward to see what you do with her. I’ll tag along if that’s ok. 😍

As for metallics I use Vallejo Metals, they are acrylic and very good. Not as bitty as Tamiya silver. I can vouch for EZ line too. 🥳

Great start though, that office looks the part for sure. 
 

Johnny

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