...I built it a few years ago from a very old and rare Entex kit...(which is) a nice little kit considering it's size and it's age (late '60s early '70s). It has very fine raised panel lines and the fit of all the parts was excellent with little to no joint filling. The only drawback to the kit was no beaching gear which I scratch built from scrap plastic...I added the small antennas made from pieces of sheet plastic and the antenna wire from stretched sprue. I scratch built the Tilly crane from bits of strip plastic and stretched sprue...The truck was an N scale pick up (that was way under scale) that I converted to a stake truck to give a sense of enormity to the plane.
My father (worked with, and flew on this aircraft, when he) was stationed in Iwakuni, Japan in '63-65. I spent a lot of wonderful hours watching those big seaplanes take off with JATO/RATO packs on them boosting them out of the water in a cloud of smoke. Late at night when the crews returned from their 12 hour patrols I would watch them pull up to the ramp, put on the beaching gear, and then be towed out of the water onto the flight line. The P5M was a huge plane and at 10 years old I thought they were giants. I remember getting to step inside one of those behemoths it was fantastic, there was radio/radar gear everywhere and bunk beds so the crew could rest on very long patrols. There was even a small area set up like a kitchen, WOW!!
...The hardest part of the painting was the cockpit windows and observation windows in the tail...The decals in the kit were ok but when I tried to use them they cracked and split so most of the decals were from various Microscale sheets I had in my box of spares. The safety walk panels on the top of the main wings were masked off and painted as well as the red prop warning stripe...I guessed at the dimensions I took it from a pic in my Dad's cruise book of a Tilly parked on the flight line behind one of the planes.
...The P5M was the Navy's last seaplane. In '67-68 they were retired and scraped except for one plane. It is the last remaining intact P5M and can be seen on display (as above) at the Navy Air Museum in Pensacola Fl.
...I had a choice of paint schemes - either the white over blue or white over gull gray - because in 1965-66 most of the squadrons were in transition from the blue to the gray. Both the VP-40 and VP-50 deployed to Vietnam for Operation Market Time with almost half of the planes in the squadrons painted one of these color schemes. I chose the white over blue because it just looked better to me."
The model of the P5m-2G is beautiful. I flew these at the USCG Air Station in St. Pete, FL back in 1958-59. It's quite a plane, but I wish there were some models in USCG colors. It was very stable in the water and flew like a dream. It was the only plane I flew co=pilot with my uncle, Commander John C.Redfield. The plane is very special to me because of that.
Yes, William - sorry for the delay responding - David's Marlin build is indeed fantastic. Especially considering how small it actually is!
And he related some great stories about it - sounds like you could, too. I never had any actual family member(s) with whom I was able to share flying - though I certainly have had a few good friends and colleagues (the latter becoming the former, given enough time) with whom I shared some unforgettable moments.
Sounds like you are a modeller, too. I'm sure we could find some solution(s) to your desired USCG color-scheme: if not straightforward decals, then possibly some painting tip(s) - or a combination. Can you tell/show us what USCG color-scheme you're having trouble with?
Beautiful little build - hard to keep in mind how tiny it really is, when looking at the pics - it makes your scratchbuilt Tilly and adapted truck all the more impressive!
Gus is right: it would be awesome to see what you could do with a real, 1:72-scale model of this beast. I think there might be such a kit(s) of the later big Kawanishi flying boat, which has many of the same features - maybe you could bash one of those successfully?
Anyway, a great build - particularly in context of your childhood reminiscences - and we'll definitely look forward to updates on your build of Salisbury Sound, which serviced these birds.
Excellent work, David! I have seen that plane at Pensacola and keep hoping someone will do a 1/144 or even 1/72 kit in state-of-the-art standards. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Gus I saw it too before they restored it after it was damaged by hurricane Ivan it was in pretty rough shape. Here is a link to the Mariner/Marlin Assoc. showing pics of the restoration, http://www.vpmma.org I've always loved this plane since I was a kid The only kit I know of besides this kit is the old Hasagawa 1/72 kit (I have it in my stash)but maybe someday they will produce one in 1/144 with some nice photo etch to go with it. David