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1/72 USN 80' Elco PT Boat with some mods


JohnWS

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Moving ahead ... slowly.

 

I've added some hull details to the bow, including attaching the foot rails to the deck, & adding a copper wire towing eye plus a reinforcement plate cut from plastic sheet.

 

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A mooring eye (plastic tube) & metal wear plate (wine bottle foil) added to the tip of the bow.

 

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A few vents & discharge outlets, cut from plastic sheet & stretched plastic sprue, were glued to both sides of the hull.

 

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I'm using the Revell kit propeller shaft struts.  These were molded with a gap on one side, plus they had relatively large injection molding marks.  A little putty & sanding made them ship shape before gluing them to the hull.

 

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Next, I've put on a light coat of rattle can grey primer.  (I'm not a fan of the kit's dark green plastic :fraidnot:, so it's nice to see some of it gone.)

 

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I added the primer to hi-lite any gaps & rough spots.  Unfortunately, I found a few :(.  So, next up I'll be puttying & sanding to clean up the hull.

 

Thanks for checking in.

 

Merry Christmas & Season's Greetings everyone, and lets hope for a prosperous & trouble-free 2018.

 

John

 

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Thanks guys for the feedback.

 

I've filled the gaps, mostly between the hull & new deck.  Time for another coat of primer.

 

I'm undecided right now whether to add the final paint to the hull, or continue building the deck superstructure & fittings.  

 

If I go the painting route, I've got to decide if it'll be the green camo scheme that was usually applied when the Pacific boats were in service, or with the solid grey colour applied at the factory.

 

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The green camo looks sharp, and most models of these boats have it.  The grey is easiest, and would make the model look a little different than most.

 

Decisions, decisions.:think:

 

What do you think?

 

 

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Thanks Kev.  That's two votes for grey ... you & my wife.

 

My wife is the interior decorator in our house.  She said a grey PT boat would match my other models & fit the colour scheme in my man cave. :)

 

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Here's a photo of my Elco hull with it's final coat of primer.  You can really see its British Power Boat heritage.

 

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1 hour ago, longshanks said:

... Didn't they operate a squadron of 80's in the Med, would they be grey? :unsure: ...

I think so.  A number of the 80' Elco's were shipped to the UK to take part in the D-Day invasion.  They were grey, as well.  The father of a friend in the US served in the Elco's in WWII, and was on one of those Elco's in the Channel.

 

Edited by JohnWS
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I did a little research about the 'grey' 80' Elco's.

 

Apparently there were three USN MTB squadrons, one (12 boats) assigned to the Mediterranean, and two (24 boats) assigned to the English Channel.

- MTB RON 29: Elco 80' PT's 552-563 assigned to the Mediterranean under British Coastal Forces - decommissioned in 1944.
- MTB RON 34: Elco 80' PT's 498-509 assigned to the English Channel - decommissioned in 1945.
- MTB RON 35: Elco 80' PT's 510-521 assigned to the English Channel - decommissioned in 1945.
Edited by JohnWS
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My 2 cents tell me to shut up if this sounds daft but

 

did Kennedy have a grey Elco 109 remember seeing photos of it being shipped over on the deck of a transport ship or was that me being very imaginative again  :think:

 

beefy

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1 hour ago, beefy66 said:

109

 

Can some one tell me what the fuss is about ....

 

A guy driving a boat capable of doing 40 knots is run down by a destroyer because he's stopped

Looses several of his crew and is made out to be some sort of hero.

 

Confused :confused:

 

Kev

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2 minutes ago, longshanks said:

Can some one tell me what the fuss is about ....

 

No fuss mate I was just referring to the colour I thought it was painted in I said nowt about Hero's     :D

 

beefy

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7 minutes ago, longshanks said:

Sorry Keith, I apologise if you thought I was having a pop at you :banghead:

 

Every time I see 109 .....

 

I guess I'm just a grumpy old :clif:

 

back to luggers :tapedshut:

 

Kev

 

No worry's Kev I thought you had just been at the Christmas Sherry a bit early   :drink:

 

Best Wishes  Keith 

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6 hours ago, longshanks said:

... Your dear Lady  obviously has impeccable taste ...

Not too sure about that.  She's kept me around for a very long time.  :rofl:

2 hours ago, beefy66 said:

... did Kennedy have a grey Elco 109 remember seeing photos of it being shipped over on the deck of a transport ship ...

No imagining.  There's a couple of photos on the 'net showing PT-109 being stowed on board the liberty ship SS Joseph Stanton.  

 

7 hours ago, longshanks said:

Grey it is then :shrug: ...

Reading about the Mediterranean boats piqued my interest.  Only 12 80' Elco's in the Mediterranean, & some had custom features that made them unique, e.g. aft pair of torpedos were relocated nearer the stern, some boats had the thunderbolt gun (4 Oerlikons & 2 machine guns mounted together), etc.  I like the idea of a unique build, so we'll see where this takes me. 

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I don't think I'll be adding the Thunderbolt, but thanks anyway Kev.

 

As far as weapons are concerned, when I started this build I wanted to go with a late model PT boat having a 40mm Bofors, 37mm canon, plus the typical PT boat armament - Oerlikon, machine guns & roll-off torpedos.  Right now, it looks like grey is my colour of choice, but I still want to include all the weapons.  That's limiting my choice of boats.  Most of the boats serving in the Channel & Mediterranean did not have the full suite of weapons.  One possibility is PT 545 (link to photo of PT 545 in the Welland Canal).  PT 545 was assigned to MTB training squadron PTRon 4.  It was grey overall & fully armed.   The selection process continues ...:think:

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Fantastic work, John! Always been fascinated by the ELCO 80’ boats - an interest piqued by seeing a Revell 1/72 kit built by a primary school mate.

 

Regarding 109: I guess we have JFK to thank for the Revell kit: were he not skipper of 109, and later President, it’s less likely that Revell would’ve produced the kit...

 

In the photo you linked to, PT487 also looks like a candidate...

 

Please keep up the excellent work!

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Looking good, I think a grey option would be good (if I was choosing).

 

By the way, the work space looks really smart; great framed pictures on the walls, and all the F-14s look superb :smile:

Edited by Rob 1
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