1/72 Merlin Martin Baker MB-2

Gallery Article by Keith Hudson

 

The Martin Baker MB-2 was a private venture fighter prototype that never progressed beyond the single prototype built. It was unique in many ways and I would recommend you to review this link  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin-Baker_MB_2 to learn more about this promising design . The kit itself is standard Merlin issue- crude castings, opaque transparencies and useless decals - but also as usual it is a unique kit of a rare aircraft and a great starting place to build a replica. This time I was surprised by how inaccurate the basic shape was- for all their faults the basic outline of every Merlin kit I have ever built has been accurate - you can see that I had to add an appreciably sized  plug to get it to the right fuselage length and other various pieces were added to reshape the wing and other detail pieces. I really wanted to show the unique hinged cockpit fairing and turnover crash post so that drove the decision to build a full interior and other than rebuilding and detailing each piece separately this was a typical build of an older kit- and as much fun as these kits always are :-). 

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The model is finished off with modelmaster enamels with a few pieces highlighted in alclad - with some post shading and then rescribed  after clearcoating . The fabric areas were rebuilt with strips of tamiya tape and blended with tamiya primer before painting. 

Hope you enjoy- and thanks as always to the wonderful folks at the Wings of Peace website and Mike Lampros both of whom were, as always, very generous with information for this slightly Off Topic aircraft.

Keith Hudson

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Photos and text © by Keith Hudson