Martin US Navy P-6M Seamaster Seaplane

OK, let's be honest. This kit is really, really old. It was originally released by Revell in 1956 according to scalemates.com. It has all the problems you'd expect from an ancient kit. There is a fair amount of flash, but that was easily fixed. Nearly all surface detail is raised, not engraved. There are raised decal locators everywhere (I told you the kit is ancient!). Most modelers will shave/sand these locators off. I didn't because I was treating this as a test kit and wanted to see how well those raised locators actually functioned. More on that below. The overall fit of parts is very bad. Aside from the two fuselage halves, which went together surprisingly well, every other part needed some kind of surgery to achieve an acceptable fit. Restock your sanding sticks and putty supplies, you'll need them. The joining of the jet engine nacelle halves and the fit between fuselage and wing were particularly horrible. The nacelles required extensive filling (with ordinary putty) and sanding to look acceptable. The wing-fuselage join left a 1/8-inch gap that I needed to use Milliput fine-white epoxy putty to fill. This was the first time I've used this product and I'm now a believer. The result was quite good. Some modelers will prefer to use plastic sheet instead of putty, but I lacked the supplies to try this method. The kit's raised detail looks quite nice under paint. I first primed using Badger Stynylrez White, then painted the front hull section of the underside flat white. All paints used were Vallejo Model Air and Model Color acrylics. The air intakes fronting the engine nacelles were painted flat red. The rest of the aircraft was painted in Glossy Sea Blue. I was quite pleased with the overall result. The filling/sanding/Milliputing was all worth it. I painted the kit's nifty little display stand an overall chrome. The kit decals are newly done and they're ok, but a little thin (two tore on me, requiring subs from my spares box). I discovered that leaving those raised locators on the plane's surface was a bad idea, especially since the decals never matched exactly the size of the locators. All but one of the decals look ok when viewed from a normal distance, but if you get up-close-and-personal, the mis-sizing is pretty obvious. So, the locators rate a big thumbs-down. Sand them flat. After a little weathering (a light-gray wash around the control surfaces, some silver pencil chipping to set off random raised rivet heads and panel lines), I glued on, then filled around the single-piece clear windscreen, which I'd painted black (on the inside to preserve the outer sheen). Finally, I attached the plane to the display stand and called the whole thing done. Overall, I was surprised at how good the finished model looks. A definite keeper. I need to make an admission here: I'm not a great modeler. I've recently (within the last 3 or so years) come back to the hobby after more than 50 years away. I'd call my skill level a firm mediocre, but I am learning. Even though this kit has many problems, I found it a valuable learning tool and quite a fun build overall. I gave the kit itself a two-star rating above, but the experience of building it was very satisfying and rates four stars. Let me end with a few cons and pros concerning this specific Atlantis re-issue. The kit's box is very thin and flimsy. The internal packaging (a single plastic bag) allowed too much movement of kit parts within the box. For some kits, this will probably result in damage to the parts. The assembly instructions are adequate, but could have been illustrated more clearly. They also provide some really bad advice--instructing the modeler to paint all parts before assembly. When kit parts fit this badly, such advice will likely lead to immense frustration IMO. On the plus side, the box art is very attractive. Most importantly, this kit is the only one currently available for the Seamaster, which is a most interesting and historic aircraft. As such, Atlantis deserves immense credit for providing this re-issue. I will probably reward them by purchasing other Atlantis re-issues in the future. I just hope (probably in vain) that some enterprising company will someday issue a cutting-edge version of this unique flying boat. There are way too few flying boat kits available and that's a real shame.