Roden 1/48th Sea Gladiator By Paul Schwartskopf

History

The first production Gladiator I's were delivered to the RAF in July, 1936. These entered service in January of 1937 with Nos. 3 and 72 squadrons. The Sea Gladiator was derived from the late production Gladiator II. These commenced with N2265 and were produced to specification F.36/37. Thirty-eight were modified as interim Sea Gladiators (N2265-N2302) for the Fleet Air Arm. A further 60 were built from the outset as Sea Gladiators (starting with N5500). These differed primarily from the RAF Gladiators in having an arrestor hook, catapult hard points, and a fairing under the fuselage that contained a dinghy.

The Sea Gladiators were first embarked on HMS Courageous with No. 801 Squadron in May, 1939. They also equipped Squadrons 804 and 813, which fought in the Mediterranean and North Sea areas respectively. In April, 1940, four that were crated at Kalafrana, Malta, and intended to serve aboard HMS Glorious, were assembled to provide air defense for the island. One aircraft was kept in reserve, and the others became famous as "Faith", "Hope", and "Charity". These three were fitted with Mercury XV engines and three bladed variable pitch airscrews intended for use on Blenheim bombers.

The Sea Gladiator was supplanted by the Grumman Martlet (F4F) on British Carriers by the end of 1940. During 1941, the last Gladiators were also withdrawn from RAF service. The Sea Gladiator had a maximum speed of 245 mph at 15,000 ft., wingspan of 32 ft., 3 in., length of 27 ft., 5 in., and was armed with four 0.303 Browning machine guns.

The Model

I have always liked the Gladiator. It was truly a hybrid craft, showing the lines of a modern era fighter (hydraulic flaps, closed canopy, etc.), but still retaining the traditional biplane construction. There is a simple grace and eloquence to the design that makes it attractive. Although its career was brief, it was colorful, as exhibited by the likes of Marmaduke Pattle, and the three Malta based aircraft. One squadron actually flew combat during the Battle of Britain. It is a type that every RAF/Fleet Air Arm modeler needs to add to their collection.

Although there are few visible differences between the land and sea based versions of the Gladiator, Roden has thoughtfully included them with their Sea Gladiator kit. This is the first injection molded kit in this scale that I have seen that acknowledges these differences (although Lindberg did reissue the Pyro kit several years ago with a three bladed prop).

Always having an active case of "AMS", I decided not to build the Sea Gladiator straight form the box, but rather use the Part S48-119 photoetch details that were made to fit the Roden kit.

Assembly

First stop is, naturally, the interior. The molded in detail on the fuselage sides is rather heavy, but does not seem to detract too much after the fuselage was assembled. But it's probably a good idea to thin down the height of the detail anyway. The cockpit floorboard has some nice detail to it. I detailed the rudder bar and added a bezel for the compass using parts 12, 11, and 7 from the Part PE set. I discarded the kit seat and used the PE one instead. There is no pre-marked fold line for the front edge on the seat, so a good educated guess is required for where to make the bend. Anyone having a little practice using PE shouldn't have any problems with it. After everything was painted, I added the PE seatbelts.

Extra PE details were added to the interior from the Part set. Note that the framework (part 21) on the right fuselage half will prevent installing the MG if you glue it in place before the MG is mounted. I found the MGs to be nicely molded, but added the PE gun barrels to both the fuselage and wing guns. I also used the PE bulkheads and rear deck components. There was a little "give and take" on positioning them, but I got the right fit after a few minutes of trial and error. Beware that the PE "door sills", parts 30L and 30R, are actually the same pattern. You'll have to cut one in half and "fudge" fit it on one side.

The three supports for the cockpit floorboard that get glued to the fuselage sides will need some trimming to get the completed cockpit assembly to fit correctly. Likewise, when adding the bulkheads, make sure the fuselage halves will fit correctly-a little hard to do, as Roden has neglected to mold in any locating pins.

The instrument panel was sanded down smooth, being careful not to break the clear plastic. I painted and added the PE instrument panels and instrument faces. They look really nice, but are slightly hidden once everything is assembled. Also, you'll need to do some sanding and fitting on the instrument panel, as it's too wide to fit in the fuselage. I used Model Master Interior Green for the cockpit, picking out assorted details with flat aluminum, flat black, and leather.

After the interior was completed, I assembled the fuselage. The rear half lined up almost perfectly, but the front half didn't. Either a result of the molds not cut right or warping, the right fuselage half of my example was 1/16 of an inch higher than the left one, from the cockpit area forward. After getting the proper alignment, gluing sprue scraps inside as guides, I epoxied the whole front fuselage seams on the inside to keep things together. As my earlier First Look in the October IM stated, there were troughs in the fuselage exterior caused by the heavy molded-in interior detail. I used riffler files to carefully smooth these out. I sanded the detail on the oil cooler off, and attached the PE one (part 37) instead. This part is made as a rectangle, so it looks somewhat off-center after mounting, as the nose of the aircraft offers more of a cone shape than that of a true cylinder. But it is definitely an improvement over the kit's molded-in cooling fins.

The cockpit doors are too wide to fit the openings, so I sanded them down until they fit. They also have heavy detail on the inside that I removed completely. This had the added benefit of making them thinner, and provided a much better scale appearance. I added the interior door details (parts 41 and 42) from the PE set, which makes a world of difference. I attached the right door, deciding to leave the left door open to show off the interior.

There were no problems with attaching the rudder and horizontal stabilizers to the fuselage. However, I had to do some trimming on the elevators to get them to fit. The notches that fit on the stabilizers do not match the mating "tabs" on the elevators. The landing gear had some large seam marks which were sanded out. They attach in the fuselage using what could be described as a "plug into a sleeve" joint. This required sanding to fit, but I can truthfully state that the gear legs will break before this glue joint will. The axles appear to be molded at an angle that represents the wheel angles of a Sea Gladiator in flight, rather than one sitting on the ground. I glued the inside PE wheel detail to both wheels, but did not use the spokes, as the aircraft I decided to model had full wheel coverings. There are two photos of the Malta based aircraft in the Profile publication which, although blurry, seem to indicate that the brackets for the carrier hooks were left on these aircraft. I attached the PE ones to the lower fuselage.

Both upper and lower wings had some problems. There were more troughs where the ailerons attach, which I tried to remove with files, but didn't have the same luck as with those on the fuselage. The lower wings are thinner at the roots than the mating fuselage connection, so I did some filling and sanding on the underside root sections. The wing surfaces had hills and valleys molded in, which I didn't have time to take care of. The Roden instruction sheet calls out the wrong ailerons, which becomes evident when you try to fit them. As with the elevators, they also took some adjusting to get the fit right. Attachment of the upper wings was left until after painting and decaling were finished. Although Part has included many PE plates to glue on where the rigging lines attach, I only added the ones that go near the roots of the lower wing. This was because I didn't know if the brass could eventually cut through the rigging material over time.

The engine required some scraping and sanding to get all the parts to fit properly. But once assembled, it looks pretty decent. I painted it with Model Master Aluminum, then gave it a wash of diluted Polly S Oily Black. The cylinder heads will need to be sanded to get the engine to slide into the cowling, once that is assembled. The cowling is in three parts, which require some more adjusting to get them to fit correctly and look "round". The molded in line simulating the exhaust collector ring is missing from the lower parts, and needs to be added. The exhaust pipes were added once the engine was attached to the cowling. I added the PE detail (parts 38 and 39) to the carburetor intake. Note that the Part instruction sheet shows it mounted to the wrong style intake. The spinner was glued to the prop, and the assembly was painted flat black with yellow tips.

Final Finishing and Assembly

I found four references on the camouflage pattern used on the Sea Gladiator. All four were different, causing me to create my own pattern based on the ones shown in the Roden instruction sheet and the Profile publication.

The topside camouflage was painted using Model Master Dark Sea Gray and Dark Slate Gray, while Medium Sea Gray was used on the sides and bottom surfaces. I used Model Master Acrylic Gloss as an undercoat for decaling, and finished up with Model Master Acrylic Semi-Gloss as a final coat, as I personally don't care for flat finishes on models in 1/48 scale and larger. I used the decals from Aeromaster's 48-187 sheet on the Gladiator to represent N5519 ("Faith"), which was based on Malta in 1940. The entire model was given a light wash of diluted Polly S Oily Black to bring out the details and give the model a weathered look to it.

Adding the upper wing to the aircraft was one of the most difficult assemblies I have seen in my many years of building WW1 and other biplane aircraft. The wing struts are molded slightly different from each other, making it tough to see how they actually should be attached to the model. They also don't contour to the wing surfaces very well. The cabane struts fit slightly better, but still need slight trimming and fiddling to fit properly. I finally got the top wing to fit to my satisfaction. Rigging was done using smoke colored nylon transparent sewing thread. The rigging scheme on the instruction sheet isn't clear, so I used other references to guide me.

Conclusion

Roden has done a nice job capturing the lines and scaling of the Sea Gladiator to 1/48 scale. The Part PE set makes a very nice addition for detailing the model, and includes some neat items such as full wing flap detail. However, both the Roden and Part instruction sheets are vague in places, and have mistakes on them, so you must exercise care and test fitting while assembling. A novice modeler may have many problems with the kit, while an advanced modeler should be able to handle everything that's thrown his or her way. Is this kit a vast improvement over the old Pyro kit? I think that is up to the individual modeler to judge for himself. But if you enjoy building RAF/RN aircraft, you should give it a try. And if you like detailing, pick up the Part PE set as well. It's definitely worth the price, and contains much more than what I have shown on this assembly.

If the Sea Gladiator is a good example of what subjects Roden is looking at, and if their molding processes improve with experience, we should be seeing some fine kits coming from them in the next several years.

Thanks to Roden and Part for supplying these kits for review.

References

William Green , "Warplanes of the Second World War, Fighters", Volume 2, Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1970.

Francis K. Mason, "The Gloster Gladiator, Aircraft in Profile", Volume 5, Doubleday and Company, Garden City, New York, 1970.

Peter M Bowers, "Gloster Gladiator, Scale Aircraft Drawings", Volume 2, Air Age Publishing, Wilton, CT, 1991.