My latest project is a boat (or 2). I am building 2 Tamiya (sort of) PBRs that will eventually go with a Masterpeice Models ATC(H) and probably a Huey and a couple smaller craft (zodiac and Vietnamese junks) in a Mobile Riverine Force diorama.

Here they are so far.


You may ask why one is white. Here's the story. I recently bought a PBR kit off of eBay. When it arrived, it was in a cardbord box, not the Tamiya box. Upon further inspection, it contained about 1 1/2+ kits (2 of the main sprue, 3 of the secondary sprue, and 3 of the figure sprue, but only one hull, cabin, and rear/middle deck section). I started thinking about it and didn't want to waste the other partial kit. I had the idea of vac-forming the missing parts for the second boat from the kit parts for the first boat. So I took out my trusty vac-former and some sheet plastic and got to work.



I ended up copying the cabin, hull, and center and rear deck sections. I then scratched the forward and rear gunwales and side plate armor on the cabin from sheet styrene. So far it looks good to me. The rest of the parts will come from the duplicate kit pieces.

Let me know what you think and I'll post more updates as I get further along.

Looks good so far, and ambitious. You going to add the flaoting dock and mine sweeper base? Good referance is riverine force from batam books.

No way...that's vacu-form parts. Heck of a great job. Sounds like a great dio which includes a Huey, I'm game...love those Hueys. I did a PBR dio some 15 years ago which I still have today.

The ATC(H) kit, how is it. I wanted one myself but I opted scratching mine using Verlindens landing craft as my base.

Looking forward to seeing progress post, keep us updated.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

Thanks Bob and Joe. I'm not sure how big it will be yet. We'll see once I start getting it all together. The ATC(H) from Masterpiece looks great. It is nicely cast and has no broken or short-shot pieces that I can see. I'll let you know how construction goes once I start it.

Hey Gino,
NICE work on the Vacform mate!

Looking forward to watching the dio grow, t'will make for a very cool scene, indeed...

Cheers,
~Gunny

Thanks Gunny, I'll keep you posted.

Nice work Gino! I am looking forward to the next update!

Looking good so far. Can't wait to follow the progress. With all of what you are talking about going in the diorama. It sounds like it is going to be pretty big. Keep up the good work, and posting your progress.
Tom

Thanks guys. No update yet, but I'll keep you posted.




I am quickly realizing this. I may just use one PBR with the ATC(H) and the other in another dio with a Vietnamese Sampan searching for contraband.

I had the same problem with my dio Gino... just too big. It too has two PBRs, but i've sawn the whole thing in half now, making two matching dios, with a quiet looking Vietnamese river scene on one half, and the warehouse, troops, vehicles and boats on the other...

I'm too looking forward to follow this build. Got a PBR somewere in the stash and would really like to get hold of the Masterpiece Model PACV to go with it.

Perhaps Jim Wechsler's build log on Track-link might be of some help to get the ATC(H) together.

Cheers,
/E

Thanks. Yup, sounds like I will end up doing something similar to yours Rickard. Erik, thanks for the link to the build log. It should be very helpful.

The work on the PBRs continues. I have almost completed construction on them. All that is left is the supports for the canvas cover and the painting and detailing begins.

Here they are so far.


I decided to put an engine in one since Tamiya makes one side engine cover removable. I looked at references of the big Detroit Diesel marine engines used in them. I found some great pics at Brownwater Enterprises in their PBR restoration section. A great resource for anyone building a PBR.

Here are the actual engines:



I made my rendition of the engine using an M113 block as a start and then added pieces from there. Here is the end result.


Along with the exhaust cross over.


I also added the exhaust outlets that Tamiya missed.


The pipes are 3/32 tubing and the bolted rings around them are Archer surface details decals.


Lastly, I added bulkheads and details to the engine compartment.


That's how they are as of now. I hope to finish the details and get some paint on them soon. Let me know what you think.

Looking good. Waiting further updates to see your progress.
Tom

Thanks Tom. Next update will probably be in a couple weeks with Easter and Spring Break coming up. I'll post when I can.

Here's an idea for one of the PBR's. When I used to work over in the Vietnam Archive I ran across some audio letters from a guy that was part of a group that sling loaded a boat under a helo and flew down to "Miami Beach" in the mornings and go skiing. He said that in the afternoon the helo would come back and pick them up.

Here's one of his recordings:
http://www.virtualarchive.vietnam.ttu.edu/starweb/virtual/vva/servlet.starweb

If they've somehow obtained a ski boat and trailer along with skis, I wouldn't think it would be unreasonable to figure someone on a PBR had a set of skis.

The same guy in some of his other letters talked about mailing claymore mines home labeled as stereo equipment. He thought about mailing home some CS grenades but couldn't think of anything to do with them. -and he had something in mind for claymores? LOL

John

Hi John. My guess is they skied behind a PBR. Coppola shows this in Apocalypse Now. It looked pretty cool and was done from what some vets have told me.

Hi Gino nice work with your two PBR's. Sweet scratchbuilding skills on the Detroit Diesel marine engine I think I might chop up my PBR and add one myself.

Jaymes.

Thanks Jaymes and good luck with yours.

Hi Gino,

you did a great job on these PBR's so far! it's still one of my favourite kits; builds into a very nice model straight ootb but there's also plenty of room for improvement. I simply love the engine you did and can hardly wait to see it in the boat with some paint on it!

keep up this brilliant work please

Mark

Gino,

One question that came up when I did some research on the PBR 31 Mk. II some years ago was if it ever had the tripod mount. I have never seen any clear pictures showing this configuration on a Mk. II. The photos I have all show a mount like this:







On the other hand I can hardly claim that I've seen photos of all Mk. II's that served in Vietnam.

I hope this isn't to late in the build process.

BTW: Have you seen this:
Task Force 116 home page gallery:
http://www.tf116.org/vgallery1.html
There's some nice color photos of HAL-3 Huey's among them as well.

Cheers,
/E (while writing this I got the shipping confirmation from Masterpiece Models. The PACV have begun its journey over the Atlantic. )

The original Mk II plans talk about a tripod, 'supported below deck on stanchions having special plastic/elastic sections to reduce the effects of underwater mine blasts on the gun...'
I can only guess the fairings seen in the photos above just cover this tripod, rather than replacing it, maybe its legs caused the aft gunner to trip and the smoother fairing prevented this?

Richard,

The "mount" on the fairing look very similar to the top part of the tri pod (from a photo of a Mk. I) so I agree with your assumption. It's probably the upper part of the usual tri pod sticking out of the fairing. Never thought of that option before but it makes sense. There has to be some sort of support structure inside the fairing to take the recoill forces from the mounted weapon.

I appreciate your input!

Still I wonder if this is standard on all MK. II's or if it was something that appeared somewhere in the middle of the production. The fairing seem "casted" to the gunwale (I hope that's the right term) so it shoulden't be something that just could easily be removed.


Cheers,
/E

Thanks for the input guys. I haven't moved along any further on these yet. So I will have to check my referances and see if I need to add the cowling.

The plot thickens. Here are a couple pics from Vietnam with the tripod and no cowling.




Hmmm??

Looks like the first is a MK 1 though. Maybe the cowling was added later.