Martin Marlborough

Gallery Article by Dave Bailey (aka The Rat) on Jan 2 2009

Silly Week 2010

 

In the mid 1950s it was becoming apparent to the Government of Canada that the longest coastline in the world was seriously under-defended and under-patrolled, and purchasing the aircraft to fulfill the role of maritime patrol necessitated either a large quantity or something with the ability to cover more area in less time. A delegation was sent to the United States to investigate the newly developed Martin Seamaster, which had the virtue of a high-speed jet combined with the versatility of a flying boat. Studies were conducted to determine the feasibility of using the Orenda Iroquois in place of the P&W J75, and when these yielded favourable results the decision was made to purchase seven of the aircraft, four being used by the RCAF and three by the Coast Guard. A substantial portion of the wings and tail were built at the Avro facility near Toronto, and various other subsystems by Canadair in Montreal. Martin also retained these manufacturers as sub-contractors once the aircraft had reached successful sales levels around the world, and in all a total of 87 units were produced, with 43 of them utilizing the Iroquois option.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

Those in service in Canada were given the name Marlborough, and served for almost forty years. The airframes are currently in storage and may be converted into firebombers by the Government of British Columbia.

The Build

This is one bear of a kit. There are huge gaps between the wing and fuselage that have to be filled, raised decal placement markings that need to be sanded off, and a canopy that refused to fit properly even after assorted sandings, filings, and scrapings. To make matters worse I ran into some trouble with the red paint, Model Master Guards Red from a rattle can, and up close it doesn’t look very smooth [/understatement]. But I wasn’t up to stripping it down and starting over, I just wanted to get the thing finished. The white was also, predictably, a pain, but after a gazillion coats it finally seems almost nearly kind of in a way acceptable. The black edge to the white band was added with a fine tip Sharpie marker. Canadian Coast Guard fans will notice that I placed the white stripe ahead of the wing rather than the more traditional place behind it. I reasoned that the pronounced sweep of the wing would bury the stripe, so I moved it to make it more prominent, which is exactly what the CCG would have done (if I were running them…)

The decals were courtesy of Todd ‘Captain Canada’ Pomerleau (again), and I managed to stuff a couple up which is why the starboard side is off-limits for viewing. I didn’t bother getting registration numbers, as trying to find some would add even more time that I didn’t want to spend.

Would I tackle another? Certainly, I invented a lot of new words during this project and I want to see if I can refrain from using them next time. If I could get some more CCG decals I would even redo this concept and hope to get it right, I like the overall look as long as I don’t look closely.

Dave Bailey

Photos and text © by Dave Bailey