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 :-).
Click on
images below to see larger images
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
Click on
images below to see larger images
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