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[flag-d]

Hello All

I have an MTB, 36" LOA, electric, single motor and prop.  My Dad made this in late 50's I believe, possibly from MB free plans.  Written (by me when I was about 10!) on the base is 'Thorneycroft MTB': that is what the family knew it as.  There are a couple of photos of it below.  Is it a Thorneycroft MTB?  What (if anything ) is it based on?  How true a model might it be?  Anything about the real thing would be great.  Were they MB plans?  Are they still available?  Anyone got them?  I'm in the process of re-painting and repairing her before getting her back in the water again.  Come on chaps (and chapesses too!): get the thinking caps on and help me out, please?

Ta

Mike

[tonyH]

Hi again Mike,

Definitely Thorneycroft. Model Maker or Model Boats Plans circa 1965-1970. 2no 21" tubes, depth charges and mine (the long depth charge type thingy, with 2no .5 m/guns in power tub. Other details on other threads such as MTB49 etc.
All I do remember was that I could only find 1, very poor, photo at the time and that I got no reply from NMM for further info. There were very few built, either just pre-war or just at the start and they were 'muscled out' by the Vospers which were lighter and faster.
I could only assume that the layout was fairly accurate, since it was similar to the early Vospers. I painted mine in standard channel camo with white under the deck strip, widening under the bow, the aft corners and the torpedo 'scallops'. On the real boat the tillers emerged from the slots in the transom to twin rudders and so I assume they were twin screwed.
Tony

[flag-d]

Tony, many thanks.  My (failing!) memory tells me that the model was built immediately pre-me, and I'm a 1960 kid.  I think my Dad built it in 1958/1959 as we all left for West Germany (as it was then) just before Christmas 1960 when he was posted there.  I know it was looked after by a friend of his for many years after that as we spent little time in the UK until the mid 70's.

Any ideas of what number's/number ranges might have been applied?  Do the model plans still exist anywhere do you know?

Mike

[Daryl]

Have you tried the British Military Powerboat trust www.bmpt.org.uk thye have a good forum which has provided me with lots of useful information.

Daryl

[flag-d]

Daryl and Tony, thanks for your info, much obliged.  I have been on the BMPT forum and a member there (Christian) was of enormous help.  He supplied the information below:

WW2 Thornycroft built MTBs;24-25,26-27,28(a Vosper design),49-56,67-68(CMB types in build for Finland),327-331(CMB types in build for the Phillipines),344-346  and experimental boats 104-107.

The group of eight boats in the 49-56 series were 75.5ft long and powered by 4 Thornycroft petrol engines which allowed them a top speed of 29kts (26kts cont.)Armament;2 x 21" torpedo tubes, 1 x double Vickers 0.5" MG mounted in a tub aft.They were ordered 27/09/39 and some boats were initially Royal Norwegian Navy crewed and formed the 11th Flotilla at Dover 12/41-4/42,then portsmouth 4/42-7/42,then RN crewed and based at Weymouth 7/42-1/43.They were paid off  12/43 (they all suffered from cracked frames) and transferred to the War Dept (RASC) as the 75.5ft Battlefield Class (not to be confused with the 69ft Battlefield Class,also built by Thornycroft,or the 68ft Battlefield Class built by the British Power Boat Co to the same design as the RAFs Hants And Dorset HSLs).The 75.5ft ex MTBs were used as High Speed Target Towing Launches for coastal batteries to practice firing at.They were sold off in 1947.The only survivor of this class is at Shoreham as the houseboat Marne (her original RASC name).She was originally MTB 52.She is pictured elsewhere on this forum. MTB 49 pictured above was completed 4/41 and ran aground on her maiden voyage,right opposite The Houses Of Parliament.She became RASC Meggido.

Thanks again guys and the BMPT forum is an excellent site and source of info.

Mike

[tonyH]

Mike,

I've been pruning old copies of MB etc and I noticed on page 67 of the March 2002 MB that the Coastal Forces Veterans Association had a model on their stand (what a sad life I lead!)

I'm also pretty certain that one or two, including 54, were transferred along with some HDMLs to the Royal Netherlands Navy (in exile) shortly after the war started and had Holman projectors fitted to augment their pretty basic setup.

Tony

[flag-d]

Thanks Tony.  Any and all information about these boats gratefully received.

Any more for any more?

Mike

[tobyker]

My Spring 1974 Model Boats & Cars plans handbook (Price 20p) shows MM337, Thornycroft MTB by Vic Smeed, 36.75" by 8.5" beam. The picture looks like your model. The plan cost 55p then - I thing some company keeps the MM/MB back plans but I dunno who.

[tobyker]

And - the model in the picture in the plans handbook has "49" on the bow, (between the first two portholes) which seems to pin it down rather neatly, as I'm sure Vic would have got it right. The figures almost rest on the top rubbing strake and come up to the level of the centres of the portholes.

[2772e]

Mike,

Have a look at www.hslmouldings.co.uk Chris has lots of info and all the bits and pieces you need to finish her.

Regards

Simon