Gloster Sea Gladiator - Halinski - 1/33

[ricleite]

Thanks, Mike and Rifleman

The gun fairings can surely be assembled using only the kit’s parts. However, I prefer to add tabs and cut the formers well inside the line to give way for the tabs. The solution may not be very elegant but it gets hidden and works well.

[ricleite]

The propeller assembly is not conventional. The blades are printed on a single part, making it hard to get the correct pitch. “My” propeller came out far too flat, unfortunately.

[ricleite]

As the engine cowling has no openings, it is relatively easy to assemble. Note the kinks/bulges at the front. They should be aligned with the fuselage mounted guns.

[Erik Zwaan]

Beautiful work Ricardo. I'm pretty sure that if you assemble the gun fairings at the wings with inside tabs only and using sufficient glue, you won't need the formers at all. Orlik's Hurricane has something similar for the gun fairings and no formers included, nor were they required.
The Sea Gladiator fairings are not so big and once the glue has dried the result is a stiff "cocoon" that can be easily glued on the outline printed on the wings. I never understand this feature of Halinski designs, it's certainly not builder friendly.

Regarding the propeller, I wonder how aerodynamically this thing was in reality, there's hardly any torsion of the blades, rendering them not so effectively as "air screws" I would say....

And the cowling is of course a piece of art .

Cheers,
Erik

[rifleman]

out standing all round

[ricleite]

@ Erik - right! the formers can be discarded. The help to fix the base shape but I'd prefer a single former with that shape. Regarding the propeller, we are in the same boat Not builder friendly, either...

@ Rifleman - thanks

Mating the engine to the cowling is a demanding task, at least for me. I used a jig for the alignment. The pipe links to the engine are flexible enough to deform and leave space to put glue and glue them, one by one, to the cowling. Most probably, the sum of these 18 links is stronger than the paper coated wires that link the engine hub to the cowling. The propeller is detachable, which is good to see how much work is inside.

[YankeeBoy]

Wow! That engine/cowling assembly was more complex than some complete models! Well done.

[rifleman]

that's one of the best areo engines that iv seen built out standing

[ricleite]

Thanks, YankeeBoy and Rifleman
As you can see in the pictures, the main landing gear legs have an elaborated structure and some odd shaped parts to link to the fuselage. They fit very well and covered exactly the emplacements drawn on the fuselage skin.

[YankeeBoy]

The landing gear looks great! With the closing in of the top of the fuselage it is really starting to look like an airplane. I am envious of your flawless joinery - I could match it in my 40s but my 76-year old eyes and hands can't match your skills. I look forward to the completion of one of my favorite aircraft. What would be perfect is if Halinski did a silver Mk.I from the 1930s - very colorful birds!