The present work investigates composition characteristics of martensitic precipita- tion hardening stainless steels using a cluster-plus-glue-atom model. In this kind of steels based on the basic ternary Fe-Ni-Cr, the lowest solubility limit of high-temperature austenite corresponds to the cluster formula (NiFe12)Cr3, where NiFe12 is a cuboctahedron centered by Ni and surrounded by 12 Fe atoms in fcc structure and Cr serves as glue atoms. New multi-component alloys were designed by adding C, Mo, Nb and Cu into the basic (NiFe12)Cr3 with self-magnification of cluster formula and similar element substitution. These alloys were prepared by copper mould suction casting method, then solid-solution treated at 1323 K for 2 h followed by water-quenching, and finally aged 753 K for 4 h. The experimental results show that the microstructures and properties of the serial solid-solution treated and aged alloys vary with alloying elements and their contents. Among them,