Calling all PT Boat (all types) fans!

[PTConsultingNHR]

I think if Italeri lowers the price of the 109 kit ........... it may be better received, but that's just my opinion.

[kurt]

Just wan't to share this Email in case I gave everyone the wrong impression.

Kurt,

I'd have to say that you are none too impressed with the BLUE JACKET kit.

T. "Tim" Garth Connelly

Tim,

Not true. I had the kit about fifteen years ago, but never completed it. My gripe is with BlueJacket in general. They charge quite a bit for their kits. This one was $ 275. The only real competitor in the States is Model Shipways. In comparison, MS blueprints are on heavy grade paper, BJ probably won't stay together for the duration of the kits build. They've been that way for over 40 years that I've seen. Their molds are worn out, they can afford to redo them once every few years. That's were resin would be a better deal. The weapons were good 20 years ago, but not by today's standards. They could have had the machine guns and 20mm lostwax cast in brass, initially expensive, but like I said they charge enough. Al did a beautiful job with this kit. He put a lot of work into it. It's a great starting point. It would be nicer if there were aftermarket things available, but there doesn't seem to be. 1/4 inch was always the classical museum scale, but not as marketible I guess. No, I'll really enjoy this challange, the weapons are a little daunting at this point, but I figure something out. I can always make canvas covers for them! I happy with this model. You just asked what I thought about it.

Kurt

[kurt]

I read these friggin things several time before I post them and there's still always typos. I dumb!

[davidwaples]

I'm whittling away at the Blue Jacket kit as well and have been for years. Now I'm in finish mode and I like how it's coming together. The kit is very good but I agree by today's standards some of the britannia parts could be better done in resin, and with rapid prototype technology these days that would be a nice upgrade. The photoetch is very good. I like more detail in my models so I'm making a lot of changes and building on what the kit has provided. But that's why they call it modeling and not assembling. If you put in the effort this will make into a remarkable finished model. I do like the scale as well. 1:48 is just a nice size for these boats. BJ is geared for a different market and specializes in short run kits that are otherwise unavailable on the market in these larger scales.

With respect to Italeri, plastic kits aren't going to be less expensive. You might as well get used to that fact. By the same token the quality has improved dramatically. Italeri just posted another update to their kit in the news section. It shows the results of the contributors and as I'm seeing glimpses of the finished pieces and their CAD work I'm hopeful that they've come up with a real winner.

Dave

[kurt]

Dave,

Any particular areas you felt needed improvement on? Any thing you would do differently if you made another one?

Kurt

[davidwaples]

Hi Kurt,
Just off the top of my head...

Anything britannia is replaced.

I scratch built the combustion chambers for the torpedo tubes. That took me about 10 tries to get right.

Guns have been replaced with aftermarket parts. For example
.50 cal gun body aftermarket parts along with barrels from Model Master which are brass. Cradle made from brass tubing and plastic.
The 20mm is being replaced with a scratch built body and barrel system from RB. You can find them at White Ensign Models. It's actually for an armor kit so you get two.
The pedestal is made from plastic stock.

From the brass I shortened the handles of the torpedo tube wing nuts and added round ends to them. I banded 90 the torpedo tube photo etch bands. The actual banding was "T" shaped. I'm making my own depression rails for the turrets using annealed brass rod and using the photoetch ones as a guide.

I didn't make any castings because I haven't heard of any strong desire for them. At this point in the project I'm really not in a position to otherwise I would be happy to make some.

I keep thinking of ways to upgrade parts which causes the project to get spread out longer and longer.

Good luck with yours. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress. I'll post some of mine soon but they can be found somewhere around here or on the PT Boats Inc web site.
Dave



I didn't use the kit mast. I opted for scratch built radar mast.

[kurt]

Dave,

I agree with your approach completely. I had actually already ordered those barrels you had mentioned. I plan to replace most all the fittings. I have some nice boxwood that I can use to make many things and of course a ton of Evergreen styrene. The drilling of the jacket holes in the barrels was what I found daunting. I have a lot of other commitments, so this will be a very slow build. Right now I am assembling materials, and info, an hopefully will soon begin this project. I would still like to see any pictures or solutions to problems you have come up with. Mayge if this goes well, I'll scratch build a Higgins in 1/48th. If you have any "I wish I had ..." Let me know.

Kurt

[Torpedo Run]

[Bridge]

Thank you for the earlier kinds word about my book (PT-157: A Model Builder's Notebook). And yes I did write another book called 'FIRST-UP: Chronicles of the PT-157'. This is a book about the life and times of the PT-157 during their 2 critical months in the Solomons (July-August 1943). It is for further in-depth look at the missions and conditons of PT life at the front.

Thanks,

Bridge

[PTConsultingNHR]

Mr. Chun just sent me a copy of that book and Mr. Carney has appeared to have done a stable job on it. He provides copies of the actual Navy documents and reports which back up what the two gentemen, an officer (Bud Liebenow) and a Torpedoman (Welford West) told Mr. Carney. In my opinion, it's a good book.

[kurt]

Been preoccupied with Sandy and work, but now drifting back to my PT project. Since the thing that concerns me the most is the weapons, I plan to start with the 20mm Oerlikon and then the 50 cals, and treat them almost as stand alone projects. Then everything else should fall in place. (in theory). I ordered some brass barrels from White Ensign and supposedly are on their way across the pond. Also going to try and convert a 1/48 Ultracast fighter pilot to a navy leut. Have to carve away a life jacket and create a shirt front and tie. I need to have someone to oversee this whole project.

Kurt

Oh joy another Noreaster today! Had no electric, heat or water for a week, but no damage.

[davidwaples]

Kurt, Eduard has just released some 1/48 .50 cal guns which look great. They come in a package of 6, 3 of which are left hand feed and the others are right hand feed. They were made the for aviation community but are perfect for your project. You can find them listed at Squadron and Sprue Brothers.
Dave

[kurt]

Thanks Dave, I just ordered a set from Sprue Brothers. You're right they look great. I may or may not switch the barrels for the brass set I get. Depends which look best.

Kurt

[kurt]

I received my RB 20mm Oerlikon barrels, and will down load the images from PT103 and scale them to 1/48, and begin building them. I ordered the wrong 50Cal barrels, the cooling wrapper is too short. I found another set from AirMaster and have them coming from White Ensign and with the Eduard's resin set will see what can be done with them. There is a Polish modeler, Apoloniuz Musialek, who lives in England and does amazing modeling. He has a blog Modelmaster, worth looking at. At the Accurate Model Part forum he did a terrific Revell Type VII U Boat 522 under the name of Siera. He used Koki soldering paste to make up the railings, so I ordered some to practice soldering to make the PT's rails and such. I'm finally getting started!

[kurt]

Got an email today that Italeri's PT109 has shipped!

[davidwaples]

Great news Kurt. I'm getting a bunch of emails from friends who bought from Freetime that their boats are on the way. Can't wait to see what everyone builds.
Dave

[kurt]

Dave, I don't plan on building it just yet. For now I think I will use it for a 3d reference for my BJ 1/48th boat. And I think I may attempt to build one of the Elco cradles for a base. But I wanna see the different things people come up with for this kit. Should be interesting for us.

Kurt

[kurt]

I just went through another web search and I cannot find any build or really anything about the BlueJacket 1/48th PT 103 kit. I really am surprised and disappointed, because the is such a great kit and has so much potential and at the scale is SO much more reasonable for the average modeler space wise and that 1/48 was always the classic museum scale. Go figure.

[alross2]

What do you want to know?

Al Ross

[kurt]

Nothing in particular. I just enjoy seeing how different people approach the same project. Ideas I may not think of, and possibly become aware of problems I might not foresee. I like to read builds on subjects I have no interest in also. Usually you can find something. The way it appears, Dave is the only person in the world other than yourself to build this boat from the kit and we know that's not true.