Competing Gladiators

 

Two Gloster Gladiator kits which would have competed with one another when they were new.

The left model was issued by the English kit manufacturer FROG in 1973 as FROG kit F206 (bagged issue), before it was reissued one year later as kit F429 (boxed issue).  Depicting a Gloster Gladiator Mk.II, the kit came with markings for a Royal Air Force Gladiator of 247 Squadron based at RAF Plymouth during the Battle of Britain in August 1940; the alternative set of markings included in the kit were for a Royal Norwegian Army Gladiator Mk.II based at Stavanger airfield during the Battle of Norway in April 1940.

The right model was issued by the English kit manufacturer Matchbox in 1972 as Matchbox kit PK-8.  Depicting a Gloster Gladiator Mk.I, the kit came with markings for a pre-war Royal Air Force Gladiator of 73 Squadron based at RAF Digby in 1938; the alternative set of markings included in the kit were for a Royal Swedish Air Force Gladiator of the F8 Wing based at Barkarby in 1938.

These kits would, at the time, have competed with a third competitor: Airfix' kit 01002 of 1973, a rebox of the antiquated Airfix "pattern 1335" of 1956, which none the less would continue to be reissued well into the 21st century, before its definitive replacement in 2013.

Both kits were conceived as "easy to build" models, with a a relative degree of accuracy, but with very much simplified detail.  For instance, both kits' interior limited itself to a seat with a pilot - which was still more than the 1956 Airfix kit which had the pilot moulded as part of the fuselage halves!  Both kits had their issues (the FROG kit had an awkward wing construction, while the Matchbox kit offered its share of problems in assembling the engine cowling), but were otherwise reasonably easy to build - however detail-wise both would be surpassed in 1978 by the Heller kit of the same subject.

While the Matchbox kit would periodically be reissued by Matchbox up to its dissolution in 1999, before being reissued by Revell in 2010, the FROG kit had some sporadic reissues by NOVO after FROG's bankrupcy in 1975, before disappearing from the shelves altogether in the 1980s - most likely due to NOVO ruining the moulds by using the wrong kinds of plastic, wrong injection pressure, and wrong mould temperature as usual...

Kit information:

- Left kit:
Model: 1/72 scale, FROG F206
Kit inventory no. 1016, acquired September 8th 2013.

- Right kit:
Model: 1/72 scale, Matchbox 40062
Kit inventory no. 254, acquired November 4th 1998.