Gladiator
Limited Edition

Eduard, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Luke Pitt

Eduard's 1/48 scale Gladiator is available online from Squadron.com for only USD$37.46!
 

The Gloster Gladiator has always appealed to me, I think it’s because it was the product of conservative thinking and the logical development of the successful Gauntlet design.

This and its counterpart the Fury were to spell the end of English bi plane fighter design.

Eduard has seen fit to re release the Roden kit (first appearing in 2002) with the addition of pre-painted photo-etched, self-adhesive paint masks and a large decal sheet.

This Eduard Limited Edition is essentially the same but now includes all the sprues and versions released by Roden in the one box. As a result, the kit can be now made ups as an Mk I or Mk II or Mk II Sea Gladiator as well as the skis equipped Finnish version.

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Thumbnail panels:

Inside very well illustrated box  you will find the Roden sprues, but now moulded in a medium grey  (as opposed to Roden’s very light grey) plastic.

Roden's Gladiator was never a bad kit to begin with but it received criticism in some quarters on its first release mainly due to the multiple piece engine cowl and a few sink marks. This time round, none of those issues have been resolved but none are overly hard to fix either. The main sprues look nice and clean with little sign of wear or flash.

The clear sprue is still a little thick but can be replaced but the excellent Squadron Vac canopy (9640) if so desired.

The photo-etched fret is pre-painted, so you get the instrument panels in a lovely Bakelite shade that go over the clear panel. Care needs to be taken here, as Roden’s clear instrument panel was a little too large to fit into the fuselage, so careful trimming will be required  The various details inside the cockpit, seat belts, rudder pedal strops, map case, throttle box are also included.

The back bulkhead of the cockpit has a replacement etch part, blanking off this area. The kit parts are generally molded well, with the surface textures impressively done. The fabric over ribs appears is equally impressive as are the various panel lines. Depiction of rib tape on the ailerons is subtle almost to the point of being invisible. The trailing edges on the three wing parts is very impressive as are the locating pins for the top and bottom of the outer struts on each wing. All the flying surfaces are supplied as separate parts. The engine is made up of 26 pieces not including the propeller

There is also an upgrade etched set for the exterior available separately from Eduard (48-862) but strangely this set does not include the strut wires.

The Gladiator used "RAF wires" These are thicker than the rigging of other WW1 aircraft, and should be flat or about twice as wide as they are thick. A better upgrade may be the Part photo-etched upgrade (s48-108) which includes these wires.

The two-blade wooden and three-blade Fairy Reed propeller are included, The instructions are very much better than the  ones included  in the Roden kits and are concise and easy to follow. Two nice sized rigging diagrams for a wheeled and ski-equipped versions are included towards the end of these.

Markings

The big decals sheet is printed by Cartograf. Colour and registration looks great on my sample.

Eight marking choices are offered and these include 

• Australian Mk.II in a 3 colour “shadow” camouflage in Libya 1941

• Swedish Volunteer Squadron F19, Finland. Mk.I (with snow skis) in silver and green camouflage 1940

• Latvian Mk.I in green and silver camouflage 1938

• Two RAF Mk.Is in overall Silver from 73 and 87 Squadrons respectively

• Belgian Mk.I in green and silver 1939

• RAF Mk.II in a 3 colour “shadow” camouflage France 1941

• RAF Mk.II Sea Gladiator in Dark slate grey and light grey camouflage HMAS Eagle 1941.

The kit is not without its flaws but thery are easily corrected.

Dimensionally, it measures up correctly, which means there are no major errors in outline or detail. The interior detail is adequate and generally the surface detail is quite well done.

The really pleasing thing about this kit is that there are a whole raft of updates that can be added to improve it. If you missed out on this kit the first time then, you may be pleasantly surprised at what you find in the box. 

Recommended

Thanks to Eduard for the sample.

Review Text Copyright © 2015 by Luke Pitt
Page Created 14 December, 2015
Last updated 15 December, 2015

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