Martin Maryland by Mick Evans (Fonderie Miniature 1/48)

Fonderie Miniature's 1/48 scale
Martin Maryland

by Mick Evans

Martin Maryland

images by Brett Green

Fonderie Miniatures' 1/48 scale Martin Maryland is available online at Squadron.com

Preparation

The build for the Maryland involve some very extensive cleanup of the mating surfaces of every part, except for the resin. A lot of correspondence was received on the accuracy of the panel lines of this kit.

By comparing the kit to the Warpaint plans that I have the panel lines were not too bad in accuracy, but way overdone. I filled those that were grossly inaccurate and re-scribed them to the plans.

One thing that bewildered me is how the manufacturer could get one wing correct and get the other totally different.

Construction

Construction started with the sanding of the fuselage halves until the dimensions equalled the width of the transparencies for the nose, cockpit and lower observers window. Once this was complete the fuselage walls were thinned down to accept the cockpit floor and bulkheads. This process required constant thinning and trial fitting until a snug fit is achieved.

When this was completed, the fuselage assembly was a very easy assembly process. The wings become the next big challenge.

The wing halves need a lot of sanding to achieve the correct thickness at the leading and trailing edges. Once this is achieved a process of thinning the wheel well areas is required to allow the resin wheel well tubs to fit correctly. The wings also become a simply assembly process at this point. The same process was repeated for the horizontal tail and rudder.

The wings, horizontal tail, and rudder were added after some cleanup of the mating surfaces and very little filler was required.

The next major task was the transparencies, and this nearly cost me my sanity. Firstly all parts were dipped in Future. The nose transparency is split horizontally and I had all sorts of problems getting it to align. I found the best process was to tack with super glue, wait until fully set, and then gradually align the halves. When set the whole seam was backfilled with super glue, masked and sanded. The masking was left on until after the kit was painted. I spent a lot of time blowing all of the sanding dust out of the fuselage, but on removal of the masking some dust still adhered to the inside by the static caused by the tape removal.

The last major project was the engines. No instructions are given for the 19 parts that make these up, except showing the completed units being installed on the kit.

The kit has individual metal cylinders for both rows and these fit into the resin crankcase. The crankcase has 36 holes cast at the front and back to receive the ignition harness and pushrods. I had to refer to the instructions for the 1/32 Technics R2800 engine to get the detail correct, but the end result was worth it. The ignition leads were made from fine solder while the push rods were from stretched sprue.