The Sand Pebbles Ship

I believe that the ship was constructed overseas (Hong Kong?) for the movie, so there may well be plans available.  I'll have to dig out the DVD and see if there is anything in the credits (you might also check the movie database, www.imdb.com to see if there are any references to the ship) - there is also a site dedicated to the movie: www.thesandpebbles.com, that seems to have a lot of information.  They have a nice shot of the San Pablo (below) and some information about the ship which seems to have been scrapped in 1975.

The San Pablo looks like a scaled down version of the USS Panay (PR-5) with only one stack.  The Floating Drydock has plans for the Panay and that could be a starting point if there are no plans for the San Pablo available.

Good luck!   

Anyone know where I can get a figure of Steve McQueen?

How about a model of the original Yangtze river gunboats? The Spaniards Villalobos, Elcano and Quiros.

Here's a couple of links:

http://www.cityofart.net/bship/sand_pebbles.html

I take no claim for the questionable politics in the text, but loads of good info.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/09042.htm

http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/09038.htm

I received a message from the Floating Drydock as follows for others that maybe interested...

See the G series plans

(G-PR2 USS Monocay PR2

and the TFW-PG45 USS Panay

Same ship class

The movie takes place in 1926 or so..

thanks

Manstein's revenge

Anyone know where I can get a figure of Steve McQueen?

http://www.amazon.com/Steve-McQueen-Bullitt-Action-Figure/dp/B00157RZSM/ref=pd_bxgy_t_text_b

In case you weren't kidding.....

Manstein's revenge

Anyone know where I can get a figure of Steve McQueen?

How about this one by Andrea?

http://www.andrea-miniatures.com/market/AspsProductos/Detalle.asp?IdProductoDetalle=900

Iron Shipwright has a 1/196 resin Panay

F4F

I received a message from the Floating Drydock as follows for others that maybe interested...

 

See the G series plans

(G-PR2 USS Monocay PR2

and the TFW-PG45 USS Panay

Same ship class

 

The movie takes place in 1926 or so..

 

thanks

 

Iron Shipwright has a 1:192 Panay in their catalog.   I don't know if it is currently available.   It was being reworked.    It builds into a very nice ship.

Loose Cannon makes a 1:700 scale Panay.

bondoman

http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/09042.htm

http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/09038.htm

Wow, those are certainly some topmasts on those two.  Which would seem like a great pain for river navigation, especially if "emergency' canvas were available.

Striking those spars down even a few times for any overhead item spanning a river looks to be some work.

The "San Pablo" was built for the movie, and was based on 1842-1922 gunboats. She is most visually like USS Pidgeon (this hull design became a minesweeper), She resembles USS Villalobos PG-42, but appears to be much shorter. Her "masts", are not as tall as those of the actual gunboats. There are enough photos (google USS San Pablo, US Navy gunboats,1842-1922, USS Pidgeon), to be able to bash a reasonable model of the "Sandpebbles" ship.

I didn't know that the "San Pablo" was built for the movie. I kind of assumed it was an actual gun boat that had been refurbished to use in the movie.

From what I've found so far, these boats ran from about 150 feet long to well over 200 feet long.

Most, if not all, were a Spanish design. Don't know if the US actually had any made in US ship yards or not.

Maybe I need to look at some Spanish ship drawings.....

And ships of this type in service during the 1920's by the US.

thanks for the replies

I think this link is what I'm looking for...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pigeon_%28ASR-6%29