¹⁄35

Building the Italeri Elco PT Boat 1:35 Scale

Now another hint I picked up was not to install the acetate windows other wise you will have a fiddly job masking as the deck will be painted as soon as the toe rails are on. I will come to that point later.




There has been a lot of discussion as to the color scheme and whether it is correct as shown on the box art or the very informative booklet supplied with the model but I decided to steer clear of that controversy and stuck with color scheme in pages 44 - 46 of the Reference Manual supplied.




I used Tamiya Paints as I have them and they spray very well. Also I don’t have a decent Hobby Shop within 200kls. I got an excellent match to the color drawings by mixing RLM Grey XF22 80% and 20% Deep Green XF26. Building this large plastic model gives the modeler the opportunity to experiment with various painting techniques. I was glad to be able to use my airbrush as well as the reliable brush.
The deck and hull were given 3 coats each and left to harden .I feel this is important as it is mentioned often by other modelers who maintain that some model paints are slow to cure. I sometimes employ the hair dryer to help when in a hurry. Whilst this was happening I dry fitted the helmsman station and controls panel together to ensure all fitted well as it did, then proceeded to assemble but without the control station. This needs to be painted first and the transfers and controls fitted. Taking them off the sprue I painted the steering wheel silver as well as the throttles and the photo-etch surround. These will be installed after the console is painted.
Whilst at it I painted the foot grating Desert Yellow XF 59 to look like timber and will do the seats the same. Finally returning to the now dry deck I brushed the underside of the deck skylights with white PVA glue as it will dry to a hard but clear finish giving the impression of toughened glass. The kit does supply cut out plastic but these could be a problem with painting the deck and masking. On checking the next day the glue had dried clear and looked good. The three deck houses were painted the same color as the deck and hull and will not be joined until the hull is sprayed and the camouflage complete.