Bruce Leyland-JonesIn a nutshell...
Not featured is the old Airfix Gladdy, which is definitely one of the poorer products of its time.
The FROG seems to be an example of the kit engineers trying to do too much. It's way over-engineered, with silly strut attachments and, generally, it's just not a nice kit.
The Sword, as a later example of modern kittery, was okay, especially as the Sea Gladiator provided the oft-neglected Dinghy Pack. That aside, it was short-run, with individual struts and not particularly cheap.
Then we have the Hobby Boss, which was a joy to build and only let down by the clichéd decal choice. Definitely the Nu-Matchbox on the block and only drops down the list because it's not as available as...
The Matchbox was/is a cheap and cheerful Gladdy. Easy to build well and still readily available, either in original Matchbox or later Revell boxings. A great little kit that serves well as a canvas for all of those decal schemes.
The Heller was THE Gladiator kit forever. Beautiful detail and surface textures. Relatively easy to build and which extras to build either Mk.I or Mk.II versions, plus alternative undercarriage. Availability and relatively high prices kept this one out of many hands, as it was a much-sought after kit. However, prices have now dropped, since the Nu-Airfix arrived.
New Airfix Gladdy is a truly brilliant little kit, in all respects and obviously created by someone who knows biplanes. (See also their new tooled Tiggie). It has great internal detail and capacity to be displayed with those details showing. The struts are painless, so even the clumsy have a chance and surface detail is fine and dandy. It's readily available and costs relatively little.
8. May, 10:47
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