Here are the beginning stages of my "PBR Streetgang" dio. Apocalypse Now is probably one of my most favorite movies of all time, so I wanted to do something that reflected that movie. I've got the PBR made, using a Tamiya 1/35th scaled model. I didn't want to show some of the stuff the one in the movie had, so some was based on historical licensing. I think I got the overall look though. They screwed up on the scenes in the movie anyway, especially with the tires on the side of the boat. Most scenes are shown without them, but at least one scene shows it. Unless you watch the movie really close you don't notice some of the smaller detail, then there are some that you might notice on the model. The figures were painted to look like The Chief, Lance, Mr. Clean, and Chef. I'm still missing a Capt. Willard though. I’ll get him when I get the VC for the dio. I loved the part in Redux (don't think it's on the original) where they steal Lt. Col. Killgore's surfboard. So I made it on my computer and printed it up on photo paper. I glued the pieces together and stuck it in the back. I still got the pattern if anyone is interested. There are some missing details from the Tamiya model, like the fuel lines on the engine. There are some more things wrong, but since I'm a novice I was afraid on screwing this up trying to fix them. As Ed Wood would say, "it's about the big picture!" I got an overall idea for the diorama in that I'm going to do. I think I’m going to show it speeding away from an ambush. It's going to be throwing up water on its left side (not sure of nautical terms that well) as it's going to the right. There are going to be some VC in the bushes on land and on a rock outcropping (represented by the black figures). Some will be dead (red figures) and one will be dead, floating in the water. The circles with the T in them are where I plan to have different trees. I also thought about having a small destroyed bridge hanging down from the rock outcropping, but I didn’t show that in the diagram. It’s going to be rather big, but I’ve done larger dios before in 1:18th scale. Anyway, here are the pics. Please feel free to give any suggestions, or advice. Also, could those muzzle brake things be cut off of the 50 cal. MGs without making the barrel look too short? I've seen a lot of pictures of the guns on PBR's an most of them don't have them, including the Appoc. Now one.

http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/bracomadarcreations/lst?&.dir=/Vehicles/PBR&.src=gr&.view=t&.url=http%3a//us.f1.yahoofs.com/groups/g_6160377/Vehicles/PBR/pbr14---1.jpg%3fbcSiFhtBnIabJMLg&.cx=150&.cy=75&.type=u

Clicking on your link prompts me to sign in to Yahoo, which I am not incline to do. Can you post your pics on a more public forum or change your prefs to allow public viewing?

Thanx

Very impressive like the detail cant wait to see the complete project.

I hate to ask this but where did those fuel lines go????? the only visible part of the inboard/outbord engines is the nozzles for for the water jet (btw they were made by jacuzzi). Now the twin deisels were shafted into the pumps (intakes are on the bottom) and then said water was then forced out the ejection ports at the rear of the boat!!!! Theses are what made the PBR so great at its job, it could operate in the shallows that the monitors and the others could not. So I have to say aside from a few rivets in some armour plating, the tamiya kit is nicly done and is one of Tamiya's first accurate kits.. stug

Clicking on your link prompts me to sign in to Yahoo, which I am not incline to do. Can you post your pics on a more public forum or change your prefs to allow public viewing?

Same here will make more people happy I think.
CHEERS
try out http://groups.msn.com/armorama it does not show always the pictures but you can links us to it also i don't know how but it seams that it work by other peoples

Sorry about posting on Yahoo. I didn't know you guys were against posting there. I can't update my website (far as pages go) since Front Page is screwed up on my computer, but I can post pics and links for you later today. Let me get back to you on that. As for the fuel lines (I though that's what they were) you can see them in this picture

I'm actually thinking now they're some kind of line to help lift the valves on the back. I'd like to add those tan looking braces on the back, but I'd need more detailed pics. I got all my reference pictures off of this site.
http://hawley.hispeed.com/vietnam/vietnam.htm#index
It's a great reference site for anyone doing Brownwater Navy stuff.

Here's link to each pic. Like I said, I can't put them on one page since I can't create HTML documents right now.
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr1.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr2.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr3.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr4.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr5.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr6.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr7.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr8.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr9.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr10.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr11.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr12.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr13.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr14.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbr15.JPG
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbrdio.JPG
That last one is my idea for the diorama.

Hey, Bracomadar the last is showing file not found I tried it severl times.
PS, Isent you a private message.

That's strange. Try this and see if it works now
http://bracomadar.0catch.com/pbrdio.jpg

Its there now . Thats a great lay out what vc figures are you going to use. Oh, I was wondering if the pics of the villiage hut are a kit or scratch built.

I haven't decided yet on the figures, probably a mix of different ones. As for the buildings, they're all scratch built and in 1:18th scale, some are 1:32nd though, but 95% are 1:18th scaled.

would you mind if I asked what material you used for scratch building the huts Im doing a Nam dio and I have scratch built a hut with broom straw in place of bamboo this takes for ever to build just wondering if there is a easier way. Would greatly appreciate your input.

Those would be the offending hydrolic lines there!!! the ones to move the nozzles!!! sorry!! Stug

The huts were rather simple to make. They are made from foam board and are covered with wax for a stucco, or adobe look and even the roof is made from paraffin wax. Don't know if I've got it shown, or not, but I got another one I did that has some textured shelf lining stuff. It looks just like woven walls from straw. Actually if you go to someplace that sells fabric, look for some fake fur fabric. It works great for thatched/grass roofs, better than the wax. But the paraffin wax works great for stucco and even mud on the sides of vehicles. It's cheap too. Look for boxes of "Gulf Wax", that's the brand I use. All you do is take the blocks of wax out of the box, chop them up into smaller pieces and double boil it. I use regular cooking pot to boil water in and then an old coffee can to put the wax in. Bring the water just to a boil, but don’t boil the wax. You may see some bubbles come up in the wax, but that’s okay. Let the wax melt all the way down and then take it out and put it next to your project. Lay a trash bag down on your work area so you can clean it up easily. I work on the kitchen counter, so I wet the area first, then lay it down, creating a suction so it won’t move. I then take a brush (not your favorite brush since this will be ruined for anything else but working with wax after this) and then just paint it on like paint. Straight lines make it look like grass, or thatch and blotting it makes it look like mud, or stucco. I’ve even used it to make Zimmerit on a 1:18th scaled Tiger Tank. Just mask off any areas you don’t want it to be with masking tape and then carefully peal later. You can score it with any sharp object after it hardens. It’s kind of brittle, and you can’t store them in a real hot place, but it works rather well I think. Acrylic paint does peal off of it rather easily though, so you should prime it first before painting. I've been thinking on writing some features for here, this being one. When you work in 1:18th scale you have to improvise a lot and you find a lot of new techniques on your own.

Thanks alot youre method sounds very promising that would be a great idea to write articles on youre work we would appreciate that .Scatch building saves money that could be used somewere else.