¹⁄35

If you like 1/35 PT Boats then here's one more to add to your collection Elcos, Vospers, Schnellboots and MAS boats. Announced for this November, a G-5 PT-Boat used during World War II by the Soviet Navy. It's been mentioned before in the forums here of how builders were hoping manufacturers like Italeri would add one to their catalog and now their wait is (almost) over.

The G-5 Soviet motor torpedo boat was built before and during World War II. Approximately 300 were built, of which 73 were lost during the war. Four were exported to the Spanish Republican Navy during the Spanish Civil War and others were transferred to North Korea after the war. Three were captured by the Finns, but only two were used before all three had to be returned to the Soviets after the Moscow Armistice in 1944.

The G-5 was a single-step, hydroplaning design with a whaleback upper hull. It was mainly built from duralumin which saved a significant amount of weight, but greatly complicated its use in service because of duralumin's susceptibility to galvanic corrosion in salt water. Two torpedoes were carried in troughs set into the rear deck in a manner derived from that used by the British WW I-era coastal motor boats captured by the Soviets during Russian Civil War. The torpedoes were shoved out the back of the trough by an pole with a bell-shaped head, but the torpedo motor was not activated until a wire trailing from the boat snapped, giving the boat time to turn away from the target.

The gun armament started with a single 7.62 mm machine gun, but this was upgraded to a 12.7 mm DShK machine gun in later models. Some later boats carried two DShKs although the mounts varied; some were placed in a tub in the forecastle, but others carried theirs in a rotating turret behind the superstructure, above the torpedoes. Some boats carried 82 mm ROFS-82 or 132 mm ROFS-132 rocket launchers in fixed mounts above and behind the wheelhouse.

A very unique design among the war's MTBs. I included an image from Wikipedia (where I got much of the above description from) that gives plan views of the craft. This kit (No MIL-63503) is listed on the Merit International site but with no details yet about what series variant this model represents, parts or price yet. We'll update this article as the information becomes available.