Martin PBM-5A Mariner - 1:72 Minicraft Models

[Mike]

PBM-5A Mariner
1:72 Minicraft Models

The Mariner was developed by the Glen Martin company to work in cooperation with the Catalina, and replace the Consolidated P2Y that was starting to show its age even before the USA was drawn into WWII by the attack on Pearl Harbour. Entering service in 1940, they served in various guises throughout WWII and beyond, with a shipment sent to the RAF but never used in anger, as well as the RAAF who used them primarily for troop transports.

The PBM-5 was a much improved variant of the original with more powerful engines, and the -5A added retractable landing gear making the Mariner a true amphibian. There were 40 of this model built, almost all new from the production lines, with only four converted from other marks. Withdrawn in 1964 to be replaced by the P5M Marlin, only one now exists in complete form, and I count myself lucky to have seen it at the Pima museum a couple of years ago. On dry land it is an impressive specimen, with the sides of the fuselage rising like a cliff in front of you, an expanse of Dark Sea Blue skin and rivets.

The Kit
This has been an anticipated release by many, as the Mariner is an interesting and unusual flying boat, often eclipsed by the more pugnacious Catalina. It is a new tooling, and arrives in a thick set box with a painting of a Mariner flying away from the plume of its exploding bomb load, nacelle mounted bomb bay doors still open. There is also a Lockheed Martin logo, showing that it is a licensed product, and on the sides are a number of side profiles showing some of the decal options. Inside the box is a lot of plastic – six large sprues in a light grey shade, and one of clear parts, which are very nicely done. A simple sheet of decals and a thick instruction booklet round out the package. The fuselage halves take up the full length of the box, and most of one sprue, with fine engraved panel lines on the outer skin and not a rivet in sight. First impressions are that it is a nicely tooled kit, having a high part count, zero flash, and what appears to be a well detailed set of bays. There are a couple of small sink marks here and there, most noticeable in the upper half of the inner wing where the boxes for the flap bays are, and the consequent thickness of styrene has caused a depression on the outer skin on each side of the fuselage. Easy to fix, but you'll also have to repair a few square inspection panels once you're finished with the putty.

The first seven pages of the booklet are filled with sprue diagrams, and at the bottom of page seven is a box of text warning you of the options for landing gear up or down, and the alternative radar blister above the cockpit. There is also a choice of three or four-bladed props, although that isn't mentioned until later. The cockpit is first, naturally enough, and a decent array of parts go to make up what for the scale is pretty well detailed. Instrument panel and centre console are up front with the rudders, trim-wheels, seats and control columns on both sides, which have separate yokes. Behind them are a pair of trestles containing instrumentation, tilted up to the rear to be easily viewed by the two operators. Behind them is a large wall of instrumentation that looks a lot like an early computer, which has another operator's seat facing aft to allow the operator to view the array of instruments around him. In order to be able to see some of this detail, there are a number of portholes set in the sides of the fuselage, which are on the clear sprue as separate parts, each with its own backing plate that fits neatly into the recess around each one. There are a number of different shapes on each side, so take care here, and mask them up as soon as the glue is dry. The cockpit/cabin floor is inserted into the starboard fuselage half along with the nose gear bay, which is very nicely detailed, and the circular main gear bays that sit in the aft sides of the fuselage. These are detailed with radial stiffeners, and a small circular observation window is applied to the centre, so that a crew member could check they had deployed properly. If you are modelling the Mariner with its gear down, a flashed over hole under the main gear bay aperture will need to be opened up to receive the peg on the back of the gear legs later. The angular bomb-aimer's window is also inserted in the front of the nose, and have retracting doors that close over them in order to withstand the rigors of sea landings. With that you can close up the fuselage after adding an ounce of weight (28.4g to the metric folks) in the nose area. The interior should probably be painted a dark colour away from the areas where the cockpit and cabin are positioned, as there is no interior apart from there, so you don't want your viewers seeing bare styrene, or your nose weight.

The Mariner had two bomb bays buried in the underside of the engine nacelles, using an otherwise redundant area, and avoiding having to place waterproof bomb bay doors in the underside. They are very nicely rendered, having prominent ribbing moulded into the side walls that are built into the lower part of the nacelles moulded into the wing, and a very highly ribbed roof built into the upper part of the central wing. Forward and aft bulkheads are included, as are ladderwork structure of the wing on each side of the bays. Overall, a very nice part of the model, and it would be a shame to cover it with the one-piece closed bay door. If you can't bear to hide it away, the doors can be cut apart along a weakened centreline and posed open. The roof detail has caused some sink marks in the upper wing centre section, which would be best addressed early in the build to avoid difficult handling once the wings are together. The wing structure is quite unusual, and should result in a very strong wing if put together carefully. The upper wing consists of a central section that includes the upper halves of the engine nacelles, and two outer portions. Underneath are two lower wing halves that overlap the joints between the central and outer panels, and these include the lower halves of the engine nacelles. The engines are built up later, and have both banks of cylinders of the R-2800 Double-Wasp engines depicted, with the crank case and bell housing fed through the hollow cylinder banks to make the finished engine. This is backed by either a set of open or closed cowling flaps, and the cowling slides on from the front, mating with the front of the cowling flap part. A choice of three or four bladed props is provided, and they simply glue into the holes in the front of the engine.

Although it doesn't show on the photo above, there are very fine cooling fins moulded into each cylinder of the engine.

Air intakes are added to the top and bottom of the engine nacelles, and a navigation blister is added from the inside the rear of the spine. A full set of ailerons and flaps are included, and can be posed for effect, with the instructions advising on sensible positions. Each section is provided in upper and lower halves, and are cemented in place around T-shaped tabs to give the joint strength, and if you're careful with the glue, the ability to pose the and re-pose them later. In truth, it's probably best to glue them at your preferred angle, remembering to also pose the inner flap sections at the same angle as the outers. The Ailerons of course should deflect in opposite directions, and don't forget to do the same thing to the control columns in the cockpit, or someone's bound to have a moan! Under the wings are three depressions into which the struts for the outboard floats are fixed, and you'll need to take care to use the correct parts, as they are handed. The floats are made up from top and bottom halves, and have four depressions moulded into the top for the V- and N-shaped struts. These are probably best left off the model until after painting, remembering to spray them while you're doing the rest of the airframe.

The tail is built from a one-piece upper and two part lower, with separate elevators fitted the same way as the wings' flying surfaces. The fins and rudders are also separate, and fixed at 90^o to the elevators, not the ground, as shown in a scrap diagram. A pair of support struts are fitted above and below the elevators, locking the fins in place.

The completed wing assembly is dropped onto a saddle-shaped depression on the upper fuselage and glued in place, and the tail gets the same treatment, giving them both a good strong bond with the fuselage.

There are three turrets on the Mariner, and usefully, all three can be left off until after the build to avoid damage and/or additional masking. The ball turret on the nose is made up from a solid lower and clear upper, with a rough depiction of the guns sandwiched between the halves, and the barrels protruding through the glazing. Detail isn't wonderful here, but turrets are seldom a strong point of any 1:72 kit. The dorsal turret is similar, having a lower turret ring, guns mounted on the ring, then encapsulated by the two glazing parts that are split vertically. The split isn't on a frame line however, so do take care to minimise the glue line here. A lower crew position is then added to the turret ring so that it can be dropped into the fuselage later. The tail gunner sits in a similar fully glazed turret to the mid-upper, but has a tear-drop fairing in front to smooth the airflow over the rear of the aircraft.

Landing gear can similarly be left off until after main painting, but even if you elect to pose it retracted, you'll still need to build up the main gear, as the wheels are visible in their recesses. The gear legs are inverted and the pin is removed from the small door on the upper part of the leg, preferably before you install them for ease. The nose gear is hidden behind a V-shaped one piece pair of doors, which is cut to form two if you are deploying the gear. If going for the gear down option, which is most likely given that your Mariner would either be flying or waist deep in water if the gear was up, you simply install the gear leg in the nose bay onto a pair of moulded in crutch-pads, set the angle by adding two retraction jacks to the rear of the bay, and then add the twin wheels, which are each supplied in two halves. The bay doors are cut into two and then installed either side of the bay. The main gear legs are short and pivot into place, with a small bay door attached to the upper section. The pin on the back of the door locates in the hole you drilled in the fuselage side, and a retraction jack reaches down from the bay to the leg. The main wheels are in two halves, and if you want to add a little bit of weight deformation to the tyres, you'll want to sand a little flat on the contact patch to give the illusion of sag.

The canopy is beautifully clear, and is one of the last parts attached and simply drops onto the lip of the fuselage. You'll be doing a fair amount of masking here, as it's a greenhouse with plenty of framework. Give it a month, and Eduard will have masks for it if they haven't already announced them. Behind the canopy is the radome, which is either a streamlined teardrop shape, or an elongated dome, much the same as worn by the EC-121 Warning Star, only on a smaller scale. Check your references and install the correct one for your decal choice, and of course, you did read the warning on page 7 of the instructions to open up that flashed over hole for the fin-shaped dome, didn't you? If you're mounting the fin, a small bullet shaped radome sits on top of it, but if you're not, it sits on the spine just behind the mid-upper turret.

Markings
Two options are given on the decal sheet and painting instructions, both of which are painted in the three tone US Navy scheme of Dark Sea Blue, Intermediate Blue and White, with a soft, but tight demarcation between the colours. If you're not confident enough to airbrush that freehand, blu-tak sausages might be an idea, but you'll need to roll them evenly, and keep the lines straight when applying them. The two aircraft in question are as follows, and you can build one from the box:

• Bu.No. 59849, ca.1945
• BNu.no.59349, ca.1947

These aircraft weren't smothered in markings, so the decal sheet is modestly sized containing only "stars and bars" national markings with and without a central red stripe on the bars, a couple of prop warning markers for the fuselage and tail codes in white. The sheet was printed by Cartograf, and the quality is exactly as you'd expect. Register, sharpness and colour density is excellent, and the glossy carrier film is cut close to the decals, with the exception of the prop warning tramlines, which have a large area of film between the two red stripes. Cutting them apart and positioning them separately might be a bit more work, but it should improve the look and reduce the chances of any silvering creeping in.

Conclusion
There have been discussions on the internet aplenty since the launch of this kit a few weeks ago, and after the initial histrionics died down, there has been a more positive response to the kit, with some thinking that the tail is a little too low set by a couple of millimetres at most. Whether this bothers you or not is entirely up to you, and I believe that Red Roo are currently working on a number of update sets to help with accuracy as well as converting the model to either an RAF hangar queen, or one of the RAAF transports that were used post war. We'll let you have some details on that once we're in receipt of a sample.

The kit itself is nicely done, well laid out for construction, and will most definitely look like the Mariner when complete. Detail in the various bays is good at the expense of a couple of sink marks, the decal sheet is a little samey, and of course it would have been nice to have a larger section of the interior decked out, but you have to be realistic.

The model has been patterned on the only extant example at Pima, so if you have a particular aircraft in mind, do make sure you check all your references, as fit and finish often varied even between aircraft.

It's not "my" scale – I'm a 1:48 modeller when it comes to aircraft, but I'm going to be building this one, as it's such an appealing subject. Overall, a pretty nice job by Minicraft. Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Always fancied one of these because of their involvement in 'Operation Highjump' and the legendary (but not entirely true) UFO tales related to it.

If it's a choice beteween this one and the Mach-2 kit, I reckon this will be the winner for most modellers, regardless of the shape issues.....I certainly know which one I'd buy.

[blueliner]

The Mariner is a cool bird. Now we need a Short C Class or a Short Mayo composite.

BTW, I had a patient that flew PBMs. He said they were dangerous. The aircraft had a penchant for exploding unexpectedly. Apparently the fuel tanks in the center of the wings would leak and the vapors next to the engine/exhaust would ignite with catastrophic result. He felt that is what happened to the PBM lost looking for the TBFs that were "lost" in the Bermuda triangle.

His pics were amazing, but I saw them long before PCs and scanners. Rats!

[Julien]

Nice!

[AndyC]

Probably an essential buy as I won't be seeing an injection one of these in 1/48 before I pop my clogs!

[John_W]

Does the box come with fairings to replace the turrets for post war versions?

I love the look of the glossy blue museum bird.

[Ed Russell]

Excellent review. We think the kit is very nice - more buildable than the Mach2 and way ahead of a vacform. We have had a pre-production one in our hands for a while (photos soon) and have developed some replacement parts - notably for the under tailplane fix - it's more than a few mm and noticeably affects the look from the rear. Here's the masters

which have now been cast. You can see there is a lot to fix to make some versions. Engines, propellers, radome, beaching gear, turrets.... etc.
We intend to produce three kits
1. RAAF PBM wartime transports in grey or foliage green scheme, the latter with nose art.
2. RAF Mariner I
3. Basic correction kit for USN and others.

Does the box come with fairings to replace the turrets for post war versions?

No it doesn't. These seem to came in a variety of looks.

Edit - see below, yes, one set of fairings which may or may not be suitable for the one you want to build.

There are some good Mariner books around and looking at these is recommended. Note that the decals as supplied are not suitable for what's in the kit. More discussion on Britmodeller and here

http://z15.invisionfree.com/72nd_Aircraft/index.php?showtopic=3856&st=0


x

[John_W]

No it doesn't. These seem to came in a variety of looks.

x

You sure?

Wondering what this part in the middle is.

[steveinns]

Oh dear, I can see this heading for the stash pile ! I have a serious weakness for flying boats & this looks to be another must have item !

Incidentally, I guess there would have been a/c in the 'Atlantic' colour scheme ?

Thanks for the review.

[Ed Russell]

I guess there would have been a/c in the 'Atlantic' colour scheme ?

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/443252788296432849/

[Mxyzptlk]

I must admit to a soft spot for the Mariner. I remember building the old (very/) Revell fit to a box kit of one many years ago. I wonder if the budget will stretch to this...

[steveinns]

Ed,

Thanks for the colour image.

Steve

[Ed Russell]

Here are the parts for the tailplane fix, raising the height by a bit over two scale feet

Here's another picture of PBM-5A's in Atlantic scheme

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gXc4IQrk8Kg/UewTFaxEkrI/AAAAAAAAFxs/3QkOZBmipD0/s1600/PBM-5%27s+Seaplane+Ramp+NAS+Norfolk,+VA+c.1945+(2).jpg

x

[Mike]

What am I looking at there Ed? The left part is the fairing over the turret, is it? 2ft is about 8mm for us metric users, eh? I'm gonna stretch the definition of a few to include 8

[steveinns]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the additional colour image.

Steve

[Ed Russell]

The right hand side piece is the block that sits under the tailplane as in this (rather poor) picture where it's the white piece under the tailplane

and the left hand side piece is the fairing forward of the block. It's the white piece here

All should become clear in the instructions............

[Ed Russell]

Here's the same aircraft as above after painting. it is being done by Dick Hourigan, who is responsible for the conversion kit. The light conditions were not ideal but it is Gloss Sea Blue. This kit was a review copy and came without decals - decals are not usable for a PBM-5A in any case - so these are from the spares box.

[Byron Boyd]

Excellent review. We think the kit is very nice - more buildable than the Mach2 and way ahead of a vacform. We have had a pre-production one in our hands for a while (photos soon) and have developed some replacement parts - notably for the under tailplane fix - it's more than a few mm and noticeably affects the look from the rear. Here's the masters

which have now been cast. You can see there is a lot to fix to make some versions. Engines, propellers, radome, beaching gear, turrets.... etc.

We intend to produce three kits

1. RAAF PBM wartime transports in grey or foliage green scheme, the latter with nose art.

2. RAF Mariner I

3. Basic correction kit for USN and others.

No it doesn't. These seem to came in a variety of looks.

Edit - see below, yes, one set of fairings which may or may not be suitable for the one you want to build.

There are some good Mariner books around and looking at these is recommended. Note that the decals as supplied are not suitable for what's in the kit. More discussion on Britmodeller and here

http://z15.invisionfree.com/72nd_Aircraft/index.php?showtopic=3856&st=0

x

When will these be available, and how can I get one???????? :)

[Ed Russell]

When will these be available, and how can I get one?

We are hoping to have them out early next year. It's a complex job including resin, brass, decals, jigs and instructions. When they are available we will update the various Mariner threads on the net and announce it in our email newsletter. Subscribe by going to www.redroomodels.com

[general melchett]

Ah that's really good news...held off on buying one until the corrections needed for it were released by someone in the know.......great work.

[Ed Russell]

Look here

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234953574-martin-mariner-minicraft-model-and-red-roo-bits/

for a picture of a completed model.

[Radleigh]

Can you still buy this? I'm struggling to find one.....

[Shar2]

They are still available, but quite difficult to find. I got mine recently off Ebay.

[Julien]

Can you still buy this? I'm struggling to find one.....

Aviation mega stare in Holland have one http://www.aviationmegastore.com/martin-pbm5a-mariner--mc11669-minicraft-0048051116691-netherlands-military/product/?action=prodinfo&art=114101

one on amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CA0VL88?keywords=PBM-5A%20Mariner&qid=1450559585&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1but from Japan so you might get stung for VAT

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Minicraft will be releasing a PBM-5 at some time as well

Link