I have always liked the Martin Mars ever since I saw it being used as a water bomber here in Canada. There are no kits to be found so I am going to attempt my biggest scratchbuilt project ever. If anyone knows of some good reference pics please!!! let me know. Thanks eveeryone
That sounds like a neat project. What scale will it be? That plane has been offered in kit form by four companies, Combat Models, Contrails, O’Neill, and Renwal. I’m looking forward to seeing your finished plane.
Here are two walkarounds.
Hawaii Mars (nice, but dark interior shots included)
http://www.seawings.co.uk/hawaiimarsgal.htm
and Philippine Mars (pics of beaching gear included)
http://www.seawings.co.uk/philmarsgal.htm
Hope this helps.
good luck on your project. if you can find a copy of “martin mariner in action” , you’ll find a few pictures of the mars in there as well. also, if you can find addresses or web sites for usn museums, you might get some of the info you need.
let me update what i gave you earlier:the book is squadron/signal’s “pbm mariner in action” #1074. the images are on pages 49-52 and include a shot of the p&w engine.good luck!
gar…
There are a few kits for the Mars… I think they were 1/72 and then a smaller scale. I saw one on eBay a while back. I’ll post of list of all kits made of the Mars sometime tonight.
As promissed…
According to Mr. John W. Burns magnificent “Plastic Aircraft Kits of the Twentieth Century” publication, the Martin PB2M Mars (JRM-1) was built by no more than 5 manufacturers in 3 different scales.
Air Craft Models 1/144
Combat 1/72
Contrail 1/72
O’Neill 1/72
Renwal 1/289
Most of these companies are out of business or the molds have been acquired by someone else. So you could wait for something to appear on eBay… OR…
If you follow the link below to Roberts Models, they took over the Combat line and are currently selling the 1/72 scale version in vacuform.
http://www.swiftsite.com/rosemonthobby/combat.htm
Listing: RMCM - 72-004 - Martin JRM-1 'Mars" - $39.99
Still gonna have to do some scratch work since these models are only very basic, however you’ll have a fuselage and wings and a good foundation to start from.
Highly recommend the Steve ginter Book on the Mars, a must have for a project like yours.
http://www.mozeyoninn.com/ginterbooks.html