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


JohnWS

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Looking like you have the colour match spot on there John  👍🏻

 

I will have to keep the mix for future builds another tip for the notebook  :book:

 

cheers beefy 

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Thanks everyone.

 

Although my goal was to find a paint colour for the torpedo body, I was surprised to see how closely the clear yellow over the brass base colour resembled polished brass.  I've never been happy with the brass coloured paints I've used on what should be polished brass parts, e.g. props, pinnacles, fittings, etc..  The clear yellow paint appears to smooth out the metallic flake look of the brass paint & gives it a glossy polished look.  Something to consider in the future.

 

John

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Torpedoes have been completed by adding fins, propellers & paint.  As mentioned in my previous posts, the torpedo bodies have been painted steel colour, covered in a black water-based wash and a clear yellow top coat to simulate a coat of Cosmoline.  The warheads are light grey primer colour.   I'm really happy with how they turned out.

 

Here's photo showing my 'Cosmoline coated' torpedoes sitting in their roll-off racks.

 

32646928738_fe1e5beeeb_b.jpg

 

And, here's a photo of the torpedoes dry fitted on the model PT Boat's deck.  I've also added a wood frame to beef up the model's display base

 

45796324604_0b283acb33_b.jpg

 

Next up will be the deck storage boxes.

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

John

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi everyone.

 

A small update.

 

Lately, I've been spending most of my time completing items around the house on the  'Honey Do' list.  But, I did manage to do a little work on the model.

 

I've made the torpedo rack detail shown in the photo below.  There a 4 of these (1 for each rack).  Since they're pretty small, it took a while to make them all the same shape.

 

Also, I want to display the Elco on the same shelf as my BPB MTB.  Even though they will be sitting on two different display stands, I wanted their deck height to be similar.  This meant cutting about 3/16" off the bottom of the Elco's oak stand, as shown below.

 

31773376227_06b9cd8e6e_b.jpg

 

Also, here's a correction to my posts about painting the torpedoes.  As much as I liked using the word Cosmoline, the actual steel torpedo bodies were rubbed down with 'Crotin Oil'.  The oil is the consistency of thin Cosmoline & is the same yellowish colour as Cosmoline.:phew:  So, my new word of the day is 'crotin'.  :rolleyes:

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

John

 

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20 hours ago, JohnWS said:

... the actual steel torpedo bodies were rubbed down with 'Crotin Oil'. ...

Another fun fact courtesy of Wikipedia;

 

"During World War II, the United States Navy added a small amount of croton oil to the neutral grain spirits which powered torpedoes. The oil was intended to prevent sailors from drinking the alcohol fuel. Sailors devised crude stills to separate the alcohol from the croton oil, as alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than croton oil."

 

I think I'll stick with rum.  :winkgrin:

 

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I've been working away scratch building the deck storage boxes and the Mark 8 smoke screen generator.

 

Here's a photo showing the boxes & the generator as built & dry fit on the deck.

 

46057482474_3b3691990c_b.jpg

 

On the foredeck, there are two very unique looking ammo lockers, & a storage locker including a ready use tray for Oerlikon gun magazines.

 

46057485254_7bc9d70cdf_b.jpg

 

There's another storage locker located midships on the starboard side.

 

A Mark 8 smoke generator is located at the stern on the starboard side.  I used the Revell kit part & modified it to better represent the actual smoke generator.  This included filling a large cavity in the bottom of the part, modifying the generator cylinder cradles, & adding details at both ends of the cylinder.

 

32906788168_20ecd75910_b.jpg

 

Next up, paint these assemblies and then start thinking about making the 37mm & 40mm guns.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

John

 

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9 hours ago, beefy66 said:

... did you bend the roof edge on the ready to use or are they separate parts glued on. :book:

 

Cheers beefy 

Each roof is one piece, cut from .25mm plastic sheet.  The edges were formed using a PE bending tool.  I placed a couple of small dabs of CA glue on the inside of the bends to hold them in place & prevent the edges from springing back out of shape.

 

John

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5 hours ago, robgizlu said:

John - your work is so precise and accurate - I aspire to this.  She's really coming along beautifully.

Inspirational!

Rob

Thanks Rob.  It means a lot coming from you, as I've been trying to emulate the quality of your builds. 

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1 hour ago, BadKarma75 said:

Hmmm think I may have to pay homage to (nick lots of ideas) this fantastic build when it’s time to get my 1/35 elco out of the stash, can’t wait for the big reveal

I've been able to do a lot of research about the Elco PT's during the build, & I've tried to make the model as accurate as possible for this scale.  Please feel free to nick as much as you want.  :pirate:  

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Just now, JohnWS said:

I've been able to do a lot of research about the Elco PT's during the build, & I've tried to make the model as accurate as possible for this scale.  Please feel free to nick as much as you want.  :pirate:  

It may be a while (years) before I get to it but I’ll endeavour to make it look half as good as yours 

Matt

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Details, details, details ...

 

The end of this build is coming into sight.  I've been working on a few details to finish off the parts in process.

 

Here's a summary.

 

1)  The Day Cabin;

When I first built the day cabin, I included what appeared to be an electrical cable that ran the length of the cabin roof.  A thank you to Arjan (a BM member) who advised me that he had been advised by a very reliable source that the cable could have actually been a rope.  It was only included on a couple of the PT boats.  The majority of the boats did not include this cable/rope, as the norm.  As a result, I removed the 'cable' from my build.

 

46858233992_aaa38d1f6b_b.jpg

 

2)  Deck Dead Lights;

You may recall, that earlier in this build I tried a couple of attempts at making the deck dead lights.  I was never happy with the way they looked.  So, I tried something different by drawing the dead lights to scale & printing them out on good quality inkjet paper.  After cutting the images out, I sprayed the printouts with dull clear lacquer to seal the ink.  Finally. I placed the images on strips of Tamiya tape, and brush painted the edges of each dead light the same colour as the deck, to blend the white (paper) edges to the deck colour.  The result looks pretty good. The thin paper dead lights will blend nicely with the deck surface, similar to the actual parts.

 

46910347241_cd3ca8f660_b.jpg

 

3)  Torpedo Roll-off Rack Trim;

The 4 trim pieces made earlier are now painted & glued in place on the torpedo racks.

 

46858243892_99a0179f27_b.jpg

 

4)  The Danforth Anchor;

Each late Elco PT boat has on anchor stored on the foredeck.  It appears the majority, if not all, of the boats carried a Danforth anchor.  I scratch built an anchor from wood, plastic rod, plastic sheet, & copper wire.

 

46185537654_a0863135d3_b.jpg

 

5)  Oerlikon Gun Magazine Tray;

I finished off the ammo magazine tray to include two covered magazines and one empty mounting plate.  The covered magazines were made from plastic sprue cut to simulate the magazine size & shape.  The covers were made from wet toilet tissue formed over each shaped part & allowed to dry.  The mounting plate was made from plastic sheet.

 

39945622483_1428119860_b.jpg

 

6)  Oerlikon Gun & Mount;

The single Oerikon gun was glued to its tripod mount & a spent cartridge bag was added under the gun.  The bag was formed from wet toilet tissue & was allowed to dry before glueing to the gun. 

 

33035135888_d301b2f216_b.jpg

 

And finally, a photo showing one of the 3D printed crew members at the Oerlikon gun for reference.

 

33035140678_6262a1e726_b.jpg

 

Next up, I'll be attempting to make the 40mm Bofors gun & the 37mm Oldsmobile cannon.  These should be the last major assemblies to be built before completing the model by glueing all of the many parts & subassemblies to the deck.  :yikes: 🤞

 

As always, thanks for looking in.

 

John

 

 

 

 

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