Martin AM-1 Mauler in 1/72:
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History
The Glenn L. Martin Co. could be noted as being very successful at building aircraft that finished second in design competitions. The Model 162 Mariner was overshadowed by the rival Consolidated PBY. The 202/404 airliners never really were successful, and the very radical XB-51 lost out to the B-57. In the later example Martin had both 1st and 2nd place covered and was able to pull success from the jaws of defeat with the B-57 contract.
The last two examples of Martin doing well on losing proposals are the P4M Mercator and the subject we are looking at, the AM-1 Mauler. The Mercator lost the design competition to the Lockheed P2V Neptune, but Martin still managed to build 21 as Electronic Reconnaissance birds.
The AM-1 Mauler lost to the now famous Douglas AD Skyraider, yet Martin was able to land a contract to build 152 Maulers for the Navy. For a variety of reasons the Mauler proved to be less than successful operating off carriers, but did have some success with Naval Reserve Squadrons and as an Electronic Countermeasures platform.
When viewing photos of the Mauler, its immense size is not apparent. This is one big bird! With a wingspan of 50 feet, and a length of over 40 feet this beast makes even a Thunderbolt (span 40, length 36) look small in comparison.
The
Kits
The Czech Master Resin kit has been in very limited circulation for
the last few years. It consists of all resin parts with the exception
of metal main gear struts and the usual vacu-formed canopy. There are
a LOT of small parts and everything is packaged
in several individually sealed plastic bagged pockets. The one part wing,
two fuselage halves and 3 (yep, three) different props are in individual
bags, and the rest of the smaller stuff is divided between another three
smaller bags. Commendable packaging because the small resin stuff is
delicate. With the small stuff kept away from the larger heavier parts
the chance of broken parts is significantly reduced. (Note: A build-up
of this kit appeared in Internet Modeler back in October 1998. This issue
is available on CD-ROM.)
The Siga kit is in a real top and bottom conventional cardboard box. (Can we hope they are going to put kits in real boxes finally?) The parts are white plastic on four trees. My first impression is the noticeably fewer parts in the Siga kit. Perhaps it is just because the Siga kit is spread over the different trees, while the Czech Master is all bunched up in the little plastic bags.
Wings
Even just a quick glance provides some major differences. Of course the big one is that the Czech Master (CM) is a rather hefty one piece affair, while the Siga (S) is left and right upper parts, and a lower center section with separate outboard sections. Perhaps an advantage here for the Siga kit is the lower wing joints are at the wing fold lines. There is no provision for folding the wings in either kit, but the Siga would just require cutting the top wing at the fold line while the solid CM would be major resin surgery.
Overall, the CM wing is much better than the S wing. The trailing edges are more nearly scale thickness and the panel lines cleaner, finer and more convincing.
Another major plus for me is that they at least attempted to show the
very complex and unique dive brakes on the wing flaps. The Mauler was
designed as a dive bomber, and like the Dauntless and Helldivers that
went before, it had dive brakes on the trailing edge of the wings. While
the Dauntless and Helldiver used combined split flaps and dive brakes,
the Mauler was much more complex. It had very conventional landing flaps,
but the dive brakes were embedded in the flaps top and bottom. 
They
resembled a very coarse toothed comb with the backbone of the comb forward.
This was embedded in the aft 2/3rds of each flap section on both the top
and bottom. Thus the Mauler could deploy very conventional landing flaps,
or during dives, the flaps stayed up but the comb-like teeth were deployed
to act as dive brakes. A very complex arrangement to say the least, but
also one of the major attractions when considering modeling the Mauler.
The CM kit clearly has the edge here. Siga did not even try to scribe
in the comb-like lines on their wing.
Another noticeable difference is the pylons and external ordinance. The Mauler could carry a huge amount of under wing stuff. Most of the AM-1 photos we see show it with wall-to-wall bombs, rockets and torpedoes. The CM kit provides the pylons, and a rather impressive variety of torpedoes (3), Tiny Tim rockets (2) and 3 bombs. Siga kind of cheats a bit here. The box art shows at least pylons and an under wing radar pod, but they have nothing in the kit itself. Rumor has it they will release a rather extensive weapons set in the future, but I’ll bet it does not include the Mauler pylons, and this kit does not have them either. (See the review of the Siga weapons set here; it does include Mauler pylons. Ed.)
Fuselage
Here
the differences are far less noticeable. As one might expect both have
conventional left and right halves, and both have the vertical fin integral
with the fuselage. The S kit has most of the vertical as part of the
left half, while the CM is split down the middle with half on each fuselage
part. Scribing is again finer on the CM kit, and there is more of it,
but the difference is not as noticeable.
As an aside here, the Mauler really made its name as an electronic reconnaissance bird. The only noticeable difference is the door in the fuselage below and behind the cockpit. Neither kit has any provision in either markings or plastic (resin?) for this version. Again Siga is rumored to be releasing this version later.
The S kit has the engine cowlings as a part of the fuselage halves, with only the very short curved front as a separate part. It does have separate and rather thick cooling flaps. The CM kit has a more complex four part resin engine cowling assembly. Both would appear to depict that part of the Mauler quite well. Both have the fan in the front of the engine opening. The Mauler used the huge four row P & W 4360 engine and cooling was in part handled by this fan in the front. Perhaps the CM kit does this area a bit more delicately that the S kit.
That monster corn cob engine needed a hefty prop, and this is one area that both kits did well. The CM kit has no less than three. They are in a wafer of resin and will need some careful trimming but look good. Resin props are usually extremely delicate, and I suspect many models will be finished with a different prop than they started with. S provides two props, and they approach it with one common spinner and two different sets of blades.
Cockpit
Neither kit spends a lot of time here. Both are adequate for the scale and viewable area. Simple seats, stick and instrument panels and side consoles are provided by both. As an aside I suspect the CM seat has too tall a back rest section, thus appearing to be tall and skinny. If detailed cockpits are your thing, both will be disappointing. Siga does provide a rather nice set of instrument and side console decals.
Both canopies are rather disappointing. The S one is injection molded, and the CM vacu-formed. The S one is a simple, thick bubble canopy with no frames indicated, while the CM vacu-formed one is better, at least the frames are indicated, Both will require some effort to look better.
Decals
This
bird is a bit like Henry Ford’s early model T car. You can paint it any
color you want as long as it is Blue. The two prototypes did fly in natural
metal finish, but had very little in the way of markings. Both kits provide
NATC markings and the S kit also gives you both blue circled and just
red and white national insignia. Most of the pictures of the all blue
Maulers clearly show the blue circle behind the national insignia so this
is a nice touch and shows they were paying attention to the details.
CM also provides the “R” for the vertical tail and wings of VA-17A based
at Quonset Point , RI
Conclusions
The Mauler is a rather obscure bird. It is hard to imagine many modelers building even one, let alone more. So which of these two would I recommend? I would recommend either one and here is why. If you want a quick, rather simple build to quickly add an AM-1 to your post-war Navy collection, then by all means do the Siga kit. Right out of the box it will provide a pretty decent example of the Mauler, and with a bit of extra effort on the thicker trailing edges and the dive flaps it should look very nice.
On the other hand it you are a Mauler nut and want a super detailed and major effort bird, then the Czech Master kit may be the better way to go. The finer panel lines, trailing edges and extensive amount of detail parts might be right down your alley.
I used the following references to compile this review:
1. Naval Fighters No. 24 “Martin AM-1/1-Q Mauler” by Bob Kowalski Steve Günter Publications ISBN 0-942612-24-8. If you want to build an accurate Mauler, this is a “must have”.
2. “Martin Aircraft 1909-1960” John R. Breihan/Stan Piet/Roger S. Mason. Published by Narkiewicz//Thompson. ISBN 0-913322-03-2
3. Personal photos of the AM-1 on display at the Tillamook, OR air museum.
