ICM 1/32 Gloster Gladiator Mk1

[Guest]

I dry brushed Uschi Metal Powder onto the propeller boss. I believe that the prop is wood so I kept the metal powder off that.
(…)
Also, for the next build, the Sea Gladiator, with a three bladed prop, I assume that was wood as well. Does anyone know for sure?

The Wikipedia article on the Gladiator says:—

The Mk II soon followed, the main differences being a slightly more powerful Mercury VIIIAS engine with Hobson mixture control boxes and a partly automatic boost control carburettor, driving a Fairey fixed-pitch three-blade metal propeller, instead of the two-blade wooden one of the Mark I.

IPMS Stockholm has it like this:

Both the Mk II and Sea Gladiator were originally built with the three-bladed metal propeller, but most had these replaced by the original two-blade wooden prop in service.

Also, this line may be of interest for your build:

Something that should be mentioned is that RAF wooden propellers were painted a shade of grey very similar to Medium Sea Grey - this I know from having seen many original examples during the time I worked for the RAF Museum.

[BarryW]

Thanks Jakko. Some very useful information there.

[BarryW]

More progress and getting to the trickier part of the build.

the gunsight attaches. Nicely fits into place


Front and rear canopy transparencies


engine coming together. There are some ‘tripod’ structures to fit into place so I cemented in the two inner legs and I will, when dry, superglue the outer leg. Superglue because they will need to be held in place until the glue grips.



I have used tape to hold the rigging lines out of the way



I won’t be cementing the top wing into place until the model is painted but I will need to use it to get the uprights into position.

The very dark grey wooden prop was dry brushed with a brown pigments.


Below the canopies are drying awaiting the fitting of the wing pylons, I am planning to use a slow drying cement on the four outer ones then I will position the top wing without cement to get it in the right position. Once the outer pylons are firmly fixed in place I will tape the top wing into position to hold it while fitting the inner pylons and cementing them to the fuselage only. When those are dry I will remove the top wing and, using tape, I will swap the rigging to be held out of the way on the underside ready to paint the top.

[BarryW]

Biplane builders please Help!

It don’t work and I dont know what to do!!

I did what I said and found I had great difficulty getting the top wing on, when I did it was incredibly rickety and I could not get it into position and hold it for the glue to dry at the right angles.

I quickly had to remove all the struts before they dried in the wrong positions.

So I tried to tape them to the underside of the wing and then dropped some slow drying cement into the locations and position the wing. Same problem.

So, how on Earth can I do this? I have no idea at all.

My only other biplane was the Swordfish and I think that there was a positive firm location to get it started. No such luck here, not the fault of ICM but because the aircraft was not constructed in a way to facilitate that.





I am left with a bit of a cement mess Olin the location holes to sort out.

[Defiant911]

I saw the attached where a makeshift jig was cut to suit plane and then skewers or slim sticks poked into it to hold everything in place. Never tried it myself but looked like it worked.

[BarryW]

I saw the attached where a makeshift jig was cut to suit plane and then skewers or slim sticks poked into it to hold everything in place. Never tried it myself but looked like it worked.[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1132506[/ATTACH]

Interesting. I only threw out a load of polystyrene packing on Thursday! It is an idea to work on though. Thanks for that.

[Defiant911]

Interesting. I only threw out a load of polystyrene packing on Thursday! It is an idea to work on though. Thanks for that.

Either that or that green stuff you poke flowers into although that stuff can be a bit messy.

[Dave Ward]

Barry,
I assemble the wings with the top wing on the bench ( shimmed at the centre to compensate for the dihedral ) & held down with masking tape. I cut two cardboard jigs, that fit just outboard of the wing struts to give the correct wing spacing. The fuselage & lower wings are offered up, concentrating on the centre section struts first, then the interplane struts - it might be necessary to hold the card jigs in place with blue tack. Glue then can be applied to the strut locations as needed. You might need to brace the fuselage/lower wings to prevent them moving...................... then tiptoe away, and leave overnight to dry!!!
Dave

[BarryW]

Thanks everyone. I will sleep on it and see what I can rig up tomorrow.

in the meantime I got in with a bit of engine painting and metal powder dry brushing.





Tomorrow I will work out what to do with the wing. I cannot progress until it done now.

[KarlW]

I've seen a bi-plane building jig on eBay, but it probably costs about the same as 2 kits......and you can probably knock up a custom one with polystyrene/foamcore/corrugated card.

[BarryW]

Hi Karl, yes I have seen it too. It seems to me that you cannot really just dip into biplanes on a casual basis very easily without getting the right kit. As these will be quite a rare excursion for me I will just have to do what I can with what I have.

anyway - I have made progress....

I used clamps like this to line things up.




It worked, just. I cemented the bottom outer pylons to the lower wing first.





Then it was the turn of the inner ones, cemented to the fuselage. I temporarily attached the upper wings and adjusted them into position. It was fiddly but I got there.



I then had some more parts to cement to the underside including the u/c legs.


All masked up.


incidentally, I think I might have a little too much rake on the wing but there is nothing I can do about it and will just have to live with it. It not much but I am pleased that at least I got it done. I really wont be doing WW1 models in a hurry much as I was tempted by the new Meng.

First interior grey green.



Then black primer...



There is a little work to do on some build flaws shown up by the primer. But, overall she is looking rather sexy in her black undies...

[KarlW]

I'm sure we managed before all these commercially jigs became available, just as you seem to have.

Coming along nicely.

[rtfoe]

Not easy these Bi-plane wings but you nailed it Barry...yes black underwear is sexy even on a Gladiator. :tears-of-joy:

Cheers,
Richard

[Defiant911]

Thanks everyone. I will sleep on it and see what I can rig up tomorrow.

in the meantime I got in with a bit of engine painting and metal powder dry brushing.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1132512[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1132513[/ATTACH]

Tomorrow I will work out what to do with the wing. I cannot progress until it done now.

Love the colour, is it copper, I presume MRP.

[BarryW]

Love the colour, is it copper, I presume MRP.

It is