MAC Forum

perhaps somebody would like to follow.....

...like Christian i also have a long run project. I like flying boats and always loved the Martin P6M Seamaster. I have the Topping model - need a stand for that one, if sombody has one left-
Some time after I finished my B-58, the idea came up to have a seamaster in metall and in a larger scale then the topping. I found a vacukit in 1:72 and luckily the producer lives about 30min driving away and i picked up the kit personaly. To build up a large vacu kit, filler & sanding, seperating this back into pices (3 parts) and make it solid enough so it would be possible to do the sandcasting. This took me around one year. Then my friend who did the casting (just as a hobby) needed another 4 month. Now i have the casting and i cleaned it the last days so that i have a base to work with. Now the long time of sanding and filler will come. It will be build in the tradition of the models of the '50/'60, so not too much details - The shape & look is important for me.
Also i have to think now, where it will be placed when it is finished.... it is large.
If you like the Seamaster too, i recommend the only book about it from Stan Piet

That will be quite a beautiful piece when finished and I realize a lot of work went into it so far, but it would appear there are some errors either in the photograph or in the casting.
The fuselage top of the Seamaster is straight on to the the vertical fin, not angled up after the wing attachment point as your photograph seems to show.
The wing tip floats are under the wing tips, no?
One last issue would be that the rear exhausts of the paired jet engines on the actual aircraft are quite noticeably rotated out from the fuselage sides. Hard to see if yours does that or not. There is a photo of what I mean in this short summary- also shows the straight top of the fuselage.
http://www.aviation-history.com/martin/p6m.html
also check these out

I did some further checking and found that the first prototype had parallel-to-the-fuselage paired engines, later ones were toed out so perhaps this model was based on that early prototype version. But then again the early version had stagered engines, the outboard one's exhaust pipes stuck out.
Also I now wonder if the tip floats were moveable, ie that they could be put under the wing tip for water work then raised for cruise flight.
In any case the fuselage top is straight in all variants.

We plastic modelers are most familiar with the ancient Revell release of the Seamaster. Then, and now, one of the most exciting airplanes produced during the '50s! The Revell kit is of the prototype, and has the rear firing engines. The production versions toed them out.
The wing tip floats are indeed fixed, as the ship sat low in the water.
Wings/AirPower magazine had an excellent spread on the planes some time ago and might be available in back order from them.
Any journal and book that endeavors to give coverage to Martin products makes sure to have a large section on the Seamaster! A simple Google search yields volumes of photographs!
Your model will be most impressive when it is finished - be it the prototype or production version! Just make sure it's one or the other - not some blend!
Good luck!
Michael

it will be the production model P6M-2. I use as refernce the +200 page book from Stan Piet that is unmatched (more info than you could find on the whole internet). I will post a scan of the production model that is slightly different from prototypes or the pre production ones. I think a have one small error in it already, but it is coming from the forming in to casting. The downwards angle is a little to much, the production model have less that the early models. But i think due to pressing it into the sand it was more bended that the master have.

...out of the seamaster book. I'm planning to build "ship 9"

SAM or SAMI had a super profile on the Seamaster this past autumn, including excellent scale plans for all variants. If the homunculi which inhabit my computer deem it propitious, I will attach a photo of our 1/200 Seamaster. That was developed from those plans.

Ron

With beaching gear included!
An amazing piece - as always - from Prof. Crawford!

There are not much kits .... but Siku had an nice plastic one. The Siku range included a lot of more "odd" types.
The beaching gear is a great idea for a stand! I think about to build one for mine...This is now glued together and fillered. Now some engraving needs to be done.

Faster then I thought. The production model (ship9) with all the late modifications (canopy, engine inlets...) but not all details
Its all metal, together with his older brother (also metal) and a Precise F-18 Blue Angels (plastic) all in 1:72 to show the size. Its aluminium but still about 2kg.