Painting:

There is an encouraging interest in this delightful aircraft, ranging from colour profiles in the glossies to a relatively recent Warpaint publication. In combination with a batch of pics taken at Duxford a few years ago, it makes for a reasonable data base. But Richard Caruana’s seductive profiles are innacurate in cowling profiles, and the camo patterns of Pattle’s aircraft (all derived no doubt from grainy period shots and a fair amount of intelligent guesswork) across the range of publications, which includes the Roden instruction sheets, all have discrepancies. So in the end, as usual, I had to make my own informed decisions. See bibliography below. One of the reference sources mentioned is indispensable, however fleeting your interest in the man or his machine may be- and that is Baker’s Ace of Aces, M St J Pattle. The book has its share of grainy period shots, but they are important. One of them shows Pattle in his Gladiator with his family coat of arms under the cockpit behind the access door. I have made the assumption that he would have had this on all his machines. It would have been in character, if nothing else. The Warpaint publication has a number of photos of Gladiators in the desert both at Amriya and in forward bases showing considerable weathering. The camo was applied over the silver dope and natural metal in the field. I used the Xtracrylic (Hannants) Dark Earth and Dark Green for the first time; perhaps I had a bad day, but the quality does not seem to be up that of their enamels. I cut a mask for the Pattle coat of arms star- but, that combined with the instant disintegration of the Roden decals when exposed to water and the resulting need to mask and paint all the markings (including the famous serial number) set the tone for a seriously weathered machine.

I’m not a great fan of heavy weathering, mainly because I don’t have the courage, but in this case there was no choice- and the fact that I had to paint the markings allowed some latitude in fading and dusting. It turned out to be quite fun. I over spayed the camo and markings with a mixture of ModelMaster Raw Sienna and white (adagio); and the wear and tear of the paint (vividly illustrated in the aforementioned grainy photos) was achieved by using Tamiya Paint Marker Chrome Silver, dabbed in a bottlecap and applied with a 000 brush; then it was oversprayed with ModelMaster Burnt Umber (equally adagio). The final finish was a coat or two of MicroScale Satin Varnish (still, after all these years and the plethora of varnishes, the best finishing system around).

Finally, the rigging was a combination of some incredibly fine wire from, I think, a ancient Nichimo kit, and stretched sprue. Use a grey sprue and get it to the correct thickness, cut to length and use matt acrylic medium as an adhesive (it dries quickly, invisibly, matt, and comes off easily- you’ll need the last one, believe me). Note that in machines of this era there were no turn buckles; the flying wires passed through fairings, so there’s no need to simulate these. When the sprue is in place, heat up a spatula and ease it (more adagio) near to the sprue and the sprue will (or should) tension magically.

GALLERY - Opens in New Window - Requires registration.

• Baker, ECR: Ace of Aces M St J Pattle, Ashanti, 1992 Spencer, T:
  
• Gloster Gladiator, Warpaint No 37 Harrison , WA :
  
• Gloster Gladiator in Action,Squadron Signal No 187 , 2003 Caruana, RJ:
  
• Gloster Gladiator, Scale Aviation Modeller Vol 7 Issue 1 -and sundry clippings and photos in my files.