Special Hobby Maryland Mk.I/II “Warburton’s War” (SH48077) 1:48

[Mike]

Maryland Mk.I/II “Warburton’s War” (SH48077)

1:48 Special Hobby

 

 

The Martin Maryland was one of the best losers of the contract competition that resulted in the Boston A-20 Havoc, and as such it was ignored by America, but garnered substantial orders from overseas customers, including the British and French, with a total of 450 airframes built.  The French specified a less powerful engine for their order, which saw action in the fight against invading Nazi forces where their speed helped to keep attrition figures lower than other similar types, eventually flying many of the surviving aircraft to French North Africa, although some were used by Vichy forces against the Allies.  The remaining 75 of the French order was re-allocated to the British order, replacing the engines of those already built with the original choice of Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasps, which were more powerful and gave the aircraft a good top-speed and pleasant handling.  For a light bomber, the Maryland was agile and fast for the time, having been developed before the outbreak of WWII in Europe, and benefitted from a narrow fuselage that improved its aerodynamics, and they were faster than the other British Light Bombers in service at the time with the RAF, although the constant technology race meant that the advantage was eroded away over time.

 

In order to improve the aircraft to allow it to compete in the performance game and help it to evade enemy fighters, the Mk.II Maryland was developed, adding a two-stage supercharger to the Twin Wasp engines to give it more pulling power that would keep it in service longer.  Many Marylands found their way into the North African theatre, where they were often used as reconnaissance aircraft, probably because of their relatively high top speed, using their six machine guns to defend themselves in case they were bounced by fighters.  The type was eventually phased out in Allied service to be replaced by more advanced types such as the B-26 Marauder, but it had made its mark, being responsible for reporting that the Bismarck had left its home port on its final mission, taking the pictures of the Italian fleet before the Battle of Taranto, plus some impressive aerial kills with its guns, one pilot achieving Ace status by downing 5 enemy aircraft with his forward-firing guns, all of which were confirmed.

 

 

The Kit

This is a re-release of the original boxing of this kit from 2010, which also depicted Warburton’s War, who flew a former French airframe, the aircraft still wearing its French scheme, but was overpainted with British roundels and fin-flashes.  These aircraft weren’t primed before painting, so the paint chipped and wore away extensively once they entered service.  The kit arrives in a top-opening box with a painting of Mr Warburton’s aircraft looking a little shabby, and inside are four sprues in grey styrene, a clear sprue, Photo-Etch (PE) fret, a bag containing dozens of resin parts, decal sheet and the instruction booklet, which is printed on matt paper in portrait A5 format, with colour profiles for the decal options on the rear pages.  Detail is good, and the inclusion of resin parts makes it better, as does the PE that includes seatbelts and other useful parts.  It might be an older tooling, but there’s not much evidence that gives the kit’s age away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with some removal of sections from parts.  The cockpit floor has the centre rectangular section removed from the front of the floor, and there is an option to open up the crew hatch under the nose, which required removal of the two moulded-in doors from the fuselage halves, keeping them for later when they will be fitted in the open position on each side of the hatch.  With preparation done, the cockpit floor is detailed with rudder pedals, an up-and-over control column with a yoke at the end, to allow their placement over the floor hatch cut-out at the pilot’s feet.  The pilot’s seat has a box added beneath it to increase its height, while the bombardier’s is on a lower block moulded into the floor, the pilot’s seat is fitted with a set of four-point belts from the PE sheet, and lap-belts for the bombardier, as he needs to be able to release quickly and go prone into the nose, which has a PE insert placed in the cut-out made earlier, along with four brackets to give it the correct thickness, and depict the slatted construction of the area, which will be seen from below through the nose glazing.  Another section of floor is glued to a bulkhead within the fuselage for the radio operator, adding a bucket seat with lap-belts, O₂ bottles, document pouches, and other equipment to the floor and the port fuselage half, which is also fitted with a pair of windows of differing sizes.  More detail is fixed to the port side of the cockpit, adding PE levers and trim wheel to the assembly before gluing it into position, following the guidance arrows carefully.  The next step gets busy, fitting the cockpit, bulkhead, radio wall, stowage pockets, turret ring, another bulkhead and the tail-wheel bay insert into the starboard fuselage moving from nose to tail, plus a pair of side windows, including two more instrument packages into the front interior of the nose, plus the important instrument panel, which has raised dial detail moulded into it, but no decals, so get out your favourite detail brush to complete the job.  The two halves are joined together and put to one side while the glue cures, so that you can deal with the seams in your preferred manner.

 

Meanwhile, you can put the wings together, installing the gear bay inserts in the lower wing, and a landing light in the leading-edge cut-out before lowering the upper wings and gluing them together, adding a small insert into the top leading-edge inboard of the landing lights.  The majority of the engine nacelles and combined main gear bays are moulded into the wing halves with the exception of the engine and cowling.  The two cowling halves are spaced apart with narrow inserts over the top and bottom intakes to create the shape, then the cowling lip with integrated intake lips is glued over the front, taking care to align them carefully to reduce clean-up.  The Twin Wasp engines are made up a few steps earlier, and these are built from resin that is built around a central core, and two rows of seven cylinders inserted into the holes, adding two push-rods per front cylinder from your own stocks of rod or wire to add to the detail.  You’ll be building two of these, so make sure you have enough rod/wire to be able to finish the job.  The engines are fitted into keyed recesses in the front of the nacelles, sliding the cowling over them, aligning it along the lines of the intakes top and bottom of the cowling, which should mate flush with the raised mouldings on the nacelles.  The elevators have moulded-in flying surfaces, and are each made from top and bottom halves, sliding into position under the tail using the usual slot and tab method.

 

The next step is a busy one too, adding two resin exhausts under each engine nacelle, building the main wheels from two halves each, then mounting them on the gear legs, with bay doors on each side.  The tail wheel is a single part that glues onto the strut and is inserted into a hole in the bay roof to complete the landing gear.  The rear glazing under the fuselage is put into its cut-out where the fuselage steps down in height, fitting the nose glazing under the bombardier’s position, and optionally fitting the crew access ladder to the hatch if you cut it out, gluing the two cut parts to each side of the hatchway.  Placing the model on its wheels (if you fitted them at this stage), the canopy is glued in place, adding a ring-and-bead sight on the deck in front of it, fixing two small PE parts on the inside of the nose glazing before attaching it along with the clear nose-cone to the front of the fuselage.  The landing lights have clear lenses glued into the bay, and are then glazed over with an aerodynamic cover, one per wing, and adding a pitot probe on the port wing, cutting off the stub and gluing an L-shaped extension depending on which variant you are modelling.  The props are mounded as a single part with separate spinner, one on each engine, fitting a choice of two aerial masts on the spine and a D/F loop on a small fairing, which can be upgraded by using a PE loop after cutting the styrene loop from the fairing.  A PE trim-tab actuator is fixed to the rudder panel below the level of the elevators.  The top turret is built around a ring that mounts a single machine gun on a pintle-mount, adding armour and a seat around the rear inside the aircraft, and covering the gunner with a single clear dome with one quadrant cut-out for the gun, allowing it to pivot within that space to a limited degree without rotating the turret.  The completed and painted assembly is then dropped into the cut-out on the spine, adding a small PE blocking frame that should prevent a combat-focused gunner from shooting his own tail fin off.

 

 

Markings

There are four decal options on the sheet with a variety of schemes, one in French colours but British markings, two in desert camo in A and B layouts, and one in early war RAF green/brown over sky.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• Martin 167F No.114, White 2, RAF No.69 Sqn., Pilot A Warburton, Luqa Airfield, Malta, May 1941
• Maryland Mk.I, AH284, RAF No.39 Sqn., Western Desert, Africa, 1941
• Maryland Mk.I, 1654, Red X, SAAF No.24 Sqn., Western Desert, Africa, end of 1941
• Maryland Mk.I, AR733, No.69 Sqn., RAF Luqa Airfield, Malta, 1942

 

 

 

The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas.  This means that the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film.  It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain.

 

 

Conclusion

I’m personally glad this kit is back on the shelves, as its unusual shape appeals to my love of all things strange or ugly.  It also has a good level of detail from the box, with the exception perhaps of the instrument panel that some purchasers might want to upgrade to 3D printed or PE lamination instead.  It’s a striking aircraft that was a lot better than it was given credit for, and deserves a little affection.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

[36feet10inches]

Great review. I do fancy one of these...