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Gloster Gladiator "Royal Egyptian Air Force" [ICM 1:32] - RFI


Alex

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All right, someone's got to get the ball rolling here, so I'll bite.  I'm going to build this kit:

 

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As this aircraft:

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I have the kit and some AM decals to provide the REAF roundels.  Some other AM stuff on order (because every time I decide to build something OOB that lasts about 3 seconds).

 

Don't expect top see a lot of progress here early on.  I'm still wrapping up some big house remodel projects and have yet to set up a model building space in the new house.  I'm confident, however, that with the Feb 28 deadline I can get this knocked out before the end of the GB.

 

Who's next??

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So in my eagerness to get going (and touch something modeling for the first time in ~10 months) I figured I would do some things that required a fair amount of work with only a few tools that would need unpacking.  And could be done without the need to be able to paint, since part of my plan around "setting up a new model building space" is building a new spray booth to replace the crappy old one I had been using. 

 

The first thing I did was review in detail the excellent build of this kit that @mozart did a couple years ago.

 

Then I built the wings and empennage, which are beautifully thin at the trailing edges and fit really well.  Went through my slow but tried and true solvent glue, sand, CA, sand routine to hopefully eliminate visible seams on the leading edges.  I also, per mozart's suggestion, replaced the very small mounting stubs on the horizontal stabs with a piece of 1.5 mm brass rod to make sure they are securely mounted when the time comes, and tweaked the elevator mounting stubs to give them a touch of droop.  Also glued up the tires/wheels. 

 

pmp4i9SCj 

 

I also drilled the holes I needed for rigging mounting.  Again per mozart's build I printed out a drawing of the aircraft, glued it to cardboard, and cut out templates to help me get the angle of the holes drilled correctly:

 

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Now I really need get to get my house remodeling work wrapped up so I can build my new spray booth and get properly stuck into this project.

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  • 1 month later...
On 10/21/2022 at 2:31 AM, mozart said:

A sound start Alex, good luck with this lovely kit and I’m glad you found my build useful. I’m currently building the Gladiator’s predecessor, Silver Wings Gauntlet, and having great fun with it.

yes - I've been following your excellent build.  Hoping to find time to get back to my Gladiator soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

After only 2 months, I've knocked out the last of my major house projects, unpacked all of my modeling stuff, built a new paint booth, and it's back to the Gladiator.

 

Yesterday and today I added bits and pieces to the fuselage halves such as could be done before closing them up, and prepped all of the cockpit parts for paint.  I am resisting the urge to start scratchbuilding stuff in the cockpit as I would like to wrap this model up fairly quickly and move on to some other ones that I'm eager to work on.  I've added some AM stuff (Quickboost cockpit doors and pilot's seat, brass MG barrels) to up the detail level, but other than that this is going to be give or take an OOB build.

 

Now ready to spray some primer - the maiden voyage for the new paint booth.

 

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One other thing I modified, similar to the horizontal stabilizers, was the rear LG strut.  I snipped off the nub that ICM put on the end, drilled it out, and glued in some 0.5 mm brass rod.  I then glued a piece of thick styrene sheet inside the spot in the fuselage where it is located.  I will drill that out so that the rear gear can be inserted at the end of the build (and should be much stronger to boot).

po16al2lj

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