ICM Gladiator slow build. Finished!

[Wegener]

Looks excellent.  On the last pic, just forward of the ribbed part, is there a sink mark in that circular part with the bar on it?  If so, might be worth attention before you get the sticky out bits fitted.

[quang]

31 minutes ago, Wegener said:

Looks excellent.  On the last pic, just forward of the ribbed part, is there a sink mark in that circular part with the bar on it?  If so, might be worth attention before you get the sticky out bits fitted.

Aah yes, the oil filler cap. You’re right, there’s a sink mark there but I think I’ll let it be. I can be anal/retentive about many things but not about EVERY thing!

[mozart]

It’s NOT a sink mark, some oaf of an erk dented it!! 

[quang]

 

 

So down to the paint shop we went.

 

In the past I've had many mishaps with primers and stripping paint coats. After some soul-searching, I found out that the Tamiya Silver lacquer paint in spray can works best for me. Used as an undercoat, it acts as a fine primer, tough, reliable and forgiving.

 

So I decanted the faithful TS-30 Silver Leaf from the can into my airbrush and started spraying. It went on smoothly.

 

Too smoothly in fact. Because I went on to discover that the kit looks absolutely gorgeous under a silver paint coat.

So much that it would be a crime to cover all these fantastic details with the drab green of the Belgian version.

 

So presto, CHANGE OF DIRECTION. My Gladiator will be finished in RAF interwar livery. Hi-ho Silver!

 

Here are the results of the first painting session.

Notice the subtle difference between the metal paneling and the canvas texture

 

 

 

 

Under-Wing/fuselage join

 

Wing root

 

Stab join

 

Now it's time to choose a nice livery for the silver bird.

 

All comments and questions are welcome as usual.

Cheerio,

Quang

 

 

[mozart]

She's looking VERY smart Quang, and I think you've made the right decision about keeping her silver, so charismatic in many of the interwar schemes available.  It looks as though your fuselage to wing fit was as good as mine, perfect to the fraction of a mm!

 

[quang]

SMART is the word, Max.

I don't know if it's been mentioned before but there's a subtle variation in the texture of the plastic to differenciate the metal from the canvas. You can't see it until you lay the first coat of silver paint on.

[Jan_G]

superb progress Quang 

jan

[Uncarina]

So inspiring, I’m itching to start mine!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Palm-tree]

11 hours ago, quang said:

SMART is the word, Max.

I don't know if it's been mentioned before but there's a subtle variation in the texture of the plastic to differenciate the metal from the canvas. You can't see it until you lay the first coat of silver paint on.

 

 Lovely work Quang, really enjoying seeing your progress on this build and also nice to see you are going to build a silver finished Gladiator too.

 

You might be aware of this already but full size aircraft are not covered in ‘canvas’ as the material is too heavy for aeronautical purposes and the weave not resilient enough. The fabric used during WW2 was ‘Irish Linen ’ but of course modern contemporary aircraft are finished in more modern fabrics developed for the aviation industry.

 

Keep up the good work to the finish line.

 

P-t

[MikeMaben]

[quang]

6 hours ago, Uncarina said:

So inspiring, I’m itching to start mine!

 

Cheers,  Tom

Thank you Tom. Have you received yours yet?

 

4 hours ago, Palm-tree said:

 

You might be aware of this already but full size aircraft are not covered in ‘canvas’ as the material is too heavy for aeronautical purposes and the weave not resilient enough. The fabric used during WW2 was ‘Irish Linen ’ but of course modern contemporary aircraft are finished in more modern fabrics developed for the aviation industry.

You’re right, of course. 

From whence I came (the 1960s), it was ‘canvas’ vs ‘metal’, natural metal was ‘silver’, national insignia was ‘roundels’, decals was ‘stickers’, Elvis was ‘King’ ... 

 

1 hour ago, MikeMaben said:

Edited January 12, 2020 by quang

[Kagemusha]

Niiiiice! 

[dennismcc]

Looks great, it's certainly good that you and Max are paving the way for me (and others) as I am another biplane novice.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[quang]

 

 

FLYING COLOURS !

Time to choose a livery for the Glad. I opted for No. 72 Squadron (RAF) in 1937.

No. 72 was the first RAF squadron to receive the Gladiators. It's well-documented in Tom Docherty's Swift To Battle: 1937-1942

The plane I chose is K6140, one of the options included in the ICM kit. I only had to add the blue/red fuselage and wing bands.

 

Masking for the squadron colours.

On the following pics, my first attempts at the fuselage bands were wrong and are being corrected with new masks

 

 

 

The larger red bands were painted first, then masked and the blue band added.

 

 

After studying the period photographs, I painted the empennage blue denoting the leading aircraft of 'C' Flight.

Note the bare replacement panels forward of the roundel.

 

 

Decals on

 

 

 

I've been warned about the ICM decals being VERY thin and prone to folding over themselves. The roundels went OK but no such luck with the port fuselage serial

Hopefully a kind forumer who has a spare unused decal will come to the rescue. I'd leave it at that for the time being.

 

Comments and questions are welcome as usual.

Cheers,

Quang

 

Edited January 19, 2020 by quang

[dennismcc]

Whoops, that's why I'm not partial to decals, apart from that it's looking splendid.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis