Hi Gordon,

here are the pictures I meant



as for the barges... well seems like building one is the only cure (not that it's a bad medicine..)

and Dus, here's one with a M132 in the front


I thought I had another one but I can't find it right now, if I do, I'll post it in this thread.

love this thread!!

best regards
mark

Hi Mark

Excellent pic mate.
Thanks.

Dus

Hi Gordon!

Yes I am changing and improving my laboral conditions. Last year I was working in the Spanish embassy in New Delhi and this year I am with an Spanish private company. We are opening office in Beijing.

Being an expatriate means better jobs, more responsability and more money. Unfortunately the company in which I am working seems to prefer to have me back to Spain by Christmas. I will try to stay here for more time but if I cannot with this company I will have to change.

Hope to see your models soon,
Angel

Brown Water Navy files,
The Arty barges are a great idea for a dio. I'm not a naval
fan or a boat builder, but the riverine and brown water navy vessels have always been on my TO DO list. For those interested in the PACV, this publication had a full build article w/ tons of pics.

Howdy fellas,

to Mark: Thx for those additional zippo pics. They are very useful ....and conjure up more questions as is usual.
This unique {to me} zippo configuration in the body of an LCM or 'Tango' boat hull is quite intriguing. It appears that they have built essentially an armoured box at the bow of the LCM to house the twin flame turrets. I have looked long and hard at this photograph blown up with GIMP and infortunately cannot make out any side detail of the construction.
The angled vertical armour 'wall' directly behind the turrets at first appears to be some type of splashguard, but why? Not only would it be almost ineffective on the inland waterways of the Mekong Delta, but it is almost certainly facing the wrong way is it not?....so, is it an armoured crew defensive shield?....again, if so, isn't it angled the wrong way as well? And potentially too short for protected fire over the turrets directly in front of it?
Also interesting is what appears to be a large, fenced, box-like skeleton built on the main deck just behind the turret enclosure.....I thought it might actually be something on the boat moored next door to it, but no, the shadow line of the 'box' falls on the deck of the boat in question.

Further review of your second photo shows a G.I. issue cot placed within the confines of that vertical, angled armoured 'wall' behind the turrets!?!.....is this possibly some type of experimental torture chamber for captured VC prisoners to lay on while the boat under enemy fire? ;-)
Also, the second pic reveals that the armoured box that houses the twin turrets is constructed of individual armoured panels instead of large sheet steel. Also, there is evidence of a unique kind of stand-off arrangement welded to the bow of the boat and attached to the top of the turret 'box'.....

Mark: I know you have already been most generous with your wondeful photographs, but if you have any more photos like these I am sure our slowly growing audience of BWN aficionado's would greatly appreciate seeing them

to 'Angel: Howdy Mi Amigo! Como estas?
It is soooooo good to see all of these interested and supportive members showing up on this thread. And mi compadre' anmoga is a past friend who, on his own accord, supplied me with EXCELLENT material on the PACV and it's scratchbuilding potential.......in fact, when I first saw the book that our good RotorHead67 is pointing out I immediately thought of 'Angel and made the obvious comparisions between the info he sent me and the article in the magazine.

'Angel, after hearing of your extensive travel I can only assume that by now you must be quite the linguist!....heck, you must be fluent in Indian, Pakistani, Spanish, and now Chinese!?!?.......man, how do you keep all those languages all straight in your head?

to Rotorhead67: Many thx for stopping by and enjoying this thread
I know that it's not your typical german steel/Sherman/armour build, but hopefully it carries with it some type of entertainment for the viewers

Also, I am glad you posted the pic of the cover of that tech mag on the PACV scratchbuild. I thumbed thru it on the newstand over at Colpars in Colorado and really wanted to buy it, but then looked at the price tag and unfortunately had to place it back on the rack........looked like a pretty good build-up. It differed somewhat from the article I got from 'Angel and definitely generated a strong 'arched eyebrow' reaction.....

to sahariana: Mighty glad you are stopping by this thread, and even gladder {is there such a word? } that you took the time to actually post your opinion and your kind word of "Thanks"......I've said many times in the past that one of the things I'm surprised this site STILL does not have is a ' how many views' listing.

Thx for stoppin' by lads...

Tread.

For those that may be interested........... I had the Plans for the PACV scanned (it's still 1/35 scale) (It's a 450k TIF file)

As usual matt, you are most helpful indeed. Curious, are the plans you speak of taken from the PACV article from that magazine that RotorHead67 just posted the cover pic of?

Tread.

That I Do not know. Mother had the drawing and was Gonna give it to me..... I Had it scanned at work (It's a Folded C or D) Size Print.

I sent him back the original. The Tif File is the same Size as the original.
(the Joys of having acess to a Scanner capable of 60" wide by Unlimited Length)

They are the same plans. They appeared in an Spanish book sold by facsimiles which latter was reprinted as a single book. That book was latter reprinted in english (being the one whose cover was showed before). The plans that Mother has are the ones I sent him.

I still need to clean my external 200 Gigs hard drive (I already have like half organized). As soon as I find the photos of the inside of the PACV I will post them. The interior of the article I have are wrong (they guy who did the scratch sort of invented it (I met that guy in Madrid)).

Today I will sign my apartment rent contract and will move in tomorrow. I think by next week I will be able to continue organizing my external hard drive and hopefully I will find the photos soon.

Have a nice day,
Angel

Gordon:
hey my friend long time no chat. thanx for the thanx. Naval head I am not, but this thread and build idea has appealed to me for quite some time, but my referance available at the time nixed the idea.
Incidently..... the PACV is nothing new in kit form. I witnessed a complete resin kit for sale @ an IPMS regional in Hewport News in 88' or 89', cant remember exact yr. But the price tag , inevetably made the kit return to the vendors table. I can honestly say that I have never seen this kit built, or anything like it, until the article appeared in the Applied Modeling book I posted the pic of. I enjoyed the article, and the urge to do the scratch build on my own was far above the urge to purchase the resin kit i had seen yrs prior. KUDOS to all, keep up the brain stormin

Hi all,
It’s been a while but since this is such an interesting thread I decided to revive it one again .
Here’s another howitzer barge configuration:


And another pic of the early flamethrower with the M132 in front:


Hope you like them.

Btw great campaign this riverine small craft and some very nice ideas!! I’m really looking forward to the first in progress shots already! (I’m not sure if I’ll take part in it myself, I’m very short on time lately but when I see a little change…)

Kind regards
Mark

Mark,

Any Idea what that Barge is??? They seem to have been used quite a bit.

Hi Matt,
I'm sorry I've never researched this particular type of barge but could this be the Ammi barge/pontoon?? They often speak of ammi as a barge-type used often in Vietnam and I think the ammi's are not the same as the P-series pontoons, so maybe this is an Ammi???

Mark

I suspect you're right.... I haven't been able to find much info on them....Keep digging I guess....

Are they 105's on the barge?

Great pics Mark.

Dus

With those muzzle brakes, they look like 105mm M102 howitzers.

Though I could be wrong...

Paul

Yes, those are M102 105mm howitzers firing off the barge.

Thanks Paul & Gino!
Dus

Mark,

I've emailed the US Navy Historical something or other Looking for more Info on them. The Gentleman that Handles that "Era" is off on a Buisness trip untill late nex week. Fingers Crossed!!!!

Matt,

Are the PACV plans something that you could post or email or something that you cannot share due to copyrights?

I've been compiling PACV photos and informations for years. I'm a Braille scale modeller, but use 1/35 for reference on occasion. I could easily scale the plans down. I was going to make up my own, but can't find the time with all my other projects. I just figured that someone would wind up making onw by the time I got serious about doing it myself. So far, 10 year later no luck.

As a funny aside, I did buy all the GHQ Riverine wargaming pieces. I even had the PACV and painted mine with the sharks mouth. It turned out pretty well for 1/285 scale. Kinda makes 1/72 scale seem superdetailed!

Hi Guys,

Check out my gallery under member DaveF. You'll see some works in progress - and some finished projects. All in 1/35th. Make sure you view the user gallery - 24 pics in all.

Well, Here's the reply......................

"I have also found that there is very little concrete information on the AMMI Pontoon. If you will e-mail me your postal mailing address, I can send you two pieces from the United States Naval Institute Proceedings that provide a bit of information on their dimensions and use in Vietnam. These appear to be descendants of the “sectional pontoons” that were used in amphibious operations in World War II, carried on the sides of tank landing ships (LST) and connected to form causeways for discharging vehicles and cargo onto shallow-gradient landing beaches. Unfortunately, all of the available reference works on naval ships and craft confine themselves to commissioned ships and service craft and have nothing to say about pontoons."

Waiting to see what does show up...........................

Howdy fellas,

Glad to stop by and see some activity on this thread

to DaveF: I have already seen your splendid gallery, and will say again, that I wish you had the ability to share more info on the earlier stages of these builds...before they got to the point they are in the photographs. Nevertheless, they are great to look at.

to matt: As usual you are doing your superb job of performing that grey-area research support that elevates the entire thing....good on ya pard!
Your tireless investigative efforts in sniffing out some of the particulars of a subject in question are part of the fabric that make the members here at Armorama the 'special' people they {and you} are.

Tread.

That’s good news indeed! Thanks for the effort Matt! I’m really curious for some more info on the ammi barges.

Btw Gordon; how’s your barge coming along? Any progress-pics yet?
At the moment other things keep me away from active modelling (just a few more weeks…) so seeing other peoples work is just what I need right know! (especially if it’s right up my interest-alley, not sure if this is a correct expression but I guess you know what I mean)

Best regards
Mark