Perhaps I’m a bit too demanding of myself, but I’ve failed at my effort to build a biplane. The biplane in question is the Gloster Gladiator, from a kit by Roden in 1/48. This was my first (and absolutely last) experience with Roden. The kit was next to hot garbage, from the decals to the plastic to the instructions. But I had managed to get everything together up to a point, had attached rigging to the underside of the upper wing, and then, the dreaded and most difficult part of any biplane - attaching the upper wing.
The interplane struts were fragile and too short, and then the cabanes were not fitting correctly either. I have a jig for doing biplanes - a few years ago I had attempted a couple of different Sopwith Camels, one by Eduard (1/48) and one by Revell (1/28), and both ended up under Thor’s hammer. That resulted in me doing some research and finding this jig intended for properly aligning the wing, and I was able to use that jig to successfully build an Encore 1/32 German Albatros.
I figured it would be a relative piece of cake to get this Gladiator done with that jig, but the kit’s imperfections caused me fits. I took a patient approach to this task … until I was not patient, and that’s when Thor’s hammer returned.
Now I’m frustrated with myself over this lack of patience and with the work that I had put into this turkey.
I do have several biplanes in my stash. The old Monogram “Fighting Planes of the 30s” and a couple of boxings of the Monogram F3F, an Accurate Miniatures F3F, and a couple of Wing Nut Wings - Sopwith Camel and a German fighter (can’t recall which one).
Gonna take a break. It’s too dadgummed hot in my workshop right now to be doing this stuff.
Biplanes can be rough, and Roden seems to pack as much misery into their kits as they can. I just threw a Roden 1/72 Pfalz in the can not too long ago. The fit was unbeliveably bad, and this being a hobby that is supposed to bring enjoyment, it got tossed. I did finish a 1/72 Roden Albatros, but it was a pretty crappy kit. Forget Roden.
Currently working on the new Revell Stearman. Nice kit, you might want to try that for a successful biplane.
I think Bish did an Airfix Gladiator, said it was an ideal kit for a first biplane.
Stephen, thats surely not the biplane to start with, not based on what I experienced. They do take some care and I remember some frustration. I built a custom jig for mine and there were some issues with the landing gear and engine mounting, if I recall correctly. Roden kits do build up into accurate replicas. My notes say I threw away the kit cabane struts and replaced them with Contrail strut stock.
Having been down the biplane road 5-6 years ago with only a little success and a lot of aggravation, I knew this return trip may very well end similarly. It did, unfortunately, but I’m most upset with my own lack of patience. Should have set it aside and walked away, done something else. Now I have no Gladiator, which was a pretty good looking biplane.
I think John is right - I picked a difficult kit to return to the biplane. Well, lesson learned.
For multi-winged subjects, nothing is easier than the Fokker Dr.I. But don’t buy the 1/32 Roden kit. The Encore reboxing has a lot of beautiful resin that is not really useable due to shrinkage. Plus the pilot figure is poor and in no way resembles Werner Voss. [:(] Go for an Eduard kit, 1/72 or 1/48. That should make things better.
The British use that flat “flying wire” and commonly have doubled wires on certain areas, which make for some challenging rigging work. Yeah WW I biplanes hang out in a tough neighborhood within the modeling community.
Get yourself one of thos new airfix Tiger moths or even like the same airfix (1970’s era rebox) Hwker fyry. The are as close to “easy” to build as you can get, the tigers especialy are designed to be self alligning and the fit is very good. Then you can also practice the rigging.
These things just take longer and more finnese to build but ultimately satisfying
I did the rigging on this with bristles of a house paint brush cut to size. glued on with CA
This revell rebox of an aurora cmmel is a little more chunky and PITA since the struts were not self alligning but these cheap kits make for good practice
I second the recommendation of the Revell 1:48 Stearman. It has the cabane struts molded into a part of the fuselage, so you can mount the upper wing and it will be in the right position after the glue sets to put in the N struts.
I’ve built a couple of Roden kits and one was a breeze, the other was a bit of a chore but it was the Felixstowe and that’s a big, complicated airplane.
Anything WnW is going to go together with a lot less trouble.
I feel your pain, I built that kit and had the same issue. I happened to put the outer interplane structs first, now the carbine ones was too long to fit. I wound up breaking them and using metail rods as replacements. Not technically accurately, but strong as heck.
