Hi Guys
I though you might like to see this model I have built for my oldest son (age 10) Last summer he ask me to make him his own boat he could use on the days I take to my club (Fareham and district society of model engineers). He wanted something that could tear around the pond speed being something the youngsters love. I have a look through my box of free plans from magazines and 3 suitable candidates, a us higgins boat, a vosper torpedo boat and a fast river patrol boat. I wanted something that would be simple and quick to build so decided on the fast river patrol boat in the octer 2010 edition of Marine Modeller International. After reading throught the article i discover that the model is based on the Patro Craft Fast (PCF) or Swift Boat used by the US Navy during the vietman war to the rivers and coastal areas of vietnam. Its main tasks being blockaging the coasts to prevent the north supplying weapons to the viet cong in the south and the insertion and supply of US troops on operations in the south. I decided then i would attempt to make a more accurate upper section to my model but still use the simple hull from the plans.
The hull base, frames and transome are made from 1/2 inch balsa and skined with 1/8 sheets of balsa strenghtem 1/4 x 1/4 lengths of balsa. I simply followed the instuctons in the magazine. Next I fitted the the motor, a 540 with a 15 amp spped controller I had in my bits box, a propshaft with 2 blade prop, a standard servo, a reciever and commercail brass rudder purchased from my local model shop. Then on with the deck and coaming. As I was making my model a more realistic looking version I had to calculate the size of boats deck house. I found that using the top and side view drawings C1 on page 26 of osprey's Vietnam Rivine Craft 1062-75 I could measure form the book and using a formula I devised I could get good measurement at 1/24 scale
131.5789 x the measurement from book
24
The deck and coaming was made from 1/8 balsa. Onve the glue dried I cut the deck to shape allowing 1/8 inch over hang. Also to allow acces to the servo and rudder I made a flush access hatcg running down the centre of the after deck. The whole hull and deck was painted with a dope and talc mix to fill the wood grain the coverd with dope and tissue to ad strength. I think in future I would use a fine glass cloth and resin for better bump resistance. I primed the hull and decks with halford grey primer, then the bottom half of the hull with halford red primer which u find make a perfect anto fouling colour on boats the upper half and decks were then painted after masking the lower hull at the water line with humbrol enamel 91 (black green), after extensive internet research I found the matched the colour of the actual boats in vietnam pefectly. The whole thing was vanished using humbrol enamel spray 135 satin varnish (Top tip here be care you buy the enamel and not the acrylic varnish when using enamel paints other wise the paint will crack and craze I found this out the hard way on another model)
The deck house was made from 1mm plastic sheet useing the above equation to get the right measurements. The gun tub was hardest part and took sevral trial amd error attempts to get right. In the end i found glass jar about the right size and tape the plastic cut to right size around it and pour serval kettle fulls of boil water over it. once the deck house was complete and painted the same colour as the hull I moved onto the detailing. This is always the fun bit for me I know that this model is basically intended as want for a better word a toy I still wanted to look good and my son wanted working features radar, sounds and lights.
The working features firstly I worked on th sounds and bought a vellerman sound kit generator that has various sound including machine gun and motor with explosion. Great I though thats just perfect so remembering back to my school electronics i Built the kit and tested it. Much to mine and my wife astonishment it worked first time but boy is it naff the machine gun and motor noise resmeble the sounds from the zx spectrum games of my boyhood sufice to say that the sounds unit has been binned for the time being and i'm currently looking for a better system. The mast mounted radar was my next problem never done moving features before. Where to start plan a was a small motor a cheap propshaft with a plastic radar dish on top. not as east a though but in my search for a small motor while dismantling a micro servo i had a eurika moment took out the electronics cut off the stop on the gearing that stops the servo rotating 360 degrees attatched the radar i made and conected to to a 6v battery and the radar wizzed round i found that a single AA gave a perfect speed. I glued the servo to a plastic mount feed the positive wire down the brass propshaft tube and soldered the negative to the brass tube. next the mast lights used 12v red and white 3mm LED's I used 12v as you can conect these direct to a 6v supply without the having to work out resistor values. as with the radar i fedd the positive wire down the tube remember to use heat shrink to prevent a short curcuit. The search light is a small aeronaut working naval search light and the nav lights are also aeronaut working nav lights with lighting boards i used 25mm as thats the smallest my modell shop had. The whole lot was the wired in to a control box with toggle switches to turn each item on and off.
The fitting while some are scratch built most are commercail items bought from various sources and painted the correct colours. I decided for interest the model would represent the boat on a resupply mission. The wooden crates are made from thin balsa then vanished and homemade decals with markings copied from pictures of the real boxes found on the internet I have used MK72 LAW rockets and Hand grenades. The C Ration pack boxes were done using a coputer drawing programe and printed onto light brown card and once assembly sealed with a spray varnish used for sealing printer ink on decal sheets.
the rest are comercailly avaible at 1/24 scale
Deans Marine
Twin 50 cal machine guns and mounts
50 cal machine gun piggy backed 81mm mortor and mount
M60 Machine gun
81mm motor ammo boxes
50 cal ammo boxes
50 cal etched brass ammo
3x US Marines
Mac's Mouldings
50 gallon oil drums
5 gallon Jerry cans
Life belts
Battlecrafts
Boat hooks
Oblong Life Raft with oars
Sail-rc
100mm Sharks Teeth
19mm US NAVY Pennant numbers
25mm Black Letters
75mm US Roundal
The ammo boxes were painted humbrol matt 30 and home made decals with the correct marking but the yellow doesn't standout very well next time i will scan in the a sheet paint with correct colour and use that a base and print our on white decal paper. I also had to make a 7.62 ammo box as i could sorce one, the dimensions are freely avaible in the net. The oil drums and jerry cans are oainted humbrol 155 and marked gasoline and diesel. The life raftand belts are painted humbrol Gloss 209 the reflective stripes are decal paper paint with a mix of games workshop fortress grey and mithril silver and cut to size once dry and is very effective. The lettering ,roundal, black waterline and Sharks Teeth were appliedalong with the costal division 16 door decal (another homemade decal) were applied the the whole vessel varnished with serveral coats of humbrol spray enamel 135. The tips of each bullet was painted humbrol 55 and every 5th bullet was painted 19 bright red to indicate tracer.
The model has yet to be tested in its completed form but performed well during trails last autumn it has taken about 9 month to complete aminly due to a nagging wife that wanted decorating done
Here are some pics of the finished model along with some from trails last year.
Please feel free to ask any question hope you all liked
Glen
Author
Topic: Scratch built Swift Boat (PCF) (Read 5685 times)