Roden 1/48 Gloster Gladiator

Roden Kit Number 401 1/48 Gloster Gladiator Mk.II
Reviewed By Paul Bradley, #35554

$23.99 MSRP The Gloster Gladiator was Britain’s last biplane fighter and not a bad one at that; the type downed more than 450 enemy aircraft during World War II, most admittedly in secondary theaters, but an impressive record nevertheless. Roden’s series of Gladiator kits reaches #3 with this, the improved Mk.II. The kit comes in a secure top-opening box with pretty good artwork depicting a Swedish Gladiator overflying a brewed up Soviet tank – one assumes the tank was knocked out for reasons other than the Gladiator’s four .303in machine guns! Inside, there are 91 pieces on two light gray sprues, one clear sprue containing 6 pieces, the decal sheet for 6 aircraft and the 12-page instruction booklet. The parts are finely molded, with no flash present. There are some sink marks, most easily cleaned up and a few ejector pin marks, but the majority will be unseen once complete. Surface detail is mostly good, consisting of fine engraved panel lines and some raised areas denoting removable fabric panels – these I think are a little too prominent, and I lightly sanded them down for a more pleasing look. The main parts have a slight surface texture to them that is not all bad – after all, this is a fabric covered aircraft – but I did lightly sand the front fuselage areas that represent metal paneling to provide a slight difference in texture once painted. There are no locating pins, but the lower wings and tailplanes have nice, snug fitting tabs. The trailing edges of the one-piece wings are very sharp. A useful feature is the bumps indicating where the rigging goes – I sanded them off and used a very fine bit to drill the holes for the guitar string rigging. Another nice feature is that all the control surfaces are separate and molded in one piece each; however, care will need to be taken that the correct pieces are added to the correct wings, as it is easy to mix them up!

Assembly starts with the engine, and this is a nice representation of the Bristol Mercury. The separate exhaust collector pipes that are so prominent on the real thing are included, as well as the trumpet-like air scoops that lead back beyond the engine. The cowling is, for some mysterious reason, molded in three parts, which led to much grief when trying to eliminate the join lines on the front exhaust collector ring. The top cylinder head clearance fairing is also a pain to clean up for the same reason. In order to ensure a circular cowling, I cut a 26.5mm disc from 30thou plasticard to aid with the alignment of the cowling pieces, this being attached with white glue where the engine eventually goes. Once the cowling is set, the disc is removed. Putting the engine aside, assembly turns to the cockpit, and this is adequate for this scale. There is a ‘floor’, seat, stick, compass column, seat adjustment handle, rudder bar and rudder adjustment wheel. A clear instrument panel is provided, with decals for the back, but this is too wide for the fuselage and will need careful trimming to fit properly. A throttle assembly is also included, but there are no other details for the sidewalls, which are molded on the fuselage sides. A machine gun is added in each fuselage half and these are adequately detailed in view of the fact that they will be almost unseen once the model is complete. The cockpit entry doors are separate pieces and have adequate detail molded to the inner surfaces. I elected to leave one open and one closed. The only addition I made to the cockpit was a set of decal seatbelts as these are not indicated or included with the kit.

Before assembling the fuselage, there are a couple of minor corrections to be made to the halves. On each forward fuselage, there is a small circular panel line representing the fresh air intake – these should be drilled out. At the rear of the fuselage, just behind the horizontal stabilizers, are square holes to access the control cables and these also ought to be opened out. On the lower rear fuselage are handholds for lifting the fuselage – these will need to be opened out. Also at this time, I elected to attach the undercarriage legs. These have large attachment stubs to fit into large attachment holes in the fuselage. Interestingly, one fit like a glove, while the other needed extensive trimming; a little filler was needed to blend both in. Be sure to do much test fitting to ensure that each sits at the same angles to each other. On the real thing, there are fairings between the rear of the legs and the leading edges of the wings – these are not included in the kit. I did not add these, discretion being the better part of valor in this case! On the starboard fuselage, the prominent oil cooler “mat” would be nicely represented, but there is an ugly sink line across the rear that would be very difficult to correct. I elected to ignore it and used a convenient camouflage color change to slightly disguise it.

Once the interior is added, the fuselage halves are joined, and this proved not too difficult despite the lack of locating pins. I added the lower wings and their solid locating tabs ensure that the correct dihedral is fixed. Some minor filling was needed to blend them into the fuselage. At this point, I opted to do the majority of camouflage painting, before adding the top mainplane and tailplane surfaces. Unfortunately, I encountered big problems at this stage. Although I thought I had thoroughly washed the parts before construction began, my first masking efforts, using Frisket masks, pulled up much of the Dark Earth camouflage. Theorizing that there was still mold release residue on the parts, I stripped the remaining paint and thoroughly washed the model again. When dry, I airbrushed the Dark Earth and re-masked using poster putty and Micro-Mask prior to adding the Dark Green. The same thing happened. I ended up brush painting the camouflage colors. So it appears that some Roden kits have a surfeit of mold release material that is resistant to washing with warm, soapy water. At this point, even a strong cup of tea was insufficient to soothe the savage beast, so I left the project for a week. Once the paint was dry and my motivation revived, I added the interplane struts. This proved to be a bit tricky as each strut is separate and will only go in one position – take care not to mix them up…after much fiddling, I managed to get them in place. At that point, careful inspection of some photos revealed that the ends of the struts do not end in mounting plates as depicted in the kit. By this time, it was too late to correct them, but careful study of photos will reveal what needs to be done. The kit offers decals for six Gladiator IIs: two RAF (263 Sqn in Norway and 247 Sqn in Southern England), two Swedish and two Finnish. I am led to understand that the Swedish and Finnish options are fairly accurate, though the Finnish roundel blue is too light. Option VII ought to have a winged skull marking under the cockpit that is not included on the decal sheet. Aeromaster 48-187 has correct markings in that respect. For the RAF schemes, the code letters are far too dark, being printed as Extra Dark Sea Grey rather than the correct Medium Sea Grey. I opted for a 247 Sqn, RAF, camouflaged machine from 1940, and though I have lingering questions about the exact demarcations of the camouflage as presented by Roden, I am satisfied with the look.

Roden decals have a reputation for being difficult to work with, so I tested some spares from the sheet on my resident “hangar queen.” These proved to be thick, immune to MicroSol and Set, and silvered terribly, so Roden’s reputation remained intact. Aside from the serial number, I used Modeldecal roundels and codes from my ample spares box and donated the remainder of the Roden sheet to the local landfill. I completed the model by adding .30mm guitar string as rigging. Please note that my photos do not depict the full set of rigging, as I am waiting for the opportunity to visit the music shop and pick up some .20mm guitar strings. This will be used to depict the finer rigging between the ailerons and on the tailplane. Looking at the model, it certainly has the air of the Gladiator, and dimensionally, it squares up well. There are no major errors of outline or detail, and the few small details I added were of a personal preference rather than essential. Interior detail is adequate for the scale and in general the surface detail is nice, though a little heavy in places for my liking. Construction is relatively easy, though I would suggest two thorough washings of the parts before beginning construction, lest you fall foul of the mold release residue as I did. A jig to aid with positioning the struts would be a big help, unless you happen to have been born with three hands. Overall, this is a nice kit that I can recommend to those with a couple of biplanes under their belts.

I have included a number of photos of real Gladiators that I hope will be of assistance when you start your kit. Gladiator L8032 was the last example built and is owned today by the Shuttleworth Collection in England. She is the last remaining flying example of this fascinating interwar fighter. My thanks to Roden for supplying the review sample.

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