1:48 Martin Maryland

[Dunny]

Hi all,

 

Since my Whirlwind build I've realised I'm developing an interest in the more unusual & esoteric types used by the RAF during WW2. The Martin Maryland fits this category perfectly, so I procured myself one of Special Hobby's. Although in relatively limited use by the RAF, this type saw action in North Africa, and also in the defence of Malta as a reconnaissance and light bomber (eventually replaced by the Martin Baltimore). Interestingly the type was also flown by Adrian Warburton DSO & Bar, DFC & 2 Bars DFC (USA). Whilst a Pilot Officer involved in the defence of Malta he became the only RAF pilot to become an ace whilst flying a bomber aircraft, due to the virtue of the aircraft's wing guns - interesting man and story. Special Hobby's kit is subtitled 'Warburton's War' - the decal options allow for 2 of the aircraft he flew. Here's the box art depicting one of them, which was a French machine reassigned to the RAF following the fall of France:

 

 

The sprue shots:

 

 

 

 

Detail all looks pretty encouraging - I'll see about some light scratchbuilding along the way .

 

Transparent bits plus resin (including 28 separate cylinders for the Wasp radials - count them):

 

 

Decals (which look excellent):

 

 

I've also procured a set of Montex masks (a must for that glasshouse!) 

 

 

I've chosen to build this as AH284 of 39 Sqn RAF, North Africa 1941. Here's a purported shot of the actual aircraft (copyright Australian War Memorial):

 

 

This appears to show the aircraft in temperate camouflage, but the kit option is thus:

 

 

I'm preferring the desert scheme, so as I cannot find any compelling evidence to the contrary I'm going to go with the kit! 

 

Anyway, I'm off to give the sprues a good wash in soapy water, and on with the build soon after!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

 

 

[85sqn]

Lovely subject. Personally I would say that the top surfaces of that aircraft are Dark Earth and Dark Green. It doesn’t look light enough for Mid-Stone.

 

regards

 

Nick

 

edit to say I bet @tonyot would know 

[Dunny]

3 hours ago, 85sqn said:

Lovely subject. Personally I would say that the top surfaces of that aircraft are Dark Earth and Dark Green. It doesn’t look light enough for Mid-Stone.

 

regards

 

Nick

 

edit to say I bet @tonyot would know 

Nick,

 

I agree - I may do this one instead:

 

 

This does look more like mid-stone/dark earth/azure, but as you can see the serial number is indeterminate. This photo was allegedly taken in 1943, and by this point only SAAF squadrons and 1 RAF detachment (437 Flight) were operating this type. The roundel centre looks darker than the SAAF orange, so I'm leaning towards the latter. If I choose this I'll also need to scratch the turret, as it is a different version to the kit. No joy on serial number thought 

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

 

Edit to say @85sqn I bet you're right about @tonyot

Edited May 28, 2020 by Dunny

[zigster]

Oh, wow! I like that plane, sleek & sporty looking, with a bit of French style nose :-)

I'm in a first row of watchers.

Do not worry about paints, go on with sticking bits :-))

Zig

[woody37]

Looking forwards to this

 

[Dunny]

1 minute ago, woody37 said:

Looking forwards to this

 

Cheers Woody! 

[Dunny]

34 minutes ago, zigster said:

Oh, wow! I like that plane, sleek & sporty looking, with a bit of French style nose 🙂

I'm in a first row of watchers.

Do not worry about paints, go on with sticking bits :-))

Zig

Salut zig - welcome aboard!

[spitfire]

I've got a strange attraction to the Maryland don't know why, so will be interested to see this one progress. Thought I had one in the stash but it is a CA Baltimore, never mind.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Dunny]

14 minutes ago, spitfire said:

I've got a strange attraction to the Maryland don't know why, so will be interested to see this one progress. Thought I had one in the stash but it is a CA Baltimore, never mind.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Delighted to welcome you aboard Dennis! 

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Mikey-1980]

Very much looking forward to seeing your progress with your build.

 

An unusual aircraft, and one I've never seen before.

[Dunny]

6 minutes ago, Mikey-1980 said:

Very much looking forward to seeing your progress with your build.

 

An unusual aircraft, and one I've never seen before.

Cheers Mikey - welcome aboard!

[shortCummins]

looking forward to this unusual aircraft, I'll pull up a chair if I may

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[Tail-Dragon]

I don't know what you have for reference's, but here's a link to A-J Press volume on the Maryland. Lots of good photo's and color scheme's there.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/751p154i9k51czp/AJ-Press Monografie lotnicze 96 Martin Maryland.pdf?dl=0

 

Colin

[Dunny]

39 minutes ago, shortCummins said:

looking forward to this unusual aircraft, I'll pull up a chair if I may

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

You are always welcome, sir

[Dunny]

9 hours ago, Tail-Dragon said:

I don't know what you have for reference's, but here's a link to A-J Press volume on the Maryland. Lots of good photo's and color scheme's there.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/751p154i9k51czp/AJ-Press Monografie lotnicze 96 Martin Maryland.pdf?dl=0

 

Colin

@Tail-Dragon that is gold dust! Thanks so much for this - there's some invaluable internal shots which I was missing. Now where's my Polish dictionary... 🤣

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Dunny]

12 hours ago, spitfire said:

I've got a strange attraction to the Maryland don't know why, so will be interested to see this one progress. Thought I had one in the stash but it is a CA Baltimore, never mind.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Good to have you aboard Dennis! I may yet try to get my hands on a Baltimore - love to do one in a Coastal Command scheme!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Dunny]

I've been chasing my tail a little in terms of which aircraft to model. I'm dead set on a desert camo scheme but cannot find any appropriate RAF aircraft as source material. I've therefore elected to model the following aircraft (image copyright IWM):

 

 

This is clearly finished in mid-stone and dark earth (and one presumes azure). From the excellent reference materials provided by @Tail-Dragon (thanks Colin!) I've found the following serial number information:

 

 

So I shall select an appropriate 1600-1699 serial number, scavenge a couple of 'O's from the spares box, overspray the national insignia with SAAF orange, and modify the turret cupola to the fixed configuration as shown below (this looks to have been pretty much standard for North African aircraft, and is as simple as removing one quadrant of the glazing - might give a better internal view too )

 

 

At any point soon I might actually start this build!! 

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

[StephenCJ]

 

4 hours ago, Dunny said:

At any point soon I might actually start this build!! 

 

Hurry up.  You have got my interest going.

[Dunny]

6 minutes ago, StephenCJ said:

 

Hurry up.  You have got my interest going.

Tomorrow - I promise

[zigster]

If you need any bit of that book translated, gimmie a hoy, I can do something about it.

Gotta connections in some places 🙂 Poles are everhywhere, when you think of it. 🙂

Zig

I do love "twins" -Baltimore, Maryland, A-20, B-25 etc

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by zigster

[Dunny]

Just now, zigster said:

If you need any bit of that book translated, gimmie a hoy, I can do something about it.

Gotta connections in some places 🙂 Poles are everhywhere, when you think of it. 🙂

Zig

Cheers Zig - much appreciated

[zigster]

No problem, Dunny! Now, start chopping them sprues :-)

Z

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

Some good progress today, with the wife away on a ladies' weekend, and the mini-Dunnies at their uncle & aunt's for a sleepover. The kit presents as a mix of injection moulded, resin and PE - some nice detail although instructions and engineering are vague. The first stage sees the cockpit assembly- some carving of plastic to allow fitment of a grille section for the bombardier. Here's the before:

 

 

And after PE fitment:

 

 

Now the reason for the inclusion of my trusty Sea Hurricane pilot is the dubious positioning of the rudder pedals - SH would have you locate them in the holes either side of the access hatch. I thought this rather improbable (indeed, an ergonomic impossibility ). Instead I decided to rob a set of rudder pedals from a future Beaufighter build, and mount them more conventionally on the IP. The detail on the kit IP is actually lovely - here's that assembly following painting, drybrushing in white, repainting around the instruments and picking them out with gloss:

 

 

I think that will pass muster, particularly as the canopy will be shut.

 

Here's the various sub-assemblies during paint - I decided to spray the interior green over an undercoat of black, in order to try and effect some shadowing as I've seen others do on this forum. It does add some depth and I'm not displeased with the outcome. (You might also note a pair of Whirlwind wheels in shot - these finally arrived from the UK - I will separately update the RFI of that build to include these beauties!)

 

 

So here's the state of play of the cockpit and radio operator's area after assembly, dry-brushing and an oil wash:

 

 

 

I shall leave everything to settle down overnight and look at closing up the fuselage tomorrow.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

 

[Dunny]

Hi all,

 

Not much to show for a day's work, but a brief update nonetheless. I got all of the major sub-assemblies together - fit and location are vague as there are no location tabs. There is also significant warpage on the wings, but proceeding slowly with lots of tape saw me through. There was also some fettling required of bulkheads to ensure a good fuselage fit. This is the state of play - I foresee much sanding and filling in my near future!

 

 

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

Some good progress today - here in South Australia we have a long weekend for the Queen's birthday (gawd bless you ma'am). Started out with a marathon filling, sanding and fettling session which got us here:

 

 

Next the glazing - this looks a little ominous 

 

 

However, with a healthy dose of Krystal Kleer and some sturdy strapping, we ended up here:

 

 

Here's the lot under the Montex masks (definitely a wise investment!) 

 

 

After giving the glazing a squirt of interior green, onto the pre-shading with Vallejo Nato Black:

 

 

Vallejo Azure, with some white added to simulate fading:

 

 

Masked to within an inch of its life:

 

 

Here's the Vallejo Mid-Stone, again with white added to fade:

 

 

Finally, here's the state of play after spraying the AK Interactive Dark Earth (with Mid-Stone added to fade), and masking removed:

 

 

 

After a gloss coat, I'll let it all settle down overnight before decals tomorrow. Now, where's that fine Barossa Valley Shiraz?

 

Have a great weekend - thanks for looking,

 

Roger