David R Lentz, Columbus, Ohio, USA (Saturday, 13 July, 2024; happy birthday, Mother!) Whenever someone’s display catches my full attention, it is more than just my admiration for an excellent job-which, of course, you have shared with us-it is how one has kindled in me a project, or reminded me of my encounter with that particular vehicle. This, for me, is a bit of both. I some years past had 1) Revell’s 1:425th-scale kit of the USS Pine Island (AV-12) U.S. Navy Seaplane Tender, which had within a miniature of Martin’s PBM-3/5 Mariner U.S. Navy Patrol Bomber Seaplane, and 2) Revell’s 1:118th-scale kit of Martin’s PBM-3 Mariner Seaplane. I had read/seen/heard that Hasegawa had made a 1:72nd-scale kit of the aircraft, though I had been unable to locate one for purchase. I do not know if the Academy kit is a re-boxing of the Hasegawa kit, or a new mold. That is an academic exercise for another time. Whatever the case, I now may have access to one, to my keen delight. The only way I could be happier (well, in this context, I should clarify; in all candour, a companion for life, immortality, good health, great wealth, recovering all my lost possessions, etc., would be much higher on my list) would be if Tamiya (or one of the better kit makers) had issued a 1:48th-scale kit of the PBM-3 Mariner Seaplane . . . . I intend to combine them into a dramatic forced-perspective, ocean diorama of Academy’s kit in the process of taking off, as the smaller model on your left slows to draw alongside the auxiliary ship. The vessel’s port-side crane at that moment is lowering the third Mariner into the sea. Then a Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina U.S. Navy Patrol Bomber Seaplane (the Revell 1:48th-scale kit) sets down on your right. Thank you so much for giving me a generous serving of merry enjoyment (if a bit wistful) in watching you build your kit. Onto part two!

You made a better model from a good kit - like you can do it from a bad/poor ones. That is a fine Bird - another great work by you mein Freund 🙂