In the mid 1950s it was becoming
apparent to the Government of Canada that the longest coastline in the world was
seriously under-defended and under-patrolled, and purchasing the aircraft to
fulfill the role of maritime patrol necessitated either a large quantity or
something with the ability to cover more area in less time. A delegation was
sent to the United States to investigate the newly developed Martin Seamaster,
which had the virtue of a high-speed jet combined with the versatility of a
flying boat. Studies were conducted to determine the feasibility of using the
Orenda Iroquois in place of the P&W J75, and when these yielded favourable
results the decision was made to purchase seven of the aircraft, four being used
by the RCAF and three by the Coast Guard. A substantial portion of the wings and
tail were built at the Avro facility near Toronto, and various other subsystems
by Canadair in Montreal. Martin also retained these manufacturers as
sub-contractors once the aircraft had reached successful sales levels around the
world, and in all a total of 87 units were produced, with 43 of them utilizing
the Iroquois option.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Those in service in Canada were given the
name Marlborough, and served for almost forty years. The airframes are
currently in storage and may be converted into firebombers by the
Government of British Columbia.
The Build
This is one bear of a kit. There are huge gaps between the wing and fuselage
that have to be filled, raised decal placement markings that need to be sanded
off, and a canopy that refused to fit properly even after assorted sandings,
filings, and scrapings. To make matters worse I ran into some trouble with the
red paint, Model Master Guards Red from a rattle can, and up close it doesn’t
look very smooth [/understatement]. But I wasn’t up to stripping it down and
starting over, I just wanted to get the thing finished. The white was also,
predictably, a pain, but after a gazillion coats it finally seems almost nearly
kind of in a way acceptable. The black edge to the white band was added with a
fine tip Sharpie marker. Canadian Coast Guard fans will notice that I placed the
white stripe ahead of the wing rather than the more traditional place behind it.
I reasoned that the pronounced sweep of the wing would bury the stripe, so I
moved it to make it more prominent, which is exactly what the CCG would have
done (if I were running them…)
The decals were courtesy of Todd ‘Captain Canada’ Pomerleau (again), and
I managed to stuff a couple up which is why the starboard side is off-limits for
viewing. I didn’t bother getting registration numbers, as trying to find some
would add even more time that I didn’t want to spend.
Would I tackle another? Certainly, I invented a lot of new words during this
project and I want to see if I can refrain from using them next time. If I could
get some more CCG decals I would even redo this concept and hope to get it
right, I like the overall look as long as I don’t look closely.
Dave Bailey
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