wonderful news Garth, I can't wait for the early boast to come out and I hope they do a Higgins fairly soon.
Later

However, I need to question source (AT CLOSE QUARTERS) here because of the numbering of the boats in RONs 38 and 39 - they have RON 38 with boats 565-576 and RON 39 with boats 575-588.

Does anyone see an overlap here?

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However, I need to question source (AT CLOSE QUARTERS) here because of the numbering of the boats in RONs 38 and 39 - they have RON 38 with boats 565-576 and RON 39 with boats 575-588.

Does anyone see an overlap here?

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The transfer of boats among squadrons was common. Almost all of the 77' boats and over 50 of the 80' boats were assigned to at least two squadrons during their service lives. 109, for instance, was assigned to RON5 and later transferred to RON2. 188 served in RON12, 6, and 8. 575 and 576 were transferred from RON38 to RON39 just prior to RON38's decommissioning. Detailed lists of boat assignments are contained in At Close Quarters.

Al Ross

David - do you know whats plans Italeri used on their 35th kit?

Thanks to Garth for providing the sprue shots and to Model Shipwrights for making them available to us. When Merit published this in their catalog as PT-596 and their later release to be PT-109, I think we were all thinking the same thing. Did they just copy the Italeri offering? I can tell you that I reached out to my friends at Italeri and they had no idea that Merit was going to release the same kits that they produced already in 1/35 scale. Now we've come to learn that the kits are generic in numbering which I personally think is a good idea. I have no idea if anything happened between Italeri and Merit behind the scenes so don't speculate on what I just stated. While I don't know for sure I'm assuming this is engineered and produced for Merit by the good people at Trumpeter. For the record I'm a big fan of Trumpeter.

The first thing I of course wanted to know was if this was a copy of the Italeri kit. I pulled out my PT-596 kit (which I had no involvement in by the way) and started comparing the parts. I'm not a kit designer or manufacturer so I'm not sure how many ways there are to engineer these kits. But reviewing the individual parts it was clear to me that they had an Italeri kit as many of the parts are exactly the same. Items like the radar mast, smoke bottle, gun mount pads, life raft are exactly the same and have the same mistakes. That said it is clear that they made some changes to make it their own. For example the Chart House is one piece instead of built up by several pieces as done in the Italeri kit. As mentioned the gun tubs are separate pieces. What I can't tell is if they made the same mistakes that Italeri did on the torpedoes (which were later corrected in their updates parts release).

I was disappointed that there was no deck or hull. I'm very curious if the hull shape was corrected as well as what they did with the deck design. My expectation of the 103 class release is that it will also be a redo of the Italeri kit. Hopefully Merit will provide a full kit to the usual people for a kit review by modelers.

I would expect this kit builds into a respectable late war Elco PT Boat. Consult your references because every one of them is a little different, especially after they are in theatre. I'm also certain this kit will have issues. Every kit has issues and opportunities for improvement.

I'm looking forward to seeing what people do with this kit and what the after market options might be. What I would like to see from either Italeri or Merit is an Atlantic/Med version of this boat. I would also like to see a 77' Elco and Higgins PT Boat offering in their respective scales.

Dave

Merit kits aren't simply the Italeri kit scaled down.

Merit kits are designed and molded by the same team/company that does the Trumpeter, Hobby Boss, and Gallery Models products, Wasan Plastics.

Now everyone relax and go build a PT Boat.
Cheers, Dave

That said, ...

I think ship modelers will enjoy building this kit... Not only because of its more manageable size and its level of detail ...

I should point out that in his post above, Mr. Ross has stated that the antenna trunk on the real PT-588 was rectangular, however, I recently saw a photograph posted on FSM of the port side of the cockpit, dayroom area of the real 588 and the photo clearly shows the antenna trunk being rounded.

Guys, this kit is really good and, in my own opinion, is better than the 1:35 monster from Italeri.

Garth

Merit kits are designed and molded by the same team/company that does the Trumpeter,...

See here:

http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/120558802.jpg

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That said, ...

I think ship modelers will enjoy building this kit... Not only because of its more manageable size and its level of detail ...

I should point out that in his post above, Mr. Ross has stated that the antenna trunk on the real PT-588 was rectangular, however, I recently saw a photograph posted on FSM of the port side of the cockpit, dayroom area of the real 588 and the photo clearly shows the antenna trunk being rounded.

Guys, this kit is really good and, in my own opinion, is better than the 1:35 monster from Italeri.

Garth

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Guys, this kit is really good and, in my own opinion, is better than the 1:35 monster from Italeri.

Garth

Boys boys boys give peace a chance!

Garth you should probably change your review since a few other people have said that it is pretty obvious that the Italeri kit was the main reference Merit used and there are still a lot of people that wouldn't touch a blatant ripoff like the Merit kit just on principal. Sadly the flat top hull was a deal breaker for me. I would just make it look worse trying to fix it and it really impacts the look of the boat as can be seen in the Italeri kit when not fixed.