JohnWS

Hi Jeff, In regards to bending the plastic railings, here's what worked for me. This is the break water on my BPB MTB. I cut the rough shape from plastic sheet. It had a couple of complex bends that needed to be addressed. To achieve the final bent shape, I made a balsa wood 'plug'. Then dipped the plastic in hot water until it felt pliable & carefully (to prevent it from breaking) bent it around the balsa plug & then held it in position. It took a few attempts in & out of the hot water and onto the plug to get the final shape. (the plastic kept wanting to spring back to it's original shape) Once the bending was done, I filed & sanded the break water to the finish dimensions. John

We've just had a heat wave here in the great white north. The temp + the humidity made it feel like 110 F. Our son was on the Mexican border south of San Diego a couple of weeks ago. We're blaming him for bringing that heat back home. 😓

Looking good David. Nice to see you back at the bench. I'm envious. John

Gee, I'm getting slow in my old age. I just caught up with this build. She's another beauty Rob. I'm looking forward to following along 'til completion. John

Steve, the extra effort designing & drawing the windlass was worth it. The level of detail is awesome! John

She's a beauty, Rob. John

Looking forward to watching this build progress. John

Looks great Rob. Luv the detail. John

Interesting choice in camo colour, Jon. I thought Mountbatten pink was a strange colour, but yellow ...? Looking forward to following along. John

Nice work beefy. The seascape looks great. John

Looking good Jon. Very unique. John

Nice work Jeff. The busy camo scheme & the included details bring this boat to life. John

Looks great, Jon! Another model of a unique. 'ship'. John

The build begins. First up, the hull assembly. The hull is made up of four parts - 2 sides & bottom - port & starboard, the transom, & a small part at the prow. My first impressions of the kit's moulded plastic parts - plastic quality is good, fit up is excellent, & no flash. Only one issue so far is a slight twist in the main deck. I've dry fit the deck to the hull assembly to check the fit up & determine how easy the twist could be corrected. So far, so good. Fit is good & the twist can be corrected when the deck is glued to the hull. The Elco boat hull is influenced by British Power Boat hull design. Here's a photo of where the build stands today. Next, I need the remove some of the small details on the kit's deck, before adding Eduard PE replacements. Thanks for looking. John

Welcome back beefy. Really glad you're on the road to recovery. 👍 John

Thanks Rob. She does keep me moving (a good thing at my age ). There is a little delay in starting this build as our winter snow has finally melted & it's time to do our outside Spring clean up. John

Lookin' good, Jeff. John

Thanks guys for your feedback. It's good to be back. Not surprisingly, it was my wife💕 who gave me a kick-in-the-butt to start another build. Yes Arjan, I found the same information in my references. But, I always appreciate your help & advice. John

Some of you may recall my 80' Elco PT Boat 620 - Scratch Built in 1/72 Scale completed in 2019. I’ve always been interested in attempting builds of unique boats & ships, e.g. PT 620 was one of only four 80’ Elco PT Boats that remained in service with the US Navy after WWII. When researching PT 620, I came across the group of WWII Elco PT Boats operating in the South Pacific & Mediterranean theatres having a unique ‘gun’ fitted aft where these boats usually had mounted a single 20-mm Oerlikon, or a single 40-mm Bofors gun. This unique ‘gun’ was called the Elco Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolt consisted of a rotating turret fitted with combinations of drum fed 20-mm Oerlikons & belt fed 50-mm machine guns, plus a seat for a single gunner. This increased fire power was originally designed to counter the heavilly armed German lighters used to carry troops & supplies along the Mediterranean coasts. The Thunderbolts proved to be very effective. I chose the Revell PT-160 kit for this build for two reasons. First, being a kit, she should be a little easier on the ol’ brain cells, rather than scratch building, Second, the kit includes parts for a Thunderbolt ‘gun’ consisting of two 50 cal. machine guns & four 20-mm Oerlikons, similar to that shown in the photos, below; Here's a link to a nice description of the total PT 160 kit contents, included below; Finally, here’s where I am today, I'll be using two Eduard PT 109 PE sheets to add a little more detail to PT 160. I've also purchased more detailed 50-mm machine guns, plus a 1/72 scale crew, and an acrylic display case. Thanks for looking in. John

Looking forward to following this build Jeff. John

It looks like a nice quality kit Rob. I really like the clear plastic parts. Looking forward to following along. John

Yes, it could have been. Revell, Monogram, & Airfix were my three goto brands when I started modelling. John

I built an HMS Tiger kit in the '60's, but can't remember the brand. No PE or 3D parts in those days. lol I've always liked the lines of this class of ship. Will be following along Jon. John

Nice sub! The quality of the Iron Shipwrights resin kits does leave something to be desired. I had a similar problem with my HMCS Regina build. Lots of bubbles & air holes in the resin hull. John

Very nice, Jeff! John