ICM 1/32 Gloster Gladiator (Belgian Air Force) and Gloster Sea Gladiator (Hal Far Fighter Flight, Malta)

[bigbadbadge]

They are look very nice indeed, they are going to look awesome when together . If only Airfix would release a 24th scale one of these. I would be an even Happier bunny. 

Great work 

Chris

[stevehnz]

Lovely to watch this coming together Stew, a lot of good info for the couple of 1/72 kits in stock destined for similar fates. I'm assuming the mix for the Belgian Khaki is 50/50, RAF DG & DE?

Your interior work is looking very smart too. I'll hang about for the rest of this I think.

Steve

[Stew Dapple]

25 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

Lovely to watch this coming together Stew, a lot of good info for the couple of 1/72 kits in stock destined for similar fates. I'm assuming the mix for the Belgian Khaki is 50/50, RAF DG & DE?

 

It is indeed Dark Earth and Dark Green 50/50. I don't know if the same colour was used for the Swedish and Latvian exports, but the guns without the flash suppressors looks to be true for the Norwegian and Swedish versions too  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[2996 Victor]

Hi Stew,

 

another late arrival, but I'll follow along, too, if I may? 1/32 isn't my scale, although the subject definitely is: I've got several 1/72 Gladiators in my stash so I'm hoping I might pick up a few details to add to my future builds to up their game, so-to-speak.

 

Have you got the Valiant Wings Gloster Gladiator monograph? Well worth the purchase price, IMHO.

 

Interesting what you say about the KitsWorld 3D-printed decal harness: I used a set in 1/72 scale for a Spitfire I'm building. Even in the smaller scale I would say it was adequate, although with a closed canopy it'll be alright. Its a shame as its an idea with mileage, but somehow it didn't work for me and I'll be back to PE in future.

 

Looking forward to the next instalment

 

Kind regards,

 

Mark

[Stew Dapple]

16 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Interesting what you say about the KitsWorld 3D-printed decal harness: I used a set in 1/72 scale for a Spitfire I'm building. Even in the smaller scale I would say it was adequate, although with a closed canopy it'll be alright. Its a shame as its an idea with mileage, but somehow it didn't work for me and I'll be back to PE in future.

 

Hi Mark, that's a shame, I thought they might work better in a smaller scale, but it seems not - I'm inclined to agree; I shall stick with the HGW fabric belts in 1/32 as far as possible. 

 

Anyway I got the seatbelts fitted, though I had to hack them about a bit to more closely resemble the particular arrangement of the harness in the Gladiator:

 

 

 

I made the two restraining cables on the trough of the back 'shelf' out of .1mm nickel silver wire, all I had to hand, and what fun I had: two of them with the ends dipped in superglue gel pinged out of the tweezers to go to wherever it is bits go when they ping out of the tweezers; I shall probably find one of them stuck irrremovably to my head at some point in the future. The wire is a bit too shiny for what was needed but it will have to do.

 

I also fitted the IP's which look like they might actually be semi-visible from the outside even with a closed cockpit so I'm glad I put some effort into them:

 

 

 

The instructions would now have me start on the starboard fuselage interior but since I already did that I'll have to check the instructions to see where I go next...

 

Cheers, 

 

Stew

[bigbadbadge]

Cockpits looking very nice indeed Stew, the seatbelts do look a lot better now you have them in place.  

Great job

Chris

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks Chris, I've got a set of the Kits World seatbelts for the CR.42 but I see that ICM are bringing out a set with a seated Regia Aeronautica pilot so I might just put a little guy in there and see how it goes when I do get round to it.

 

A couple of bits needed to be done before closing the fuselage: fitting the tailwheel (I opted just to fit the fork and add the tyre later for ease of painting):

 

 

... and two clear parts; the fuselage spine light and another clear part which from its position I think must be the glass insulator for the R/T wire:

 

 

Both lovely little details but will be a bit of a pain to mask  

 

While I had the clear parts sprue to hand I applied the Eduard masks to the canopy sections:

 

 

Then I joined the fuselage halves together. There's a bit of 'flex' and care is needed to make sure it's lined up front and back, I was a little less careful than I might have been but it should all come out right in the end:

 

 

... then the underside inserts for the Gladiator and the Sea Gladiator were fitted:

 

 

They fit well, but will need a little bit of tidying up to blend in.

 

So far I have managed not to fit any of the wrong parts to the wrong kits; plenty of time yet, but so far so good  

 

Cheers, 

 

Stew

[bigbadbadge]

They look great Stew, I am pleased to hear that they go together okay too.  I can't wait to see these come together and it's making me eager to do mine,   however I must resist as I have others in the queue first. 

Great work 

Chris 

[stevej60]

Excellent progress Stew,the more I see the more I'm liking this kit.

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks Chris, thanks Steve  Yes, I'm enjoying it so far, but I'm getting near the stage where I have to start drilling holes in things  

 

As far as I can tell from the limited number of pictures I've been able to find, the Belgian Gladiators were not fitted with reflector sights which is logical given that they were top military tech at the time and therefore probably embargoed for exports. The mounting over the dashboard was fitted though; the kit part includes a part of the gunsight moulded onto the frame, but it's easy enough to remove if you are careful:

 

 

I attached the clear parts to a paint-kebab and sprayed them interior grey-green:

 

 

... and the filling and sanding was completed:

 

 

Chris @bigbadbadge was kind enough to point me at @tonyot's useful posts here, which shows the armour plate fitted to the Malta Gladiators - thankfully before I got the canopy parts fitted!

 

I'm attempting to replicate the upper part of the armour with plastic card and I should be able to fabricate its support from plastic strip; the lower part... well it's too late for that, but it should be less noticeable in its absence:

 

 

It's also apparent that N5520 has the older-style windscreen (the one on the right on the paint-kebab above) and not the later-type with the arched windscreen panel. There was at least one visible difference between N5519 and N5520 from the outset - a two-blade prop vs. three-blader - and they were repaired wth what was available when necessary but I can't find any pictures that suggest that N5519 has the later windscreen as indicated in the instructions. In a sense that's a shame, as I wanted to include as many differences as possible between my two Gladiators, but you can't always get what you want, and the Sea Gladiator kit does include the older windscreen on the clear sprue, and the Eduard mask set includes masks for both windscreens, so it could have been worse.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

Thanks for the Mention Stew, I like the paint kebab   great idea.  It's  great that you have added the armour plate too.  Looking forward to seeing the lower wing and bits and bobs going on now, they certainly look good assembled so far.  

Great work

Chris

[tonyot]

Coming on well Stew and glad the pics came in useful. I`ve got a pair of these on the go too,..... they are stalled at the moment with the lower wings fitted,.... lovely kit isn`t it?

Cheers

           Tony

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks Chris; thanks Tony - it is a beautiful kit, what particular aircraft are you building, or have you not decided yet?

 

From Tony's photo's the area aft of the pilot's seat and the interior framing are painted Aluminium; I repainted this area with Vallejo Metal Colour White Aluminium with a brush rather than try to mask it all off for spraying:

 

 

You can also see the T-section bracing for the armour plate, which I made from Slater's Microstrip - this bit here:

 

 

Also painted at the same time was the armour plate:

 

 

It was really too late to repaint the canopies so that the Aluminium colour shows on the inside, as I had already sprayed them interior grey-green - the options were to either paint the canopy framing Aluminium from the inside, or leave it as IG-G. I decided discretion was the better part of valour on this one and left them as they were, except for the 'replacement' front windshield which I had not previously painted, so that was masked and done in Aluminium:

 

 

I also made up the gunsight and put in more effort than is probably healthy, painting it black with a blob of Kristal Kleer to represent the projector lens and stamping out an acetate disc for the reflector plate, which got a coat of a mix of Tamiya Clear Blue and Clear Green round the edges to give it a more glasslike look:

 

 

It might seem a disproportionate effort given that it will most likely be unnoticeable once the kit is completed, but it took me all of five minutes and I was enjoying myself  

 

I didn't do much on the Belgian Gladiator as a result of spending most of my spare time yesterday on the Sea Gladiator, but I did fit the gunsight mounting:

 

 

Most likely there was some sort of pad on there in real life to stop you breaking your face in the event of a hard landing, 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Looking quite nice Stew, sorry for the late comments but haven't been able to check in regular WIP much lately. Making up for it tonight and will follow this as Im a fan of the Gladiator and want a couple someday. 
 

Dennis

[Mottlemaster]

It looks like your getting loads of fun out of this project Stew .I'm building the ICM cr42 at the moment and it has loads of parrels to the Gladiator kit . I'm just gobsmacked how good the fit is and the excellent design of the parts.

Your glass for the gun sight looks so realistic, an idea i will take forward myself.

Looking forward to seeing how you tackle the rigging asiv never tackled this myself .

Cheers Alistair

[bigbadbadge]

Great update Stew, like the repaint and additional bits for the armour.  The gunsight looks great too. Fantastic job.

Chris

Edited February 23, 2021 by bigbadbadge
Predictive text changed gusight to gunfight !!!

[tonyot]

12 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Thanks Chris; thanks Tony - it is a beautiful kit, what particular aircraft are you building, or have you not decided yet?

No worries mate,..... no I`ve not decided fully yet,...... I`m thinking of doing one of the Malta Sea Gladiator`s how they looked pre war with the silver finish and yellow trim,..... plus a Western Desert Gladiator. 

Your models are coming along superbly.

Cheers

           Tony

Edited February 23, 2021 by tonyot

[spitfire]

I am that impressed with this build that I have just about decided to buy a Sea Gladiator myself to go with the one in the stash, I have been dying to buy a kit but there is only the SH Whirlwind on the way that takes my fancy (until now).

It is a great idea building the two at once, I haven't done that for ages but it makes a lot of sense, I may even start another Hurricane as well as the one that I am currently building.

Here's a pic from our 2010 holiday

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[tonyot]

3 hours ago, spitfire said:

I am that impressed with this build that I have just about decided to buy a Sea Gladiator myself to go with the one in the stash, I have been dying to buy a kit but there is only the SH Whirlwind on the way that takes my fancy (until now).

It is a great idea building the two at once, I haven't done that for ages but it makes a lot of sense, I may even start another Hurricane as well as the one that I am currently building.

Here's a pic from our 2010 holiday

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Nice one Dennis,.... go for it! They have moved the Sea Gladiator in Malta now and it is sat on top of a display cabinet in a building on the roof of the Fort,..... looks daft up there if you ask me and you cannot see it properly. The old War Museum was so much better.

https://www.alamy.com/faith-is-the-only-surviving-gladiator-fighter-which-defended-malta-when-italy-attacked-in-1940-now-preserved-in-the-national-war-museum-valetta-image221865570.html

Edited February 23, 2021 by tonyot

[2996 Victor]

5 minutes ago, tonyot said:

Nice one Dennis,.... go for it! They have moved the Sea Gladiator in Malta now and it is sat on top of a display cabinet in a building on the roof of the Fort,..... looks daft up there if you ask me and you cannot see it properly. The old War Museum was so much better.

https://www.alamy.com/faith-is-the-only-surviving-gladiator-fighter-which-defended-malta-when-italy-attacked-in-1940-now-preserved-in-the-national-war-museum-valetta-image221865570.html

 

Oh, no! That's such a shame - they really need to get a grip, and send her over to the Aviation Museum where she belongs and where she would receive the love and care she needs and deserves.

[tonyot]

3 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

 

Oh, no! That's such a shame - they really need to get a grip, and send her over to the Aviation Museum where she belongs and where she would receive the love and care she needs and deserves.

Agreed,..... especially since they moved it to its current location. There is a set of wings at Takali donated by the RAF Museum.

[Stew Dapple]

23 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Looking quite nice Stew, sorry for the late comments but haven't been able to check in regular WIP much lately. Making up for it tonight and will follow this as Im a fan of the Gladiator and want a couple someday. 
 

Dennis

 

Hey Dennis no problem mate, good to see you and I know 1/32 isn't your customary scale but you probably won't get a better Gladiator kit any time soon  

 

21 hours ago, Mottlemaster said:

It looks like your getting loads of fun out of this project Stew .I'm building the ICM cr42 at the moment and it has loads of parrels to the Gladiator kit . I'm just gobsmacked how good the fit is and the excellent design of the parts.

Your glass for the gun sight looks so realistic, an idea i will take forward myself.

Looking forward to seeing how you tackle the rigging asiv never tackled this myself .

Cheers Alistair

 

Thanks Alistair, I've got the CR.42 as well, minimal rigging but complex paint job; swings and roundabouts  I can't even remember where I stole the idea for the gunsight glass but it is quite effective, though will be unnoticeable in real terms, the gunsight itself being about 2.5mm across... I'll be using Infini Lycra Thread for the rigging, and where I can some of Bob's Buckles eyelets, but it's a prospect I do have some measure of trepidation about  

 

14 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Great update Stew, like the repaint and additional bits for the armour.  The gunsight looks great too. Fantastic job.

Chris

 

Thanks Chris, it's always good to gussy-up the little bits where you can, it draws the eye away from the other mistakes  

 

11 hours ago, tonyot said:

No worries mate,..... no I`ve not decided fully yet,...... I`m thinking of doing one of the Malta Sea Gladiator`s how they looked pre war with the silver finish and yellow trim,..... plus a Western Desert Gladiator. 

Your models are coming along superbly.

Cheers

           Tony

 

Like the one illustrated in "No Place for Beginners" with the diamond markings on the upper wing? That would be a beauty  

 

11 hours ago, spitfire said:

I am that impressed with this build that I have just about decided to buy a Sea Gladiator myself to go with the one in the stash, I have been dying to buy a kit but there is only the SH Whirlwind on the way that takes my fancy (until now).

It is a great idea building the two at once, I haven't done that for ages but it makes a lot of sense, I may even start another Hurricane as well as the one that I am currently building.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Thanks Dennis, yes go for it mate, although there's no particular rush as I suspect this kit will be available in different guises for years to come  I too am awaiting the Special Hobby Whirlwind but it might still be a while before that sees the light of day. Building two of (more or less) the same kit at once is a lot like making love to a... no, wait, I mean it's a lot like having a pair of dogs instead of one. There's a lot of time saved by not duplicating effort on two different things, in the same way that having a pair of dogs is like a 25% increase in 'work' rather than 100% as raw logic would suggest.

 

I more or less assembled the rudders:

 

 

I haven't added the position lights at the lower part of the rudders, that can wait until after painting. Of the four actuator attachments at the lower half of the leading part of the rudder, one pinged out of the tweezers while I was preparing it for glueing, was found after a long search of the locale, then promptly pinged away at the second attempt at glueing; I did not find it the second time so fabricated one from a bit of scrap plastic - it's the further one in the picture. Also the Sea Gladiator rudder has the R/T wire 'prong' on it, whereas the Belgian one has the 'prong' on the tailfin itself, so that's another thing for me to remember not to mix up.

 

Finally I added the parts on which the rudder will hang:

 

 

I had a hell of a time getting those in; they seemed way too big and while that could be my fault I'm not sure how, but I had to shave quite a bit off the sides of the part in question to get it to fit in the slot.

 

I think I'll fit the rudders at the end, for ease of painting. In fact I think the easiest way forward for me may be to do what the model ship-builders do: make everything possible up as a sub-assembly then put it all together after painting. 

 

Finally... I've reached the stage where drilling becomes a necessity and that makes me a bit nervous given my inherent cack-handedness. The immediate requirement is for two holes to be drilled in the tailfin, two in the upper stabiliser and one in the lower. I have a plan - please do let me know if you see a flaw in it: if I tape the two upper halves of the stabilisers together, mating face to mating face, I can drill through both at the same time, and end up with perfectly symmetrical holes in both stabilisers, and do the same with the lower stabilisers. Either that's reasonably clever, or very stupid, but I've thought it over and I can't see a problem with it  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

53 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

Hey Dennis no problem mate, good to see you and I know 1/32 isn't your customary scale but you probably won't get a better Gladiator kit any time soon  

No Stew not normally but for smaller interwar or early war planes like this its becoming ok. They're not much different from a larger Single engine fighter like a P-47 or Mustang in 1/48. And it makes it so much easier to work with. I have a Curtiss Sparrowhawk coming up soon in the Rotation and its also 1/32. 

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Stew

Good to know about the rudder hinge bits thanks for the heads up.  The actuators that pinged off it the sacrifice to the carpet monster and so at least you won't need to give them anything else for these builds !!!

For me I would drill separately as I would no doubt not get the drill perpendicular to the parts !!!

Good luck with your drilling.

Chris

[Jonny]

Yes, it is a shame the Gladiator has been relocated, and clearly not displayed as well as previously.     The last time we visited Malta - in 1990, I think - I saw the Gladiator wings at Takali and one of the staff I chatted with seemed confident the fuselage would soon be transferred to Takali and stay there, thus creating a complete Gladiator.  Takali is a SUPER Museum, I think,  and like many 'smaller' ones the staff there are real enthusiasts and know about the exhibits.

 

Progress,  I suppose it's called!

 

Jonny

 

 PS Sorry,  I didn't mean to hijack a very good thread -  guess who's just ordered the kit!