Gloster Gladiator Mk II

Andrey Baranov
The common rule for me is: I do not make planes in scale 1:48, because I have no place to store them. But there is one exception.
Once upon a time, in 1994, I bought a model of Gloster Gladiator Mk II by Lindberg from a thrift store. Sure, in a scale of 1: 48. To be honest, I made mistake, because I looked at the surprisingly low price, and not saw the scale.
Well, once purchased, how could I not try to assemble it?
What can I say about this kit? It's a firewood. The interior is extremely concise (to put it politely). The engine is simulated very approximately. The wheels are much narrower than they should be... The copy level is half a century old, nothing unexpected.

Now I decided to "renovate" it.

What was changed:
- wheels of the chassis (resin + modified plastic caps from the model)
- cockpit interior (completely replaced, resin + photo-etching + self-made)
- cockpit itself (drawn from transparent plastic)
- engine + hood + exhaust pipes (resin)
- added navigation lights
- added airbrakes pads on the lower surfaces of the wings (I had to suffer, because the halves of the wings could not be divided)
- underwing machine guns together with gondolas
- haulers-tail wheel with a rack to replace the lost one.
The wheel turned out to be "controlled", which is noticeable in several pictures.

I do not claim the most accurate model, but it turned to be more likely to original photos.

The model is painted according to the scheme of the Swedish air force until 1940.