Greetings all,

Excellent stuff, thanks for sharing and happy building.

Al

Nice boat Sean.... love the plastic details.... wish my Revell PT boat was as nice!
No progress to report here, busy with RL (real life) and finishing AB some other non-ship kits before I close down my spray booth for the winter (it is in an unheated garage). Will post pics as soon as I have something besides a primed hull/deck to show!
Cheers...

Thanks for the kind words James.

Its not a bad kit for circa 1975.

I have completed some more final touches to her and I will post a picture of her completely mocked up immediately prior to paint.

Cheer


Sean

Ok, I finally have some progress to show... first ship in 25+ years, came back to the hobby last year
This is the 1:72 Revell PT boat, done OOB for now.

Hull/deck primed.. fit was horrible, I had to line up as best I could and Dremel-sand the portruding lip. I putty/sanded the joint, still have some coarseness, so I prepped the joint for more putty/priming.



Some parts glued to structure, the portholes/windows are covered, some pictures are shown 'shut", with added steel plate in place, but others have it "opened" with glass...
Should I leave as is, or open the plastic and put a "window" in place?




While sanding the joint, I was not careful and got the hull scratched... need to use some liquid primer to fix the scratch:



A better view? (sorry, having problems posting pics...)



The propellers, so much flash, I felt I was "sculpting plastic", getting the prop from the sprue, should have taken a before/after pic (this is after):



Should I look for a brass rod for the prop shaft? instead of the plastic one?

Another piece that I spent an hour chiseling the flash away, the mufflers (see all the flash around it?):


I will try and drill a hole on the exhaust, see if it look better that way...

Any comments or suggestions welcome, also about the posted pics, seem large to me? Thanks, james

Ahoy James,
Glad to see you have some progress pics up, mate!
The new format here allows us to display images in the size that you see here, my friend, so don't worry, you're doing fine with image posting...it's entirely up to you, mate, but since this is your first build in a while, I would stick to an OOB (out of the box) build as much as possible, just to get your feet wet again (sorry, bad pun! ), and avoid any parts replacement unless you absolutely deem it necessary....

The hull scratch?...doesn't look too bad from the image, mate, I personally use Tamiya 1200 grit sandpaper to polish out little SNAFU's such as this that almost inevitably happen in every build, you may want to give it a go...the grit is so fine that it will actually smooth the plastic to a mirror finish.

Thanks for the update, James, keep your rudder steady, and keep modeling!
~Gunny

Gunny, thanks for the good feedback!

I sanded the scratches with tamiya p1000 abrasive, 'feels" very smooth. I brushed a bit of tamiya liquid primer on a big scratch and some of the sanded hull/deck area, as an experiment, will sand in a couple days:


I just have to decide whether to prime again to look for flaws...

Other construction:



- painted the propeller and shaft
- dry fit/sanded the bridge sub assembly. Need to paint the instrument panel before assembly
- putty/sanded nasty sink holes in the propellet shaft struts
- assembly of most of the engine hatch subassembly & smoke generator
- assembly of stand
-sanded off the raised "oars" molded on the life raft, will scratchbuild oars, figure it is an easy enough "scratchbuild" to start

Thanks again, GO GIANTS!

Ahoy James

Great work thus far - well done mate.


Cheers


Sean

Sean - Thanks for looking Cheers

No update pics, "lost" the digital camera to my eldest daughter again, but nothing new except more putty/dry fitting. Discovered that many of the sink holes and flaws I filled with Squadron white tend, the putty shrinks and you are left with an indentation. I have been "topping off" such areas with Tamiya liquid primer, and waiting 2 days after I apply the putty before I do anything else. This kit is for sure making me re-learn/practice my fitting and sanding skills!

Oh, one quick pet peeve... I mean, I love the new kits vis-a-vis the older stuff..but.. when did the NAMES of the parts start to get omitted in the instructions?? Old Revell kits have tads of info and the names of the parts.. all the new gorgeous Dragon/Tamiya kits have letter-number combos, a shame

Will post again more pics in a few days once I have some assembly done, cheers! James

Ahoy Shipmates

No problem James.

As regards sanding and filling try a Airfix E-Boat circa 1975 LOL

On a more serious note here is my latest update.

I planned to do this as waterline model only.

However I "borrowed" this idea from a fellow modeller. In simple terms I built the lower hull, put some sprue in the holes in the lower hull and drilled corresponding holes in the upper hull. I can now vary the look.

Full hull or waterline the choice will be mine.

Here are some pictures.













Cheers



Sean

Sean, neat technique! I bookmarked it for future reference, look forward to the rest of the build, cheers! James

At last it's Finished.
I've completed the diorama for my PT174 Zebra scheme.
have been trying to upload some pic's but the site keeps saying error contact the site administrator . So I'll add some later.
I have some on the same site that all the others are. this time under finnished diorama.
the link is.
http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1960583
Hope you enjoy.

Shaun, that is incredible work! Cheers mate... the boat was a great build, but the dio is even better, very coherent and active "story" being told... thanks for sharing! Will bookmark for sure, maybe in 20 years I can build something like that James

Ahoy Shipmates

A further update on recent work on the hull with various fixtures large and small glued in place:.













Cheers


Sean

Hi Gunny,
I just bought a Revell 1/72 PT boat and plan on building as PT 169. Can I join the group?

By all means, Ed, welcome aboard!
Just make sure that you visit the campaign homepage by following the link below and enlist, my friend...looking forward to seeing your build progress!

Military Small Craft

Ah yes, Mr. Ford, progress is sweet, isn't it?
Gonna be ready for first paint very soon, eh?

Thanks Gunny. I've enlisted and am expecting bits and pieces to dribble in over the next few weeks.

Sean, looking good so far, wish mine had such clean lines!
Ed, welcome to the build

As for me, finally primed some parts/subassemblies, found out half the flaws I "fixed" are still there Will take pics once I pry the Dig Cam off my lovely daughters' paws..cheers!

GO BIG BLUE NY GIANTS!

This is the subject of my next build. PT 169 in Jan '44. This boat was with the 109 the night 109 was rammed and sunk. 169 fired a couple of torpedoes at the destroyer but they may have been too close to arm.

Thanks Mark.

She is indeed very close to being painted in my opinion.

Here is the final pre paint mockup.















Cheers


Sean

Thanks for the pre-paint perspective, Sean...looks like you're ready to me!

The sanding to get rid of the deck planking begins:

Sean - Looks good, very nice detail on the kit... look forward to the paint!

Ed - I will save your pics for sure... I have another PT109 in my stash I want to build some time in the future once I get my skills up from their current cellar dwelling... thanks for posting!

The deck sanding is pretty much done. All the deck planking is gone, only very early PT Boats had planked decks. The cleats, chocks, rails, hatches and other details to be replaced are gone as well. I've rescribed the joint line for the deck perimeter boards.


I've started an album of the build. This link should be good for the rest of the build. The album has higher resolution photos.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1962918

I added new photos to the album. In these photos I lowered the bottoms of the 6 day cabin windows ans filled the gap above them. The kit's windows are too small and in the wrong location. I added the window at the rear of the day cabin. On the deck in front of the day cabin I added the escape hatch. On the roof of the day cabin I removed all the detail and the "window shades". The particular boat I'm modeling did not have the shields or windscreen for the engine room hatch so I filled it in. I also replaced the ledges on the sides of the roof to get a crisper line and added the small overhang at the front and rear. Inside the day cabin I added backing plates behind the windows to be supports for the film windows to be added later.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1962918