Martin-Baker MB8 - Model build

[PR19_Kit]

Martin-Baker MB8 Marlin PR1 - the model

This madness started off when Colin Freightdog proposed a year long Group Build that had to a) use one of the old ex-Pegasus kits as a basis, b) be a Whiff of some sort and c) be ready to display by Telford 2010. Colin generously gave away some of the kits to the builders, and so long as the conditions above were fulfilled he did not expect any payment! Those who took the kits but didn't manage to produce a finished model by Telford 2010 would be expected to pay for them!

In my case I had Pegasus kits coming out of my ears, so the last thing I needed was any more, but it seemed the rules were flexible enough to enable me to build one of my older kits and still stay within the conditions above. My choice for the project was the Bv-155, which fulfilled my basic premise of a good aeroplane by having GINORMOUS wings, but it could hardly have been called pretty by any stretch of the imagination! Being the fuzzy bunny son of two WWII German aircraft companies, both of whom hated the sight of each other, the -155 was hardly going to win any beauty contests but in the real world it proved a remarkable aircraft, even if it was only just starting its development period when the war ended.

My thought patterns revolved around a) turning it into a jet, thus removing the need for the mid-wing mounted radiators, or b) making a Zwilling out of it, a sort of Bv-310.....

However while I was thinking about it, Our Glorious Leader came up with a zinger of an idea! As the real Bv-155s had been captured by the Allies and two prototypes had been brought back to Farnborough, how about if the RAF had seen the potential in the -155 and had put the thing into production in the early postwar years to act as a sort of piston engined  Meteor PR19? This of course was RIGHT up my street, and after a few PMs back and forth we hatched the plan to have Martin-Baker update the -155 and to build a small batch for two RAF PR Sqdns post war.

I went on holiday in Ireland at that time, taking a small modelling tool set and the Bv-155 kit with me, plus suitable bits styrene sheet etc. and a Fujimi Spitfire PR19 kit. No, I don't know what I did that for either, but it turned out handy in the end anyway. Over my holiday I chopped and changed the -155 kit, removing those awful side pipes that fed the turbo-supercharger, and grafted on the nose of the PR19. Well M-B would hardly have used a DB 603, would they? Not to mention that the later Griffons churned out 850 bhp more than the '603 and that was without the turbo-supercharger! It sort of fitted but large chunks of sawn down PR19 fuselage were needed to fair the Griffon into the monstrous -155 fuselage.

The wings were standard Pegasus, and just needed building, but even this wasn't straightforward, oh no! The radiator mouldings weren't the same top and bottom or port to starboard either, so mucho filing and PSR was required before both wing sets started to match each other. Later on I found that the port outer wing had a different leading edge sweep-back to the starboard one, so that required sawing off and re-attaching!

At about this time the Martin-Baker bit began to impinge on my brain and I figured the real M-B would more than likely use some of the MB5's technology on the MB8, as I was now calling my creation. (M-B had already used MB6 and 7 for other odd-ball projects....) So the MB8 would be the RAF's first aircraft fitted with an ejection seat, in this case an early Mk1 of course. Luckily I had an Aeroclub Mk1 in stock (doesn't everyone?) and this was suitably filed and fettled to fit into the '155's cockpit. As I intended to use a bubble canopy of some sort there would be a reasonable space for the seat to fit hopefully. Not only this, but I figured that Martin-Baker would use large chunks of the MB5 airframe, so the -155's fuselage was modified to look as much like an MB5 as I could manage and the fin and tailplane were planned to look like those of the earlier fighter as well.

As time passed I did a small amount of work on the project as time became available, and before long another holiday had crept on me (we retired folks have lots of holidays, you know, there isn't much else to do with our time now that we've stopped work......... <g>) and this time it was in Norfolk, so the MB8 came along as well. Erm, SOME of it came along, as I found I'd left the wings at home, but there was a lot of work to do on the fuselage. As I didn't have a spare MB5 kit (no WAY was I going to sacrifice my Skybirds 86 kit!) I used a belly scoop from an Academy P-51B Mustang, and grafted it onto the bottom of the '155's fuselage after removing the awful scoop that was moulded in originally. With a few pieces of scrap styrene it fitted pretty well, and some PSR work tidied it up nicely.

The '155's fin was chopped off and a styrene core of an MB5 shaped fin installed, together with a matching rudder, and layers of styrene either side finished that off as well, after filing to shape and the inevitable PSR. I did the same for the tailplane, using a 3 layer styrene sandwich to get the basic shape, and filling in the gaps with putty.

The nose took TONS of putty to fill in the numerous gaps after the styrene packing had been filed down to shape, but it started to look quite good, and nearly the same as my fettled drawings of the aircraft. I wanted to use a contra-prop on it, and had an Eduard Spitfire 21/22 in stock, which included a 6 blade contra-prop as well as the 5 blader. However the contra-prop was designed by a sadist and after DAYS of fiddling I just couldn't get all six blades to stay in contact with the spinner! Lucky Chris Edwards came to my rescue by sending me a lovely Aeroclub all-metal one, which looked much better, and was infinitely stronger too of course.

Apart from the fin, which I cut all the way into the rear fuselage, all the surfaces were butt jointed, which I was less than impressed with, and so both wings and tailplanes were attached using steel wire spars. This gave the model some chance of staying together in one piece during transit, as the ultra-long wings made it pretty fragile. After TONS of PSR work on the airframe, with many coats of primer between PSR sessions, the aircraft got to a semi-acceptable state. I was running out of time by now anyway, Telford 2010 being only a day or so away, so one last coat of primer was about to be sprayed when disaster struck! I had the whole model impaled on a bent coat hanger and was climbing up my loft ladder to the spraying area when the model fell off! This from a height of about ten feet, and on impact BOTH outer wing panels snapped clean off!

That nearly stopped the whole show, but wiser councils prevailed (Mrs PR19 suggesting that I'd never forgive myself if I didn't finish it....) and so I superglued the panels back on. Amazingly they fitted very well and the final job was lots better than the original styrene glued joint. The planned final primer coat never happened anyway as the rattle can turned out to be almost empty, so a light sanding was all it got before the colour coat.

While that was drying I did all the little jobs, like painting the seat and wheels, and I finally got to start painting it. I was intending to do the same scheme as the PR19, but my only tin of Sea Grey Medium look and sounded like a brick, and as there was no chance of getting another tin before Telford I switched to RAF Barley Grey and changed the back story to suit, renaming it High Altitude Grey. (Isn't Whiffing just WONDERFUL?) The underside was PRU Blue of course, and I had about five tins of that! I hand painted the whole thing, no time to set up an airbrush and compressor and I'm much more confident with a brush anyway. A few yards of Tamiya tape marked the demarcation and a coat of Kleer soon had the airframe ready for the decals.

The roundels came from the ubiquitous Modeldecal RAF Type D sheet, but all the rest I produced on my laptop and inkjet printer. I'm darned if I know how I managed before that bit of technology came along, it makes things so much easier. The serials, codes, Squadron badge and pilot's name etc. all came via this route, together with an ejection seat warning, this being the RAF's first aircraft to ever be fitted with one!

Another coat of clear, and only the final assembly was left, adding the prop and landing gear etc. Sounds simple here, but that part of the job was ultra-fiddly. The aircraft had FOUR landing gear doors per leg, for goodness sake! A final spray of semi-matt varnish almost finished it off, but the canopy was still to come. As the MB8 had an ejector seat, the canopy needed to be higher and longer than the stock Bv155 one, and that was SUCH an ugly thing anyway, I decided a bubble type hood would be more appropriate. None of my umpteen Spitfire canopies were long enough, not to mention high enough either, and the choice finally came down on a P-51D Dallas built canopy. For some reason the Dallas plant fitted their Mustangs with a canopy that had a much higher rear end than the Inglewood versions, and a Falcon one fitted reasonably well, but needed LOTS of pressure to get it to conform to the top of the Bv155 fuselage. This was provided by a cat's cradle of Sellotape and after the Kristal Kleer had dried off I just had to paint the canopy frame and that was that.

Or not, as the case may be!

The canopy wouldn't stay on, more Kristal Kleer looked as if it would work, but it pinged off again. And again. And again! So right now it's held on my gravity and will-power, some Kristal Kleer and some paint. The solution to that will have to wait till after Telford!

Back story is here :- https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=30317.msg463889#msg463889

[BrittMac]

Neat little beastie!

[Gondor]

Amazing build.

I never had a problem with the Eduard Contra Prop, I built the boss's then attached the blades through the holes using some filing and lots of liquid poly to get them to fit. I must admit that it took two goes to get them to fit but I found it quite easy. The prop shafts were replaced with plastic tubing with a larger diameter used in the engine face plate for the shaft to slide into. Simples

Gondor

[Weaver]

Excellent build Kit - looks really good! 

So when are we going to be seeing this in an "authorititive" account of postwar recce aircraft then? 

[Slerski]

That's a very nice plane. Big wings are THE touch

[rickshaw]

You're courting infamy again, I see.   Soon the CIA will come a'knockin' again... 

[sequoiaranger]

I never tackled my Bv/Me-155 (Vac-form), so it is good to see someone do it, even if they "Mustang-ized" it!

[pyro-manic]

"Proper job!" as they say in these parts. Lovely machine, even with those freaky mid-wing nacelles, and the paint job is very attractive.

[John Howling Mouse]

Very impressive.  A nice way to liven up a model shelf with something so original, too!  Very unique and dynamic.  Cool.   

[kitbasher]

I'm sure it's brilliant Kit, but the pics are taking yonks to load.  Never mind, will see it tomorrow.

[GTX]

 

[PR19_Kit]

Thanks very much gentlemen, glad you like it so much. 

The piccies are hosted on ImageShack and it depends on the time of day how long they take to load I'm afraid, when America wakes up it does slow to a crawl sometimes.

A vacform Bv155 just HAS to be better than the Pegasus offering, if the fuselage sides are aligned so they match at the top the wing roots differ by around 2 mm! Of course if you sort that out the top of the fuselage doesn't meet its opposite number. And that's just ONE of the problems....... <sigh>

[Tophe]

Very beautiful, Kit. And so "normal" that I should look with Google if this is a famous built plane or not...
The best for me, not a detail at all, is your clean photographs on plain background. I can use these marvelous pictures to build easily a twin-plane. The best would be a date 1939-45 to include this twin in my CGI topic twin-planes 39-45, but otherwise I will post that simply here. Great anyway, thanks! (and congratulations if I forgot to say it)...

[Tophe]

I have read the backstory and this Twin-Marlin would be alas long after specification PR.21/46, so I will have to invent another story to make it 1945...

[PR19_Kit]

Tophe,

I'm laughing like CRAZY here, having seen your piccie of the Twin Marlin! 

I love it, the only problem would be that you'd have to build THREE of those terrible radiator modules and the centre section wings as well!

Magic stuff.