**** DONE: GB-45 1/48 Gloster Gladiator - BoB/Foreign Service

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Terry, I have built only one other so far, the Tamiya Swordfish. That one didn't need a jig because the interplane struts are actually connected together with a section of the upper and lower wing chords. That way, there's no way to get the stagger angle wrong, as long as you keep the chord sections flush with the surrounding surfaces.

One other complication with this Roden kit is that the cabane struts are far too narrow in cross section. I'll either need to replace them or add material to the ones provided. I'll be happy to see the back of this one....

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far Andy!

 

[Wayne Little]

Like your solution Andy..

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. The jig isn't helping me so far, except in that it's showing me how poorly things fit. I had hoped that I could simply assemble the struts and upper wing with the model propped into the jig but this turned out to be impossible. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

My plan was to have the interplane and cabane struts glued to the lower wings/fuselage at the proper angles so that I can paint everything with the upper wing off. First, I had to deal with the interplane strut cross section as they were moulded blunt on both the fore and aft edges. In fact, they should taper toward the back so that the cross section resembles a tear drop so I took each one and scraped them down with my chisel bit:

Given that the cabane struts are messed up and require either replacement or added plastic, I decided that I would not try to incorporate them but to add them after the upper wing is secured.

Now, my jig was a bit randomly made in terms of width and now that I dry-fitted the assembly into place, I discovered that I set the supports at exactly the same width as the protruding navigation lights on the upper wing. Damn! Talk about a bad coincidence! Fortunately, the supports are just made out of masonite and are flexible enough to splay them a bit to miss the lights (see second pic below).

Now, here's where the fun begins. Roden made all of the struts identical, except for the one that has the moulded-in pitot tube. So, what they would have you do is to use one in the front and then flip the aft one over so that it's upside down relative to the front one. Well this would be OK if the wings were FLAT and parallel but, guess what Roden people, THEY'RE NOT!!!!! You see, Roden people, airplane wings have a funny characteristic - they are CURVED on the top and more or less FLAT on the bottom so, we have a fundamental problem here. The parts should not be identical or reversible. So after about a half and hour a dicking around trying to get things to fit properly in my jig, I decided to glue the struts to the lower wing so that they sit flat on the surface and to bend them later so that they meet the upper wing properly. In the pics below, note how the lower parts of the struts sit flush with the wing curvature and how this results in the angles being way off.

This is going to be a major agony in the a-hole when I get around to fitting the upper wing but, in the meantime, I'm making the lower, more visible joints look like they're supposed to so I can get on with painting. Hrrrumph....

 

[Airframes]

Right, that's it !
My Roden kit can stay in the cupboard, and I'll use the old Inpact kit instead !!!

 

[Snautzer01]

Ouch, that is far from the target.

 

[Wayne Little]

Bummer.....

 

[rochie]

Wow Andy !

another reason i shy away from biplanes

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. I'm determined to see this brute through despite these issues. The unique camo should hide most of the hammer marks.

 

[Airframes]

And maybe a heavy covering of scale snow ?
Joking aside, you seem to be beating it into submission.

 

[fubar57]

Wishing the best

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks my friends. I blended in the lower wing attachment points as best I could and then sprayed the entire aircraft with Alclad Airfame Aluminum.

I spent minimal time worrying about the surface quality as much if this silver will be covered in camo. As a result, there is some variation in the shininess of the finish which I'm fine with.

I'm going to need to make a decision now on the conflicting colour observations and will report back in the next instalment.

 

[fubar57]

Great to see it all together now

 

[Airframes]

That worked well, and it's starting to look the biz.

 

[le_steph40]

excellent

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. I should have clarified that the upper wing is just resting on the struts for the picture. Good times yet to come.

 

[Wayne Little]

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far Andy!