Wooden prop? Oh no!
At the time I built this model I had never painted a wooden prop before and thought about wimping out and painting the two-bladed Watts propeller black – as usual. But there is something about biplanes and wooden props that said to me – try it and well, you can judge for yourself. I sprayed the prop Tamiya Buff (XF-57) and gently worked Burnt Sienna Artist’s watercolour paint from a tube into the surface, using a broad, flat brush. I’ll be honest and say that the prop is the part that has turned out best for me and whilst by no means perfect – looks OK to me.
Guns
The PE cooling jackets are added to the plastic gun body and look so much better than solid plastic versions. The flat PE parts need to be carefully rolled around a hard cylinder to achieve the correct shape; I used a metal rat-tail file for this.
Painting, decals and finishing
For the main ‘silver’ finish I used Alclad II Aluminium. This is lightly ghosted on with an airbrush over a grey primer base (you can see how to do this in your Techniques Bank). For convenience, I used their pre-thinned grey primer designed for the purpose, but car primer is good too – but follow Alclad’s instructions. The silver finish on many Gauntlets’ was often quite weathered (look at the excellent Squadron Signal ‘In-Action’ publication). I used graphite pencil dust applied with a cotton bud to help bring out details like the ribbing and exhaust stains. Citadel Colour Rust Wash is good for the panel lines. Darker browns or black may look too harsh against the subtle silver finish? Tamiya Smoke (X-19) is a great weathering liquid and this tones down the RAF Trainer Yellow (Xtracolor X-11) wheel hubs. The collector ring was painted using a mix of Alclad II Pale Gold and Magnesium with a hint of Citadel Colour Rust wash. Looking at references is essential for this task and you will see that many different shades and tones are seen in photographs of Gladiator collector rings.
The Max Decals are simply stunning in both quality and colour. They went straight onto the silver finish and were later blended in by a very light dusting with Poly S matt varnish sprayed with an airbrush at about 10 psi.
The rigging wires were threaded carefully through the holes, securing with tiny amounts of cyano and set with accelerator (kicker). Some wires needed tightening up and by holding a recently extinguished match nearby, the wire tightens up nicely. For added realism I apply a light coat of Citadel Colour Chainmail to the rigging wires to make then glisten slightly and look much better than leaving naturally clear. The exhaust stubs and tyres were liberally coated with light grey pastel chalk to help create a realistic effect and my Gloster Gladiator was finished.