Martin PBM Mariner Book Review

By David L. Veres

Review

Building Minicraft's superb new 1:72-scale PBM-5A Mariner?  Grab Steve Ginter' magnificent new monograph.

Number 97 in his popular "Naval Fighters" series wonderfully recaps this bellicose and beautiful beast.  The lavishly illustrated effort sports 260 pages, hundreds of B&W and color photos, dozens of detail drawings, and copious modeling notes.  And the extensive table of contents makes subject location a snap.

Seeking Mariner interior information?  It's there.  Armament configurations?  Absolutely.  Dimensional details?  Definitely.  Squadron service?  Yep.  The magnitude of Ginter's minutiae makes this a Mecca for detail devotees.  Heck, now I even know my way around PBM galleys!

Ginter's intensely informative effort covers development, testing, variants, operations and systems.  Focus understandably recaps the aircraft's worldwide military use: US Navy, US Coast Guard, the Netherlands, Argentina, Uruguay and Australia.  But the author obligingly includes civilian service, too.

Intriguing "one-offs" also appear.  How about that Convair ASW "Sea Stilt" float project?  Can anyone say, "attention-grabbing diorama"?  And speaking of which, turn to the book's final pages for Ginter's reliable reviews of Mariner kits.  I'll bet many modelers start there.

But regardless of where you begin, this book displaces all other English-language PBM references.  Make it your guide to this fascinating flying boat.

Roundly recommended!

With thanks to Ginter Books.