Martin SP-5B Marlin - completed
The first step: separating the ailerons.
Color chips from official Monogram US Navy and MC Aircraft Color Guide, Part 3
Marked with sharp scalpel the postion of the cut outs (for glueing of hinges).
In 2 of 4 cases I had glue the hinge a second time in the correct position (try, error and correct). Now the fit is ok.
Kit part compared with the original stabilizer fro picture 6. Trimm tab position is wrong.
Horizontal tail completed.
The kit part contains right the trimtab actuator on the lower side. The original picture shows clearly NO actuator (picture 6). Because of that I replaced them on upper side.
Unfortunately the blades are too thin. One prop completed (total: 54 parts). For comparison original kit part.
On the right: modified prophub from C-119. 21 parts "later".
Dry fit of the left float: OK.
Left float ready for sea blue.
Ready for black (cufs and deicing boots). The entire blades are in fact dark grey.
Beaching gear completed.
Props minus (Hamstan?) - logos completed.
Completed engine with only three cylinders to test if the 3350 fits into the nacelle.
Inner section completed minus taxi light.
Oval housings for the door-hinges made from CE's position lights.
Panel lines and recessed rivets added. Any raised rivets restored.
Maintenance panels on the floats has black outline (masked with Tamiya-tape stripes) Ready for sea blue.
R-3350 has an unique ignition wire layout.
15 kit-parts + any additional parts = 3350 ready for paint.
Cowling completed. Reinforcement panels for pushrods reworked: made of 0,13 mm plastic.
HVAR's pylons and his base reworked (left wing).
Kit offers not correct layout of the intakes (the divider vanes should sit deeper, side walls and rear wall are missing. Left side: corrected.
The tips of the hinges has bulges (housing for the pivot points).
Round rod 2 mm, slightly flattened for egg-shaped discs. Despite his strength it is possible to bend the tip of the scalpel.
Kit lacks the retractable round taxi lights on lower side of both wings.
Good visible are the navigation lights on the tips. Only the forward half of each light is transparent (red and green). You want to know why I painted this as well? It is very difficult to mask the front half of such a tiny drop. So scratching off paint i
Colors of the RP 16
Engine gray and FO in place. Ready for next step.
Masked for deicng boots (very dark grey).
Outer section ready for decals. The engine grey colored squere is the place for RP16 letters (as counterpart for "NAVY" on the other lower .side
After intensive reserch I decided to paint the interior of the inlets light grey.
Masking for walkway stripes.
To avoid too large contrast I used not white but light grey. Weathering coming soon.
Detailing and correcting if fuselage completed. 3 windows in area with curved cross section of fuselage glued, sanded smooth and polished yet. All other will be glued after painting. Ready for white and engine grey.
Right side: windows in place. Hold for gluing with CA in the correct position with a stripe of Tamiya tape. After drying of CA remaining gaps filled with Future (from inside and outside).
Despite of too small diameter / size (especially the large rectangular one) of the windows no gaps remains (Future).
Surface is already cleaned of dust particles in the paint. Filtering & strikes with grey coming soon.
Fuel control panel (rectangular with 7 bezels). Bases of control columns are made of ureol.
The only surviving Marlin in the aviation museum in Pensacola.
The most important task is to determine of size and location of the cockpit parts.
Left and right side waist observer seats.
New reserch results: all cushions were orange. Pilots and copilots seats has shoulder harness (courtesy Mr. Bigley)
Anchor point and fuel dump pipe. The hydro flaps are well visible too.
Stowage points for the anchor rope.
Reinforcement panels/sheets and "moveable" anchor attachment point.
Sheet cover made of adhesive aluminum foil.
A lot of plastic and CA for filling the step.
Clear parts in place. The lower one has 4 small windows on the lower side. The small plastic part is the housing for the formation lights.
Modern US letters as pattern for drawing the symbols
Close up as pattern for determining size.
Pattern for cutting masks.
Ready for engine grey. The masks for 7931 are made of clear matte foil and nearly invisible.
MAD detector rings (0,13 mm plastic) and reworked attachment points on the boom.
Deicing "boot" in place.
Operation "Antifoging" successful completed. 🙂🙂🙂🙂
Ready for light grey & white.
Masks removed intermediate after auirbrushing. Cleening coming soon after drying white.
The auxiliary hole is no more visible.
Last lap orange finished. Unfortunately I noticed first AFTER (Murphys law) airbrushing white the "step" between the separate nose - piece and fuselage... One more round of sanding and airbrushing white.
Anchor rope and prop warning stripe and place.
Weathering via mid-grey strokes and filters completed.
Unfortunately the flaps are too short and too thin...Kit offer a wrong location of flap-hinges.
Ring antennas are part of the MAD and were scratched from 0,13 mm plastic via self made circle cutter.
Mirror made from bare metal foil.
Wright R-3350 Duplex Cyclone turbo compound (3750 PS).
Floatable beaching gear.
At least added pitot probe on the right side.
At least added pitot probe on the left side.
Comments
23 September 2024, 15:18 -
Album info
Our world ist really very small. During my research I discovered the website of Mr. Tom Bigley. He flew the Martin Marlin especially one of the RP 's of the VP-31 too. He was so kind to share with me a lot of very interesting information about the Martin Marlin.
The specific Marlin I am modeling belonged to VP-31 which was a training squadron based at NAS North Island, near San Diego, CA. It was designated as a "Replacement Air Group", referred to as "the RAG", and there was a sister squadron (VP-30) based on the east coast. ALL pilots and aircrew went through "final polish" training in the RAG, enroute to their operational Patrol Squadron. The students were a mix of brand new pilots and aircrew coming directly from the training com, second and third tour pilots and aircrew coming from other assignments and even officers headed to a squadron as the new XO/CO. (Information courtesy of Mr. Tom Bigley)
