Magna Models 1/72 Gloster f5

MAGNA MODELS 1:72 GLOSTER F.5/34

Reviewer: Tim Beales (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 1 February 2003

Kit Details:

GLOSTER F.5/34 by MAGNA MODELS in 1/72 scale

The Aircraft:

This aircraft has always been intriguing for me. The Gloster F.5/34 is commonly referred to as the "no name", because it was only given the moniker of the British Air Ministry specification that it was made for. In fact, this same tender spawned the Spitfire and the Hurricane. The Gloster F.5/34 only got to the prototype stage, because delays in producing the Gladiator meant that the Hurricane and Spitfire were already in production by the time the type was being test flown. Therefore, the Gloster F.5/34 was cancelled, despite the fact that it was faster than the Hurricane, and was an eight-gun fighter. The Gloster F.5/34 debuted at the 1938 Hendon Air Show, and was used as an instructional airframe in the early stages of WW2.

Kit Parts:

The kit is boxed in the usual Magna sturdy white cardboard house brick-sized box that has a profile cover sketch of the Gloster F.5/34 at the Hendon 1938 Air Display. One has to snip the sealing tape at the ends of the box, and the middle section slides out to reveal the resin contents floating around in a plastic bag. The two transparencies and the white metal parts are contained in separate bags inside the main bag. The instructions (all in English) are provided on three sides of A4 paper.

In the normal Magna way, the first side provides a brief history of the aircraft with technical data and some references for the modeller. Notes follow this on the preparation of parts, adhesive notes, and on painting notes for those new to working with resin. The first side ends with suggestions on where to obtain appropriate decals.

Side two opens with some assembly notes and detailed colour notes for the cockpit interior etc. This is followed by a sketch of the parts breakdown. In resin these are: (i) solid port and starboard wings; (ii) two fuselage halves; (iii) two tailplanes; (iv) a tail fin; (v) the cockpit interior unit; and (vi) the engine and cowling unit. The white metal parts breakdown is: (i) two undercarriage legs and supports; (ii) two wheels; (iii) two exhausts; (iii) a propeller and spinner as a single unit; (iv) a tail wheel; (v) a control column; (vi) an instrument panel; (vii) an anti-roll bar assembly; and (viii) an aerial. As usual, Magna thoughtfully provide two canopies (i.e. one spare) for the five-thumbed modellers, such as me.

All the resin components were beautifully cast, with only a few tiny air bubbles dotted around, such as around the wheel wells and around one of the gun ports on my model. The white metal parts needed some minor cleaning with a No. 11 blade.

Side three gives a four-view profile sketch of the Gloster F.5/34 flown at the Hendon Air Show in 1938.

Construction of the kit:

Firstly, all the resin parts were separated from their casting lugs using a saw, and sanded flush with the mould lines. The parts were then washed in warm, soapy water before construction, and when dry, primed with Humbrol H1 primer. When the primer was dry, the interior was painted in the RAF Interior Green (H78). There is some minor cockpit detail on the sides of the fuselage that can be picked out by dry brushing. I painted the control column and instrument panel in black (H33) and picked out the dials in silver (H11). I painted the seatbelts buff (H83) with aluminium buckles (H56). Once dry, I cleaned out the hole in the bottom of the cockpit unit, and stuck the control column in place. The instrument panel and the cockpit module are glued onto small ledges on the inner sides of the fuselage.

Once the above was dry, I glued the two fuselage halves together. Everything went together really well, and the join only needed minor filler and sanding to get a seamless fit. The wings on the Magna Gloster F.5/34 have locating lugs that fit into recesses in the sides of the fuselage. These are not unlike an injection moulded kit, and I found that it was easy to fit the wings. There was a small gap between the wings and the fuselage, which is inevitable with resin kits, but this was easily cleaned up using Humbrol filler. The front-view of the Gloster F.5/34 provided by Magna shows straight wings, but mine had a slight dihedral of about two degrees or so. I am not sure which is correct.

The two tailplanes locate into two recessed areas in the fuselage, again as per injection moulding, but the tail fin butt joins to the top of the fuselage, and you will have to follow Magna's location from the plans. I had no trouble doing this though. On coming back to my model the next day after letting everything dry, I noticed that the tailplanes were badly twisted. I hadn't noticed this before, and I suppose it may have happened overnight. The starboard tailplane was pointing down and the port tailplane was pointing up at an angle of about 30 degrees! However, this was easily rectified by dipping the end of the fuselage in a bowl of warm water for a few seconds to warm the resin, and then gently twisting the rear section until the tailplanes were level. It was really very easy.

I used some filler around the tail plane followed by a light sand to get a smooth joint. The next job was to fit the single piece cowing and engine unit, which butt fitted on the front of the fuselage. A smidgeon of filler was needed on a small cavity that had appeared on the lower fuselage joint, just near the engine/fuselage interface. The propeller was glued straight onto the engine unit.

The undercarriage was simple to assemble, being a single wheel that fits into a u-shaped undercarriage leg. The top of the leg fits into a pre-drilled hole in the undercarriage leg bay. I cleaned up all the Magna location holes with a drill before gluing the parts in place. A u-shaped undercarriage support needed to be trimmed to fit into the correct spot in the undercarriage bay; this is clearly indicated by Magna in the instructions though. The tail wheel also fits into a pre-drilled hole at the back of the fuselage. The two exhausts fit into channels in the front lower fuselage behind the engine cowling.

I did not use the Magna white metal rod to construct the anti-roll bar situated at the rear of the pilots seat, and used my own Evergreen 0.5 mm rod instead. I managed to cut out the canopy OK, and attached it with Kristal Klear. I made the aerial from the same Evergreen rod.

Decals:

Magna only show the profile of K5604, which was flown at the 1938 Hendon Air Show. This was silver overall (H11). They do however, mention a camouflaged plane in the introduction, but provide no further details other than the serial number and that it was RAF Dark Earth/Green over Silver.

Magna suggest using the roundels from Modeldecal sheet No. 39, and the black serials on Modeldecal sheet Nos. 34, 36, and 36A. Unusually, Magna give no indication of the roundel or serial sizes. In addition, the Modeldecal sheets indicated are for RAF A-type roundels from WW2 and for post-war serials.

I decided to use pre-war RAF roundels from Modeldecal sheet No. 107, and used 45" roundels on the upper wings, 35" roundels on the lower wings, and 25" roundels on the fuselage. I used 8" pre-war black serials from Modeldecal sheet No. 104 for the fuselage and tailfin serials, and a 20" number "7" on the engine cowling from the same set. (This was the number assigned to the aircraft at the Hendon Show). For the underwing serials, I used 30" black, pre-war serials and numbers from Modeldecal set No. 106.

Accuracy:

I could not find any details of the dimensions of this aircraft, but my model looks like the Magna profiles and the photograph taken at the 1938 Hendon Show.

Overall:

An easy build and good fun. I would have no hesitation recommending this as a first resin kit, but the esoteric subject matter and the price may act as natural breaks on the enthusiasm. For the student of air history, the Gloster No Name was clearly related to the Gladiator, and this model fills a hole in one's Gloster aircraft collection.

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