Anigrand 1/72nd Martin XP6M-1/P6M-2 Seamaster
Kit #AA-2061
$114.00 (including shipping)
|
 |
History
In mid 1951 the Navy issued a request for proposal for a high speed
minelayer. The intent was to bottle up the Soviet Navy in the event the
cold war turned hot. They wanted a low altitude, high speed seaplane capable
of carrying 30,000 pounds of mines with a secondary nuclear capability.
Martin had a long history of designing and building flying boats for
the Navy and had done extensive research into hull designs in anticipation
of just such a requirement. They had modified both a Grumman Widgeon and
a large P5M with new lower hulls to test various hull shapes.
 Martin
and Convair quickly evolved into the two serious contenders for the yet
to be awarded production contract. But, there was far more at play than
just the wining design. Politics apparently played as much of a roll as
the technical merits of the contenders. The fact that Convair already
had contracts for two advanced seaplanes, ( R3Y and F2Y), may have swayed
the government toward awarding the contract to Martin. A contract was
awarded in Sept., 1952 for two flying prototypes and a static test airframe.
The Seamaster was a very smooth sleek, swept wing flying boat that even
today, fifty years later still looks like it could go a thousand miles
an hour. Some airplanes just look right from almost any angle and this
is one of those.
Construction proceeded under a very confidential blanket until the start
of taxi and flight testing made hiding it rather awkward. First flight
occurred in July, 1955 and flight test proceeded with the usual mix of
problems Then a few short days after the unexpected death of company founder
Glenn Martin in early December, 1955, ship number one disintegrated during
a Navy evaluation flight. After considerable investigation and modifications
to ship No. 2, flight testing resumed testing in July, 1956. Despite the
crash the Navy was impressed enough with the potential to award a contract
for 6 YP6M-1s in mid 1956, and then a contract for 24 P6M-2s.
Then the second prototype crashed. This in itself did not cause the
cancellation of the Seamaster program but continued problems, the Navy
re-evaluation of the mission and pressure from the Eisenhower administration
about costs and priorities eventually lead to the cancellation of the
program.
The Navy’s efforts to reclaim as much money as possible from the
Seamaster program after cancellation resulted in the stripping, reclaiming
of equipment and eventual selling for scrap value all of the airframes
still in existence. Today only a few random test items and parts remain.
The Kit
This is by far the largest effort to date by Anigrand. The kit comes
in a sturdy white cardboard box that is much larger than past subjects.
The fuselage will be a bit under 20 inches long and the wingspan about
16 inches. The fuselage is divided into front and back parts split vertically.
Test fitting of the four fuselage parts leads me to think the resulting
joints should be pretty good. Left and right sides are almost a perfect
match, and front and back parts seem to be very close. I do anticipate
some work around that front/back joint as the area around that joint is
perfectly flat and the gloss Seaplane Gray and White paint will highlight
any mismatch. Yep, I said Seaplane Gray. Only the first flight test bird
was Dark Blue.
I suspect that the forward fuselage parts are bigger and more complex
than anything Anigrand has attempted before and the challenge shows in
extensive areas of very small pin holes where air was trapped during the
casting process. They are scattered over several areas on the two front
fuselage parts and missing completely on all the other parts. The tiny
pinholes appear more like a surface rash than anything that changes the
surface shape of the two parts. Some are in areas that will be somewhat
difficult to sand after filling the tiny holes.
The wings are simple but effective top and bottom parts with pins on
both the fuselage end and wing tip end to match holes in the fuselage
and wing tip floats. I think a bit of thinning of the trailing edges might
be in order but the top and bottom joint appears flawless.
Provisions for both the XP6M-1 and the YP and P6M-2 are provided for.
The two vacu-form canopies are clear and flawless. Interior detail is
probably good enough for the simple early style canopy, but the later
bubble canopy probably would need some additional detailing to look complete.
One small overlooked item is the bullet shaped fairing at the top of
the vertical tail changed shape between the prototypes and production
birds and that is overlooked in the kit.
Decals are pretty basic, but that probably is ok on this bird, as it
did not appear to have a lot of markings. The very large XP6M Seamaster
logo on the nose is provided, but several of the YP6Ms had extensive lettering
under the cockpit windows and those markings are not included.
Conclusions
One of the local modelers and occasional IM contributor Terry Moore
beat the very basic Airmodel Vacuform Seamaster kit into submission several
years ago, and every time I see that beautiful airplane in his display
case I want one. Well finally I can do it. It is a bit expensive, but
the parts look very build able.
The Seamaster used a very large and complex beaching dolly. This thing
was over twenty five feat long and painted yellow with some Red stripes
on the side floatation tanks. It just says “build me!!” all
over the pictures. Wish Anigrand had provided one in the kit, but it would
be a very challenging resin assembly and a whole kit all by itself.
Anigrand just keeps turning out neat subjects that disrupt my modeling
schedule something terrible. Wonder how many neat Phantoms and F-18s I
will not get done while I play with this one.
|
|
