Arado Ar 196 A-2
vs. Sea Gladiator
Over Norway, 1940

Sword, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

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Modellers ‘of a certain age’ will recall, perhaps not always fondly, the Airfix ‘Dogfight Doubles’ from the heyday of the company, 1965 until 1975. These kits offered two adversaries drawn from their range of popular subjects, with a dual stand so that they could be mounted in combat poses. Given the quality of those bygone kits, it is probably the Roy Cross ‘in action’ box lids that we remember best! Anyhoo, Sword has come up with a more up-to-date incarnation of the concept utilising two of their popular kits in a single boxing, with a theme and new decals.

I will not bore you all with details of the two aircraft as they are well known.

These two kits are re-issues of earlier productions, the Gladiator from 2010 and the Arado from 2014.

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Both of these have been reviewed in depth by our resident ‘one true scale’ expert and great modeller, Mark Davies on Hyperscale.

The Gladiator was covered on 10/2/2011 and the Arado 196 on 25/11/2014 and I would urge the modeller to look at these pages for Mark’s wise words. Suffice to say that both of these kits superseded earlier kits for their accuracy and details.

The new Airfix Gladiator, while not offering the Sea Gladiator option, is now a superior but slightly more difficult kit to assemble, but had not been available in 2010 for comparison.

I can only add that this new boxing includes a different set of decals, and to emphasise Mark’s comment that some strut holes will need to be enhanced by drilling them out a little for both kits. Apart from this, it is also important to remember that these are short-run kits so there are no locating pins/holes on the major components so some care will be needed in basic assembly but this should not worry the competent modeller.

The end opening box has a nice CA rendition of the two opponents while the rear has the four provided schemes shown in colour. All parts are together in a  single clip-lock bag with decals and resin cowlings and the Gladiator engine in seperate bags. The conversion of Gladiator to its sea-going relative is achieved via an insert containing the arrester hook. Instructions are a substantial 24 page A5 booklet, although the last 3 pages are blank. Each stage of construction is illustrated with clear line drawings with colour call-outs for details by name with no manufacturers mentioned.

Colours & Markings

Decals are provided for two examples of each aeroplane.

Sea Gladiators:

1. N2272/red G of 804 NAS, Hatston, Orkneys July 1940, and

2. N2276/yellow H of the same NAS, on HMS Furious, May 1940.

Both are in the temperate sea scheme of Extra Dark Sea Grey/Dark Slate Grey/Dark Sea Grey/Light Slate Grey shadow-shaded, over Sky grey, with N2276 exhibiting  slightly lower demarcation between camouflage and Sky Grey. Both schemes are illustrated in 3-view colour drawings plus a 3-view stencil location sketch, although they are for a Gladiator and not a Sea Gladiator. 

Xtradecal sheet X72134 offers the latter scheme but the ‘H’ is smaller and the dragon (?) in the oval is depicted against a pale blue background whilst Sword have this a yellow oval. I leave the choice to the modeller.

Arado 196:

1. T3+NH of 2.BfGr. 196 off Scharnhorst, 1940, and

2. 6W+IN of 5/BfGr 196 Aalborg-See, May 1940.

Both are in identical 73/74/65 Luftwaffe Sea splinter schemes which are illustrated in three views colour drawings.

Decals are nicely printed, in perfect register, glossy and with good colour density. Swastikas are in two parts as is the modern treatment.

Sword has given us a good way of getting both of these nice kits at a reasonable price. A generally good package and I hope it persuades Sword to come up with some other such double kits.

Thanks to Sword for the review sample.

Review Text & Images Copyright © 2018 by Graham Carter
Page Created 4 February, 2019
Last updated 4 February, 2019

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