Gloster Gauntlet - Silver Wings + AIMS

Started by Max Williams · 216 · 1 year ago
  • Profile Photo
    Max Williams said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    A great help Christopher, thank you once again. Spiros @fiveten I've always enjoyed the challenge of non-mainstream esoteric kits and as you'll already appreciate, the research is as important as the kit building! Oh, and my account seems OK now too thankfully.

  • Profile Photo
    Max Williams said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Further progress! Some painting

    Purists might note that the roundel colours are the slightly more dull WW2 version, and they would be right, but getting reliable references to interwar roundel colours, never mind then matching a paint colour to them, is beyond me!

    Work on the radiator and Townend ring colouring. The Silver Wings PE radiator is a bit thin, I had already backed it with a piece of aluminium cut to size but I've now added two strips of plastic to raise the whole thing slightly proud of the fuselage surface. Here in its approximate position but not yet trimmed. Still working on the Townend ring to get the burnt effect. One drain pipe and two filler caps added...getting there! (And I've learned how to put pictures in posts...woohoo!)

  • Profile Photo
    George R Blair Jr said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    The research and work you are doing on this is spectacular, Max (@maxw). The results clearly make it all worthwhile. You said you learned about adding photos. I have been having problems getting photos into my posts since the site migration. Did you discover a secret to getting photos to upload?

  • Profile Photo
    Max Williams said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    George @gblair I've never had a problem with photos actually uploading, but I'm delighted to have discovered how to intersperse them in the appropriate place in the text, it makes the thread flow that much better.

  • Profile Photo
    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Really amazing how this build progresses, Max @maxw
    The research is indeed amazing and especially for a less known aircraft it is great to see how much information you have already gathered.

  • Profile Photo
    Max Williams said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    And breathe! The aforesaid starboard front area is just about finished:


    and I couldn't resist placing the front cowling roughly in place:


    It's noticeable from photographs that the cowling is a different "silver/grey" to the doped fabric of the aft fuselage, so I used MRP duraluminium to get the flatter finish.

  • Profile Photo
    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Lost of words really for the result so far, my friend @maxw!
    looking really spectacular!

  • Profile Photo
    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    This is truly amazing, Max @maxw
    Very realistic already.

  • Profile Photo
    Max Williams said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    More musings from the muddled modeller! Major(ish) mods needed following thoughts about "the black hole" that exists on the Silver Wings model beneath the tailplanes. I knew from building ICM's excellent Gladiator that this "open" internal rear fuselage area contained the mechanism for anchoring the horizontal tailplanes and for hinging the elevators, not very clear picture but you get the drift:


    but Silver Wings don't provide anything to go here. So looking at ICM's instruction sheet for their Gladiator:

    My plan is to manufacture something along these lines and try to "wedge" it in place somehow...this of course should have been addressed before closing the fuselage up but hindsight is a wonderful thing. But then looking at the picture above that I took of Duxford's Gladiator tailplane made me remember that the tailplane isn't actually fixed to the fuselage for most of its length, there's quite a large gap. I assumed this is so with the Gauntlet, and enlarging the picture of the unfortunate crash proved so:

    The question then remains about how to secure the tailplanes firmly in place and I guess the answer is pretty much as the real thing; metal rod through the fuselage at the front end and through the structure that I'll be adding at the aft end. Accurate drilling required!

    Moving right to the front end of the Gauntlet, my attention was drawn to the cowling fixing arrangement by a chap on Britmodeller who is making a 1/72 scale Gauntlet. Whilst photographs clearly show "catches/latches" on the port side of the cowling on the midline:


    ...none show a corresponding fixture on the starboard side, though Silver Wings understandably has assumed it to be there. I don't think it is, so I intend removing them from my model:

    SW provide two small frets on the PE sheet for the surrounds for the "footwells" on the fuselage but I avoid using PE wherever I can so I imported a clear picture of a Gauntlet into Silhouette and quickly produced vinyl alternatives, no messy CA to deal with:

    There were spring-loaded flaps on each footwell but I can't decide whether to leave the vinyl in place or just have the surround, perhaps when painted things will be clearer.

  • Profile Photo
    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Very nice work on the footwells, Max @maxw
    You did wise to choose for the vinyl alternative instead of the PE.
    With your skills is should be doable to remove those latches on starboard side.

  • Profile Photo
    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Your approach cannot be more realistic, my friend @maxw!

  • Profile Photo
    Max Williams said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Latches were a piece of cake @johnb, much easier than I anticipated but then resin carves more easily than styrene!

  • Profile Photo
    Max Williams said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    It’s always my goal Spiros@fiveten, sometimes it’s my downfall!

  • Profile Photo
    Christopher Amano-Langtree said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Hi Max - footwell covers were flush and didn't stand proud at all. The photo shows an optical illusion (there appears to be bas-relief when there isn't). I have a photo of the internal tail structure which should help you here. It was thankfully rather simple but the file size is too big to post - if you let me have your private email I'll send you a copy.

  • Profile Photo
    Max Williams said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Before too long I will be fitting the cabane struts to the forward fuselage then the mid-wing upper section but before that can happen I have to fit the gunsight and windshield. The latter is cast from resin and whilst being clear, is rather thick and doesn't fit very easily snuggling up against the radiator. So back to the Silhouette to design and cut a new windshield, quite a lot of trial and error involved with measurements and angles but I finally arrived at an acceptable windshield.

    So I used the "empty" outline to cut a piece of thin clear plastic and the one with frames to cut some vinyl (self adhesive of course), which I then pressed onto the clear shape. It works:

    It will fit well when glued in place. I'm going to paint the vinyl silver before cutting it to avoid the fiddly job of freehand painting or trying to mask it. Job done!