1/48 Roden Gloster
Sea Gladiator
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I try to take pictures that show relevant parts of the building
process, but some areas don't relate to that too well. The instrument
panel seems to be an area that people
have been having trouble with,
doing things like sanding it down or changing the ribs in the fuselage
it fits against. I had some trouble test fitting but found
that the
panel has to fit just right over the guns, if the lower edges are both
placed just in front of the main square section of the guns it will fit
with no trimming. I will try
to get a photo of how it fits from the
front, as I have left the engine and firewall off until last. The
cockpit floor/seat assembly is another thing that takes some
care. I
removed the forward right pin as it was going to foul on something, I
forget what. I super glued the three pins on the right side and then
while both the
panel and floor assembly were still a little movable (and
the radio box) I put the fuselage sides together and clamped them with
tape while the interior parts
cured. I let all that cure for a while,
then I glued the fuselage haves together, starting with the top front.
Once the fuselage was glued, I went in from the front and
glued the
instrument panel to the right side. I just left the radio panel and
seat assembly free on the right side.
When it comes time to paint
you will become frustrated with Roden's painting guide. The top and
side views are inconsistent. No problem for the wings
(except for the countershading) but there is
nothing much useful for the fuselage. Roden also put the separation
line between the
Light Sea Grey (or Sky) too low on the fuselage, it
should be about 1/8 higher, generally at the bottom of the cockpit
door. You are on your own as to where
you put the topside colors. Copy
mine, I more or less copied Tom Cleaver with better style.
Today I found that the rear interplane struts
have the wrong angle on the lower end so they don't conform to the
wing's airfoil shape. I glued them in and filled
under the back edge,
tomorrow I will carve them to shape. I made cabane struts out of
Contrail strut stock because the kit parts are not like
what is on the
airplane. They should be the same cross section as the interplane
struts but Roden supplied small round (and very fragile) struts.
I
made an assembly jig with mixing sticks using the painting diagram as a
guide for the angles, I'll post a drawing of the angles later. It
worked very well to
get the correct gap and stagger for the wings and
kept the wing panels aligned in planform. I put the interplane struts
in an let all that cure, then I disassembled
the jig and made the cabane
struts and installed them. Everything looks well aligned.
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