Airfix Gloster Gladiator

[Dave C]

In 1956 Airfix released the Gloster Gladiator mark 1, catalogue number 1335 with a 2-bladed Watts propeller as K6142 of 72 squadron. I have a completed model built in the 60’s

However, in Jeremy Brooks Sixty Years of Airfix Models there is a reference on page 17 that the Gladiator was modified  shortly after release to have a different propeller.

I have found on King Kit

https://www.kingkit.co.uk/product/airfix-aircraft-1335-gloster-gladiator-mk-ii-faith 

a reference to “Faith”, so was the Airfix Gladiator reissued in 1956/57 as a Gladiator mark 2 or a Sea Gladiator, with a 3-bladed Fairy Reed propeller as N5520 Faith of the Malta Hal Far Fighter Flight?

In the early 1960’s I remember a camouflaged Airfix Gladiator with a 3 bladed propeller in an Uncle’s display cabinet

[Richard Humm]

The initial release had the three bladed propellor and serial N5520, but was modified around 1959 or 1960 to have a two-blade prop and 72 Squadron prewar markings for K6142. The first release is only found in the original Type 1 bag, while the modified version was in the Type 2 and 3 bags in the 1960s, the Type 4 blister pack and Type 5 box in the 1970s (being discontinued in 1978), and a Type 8 box in the late 1980s.

[fightersweep]

That's really interesting to know. I hadn't realised that the original Gladiator kit was different from what ended up being on the shelves for so many years. Learn something new every day.

 

That will be this original release then;

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/airfix-1335-gloster-gladiator--265175

[RJP]

I had no idea Airfix had done a Mk II.  One of my earliest models was the 72 Sqn Mk I in the early 1960s;  there are some fossils from it in the spares box.

 

I got a kick out of the price sticker on the referenced photo.  Simpson's (The Robert Simpson Company Limited) was long one of Canada's premier retailers, since devoured, ruined and blotted out by Hudson's Bay.  Those were the days, you could get models at a place like that.

 

And the price, 49 cents sounds low today but at the time I was getting bagged Airfix kits for 25 cents at Woolworths.

[Richard Humm]

Yes, the blue plastic is the first issue, though there are grey versions of the original Gladiator as well. It would have been 2/- in the UK - that's two shillings, which would be 10p in current money. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator, that's equivalent to £2.66 these days.

Edited February 16, 2022 by Richard Humm

[viscount806x]

18 hours ago, Richard Humm said:

Yes, the blue plastic is the first issue, though there are grey versions of the original Gladiator as well. It would have been 2/- in the UK - that's two shillings, which would be 10p in current money. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator, that's equivalent to £2.66 these days.

I believe that the original might also have had the pilots head moulded on to the cockpit section too but not 100% sure on that one.

[snipeboy]

Yep,I seem to remember the gladiator with molded pilots head to fuselage sides.

[Richard Humm]

4 hours ago, viscount806x said:

I believe that the original might also have had the pilots head moulded on to the cockpit section too but not 100% sure on that one.

That was never changed - the reissue in 2008 still had a flat cockpit top with the pilot's head moulded on it.The original Spitfire and Lysander kits were the same.