Well, I actually forgot I had not finished this kit so I finished it tonight. Didn't turn out as well as I thought but I do like the camo paint job which turned out good in my opinion.

Since the last update I dull coated it, added the prop, removed the tape from the canopy and used a black sharpie marker to color the rigging black.

Looks great Tin... :-) Which kit is that?

This is the Roden kit. I believe they have just released the Sea Gladiator version. There were a few problems with the kit and required some tweaking to get it together. Careful modification of the cockpit area (instrument panel) was required just to get the fuselage halves together. The canopy has some fit problems and the decals are very, very thin. Did I say the decals were thin? lol

WOW !!!! It sure looks great for you to have had such a bad time working with it.....

This is awesome Tin, I especially like how effective you pull off the rigging. maybe you should write a tip or something. rigging is the thing make me steer clear from a swordfish kit that I really wanna do.

Great looking plane. Tin.

The result is realy great ! you can be proud of it !

wow, cool little buggar, what time era? early WWII?

Cool little Gladiator, Tin. I love biplanes. Alas, I tend to avoid them because of a severe case of tinyropeaphobia, the fear of rigging.

Great job, and it looks like a good kit. How was the build? I have it in mind to build this aircraft sometime.

Tin:

This is good stuff! You "bird" modelers have my respect. I've always wanted to do a couple but I'm spooked by the fit issues, masking the canopy, panel lines, and how to weather.
Other than that I'd jump right in!!!!

Good work.

Steve

that looks real nice mate. Unlike Dave (SS74) our mate from HK, I may just try one of these after seeing yours. :-)

Everyone, thanks for the kind remarks.

To answer a few questions: The overall build was 'ok'. Here are the problem areas I noted:

1. Canopy fit problems.
2. Instrument panel too side preventing fuselage halves to fit together.
3. Fit of gear struts into fuselage was tricky and need work.
4. I think the gaps arouind the elevators and rudder are too big and I should have fixed them.
5. I think the upper wing is too low. The angle of the outer wing braces may be wrong but they appear to be placed in the correct spot. Because the upper wing is low, the fuselage wing braces (under top wing at either side of centerline) were too long. I built new ones out of brass rod.

This was my first bi-plane kit and I must say I was scared of the rigging. After doing it once, though, it would be a breeze to do it again and I have a few new ideas to try out to get better results with the rigging. I plan on doing a article on either the full build or just how to rig it. Not sure yet.

Again, thanks for the comments.

:-) Bryan, loverrrrrrly job. Camo's good canopies good, rigging's good. One hell of a good Gladiator. I was just going to do the Sea Gladiator (Malta defender) but now I will be doing one of these as well.
You certainly have to do an article on the rigging :-) and one on the build would be very useful as well :-)
Mal

Thanks Mal. I'm definetley doing an article on the rigging-I've already started making drawings for it in photoshop but we'll see about the full build article.

yea the rigging looks great, I like the camo too, very nice work

Bender