[Paper Kosmonaut]

After I got quite a bad mood for having to abandon the M-55, I needed some fun stuff to build. Just for building and not for trying the best you can. I mean, this hobby mainly needs to stay fun. The joy of creating something out of a flat sheet of paper.
So what would be better than just grab myself a couple of little models of Fabrizio Prudenziati? I always have tons of fun making them.
This time I started out doing the basic version of his Gloster Gladiator. I have kind of gotten the biplane flu, I guess, most of my planes are prop-driven biplanes.
These builds are two-day sessions of 4 to 5 hours. using the laptop with some new (and old) music, i just happily fiddle away an forget time.

So here we went. Fuselage, curling the sides with a cut-off knitting needle, glueing the edges. The wings and all loose elements were fitting well and I really started to enjoy myself again.

I like my props to be able to run, so I usually get out my little box of beads, put them on a sewing pin and pop them on with the propeller and the flat engine part. The beads provide a smooth surface for the prop to keep rotating easily.

The struts were as usual a little bit of a trial but I used white PVA that was just a little drier than straight out of the tube so it stuck quite well. I first did the bottom wing, glueing all the struts together, hoping I would get the top wing readied before the glue would be dry. And I did. Just tiny dabs of glue on the tips of the struts, the inner ones go first, and keeping the plane in a soft but steady grip with one hand, I put the outer struts (that I kept a in an angle a little more steep to prevent touching the wing) into their places.
And there was part one, the Gladiator.