Martian

Looks like you will be doing your course in the Naughty Corner! In other slightly more relevant news, the improved display will be having its first outing of the year on the 13th April at the Poole Vikings' Model Show which is being held at Parkstone Grammar School, Sopers Lane, Fleetsbridge, Poole. This is incidentally Mrs Martian's old school, so we are hoping praying that nobody remembers her or it might be our shortest appearance ever! Anxious of Mars 👽

Protective clothing? What protecting clothing? Are you a Phantom Raspberry Blower or a mouse? 🐭 As for the start date just let me know when you want to start. Martian 👽

In that case it might just make the cut, although I will have to check as to whether it is the same on the PBM-%a as a lotof stuff got moved around on that variant. Martian von Off to His Books 👽

And stay there this time until either someone comes to let you out or your appeal for early release on the grounds that being locked in there with @corsaircorp has driven you round the bend and you need to seek help. Martian 👽

Nice. We'll make a modeller of you yet! Martian 👽

It's somewhere on the lower deck. I haven't yet worked out exactly where so I don't yet know if it is in one of the areas I plan on modelling, Martina 👽

But so will decorating, so again why decorate? Ah, I see, in that case of affairs you need to attend one of my courses in marital disobedience. Life and a certain need to keep building Zeppelins for a certain display. Off to the Naughty Corner with you, you must know the way by now. Hang on, who let you out anyway? and surely you are aware that escaping from the Naughty Corner isa bluglecruncheoning offence? A very good read, I thoroughly recommend it. This one as well. Martian 👽

Yes but this is decorating we are talking about, there are limits! Martian, Setting Standards Across the Galaxy. 👽

Evil child! I was wondering who would be the first wretch to be so untactful as to mention that subject. Report for your blurglecruncheoning forthwith! Actually I do have a fiddle about with the Tracker when I have a rare spare moment. Who knows, this thread may get me pumped up enough to push it over the finishing line, the last big job I have to do is to scratch build all the black boxes and I can button up the fuselage. Strangely, as I type these words, Mrs Martian is in the kitchen cooking duck for our dinner. Better not be a rubber one though! Very. Coincidentally, I accidentally bought yet another Takom 1/350 Zeppelin last week. Martian 👽

Now there really is a hair brained idea! Just line the walls with more bookshelves, then you won't be able to see the walls and there's no point in decorating something you, or anyone else is never going to see. Looks like I am the only sane person around these parts, wibble! Shocked of Mars 👽

I have spent the last couple of days working on the interior, mainly getting the frames and extra bulkheads added to the port fuselage half. I have also been getting the flight engineer's panels ready for the installation of either the Eduard etch replacements or their 3D decals. Whichever I don't use will get used on the model of the utility variant. I have also ordered up the Eduard sets for the exterior, bomb bays and seat belts as well as some bombs for the weapons bays. . One thing I would caution is that the location of equipment seems to have varied considerably form mark to mark of the Mariner. The Naval Fighters book does cover it all but does repay careful reading. It is very easy to get in a muddle; guess how I know?! Things might have to slow down a bit over the next few days as Mrs Martian has reminded me that I have less than two weeks before the Zeppelin display's first outing of the year and that there is quite a lot to do to get it ready in time. Thanks for looking Overworked of Mars 👽

Oh dear! I seem to have gone and bought another to do the utility version from. I think it looks rather cool without the gun turrets. This one will be more OOB though as my idea of just doing a simple build from this kit does not seem to have survived post number one of this thread! AMS sufferer of Mars 👽

I fear that hair brained ideas are all part of the duties of one who holds the rank of "Usual Suspect". Anyway, I was under the impression that having hair brained ideas was all part of the qualifications needed to join BM in the first place.. Be thankful that we aren't making you do it in 1/720 scale. Harsh But Fair of Mars 👽

There is/was one published by the National Archives. It was originally published by the Admiralty and was called "German Rigid Airships" here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296185604961?epid=86758467&itmmeta=01HT8V09MF5XGEC24RRRXASBJ4&hash=item44f609ab61:g:OtsAAOSwz It also covers Schütte-Lanz airships as well and is based on technical reports on airships brought down over the UK. Otherwise, you are left trying to piece together what you want to know from the plethora of more general Zeppelin books' I did find this though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFIPC9fWjh8 Although it is about the Hindenburg, the principle of the construction is the same. Hope that helps. Helpful of Mars👽

I was waiting for some glue to dry on the Mariner earlier today and started looking at the "redundant" parts in the kit. I can now confirm that the kit includes all the parts necessary to build both the utility and the dedicated flying boat versions of the Mariner. There are even flashed over location holes for the latter but sadly no beaching gear. Having presumably taken over the moulds from Minicraft, will we see other variants from Academy? Curious of Mars 👽

You and me both! Done up as the L.15, the Zeppelin that bombed my grandmother, it would make a fantastic centrepiece for the display.. On the odd occasion they do appear on EvilBay, they go so much money that it really is cheaper for me to buy a decent size chunk of a real Zeppelin. Any one who wants to "donate"* a kit the the display need only apply to Martian Towers to have your offer "considered".** Wistful of Mars 👽 *By "donate" I mean avoid having a Vogon poetry festival take place in your street. **By "considered" I mean have your hand bitten off.

Thanks Ned. Even though I by now know how the Zeppelins worked inside out, I still can't quite get my brain around the idea of these things larger than battleships floating in mid air. Martian 👽

There's the voice of experience for you! Martian 👽

Fortunately, we already have your confession to the white styrene addiction in multiple threads. There is a place in rehab reserved for you should Mrs Navy Bird wish for you to take it up. Helpful of Mars 👽

From the number of redundant parts in the kit, including the transport nose and banking panel for the dorsal turret, looks like a number of Mariner variants was originally planned for this kit. Martian 👽

Great work Eric, and on a Mach 2 kit to boot! The stairs seem to have been moved to the port side on the amphibian but I will check my references again before committing to plastic. No, but it has crossed my mind, as has a Marlin. Martian 👽

Thanks Loren, that is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. The positioning of things like hatches and location of some of the equipment naturally differs between the dedicated flying boat and the later amphibian but I would imagine that the stairs were lust repositioned. Unless anyone comes up with anything to contradict the picture,I shall go with that. Thanks Mal. I just take a few measurements, mark them out on some plastic card and then just eyeball the rest. ; The result of having been modelling without a break for over 55 years, I guess. I do think that using either five or ten times magnification spectacles custom made to my optician's prescription has helped a lot though; the smallest of imperfections in fit look enormous under that sort of magnification and consequently that much easier to eliminate.' Goggle-eyed of Mars 👽

I forgot to mention one thing I have the Steve Ginter "Naval Fighters" book on the Mariner and it covers pretty much all you need to know but there is one grey area. It may or may not impact on me as I have yet to decide how far I want to go with this build but does anyone out there know what the stairs from the lower deck to the upper deck looked like?. We all put detail into our builds that we say will never be seen but we know it's there don't we? but these days we have cameras with macro facilities, you can buy pocket endoscopes and there is always the old fashioned cutaway option. Added to which if I decide to open the rear hatches on the model, quite a lot will be seen after all. Or is this just me looking for an excuse to build as much of the boat's structure into the hull? Like @Navy Bird,I am addicted to carving and fettling white styrene and building aero-structures is one of my favourite parts of the hobby. Martian 👽

Although I am still hugely enjoying my Zeppelin builds, I have been hankering to build something else as well for a while. All Zeppelins and no play makes Martian a dull alien and all that. When Minicraft first released their MartinPBM-5A Mariner kit, I really wanted to get my hands on one. However, I could neither afford or justify the £60 plus price tag for the kit. When the model was re-released by Academy for a much more reasonable £30, that was another matter altogether and an example was obtained in short order. We all know that Martian would not be Martian if he didn't do something off the wall with a build and I fancied doing a Royal Netherlands Navy example. Most of the Dutch boats were finished in silver but two were delivered in Dark Sea Blue and these appealed to me.. Despite buying a dedicated book on Dutch Mariners there was not quite enough pictorial references for me to build one to the standard I would like. Dutch decal do a set for the Mariner, so a silver one it will have to be. What I will probably do if this model goes together well is to get another kit and convert it to the utility configuration and make an educated guess on the areas that I lack sufficient information on. There are plenty of redundant parts in the kit for the conversion and I think I can adapt some others, Caracal do a sheet of decals that have some blue US Mariners so I might go down that route. All that however, is in the future and seeing as even I don't have access to a Tardis, let's see what we can do with what we currently have to hand. Anyway Mrs Martian says the model will look good in silver, so a silver Dutch cab it will be. I was going to try and keep this build pretty much oob but some after market stuff seems to have teleported its way into the box and when I went to the Martian Cave this morning, I seem to have opened up the hatches in the bow section. The next thing I knew was that there was whirling of multiple tentacles, flakes of enough white styrene to keep even @Navy Bird happy flying around the room and we had the bulkheads for the two nose compartments detailed and fitted. I know that some people have remarked that there are a number of inaccuracies in the kit but all I really want is a fun build and to end up with something that looks like a Mariner so I don't intend busting a gut over them. I shall just concentrate on the areas of kit building that I enjoy. Thanks for looking. Martian 👽

I have heard that he's a bit of an old fossil but I don't think he's quite that old! Martian 👽