Gloster’s elegant Gladiator biplane was a staple of the British Air Force through the 1930’s and soldiered on through some of the tougher early campaigns of the Second World War in such places as Egypt, Libya and the Maltese Islands. Battling against often superior and newer opponents, it nonetheless distinguished itself before itself being replaced by newer, faster, and more heavily armed aircraft. It also made its presence known in a number of foreign services including Finland, Greece and the Netherlands.

ICM has released a number of variants of the Gladiator, including both Mk. I and Mk. II versions as well as the Sea Gladiator with arresting hook. All of these have proven to be thoroughly enjoyable builds and really do a fine job of representing this noble little aircraft in 1/32^nd scale. This combo set features the Mk. I only and does not include parts for either the Mk. II or Sea Gladiator.

The author spent his early years in the 1960s in New Guinea becoming fascinated with the many WWII aircraft wreck in the area. The book documents as accurately as possible the colors and markings of the various units in and around the Solomons and New Guinea in 1942-44. The book is broken down into 16 chapters along with an introduction, postscript, sources and acknowledgements, and index of names.

Each Sentai covered has its own chapter. Those discussed are the 1^st Hiko Sentai, 11^th Hiko Sentai, 13^th Sentai, 24^th Hiko Sentai, 33^rd Hiko Sentai, 59^th Hiko Sentai, 63rd Hiko Sentai, 68^th Hiko Sentai, 77^th Hiko Sentai, 78^th Hiko Sentai and the 248^th Hiko Sentai followed by a chapter on captured and restored aircraft during the war.

Summary

Following the release of the AEC Armoured Command Vehicle Dorchester ACV, AFV Club has “converted” the model to those captured by the German’s in North Africa in 1941. My guess is this is essentially the same kit, but with the addition of resin German radios and different decals. This thought is supported by the fact that the sprue for the exterior tools also has British radios and weapons on it.

The model is extremely well detailed, but requires an extra effort when handling due to scale thin parts that are easily broken. The parts layout and build sequence is simple and straight forward.

Background (Excerpted from the AFV Club description.)

Before the outbreak of WWII, the British Army was planning a wheeled armored vehicle to provide the armored troop commander and staff an appropriate command post.

If you are reading this review I am guessing you know what Deep Space Nine was and the Defiant but just in case, the Defiant was a prototype vessel designed for Star Fleet to battle the Borg. If you need more detail there is plenty on the web. The Polar Lights kit continues their series of 1/1000^th scale snap-together Star Trek universe ships. The kit has 27 parts including 13 in clear plastic and their normal 3 part stand. It also includes a plethora of decals to cover the panel colors so you don’t have to paint much other than the base color.

Dr. David C Nicolle is a British historian specializing in the military history of the Middle-Ages, with special interest in the Middle East and Arab countries. After working for BBC Arabic Service, he obtained his MA at SOAS, University of London, followed by a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. He then lectured in art history at Yarmouk University in Irbid, Jordan. Dr. Nicolle has published over 100 books about warfare ranging from Roman times to the 20th century, mostly as sole author. He also co-authored the ‘Arab MiGs’ series of books which covered the history of the Arab air forces at war with Israel from 1955 to 1973. Furthermore, he has appeared in several TV-documentaries, and has published numerous articles in specialized press. This is his fourth instalment for Helion’s @War series with more planned in 2021.