A02052 1/72 Gloster Gladiator

[Heather Kavanagh]

Although I already have a Gladiator in my Battle of Britain collection, it's not an Airfix kit. I finished it to represent one of the aircraft that was part of the Advanced Air Component of the British Expeditionary Force, sent to France during the so-called Phoney War which ended with Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk. I thought it would be appropriate, therefore, to add the new tool Airfix kit to give me a "proper" Battle of Britain example.

 

The kit is not currently in production, but I acquired a copy from the well known shop in Lowestoft. I have learned a difficult lesson, that if Airfix makes a kit I would like in my collection I really should buy it when it comes out because it might disappear sooner than I think. This has happened to me with the Blenheim MkI, which happily I have also managed to track down and add to my stash.

 

Anyway, the Gladiator kit provides parts and transfers to let you build G-AMRK (K7985) as flown by the Shuttleworth Collection, or a plane from No 1 Squadron of the Irish Air Corps in 1940. Obviously, being awkward, I intend to build the kit as neither!

 

The box contains two light grey sprues containing the main parts of the model, and one clear sprue with alternate canopy styles, plus an option for an open canopy. There are roughly 50 parts, not counting transparencies, so it's not a going to be a long build. The grey parts showed a little flash near the main injection feeds, but nothing a little work with a sharp blade and sanding sticks couldn't deal with. A nice touch, which is now standard for Airfix new toolings, is flattened main undercarriage wheels as an option for displaying the aircraft on the ground. If you want it flying, there is a pilot figure, and unflattened main wheels. Tiny holes have been moulded in the wings to allow for rigging, with a handy diagram in the instructions to show how it all goes together.

 

I sourced a set of Xtradecal transfers which covers examples of all the RAF fighter aircraft of the BoB period. The Gladiator markings are for a MkII of No 247 Squadron, Fighter Command, based at Roborough for protecting Portsmouth. Of course, with a box containing parts for a MkI, I set about working out what I might need to change to make it into a MkII.

 

HP-B, N2308, 247 Squadron, seems to have been a popular choice over the years. The transfers are for that aircraft, so I was sort of being steered towards it. Around the 40th anniversary of the Battle in 1980, a modelling magazine did a series of articles on building aircraft used during the Battle. N2308 was the Gladiator chosen for their build. The die was cast.

 

The first question was whether N2308 had the two-bladed Watts propeller (as in the kit) or whether it had a three-bladed prop as befitting the MkII variant with the more powerful engine. Well, I was about to raid my stash for a suitable prop from an old Airfix Swordfish kit, when research turned up the fact that N2308, seemingly alone among the 12 aircraft in 247 Squadron, appeared to be fitted with the Watts prop! Why is now a matter of speculation. However, it might be surmised that since the squadron was formed at the beginning of August 1940, and the only aircraft available at that point happened to be Gladiators (the Squadron was re-equipped with more modern fighters by November), perhaps scraping together enough airworthy MkIIs and sundry spares proved a bit awkward - and one aircraft was lumbered with the Watts propeller. Either way, that was excuse enough for me: N2308 would use the kit two-bladed prop!

 

According to my research materials, eye witnesses recall the 247 Squadron's Gladiators being camouflaged with standard day fighter dark earth/dark green upper surfaces, and sky under surfaces. The lower wings, fuselage sides, fun and rudder ought to have been camouflaged with the official lighter shades of earth and green, counter shaded as areas likely to be in shade. The transfer sheet colour ways certainly show this scheme, but again the eye witnesses say 247 Gladdys carried normal day fighter camouflage schemes on all upper surfaces. If nothing else, it would make painting easier for me!

 

So, having got the research out of the way, time to pile into the kit.

 

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Apart from the changes outlined above, I'm building this model straight from the box. There is an option for the port cockpit door to open, so I carefully trimmed the moulded one from the fuselage side and opened the two location holes with a 1mm drill bit. The open door will be fitted at a later stage of construction. The cockpit "tub" was assembled quite quickly. For such a small aircraft I haven't thought it necessary to go with aftermarket detailing parts. What's in the box seems quite adequate, though I will add some masking tape harness straps to the seat later.

 

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The official interior colour, according to the instructions, is a dark green. Continuing with my thinking about the outer finish of these planes in the late summer of 1940, I decided the interiors would have been refurbished with standard cockpit green. Read that as I didn't have the right colour in my stock, so Humbrol 78 worked just as well! N2308 didn't have the WT mast behind the cockpit, having a three-point aerial wire arrangement which I'll come to later. I trimmed off the moulded mast, but left the fin mast. The fuselage halves went together well, with little need of filler, save where I'd trimmed the mast, and where the moulding gates didn't cut cleanly. The same thing with the lower wing, which just needed a little careful sanding at the lower wing roots to fair things in nicely.

 

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The upper fuselage deck includes the upper wing centre struts. As a fool, following ambiguous instructions, I stuck the leading struts in the wrong way round. It should have been obvious, really, as they follow the same rake as the rear ones. Luckily, I managed to prise the part out without damage and refitted it properly. The rear part is the instrument panel, so I gave it a coat of Humbrol Satin Black 85, then applied the transfers. These really need to have the carrier film trimmed right back to the actual transfer to fit neatly, but as it's mostly hidden I think I got away with it!

 

While dry-fitting the upper deck assembly to the fuselage, it became obvious it wasn't quite going to fit properly at the cockpit end. The cockpit opening and side panels above the instrument panel seemed to be a little narrow. Rather than risk filler and fiddly sanding, losing some nicely moulded detail, I gently tweaked the side panels out with a pair of flat-nose pliers until the fit was better. Until I glue to upper deck parts to the fuselage, I won't be able to tell if this tweak has worked satisfactorily. 

 

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Progress so far. I shall leave the enamel to dry for a day or so - proper work gets in the way of fun sometimes! - and then I can add the harness detail, dry brush some wear and weathering, then fit the upper deck. I shall be using the open canopy option, so some of this internal stuff will be visible when I've finished.

 

As I'm doing this build as and when other duties let me, it might be a while before further updates, so bear with me. Do please comment, ask silly questions, whatever. Although I am supposed to be a professional modeller, I'm still learning. If you have a tip I might find useful, please pipe up!

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Liking your work on the Gladiator so far Heather. I also have this kit, but haven't started on it yet, so am going to follow this build with great interest. You maybe will save me from some pitfalls!

I have built the old Matchbox Gladiator, and for rigging I used very fine rolled fuse wire, fixed with tiny blobs of wood glue. The beauty of this is that it's a nice metallic colour already, the negative is that if you touch it it buckles and has to be replaced.

I also am into the early war period, and have several Polish and French aircraft, as well as the standard BoB fair ( including 8 Spitfire Mk I's and II's).I would love to see a photo of your collection, Admin would probably be alright about it if you put all your Airfix kits at the front. 

Looking forward to your next post

 

Cheers

Jason

[John Symmons]

Watching with interest, and looking forwards to learning something. Good luck. 

Remember we do this for fun    John the Pom

[Bletch]

Looks great.How about a wash in the cockpit?-only say it because it seems to be the norm these days not as any criticism! "transfers"-good for you for throwing a bit of old school in there-whenever i'm talking to someone about the kitting and say "decals" i sort of feel ashamed.......cos i'm 62 and grew up with transfers! 

[Heather Kavanagh]

I have built the old Matchbox Gladiator, and for rigging I used very fine rolled fuse wire, fixed with tiny blobs of wood glue. The beauty of this is that it's a nice metallic colour already, the negative is that if you touch it it buckles and has to be replaced.

 

Thanks Jason. My technique for rigging will be the same. It worked on the Matchbox Gladdy, after all. As to whether Admin will let me post all my BoB collection - those that aren't still in boxes, at least - remains to be seen. What I may do is get the finished aircraft out and photograph them better than I've managed before. Then I can put them on a photo sharing site or my blog and link to that. I'd rather not upset the Powers That Be: rules are rules, after all.  😇

[Heather Kavanagh]

Looks great.How about a wash in the cockpit?

 

Cheers Bletch! I was going to do a wash, but in the end a little dry brushing with some silver/aluminium was deemed sufficient. Photos in due course, pending moderation.

 

I think of decal as an American term. By the way, is it "deckles" or "dee-kalls"? It's a word that's transferred (hee-hee!) from French, I think, so we probably don't pronounce it properly either way. So transfers works better for me, being old school like yourself!

[Heather Kavanagh]

With relatively few parts, progress on this build has been quite rapid. My plan, in between other work, was to get the model to a state where painting could begin, so I pressed on with fitting the wings and empennage.

 

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First, though, here's the "superdetailed" cockpit. Ordinary masking tape was slapped on the cutting mat and given a coat of suitable light brown paint. Strips, roughly approximating the width of the harness webbing, were trimmed out with a sharp blade and insinuated around the seat, using a reference photo as guidance. It's missing some of the brightwork you would associate with an aftermarket PE harness, but it will do the job. It is a tiny plane, after all, and once the transparencies are fitted the viewable area is quite small. Note, also, I've dry-brushed some aluminium paint to show wear around the seat and cockpit floor.

 

You can also see the fit issues with the upper fuselage deck. It's not perfect, and if I was ultra-fussy about it I'd probably sacrifice some of the moulded panel detail on the cockpit sides to make it better. You might decide to do a better job, but for me it was deemed adequate.

 

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Another view of the cockpit. The lower wing needed only a small amount of sanding to fit the fuselage, and then just a tiny amount of filler and finishing at the joins. 

 

I read in the Workbench blog that the Gladiator will reappear later this year, teamed up with the Ju87 as a Dogfight Double. If you want an Airfix Gladiator, that might be a good time to get one - assuming there isn't an exampe already in your stash!

 

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The interplane struts have moulded crosspieces to hold them in their correct orientation during assembly. The instructions don't note if there should be any angles involved, so I fitted them - after some careful cleaning up - into the holes with a vertical orientation viewed from the front. I checked by dry fitting the upper wing, and my assumption was shown to be correct. The struts have large "feet" which fit very snugly into the holes in the wings, but there was a little gentle sanding required to ensure a good fit. While they dried, I assembled the engine.

 

You will find it useful to note the engine assembly doesn't have to be fixed to the fuselage. It turns out the whole thing can be push-fitted into the location hole, which is a boon for masking and painting later. I assembled the engine, exhaust collector ring and exhausts so they form a single assembly that will be painted and fitted to the finished airframe after painting and transfers.

 

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Here's a better view of the engine assembly. I'm not sure what the trumpet inlets are for, but I carefully opened them up with a sharp drill bit. If my eyesight lets me, I like to do the same with the ends of gun barrels. Don't ask me why! The instructions suggest Hu53 Gunmetal for the exhaust collector ring, which is what you can see here. In the "olden days" this colour was always a bronze colour, so I haven't actually decided which to go for yet. I shall check photo resources before I plump for one over the other. 

 

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Fitting the upper main plane caused a little head scratching. As you can see, the centre strut supports don't actually coincide with the location holes. What I did was to fit the wing to the main struts, ensuring it was square with the lower wing, and let it set for a while. Then I gently forced the centre struts into the holes. The plastic is quite forgiving. The result is the rear struts have taken on a slightly bowed shape, but the alternative would probably have been to cut the blighters off and try to reassemble them. I can only assume the moulded parts had become squashed and taken on the incorrect angle, either after manufacture or during storage in the box. 

 

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Here's after. I checked everything else remained square and true. Once set, I cut the main strut crosspieces out - I didn't trust a blade not to bend or break the struts, so I used a fine etched saw from Airwaves, followed up by tidying with sanding blocks. The tail parts fitted very nicely, and the rudder can be posed at an angle if you wish. Watch out for the tailplane aerial mast - it could easily be snapped off. I've not managed that yet, but if it does I shall replace it with a short length of 0.5mm brass wire. In fact, I might just do that now.

 

The instructions give some very precise dimensions and angles - to two decimal places, no less - for the main undercarriage legs. I don't know about you, but I tend to expect the kit designers to have worked out a way to achieve such things without needing lab equipment! The legs are seated in well formed location points, and I checked the two legs aligned with each other. As a final check, I set my digital calipers to the distance quoted (23.35mm no less), and quietly offered a prayer of thanks to the Gods of Styrene when the legs proved to be at the correct distance apart! Quite how I shall fit the main wheels at 83.25 degrees from horizontal remains to be seen...

 

I fitted the tail wheel, the underwing guns, and the fuselage foot step. This last part (A22) is a tiny thing, and suffered a little from flash. Sadly, the instructions weren't clear that the part is meant to be a sort of U-shape with a rear bracket, essentially three legs attaching to the main fuselage. There are two moulded dimples in the fuselage, and being a bit dopey at times, I managed to trim one of the three legs off. I rather think I shall fabricate a replacement from some fine brass wire, which will be a little less chunky when fitted. Isn't hindsight wonderful?

 

With all the main parts assembled, it was time to think about painting. That saga will form a fresh post here in due course, but I shall leave you with the primed model.

 

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As I will have the cockpit canopy open, I considered ways of masking off the interior. Then I remembered I had two "spare" closed canopies. With a sliver of masking tape covering the open door hole, I fixed one of the canopy transparencies in place with Micro Kristal Klear. I'm not one for specialist primers, so I stuck a pair of self-closing tweezers into the engine location hole and dusted some light coats of ordinary acrylic grey primer over things. I plan to brush paint this model - it's so small it doesn't seem worth the effort of breaking out the airbrush for it.

 

That's it for now. Thanks for reading!

[Heather Kavanagh]

It was a sultry Sunday, and I had nothing better I wanted to do, so I dug out the paint.

 

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I'm still an acrylic newbie, and I'm still not really happy with the speed at which things dry. I used Xtracrylix Sky, Dark Earth and Dark Green, applied initially with a flat sable brush. This range of paints is gloss, or semi-gloss, which means I can avoid the intermediate gloss varnish or Johnson's Klear stage before applying transfers.

 

I began with sky on the undersurfaces, realising it would have been a lot simpler if I'd made some painting process before the upper wing had been attached. The advantage of acrylic soon kicked in, and a couple of thin coats had gone on the undersides. I turned next to the upper parts and applied a coat or two of Dark Earth. In the photo above, you can see the first blocked-in coats of Dark Green. 

 

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Transfers went on pretty quickly, too. The only problem I had was with the fin flashes. To get them to sit neatly, they need to be trimmed very closely to the printed colours. Even using setting solution they really didn't want to settle nicely, and I will need to trim carefully some overhangs, and retouch some of the paintwork. In this last picture, you can see I've fitted brass wire replacement aerial masts, both on the fin and the upper wing. They will need trimming down later, but I left them long to make them easier to handle while fitting them.

 

The main squadron and national colours transfers went on well from the Xtradecal sheet. I will use some of the stencil markings from the kit sheet, and then get some matt varnish over everything to protect it. Then the rigging can be tackled. As 247 Squadron was formed in August 1940, I don't plan to do much weathering to this model, rather keeping it in a nearly-fresh painted finish.

 

Next stage, then, will be the rigging. This might be some time coming!

[Rael]

Looking good so far!

[John Symmons]

Hi Heather.

Looking good so far and I,ve learnt something from your write-up ( Brass aerial masts.)

I have one of these kits, but the one with Finnish Markings and skis, But unfotunately when I opened the kit I found the decals sorry transferes were only printed in white, yellow, red, and blue the black was totally missing, which is critical for the Finnish marking.

I've contacted the spares dept but alway recieve the "Out of stock" answer. Now I see both Gladiator models are missing from the online catalogue. I can only hope they re-release the Finnish one again.

Lookimg forward to seeing your rigging method.

Remember we do this for fun     John the Pom.

[Heather Kavanagh]

A  break from this build happened due to the rather warmer weather than normal for a British summer! When things get uncomfortable, I prefer to spend time somewhere cool, armed with a long drink and some good reference material for upcoming projects in the "day job". 

 

I left this build with the main national and squadron markings applied. The Xtradecal transfers went on really nicely, and bedded down well with one or two minor exceptions - the fin flashes being perhaps the worst. Having had time to dry I decided it was time to apply the various stencil transfers from the original kit sheet.

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There are lots of them, all over the place! I followed the kit instructions for most placements, and elected to leave the ones on the wheel hubs. I was surprised at how well the black stencils showed against the camouflage colours, although some silvering occurred even though the surface they went on was glossy. I've had this a couple of times with Airfix transfers, so perhaps there's something I'm missing in the application process. Always learning!

 

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With all the transfers done, I got some matt varnish on the model to protect it. My usual matt airbrush varnish had succumbed to the heat, so I had to resort to my standby of artist's matt varnish, thinned roughly 50/50 with white spirit. It's not as flat as the Phoenix Precision ready-mixed stuff, but I didn't want to wait. In any case, the August 1940 timeframe seems to have encompassed the "Type S" finish of camo paints on fighter aircraft, which imparted quite a sheen to the finish. I think the end result I've got is adequate.

 

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The canopy parts and the open door have been fitted, after varnish application. You may note I have trimmed the aerial masts down. I don't have any information on the actual dimensions so I've guessed from what I can see in photos and various drawings. 

 

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So far, so good. All that remains is to leave the model to dry properly, and then approach the rigging. That may well be a little while off again. Real (paying) work must come first!

 

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Thanks for looking, and thanks for all the kind comments.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Excellent job Heather, looking really good. It's given me some inspiration to start mine, but not sure what scheme to go for, there are so many to choose from!

 

Jason

[Heather Kavanagh]

Cheers Jason! There are, as you say, lots of schemes to choose from. It's one of the reasons I like to limit my interest to a specific period - even though the various RAF camouflage and marking schemes were in a state of flux for much of 1940, it just adds to the interest. By comparison, the Luftwaffe markings were pretty much standardised from the outset.

 

I want to get on with the rigging, but I have a couple of model railway commission builds that need my attention. 

[Steven-434888]

[snip]

 

Excellent stuff Heather. Much looking forward to you closing this one off and presenting it on the flight line.

Steve :-)

[Rael]

Great job! Its quite strange how there are no underwing roundels though.

[Heather Kavanagh]

At last I had a clear afternoon for some much-needed "me modelling". Time to sort out the rigging, and then HP-B can be safely placed in the display cabinet.

 

Now, with foresight, or hindsight, I really should have planned better for rigging this little plane. The technique I use is fine tinned copper wire, cut to length and carefully fixed in place with either PVA or cyano. This does rather rely on being able to get a pair of dividers in to measure things, and that proved pretty much impossible. I can't recall how I managed it with the Matchbox Gladdy! Anyway, if you plan to rig your Gladiator, plan ahead and allow for it before the upper wing is fitted permanently. That would help painting, too!

 

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Weapons of choice. A steel ruler, a scalpel with a No15 blade (so you can roll it across the wire to cut it, which avoids bending or crimping in my experience), a pair of dividers (fancy Rotring ones from a previous life as a technical illustrator) and some wire. This reel I've had since about 1981! I couldn't tell you the weight or diameter, but it's just about right for 1/72nd scale rigging wires and aerials.

 

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A length of wire sufficient for the job in hand is trimmed off, and then you roll it gently back and forth under the ruler.

 

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The result is a straight length of wire. From here, you are supposed to take your measurement with the dividers and trim the wire to the required length to fit the model. As I couldn't get the dividers into exactly the right place, I had to do a "best guess" routine, cutting longer than required. The wire was offered up into place, and trimmed until it seems just right to fit without being forced into a curve.

 

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I began with the easy bit first, being the tailplane wires. I used a 0.35mm drill in a pin vice to open the holes in the horizontal surfaces and fin. I went all the way through, the idea being the wire could be fed through in one piece and then gently tightened before fixing. It worked out well enough. On to the complicated bit.

 

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The instructions have guides and drawings to help place the various wires around the wings, but they are not to scale. It would have been really helpful if actual lengths between the various fixing points could have been provided. As outlined earlier, I proceeded to use my try-it-and-see approach to fit the cross wires in the fuselage struts. Small dabs of PVA were applied to the wire location points, the wire gently placed and left to set. The kit has location holes for some of the wires, but not for the other ends. For example, small holes are provided for the main wing braces, at the outer ends, but not at the inner location points. Again, hindsight would have been useful as I could have marked up and drilled locations before assembly. Live and learn.

 

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Being able to take the engine assembly off made handling easier during the process of rigging. By this stage, all the inner rigging wires are fitted. Next, the four main wires per wing.

 

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The first to be fitted where the forward wires... 

 

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Followed by the rear wires, and finally the strut cross wires. My wastage rate wasn't too bad, all things considered. I may have ended up with slightly more glue in location points than I would have liked, but the end result looks the part.

 

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Finally, the aerial wires. Remember I fitted brass wire masts to the wing and fin earlier in the build. HP-B had what appeared to be a Y-form aerial arrangement, with a dropper wire down into the fuselage and wireless equipment behind the cockpit. I began with the rear part, taking a length of wire and bending it to an L-shape. The short leg of the L went into the hole in the fuselage, while the long leg was trimmed approximately to length and glued to the fin mast. A spot of glue over the fuselage hole held the wire in place for the next stage.

 

A longer length of wire was straightened. It's not easy to do by rolling it under a ruler, so I held both ends in two pairs of pliers and gently pulled it. Forming a rough V-shape, a dab of PVA attached the centre of the valley to the corner of the L-shaped part fitted earlier. When set, some gentle tweaking was needed to get the ends of the V to attach to the wing masts, using spots of super glue for speed. Again, once set, the tails were trimmed back as neatly as possible.

 

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There we are. Inevitably, a little paint retouching is required, and I will add a little weathering to show the aircraft has just flown from the far north of Scotland down to the south coast. 

 

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A pleasant build, with some foibles. I enjoyed adding this Gladiator to my collection of Battle of Britain aircraft.

 

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I will try to arrange a photo session soon, to catalogue some of the other BoB aircraft in the collection. Meanwhile, a growing selection of red boxes is calling for my attention. I wonder which model will be next on the bench!

[John Symmons]

Hi Heather.

Nice to see your rigging method. I've used copper wire & usually have trouble keeping it taught. In SA we have heat waves that expands the copper, and it never shrinks back taught & seems to look slack especially the longer strands. Maybe in the UK that's not so much a problem.

I've just rigged an Airfix Henschell Hs 123 bi-plane, possibly the easiest bi-plane to rig as it can be done before the top wing is assembled, and used copper wire, as I do find it is easier to use than thread. Also I always drill the rigging holes (0.3 mm) before any assembly, (See my Albatros posting) that way I can plan the rigging runs as I build. Not sure I'd try copper wire on a Gladiator though.

Did you have any problems with the cowling, as in several reviews others seem to have had problems in that area?

Over all a very nice clean build, I'll be refering to your build when I finally get round to building mine. Had to by a second one as the first one had faulty decals, and Airfix are still out of stock, so I can now build both the Finnish one and the RAF Mk II.

Looking forward to seeing your BoB photos and future builds. Well done.

Remember we do this for fun    John the Pom

[Heather Kavanagh]

Hi John!

 

Yes, I did encounter the cowling issue. There are several small locating pimples around the cylinder block which are meant to locate in dimples in the cowling parts. Like others - and I neglected to mention it here - I filed the pimples off and cemented straight to the ends of the cylinders. The tolerances are very tight, and the slightest irregularity means the cowling won't fit neatly, in fact, if you look closely, you tell mine isn't as tidy as it could be.

 

Happily, at least so far, my wire rigging has not suffered expansion issues. Despite our changing climate, Blighty is still reasonably temperate. I don't have any other biplanes planned for my collection, though I might be tempted by one of the new tool Tiger Moths. I built one of the old ones a couple of years ago, which looks okay but is a bit lumpen compared to new kits. 

[Rael]

Hi Heather, well done on the build! I would like to see you build some German aircraft, maybe an He 111 or a Dornier Do17 as having built one myself would like to see some points I could improve one.

Anyway, thats just me, looking forward to further builds.

[Heather Kavanagh]

Hi Rael!

 

I have both in the stash, so they will arrive in the bench eventually. I am mindful that I don't have a lot of display space available at present, so I'm rather more tempted by the smaller aircraft right now!

[Rael]

Hi Rael!

 

I have both in the stash, so they will arrive in the bench eventually. I am mindful that I don't have a lot of display space available at present, so I'm rather more tempted by the smaller aircraft right now!

Sounds good to me!

[Heather Kavanagh]

As an addendum to the research for this build, I was working through research materials last night. I found a photo of N2308 when it was a squadron hack for an anti-aircraft training squadron in 1941. Still in the day fighter camouflage, albeit different squadron code letters, and still with its two-bladed Watts prop!

 

Was N2308 the only Gladiator MkII equipped with the two-blade prop, I wonder?

[Greg L]

As an addendum to the research for this build, I was working through research materials last night. I found a photo of N2308 when it was a squadron hack for an anti-aircraft training squadron in 1941. Still in the day fighter camouflage, albeit different squadron code letters, and still with its two-bladed Watts prop!

 

Was N2308 the only Gladiator MkII equipped with the two-blade prop, I wonder?

I might be a bit late. Isn't the front part of the Caul a bronze colour?

Other than that it is a very nice build. I did one many years ago as part of my Bob collection. I also made one for Microsoft combat simulator 2 and 3. It would be nice if Airfix did a 1/48 version. I have another manufacturers 

kit, but I would like to see the new Airfix quality used on it. It would go so well with the Hurricane and Defiant. 

By the way love reading your build notes. Keep up the good work.

[Kenneth ONeill]

I skipped most of pages 1 and 2, but the Gladiator had synchronised Browning MGs mounted in the fuselage sides. You would need a completely different gun synchronisation to use a 3-blade propellor to that for a 2-blade.