P-6 (P6M) Sea Master

[Chris707]

land-based offshoot

Chris
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http://www.dataviewbooks.com/aircraftreference.html

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Chris,

You should have kept the original hull form and just cut and pasted the gear doors on to the Seamaster profile.  The belly of the B-47 grafted on like that makes it look strange, like chicken pecking strange ;^)

[famvburg]

        You could also use an arrangement like the Beriev A-40 Albatross, with long-legged mains retracting below the engines, either in pods or into the upper fuselage.

My original idea was to use the main landing gear from the B-52 but realizing that this is four main gear units made for a rather over sized arrangement that might have been excellent for a bush plane flying off of permafrost airfields.  Scaling it back a notch and using the B-47 main gear which is only two units instead of four left a bit more room in the fuselage.  The challenge is to find the sweet spot for the main gear units forward of the weapons bay and to the rear of the weapons bay.  Taking a cue from the track of the B-47 at this point might not hurt and then adjusting accordingly to find the point where it all comes into balance would be the challenge to keeping the weapons bay and the hull intact. 

Other options are out there besides the B-47 main gear arrangement such as the 1/72nd scale Hasegawa Shin-Meiwa flying boat and amphibian kits.  One version of the Shin Meiwa does include some extra resin parts to allow building of the full fledged amphibian version of this aircraft and with a bit of finesse these same parts could be adapted to a Seamaster in the same scale.  Of course this is only for the strong of heart that also have a healthy bank account since it will require resources far beyond what this mortal can afford at the moment. 

Chris,

You should have kept the original hull form and just cut and pasted the gear doors on to the Seamaster profile.  The belly of the B-47 grafted on like that makes it look strange, like chicken pecking strange ;^)

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Someone has been able to build the Mach2 P6M Seamaster kit and it looks quite impressive.

(image source: modellversium.de, contest held by MSC Hans Grade, Berlin, Germany Photo taken by Bert Andermann)

[sandiego89]

anthonyp, I too long for a good 1/700 SeaMaster and LSD.  A few years back I got tired of waiting and made the whole 1950's mobile base concept in 1/700.  This concept had support ships and aircraft that could set up a base in any sheltered waters.  The airgroup consisted of Seadarts (F-7 in service) for intercept, Tradewinds for supply and P6M Seamasters for strike/mining.  I also modelled the LSD, an AV-7 "Currituck" class tender and the GUAVINA SS-K refueling sub

Sorry for the photo quality and the beat up aircraft and ships.  Thye did not survive storage well and a I brought them out tonight for a quick shot for this threrad.  Time for a rebuild!

Ships and aircraft are all scratchbulit to scale in 1/700, except the sub which is a pitroad/skywave GATO hull.  Ships are balsa and sheet styrene. Engine pods and wings for the P6M are pitroad B1 bomber.   

[sandiego89]

one more shot

[elmayerle]

I wonder if the engine pods could be moved forward enough to give an upper-surface blowing effect similar to that on the YC-14 and QSRA?

[garys]

Great build Sandiego.
I recently just finished reading the book Attack From The Sea, which is about the P6M program. It's a fascinating look at post war inter service rivalries and aircraft development, among other interesting things. The reason no land-based or amphib version was considered was because it would have stepped on the USAF toes as far as the Nuclear strike mission was concerned, it was out of the Navy's responsibility as far as they were concerned.

[sandiego89]

Thank you "garys"

Attack from the Sea is a great book, I love the whole mobile base concept and some of the proposed designs in there. Great what if potential.  I also did a Seadart in circa@ 1960 markings (white/gray) for the recent flying boat group build.
Another really great book is the P6M Sea Master by Stan Piet and Al Raithel.  Pricey but worth shopping around. Book goes through all the ups and downs and politics, and has very good technical info.   The more you read it, the more incredible the airplane sounds.  It had some real problems, but they were mostly sorted out when the axe fell.  The plane was increadible on the deck (could easily out do a B-52) and could have had a interesting career.

Dave Pugh 

[proditor]

Does anyone know if there is one of these sweet, sweet planes made in 1/700?

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Something that many of us would like in our own collection: Anigrand 1/72 Martin Seamaster built by Michael J Maynard

Michael apparently went a couple steps further than required on this model according to this comment:  

Using the Seamaster book as reference, I scratch built the rotary bomb door, refueling pod and photographic pod. I also scratch built the early Allison j-47 engine, as well as the engine doors

You can click on html or the image to access the rest of the article.  


(image source: Michael J Maynard/ARC

[Joe C-P]

Sandiego89, I like what you've done there!

I'd like to build one as a commando bird, with machine cannon turrets forward to cover the landing SpecOps team.

[PR19_Kit]

Jeffry,

Michael apparently went a couple steps further than required on this model according to this comment:  

Using the Seamaster book as reference, I scratch built the rotary bomb door, refueling pod and photographic pod. I also scratch built the early Allison j-47 engine, as well as the engine doors

A COUPLE of steps!? What a masterpiece, he's done everything I ever wanted to do with a P6M kit, scratchbuilding the beaching trolly is a magnificent piece of work in its own right, let alone the rest of it!

I think I'll go and throw my vacform P6M in the bin now...........

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Hyperscale just posted a nice WIP and finished model article on the Revell "Box" Scale Martin XP6M-1 SeaMaster built by Bill Dye


(image source: Bill Dye/Hyperscale)

[The Rat]

Hyperscale just posted a nice WIP and finished model article on the Revell "Box" Scale Martin XP6M-1 SeaMaster built by Bill Dye


(image source: Bill Dye/Hyperscale)

Yeah, he made me feel downright inadquate. But I had fun with it!