Minicraft. Martin PBM-5A Mariner. 1/72.

[Markh-75]

Now I'm feeling a bit better this afternoon I thought I would add my Mariner to my RFI's.

 

This was bought as a PBM-5, not an A model, but the model came with beaching gear and the landing gear that makes it a 5A, so I decided to go with the 5A. The parts were supplied for the landing gear but they were not in the plans so I went into Scalemates and dowloaded the 5A version of the build plans.

It was a model that once I'd seen it, I just had to have it! It was interesting to build because of the unusual layout and I had never heard of it before at all, I had to do plenty of research on it. It was to be rather expensive; in 2020 it was priced at £89 in UK; I shopped around (quite a bit) and found a guy in Rhode Island who sold this to me for just over £54 inc P&P!

I make no apology for this model but it was late last year, and before I'd started thinning my paint, but I still like this one rather alot! I love it! Other than the PBY-5A and the Martin Mars, I'd never heard of a mariner.

It has a FULL flight deck and radar crew area, just a pity it can't be seen because I painted it all up, the little seats for the operators came in three parts and the tables were 5 or 6 parts and then what was on it. Its bomb bays were enclosed behind the engines in the rear nacelles, I chose the open view.The bomb aimers window was protected between two panels that would angle from their bottom end, I kept mine open and the cowl flaps came with an option for closed or open. Lots of potential for details!

Since it was now a tricycle landing gear I put two large M6 nuts in the front fuselage!

 

This aircraft would have operated from Tokyo Bay at the end of WW2.

 

 Tail with tail end beaching gear.

 Flaps down and cowl flaps open.

 On a model this size, the white was the most difficult to get right, I still have aircraft that need white but I want to see how much better it looks when the paint is thinned!

 

 Stbd beaching gear. On shore these would be towed out/dragged down the slipway into the water and a boat and ground crews locked them in place. The box area of it was a float, so once finally pulled into the water, they were more easily manoeuvred into place using their own buoyancy.

 

 Nice detailed bomb bay, this was actually quite difficult to get right because when it came to fitting the wing upper surface it wouldn't fit correctly and some areas had to be rubbed back a tad to get it to fit better.

 Blown cowl flaps! The paintwork done by brush was a bit tricky for a model of this size but I refined the brush stroked from front to back with the direction of flight, I think they look nicely 'weathered'!😀

 

 Bomb aimers window. Hinged from the bottom, kept closed for landing and take off and for when the bomb aimer was busy!

 The little vanes on the outboard of the tail surfaces helped me when I went to put the fins and rudders on, they kept the fins at the right angle.

 

 Lowered flaps. Outer. There are inner wing flaps closest to the fuselage.

 

 The BIG radome on top, there was a choice for what I wanted to fit, a later version but I went full fat on this WW2 version.

 

 Front end with Ercoll turret.

 You can see the smaller inner flap in this picture.

 Those BIG props were driven by the mighty P & W R-2800 engines! 

 I love the angles on this!

 The border between the white and blue was done using masking tape; wish I'd used it in other places tbh.

 

 The nose under carriage gear was very intricate, I had to decide if I wanted the 5A version or just the 5 and I had to make the decision before I closed up the fuselage.

 

 Port Beaching gear; even though I went for the PBM-5A I thought it would be an idea to assemble the beaching gear anyway.

 

 What I found puzzling was that the kit came with the landing gear for the PBM-5A but no instructions to assemble it; it was meant to be a PBM-5; but they still included decals for the 5A.🤨

 

The following pictures are pictures of the rear crew area behind the pilot; I made it up and painted it up but its a shame its not seen really. Even though I wasnt in Britmodeller at the time, I was still doing build pictures, I rather glad I did really because they are good to show! I got into this habit when I was here before!😉

 

 

 

[billn53]

That’s a lot of airplane, very nice job!

[stevehnz]

That looks most impressive, you've more than done it justice. 👍

Steve.

[AdrianMF]

Wow! Hell of an aeroplane, heck of a kit, nice build!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[roginoz]

Nice one, @Markh-75, I built this kit a couple of years back, and it still stands up well on the shelf, dust aside !

 

You're right, it's a big beast, well detailed and certainly a lot of kit for your money.......and you got it at the right price too.

 

Excellent build !

Rog 

[Markh-75]

11 hours ago, billn53 said:

That’s a lot of airplane, very nice job!

 

5 hours ago, stevehnz said:

That looks most impressive, you've more than done it justice. 👍

Steve.

 

5 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Wow! Hell of an aeroplane, heck of a kit, nice build!

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

4 hours ago, roginoz said:

Nice one, @Markh-75, I built this kit a couple of years back, and it still stands up well on the shelf, dust aside !

 

You're right, it's a big beast, well detailed and certainly a lot of kit for your money.......and you got it at the right price too.

 

Excellent build !

Rog 

Thanks everyone, they certainly look enormous but not as large as the Mars but the mars was far too big for landing gear to be an option. I have seen dioramas of these sitting on a ship’s servicing platform and it doesn’t look quite as large. They could be floated onto a service platform on a ship such as the USS Curtiss, this vessel was later used off Bikini Atoll during the nuclear tests there under the CIA. She was a seaplane tender in WW2 and during the Korean War. What I liked about the kit was that each sprue was individually bagged and referenced making part identification and finding, a breeze! It sits on top of the cabinet as it’s too large to get into one! I keep it dusted with a very soft brush meant for computer keyboards and the like. I have an Academy PBY-5A Black Cat yet to build but I want metal landing gear for it as I’ve read reviews saying that the plastic landing gear is a bit flimsy!

 

Thank you for your kind words and comments, I very much appreciate them!👍👍😊

[John_W]

Very nice build. 

[Markh-75]

Thank you John, I was a little concerned that the paintwork might let it down a bit, the panel lines on it were a bit fine and I was concerned that I may loose some of them but it was this model and others (on completion) that had me thinking about thinning my paint in future and I started doing that in new year 2022 starting with vehicle models. I have proved to myself that it does indeed work nicely; it does slow me down a bit but the quality is far better. I wish I knew how to chemically remove paint from plastic models; I would at some point think about a strip and repaint. 
For now though I am very pleased with it, for a big kit! It sits proudly with my Navy and Marines aircraft.👍

Thanks John,👍

[danbuoy]

That is an impressive kit. I am familiar with the Mariner (in fact I have recently bought a diecast 1/144 scale one), but it is a type that is overshadowed comprehensively by the Catalina. Sadly, it is probably most famous for being the type of aircraft that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle area whilst searching for the infamous Flight 19, thus adding to that mystery. However, I never knew there were amphibian versions with proper landing gear, I had only ever seen them fitted with beaching wheels.

[Markh-75]

These were in operation mostly in the Pacific theatre of operations, and they were in use during Korea, I'm not sure how many were actually made. The landing gear 5A option came later but even with it it must have been risky on landing on a runway because the hull was quite close to the runway and even a bounce on landing wouldn't have done it much good. I think the Mariner was about the largest with the 5A option, I can't see anything bigger having its own landing gear.

I watched the Kermit Weeks videos when he visited the Hawaiian Mars and Philippine Mars aircraft, how they beached them and it was quite an operation including special tractors and even bigger beaching gear! Shows them putting the Philippine Mars into the water and there is a 3 part video of the interior of the aircraft, all in Youtube. 😀

[SAT69]

That's quite an attractive model.

[72modeler]

Very nice job on a kit that is not the easiest to build! Only the 2nd one I have seen completed, and it’s a winner. BIG flying boat! Regarding the beaching gear- IIRC, they were painted just like the nav lights- red for port and green for starboard- not a biggie, but some squid is going to see your RFI photos and let ypu know! 

Mike

[cardiff guy]

nice to see one built, I have one in the stash, hope it ends up this good.

[JWM]

Very nice! This kit is something i am looking for. I did my Mariner frm Mach2 kit as 3s variant, with beaching gear, but the 5A as amphibia, diferent engines and turrets is enough different to do the second Mariner... So i hope i will follow you one day...

[Wulfman]

An epic build, great work !

 

Wulfman

[Markh-75]

 

 

 

9 hours ago, SAT69 said:

That's quite an attractive model.

Thank you Sat 69! I love all the angles on it and its such a beast!

8 hours ago, 72modeler said:

Very nice job on a kit that is not the easiest to build! Only the 2nd one I have seen completed, and it’s a winner. BIG flying boat! Regarding the beaching gear- IIRC, they were painted just like the nav lights- red for port and green for starboard- not a biggie, but some squid is going to see your RFI photos and let ypu know! 

Mike

Thank you; re the beaching gear, I've probably just put these the wrong sides.😉

8 hours ago, cardiff guy said:

nice to see one built, I have one in the stash, hope it ends up this good.

 

3 hours ago, JWM said:

Very nice! This kit is something i am looking for. I did my Mariner frm Mach2 kit as 3s variant, with beaching gear, but the 5A as amphibia, diferent engines and turrets is enough different to do the second Mariner... So i hope i will follow you one day...

Do shop around for it; although there were a few in UK they were all high priced but a really good search did the trick and I found it for the best price ever in USA!

3 hours ago, Wulfman said:

An epic build, great work !

 

Wulfman

Thank you once again Wulfman!😀

[Bertie McBoatface]

There's grand project, well finished!

[Markh-75]

On 06/05/2022 at 16:10, Bertie Psmith said:

There's grand project, well finished!

Once again, thank you Bertie 😀👍