Martin AM-1 Mauler in 1/72

The latest addition to my collection of obscure Navy dive bombers is this 1/72 scale kit from A&A Models, the Martin AM-1 Mauler. Like the Douglas Destroyer in my previous article, this was another aircraft that was intended to replace both the dive bombers and torpedo bombers in service with the fleet in WWII. While the maiden flight of the XBTM-1 was accomplished in August of 1944, it did not enter service until the war was over, in 1948. It was redesignated AM-1 in 1946. It remained in front line service only two years, being relegated to reserve squadrons by 1950, and completely replaced by Douglas Skyraiders by 1953.

It is a notable aircraft for a couple reasons, one being the Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major powerplant - a 28 cylinder radial engine, the largest radial engine mass-produced in the U.S. The engine produced up to 4300 horsepower and weighed over 3,800 lbs!
The second reason is that the Mauler holds the record for the heaviest payload of any single-engined piston-powered aircraft - 10,648 lbs including three torpedoes, a dozen 250 lbs bombs and 800 rds of 20mm ammunition for the 4 guns.

Though the aircraft was demonstrated to be a stable dive-bombing platform, the engine and airframe were high-maintenance, and the flying characteristics were not favored by pilots. Pilots and crews preferred the somewhat smaller AD-1 Skyraider for flying and maintenance, and so the Maulers were all eventually replaced by the Skyraider.

This kit looked like it had a lot of promise when I first opened the box - multi-colored, glossy instructions, full decal sheet, canopy masks, and two sheets of photo-etched parts. The injection-molded kit, however, was a disappointment. The plastic was thick and soft, with lots of flash, and absurdly large diameters to the smaller parts (the control column would have been the size of a baseball bat!).

There were a lot of photo-etched parts in the cockpit, but for the most part, they were too small for my clumsy fingers to successfully employ. Considering the small size of the cockpit opening, I figured none of those little details would be visible anyway, so left most of them off. I really wanted to use the photo-etched cowl flaps and have them in the open position, but alas, they were oversized and didn't fit at all. The photo-etched wheel hubs looked bad when applied to the wheels, so I left them off too. I did make use of the metal fins and boxes for the torpedoes - they looked much more to scale than the molded plastic ones.

The fit of the fuselage halves and the wings wasn't terrible, but there was some putty and sanding involved around the wing joins to get it all looking decent. I used up the last of my Model Master Dark Sea Blue to paint it, and applied decals for the one active unit supplied, VA-45 on the carrier “Midway” in 1949. The decals were the best part of the whole kit, going on easily with no silvering on the edges (although I read that the national insignia on Maulers had the blue oval, and the kit supplied decals did not). I used acrylic powder gray applied with clear acrylic liquid to make the modest exhaust stains.

One feature of the aircraft that is not captured in the model kit is the unique dive flaps on the wings. The upper and lower flaps had intermeshed fingers, all of which would rotate downward for take off and landing, but would split upwards and downwards for diving. This would be a cool detail to feature in a larger-scale model.

While the kit was somewhat of a disappointment, I do like the final result and am happy it's part of my dive-bomber collection. Hope you enjoy it as well.

13 additional images. Click to enlarge.