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AIRFIX&VOSPER M.T.B.

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  • Member since
    August 2008
AIRFIX&VOSPER M.T.B.
Posted by tankerbuilder on Saturday, November 20, 2010 9:50 PM

Talk about deja-vu! I recently got into my old kit stash. I saw this kit and just had to build it. It may be the fourth or fifth of these I,ve done and although I have always enjoyed the way it turns out. It seems I forgot something that I,ve had to deal with since the first one. Sink marks everywhere! The crew members look like starving poor folk.No,that was a sink mark in the stomach area on each one. I also forgot about the same sink mark problem in very tight areas on the deck and hull. Putting the multi-piece hull together sure brought back the memories. Even with this odd setup it still looks sharp as I remember. I recommend to anyone out there. Take an old kit out of your stash , and travel back in time! Try It you,ll like it !! tankerbuilder

  • Member since
    February 2007
  • From: S.E. Michigan
Posted by 2/20 Bluemax on Sunday, November 21, 2010 7:11 PM

I built one in the early eighties and last year dusted it off and overhauled it adding new details to the torpedo tubes, wheelhouse, and forward deck. I did a lot of touch-up work and scratch built a new 20mm deck gun. All I need now is a set of correct torpedoes.

Jim

  • Member since
    August 2008
Posted by tankerbuilder on Tuesday, December 28, 2010 11:55 AM

I discovered that there are TWO different types in this scale by the AIRFIX folks.One has a raised fordeck and the other does NOT.Whatever , I believe these put the REVELL models of HIGGINS and ELCO boats to shame.  I just bought two more for conversion purposes. tankerbuilder

  • Member since
    March 2006
  • From: Bangor, Maine
Posted by alross2 on Tuesday, December 28, 2010 3:58 PM

I've never seen a 70' Vosper (raised forecastle) kit in 1/72 by AIRFIX.  Is this something new? 

Al Ross

  • Member since
    December 2010
Posted by dane alley on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 2:16 AM

Since we're on the subject of Airfix Vospers and kit bashing. I have a Revell PT117 kit that may make an interesting conversion. How about taking parts from a Airfix Vosper and adding them to a lengthened(razed) Elco 80 into a Russian P6 Class fast attack boat? I know that Cuba had some back in the 60's. Revell's British Vosper MTB is really a US built LendLease Russian Vosper, that may never have been used in service. It is still a fun model to build. Happy modeling, Dane Alley    

  • Member since
    December 2010
Posted by dane alley on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 7:35 AM

You sure its not the Revell AG Vosper MTB in British colors .Or is this one a rebox? It has a small bridge. Molded in light grey plastic

Dane Alley

  • Member since
    March 2006
  • From: Bangor, Maine
Posted by alross2 on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 4:04 PM

dane alley
 How about taking parts from a Airfix Vosper and adding them to a lengthened(razed) Elco 80 into a Russian P6 Class fast attack boat?
 

If accuracy is even remotely a concern, that would require major surgery.  The two hulls are only vaguely similar.  The P6 is over three feet longer and has a very different chine and cross-sections forward.  Everything from the main deck up is different between the ELCO and the P6 and essentially nothing from the VOSPER is applicable.

Al Ross

  • Member since
    December 2005
Posted by PTConsultingNHR on Sunday, January 2, 2011 9:28 AM

Sir,

I believe I know why you might think that using the cockpit section and modifying the torpedo tubes from the AIRFIX Vosper and using the hull from the Revell PT-109 kit COULD result in a post-war  Soviet P-6 boat, but as much as it pains me to do so ... I must agree with Mr. Ross.  Doing something like that would take an awful lot of scratchbuilding and modifying to get something accurate.

BUT ... that said sir?  Remember one thing; it is YOUR model and your time and skill and if you feel that you achieve it?  DO IT and I'll applaud and support you every step of the way. 

Recently, I had a model of a RN MGB built up from the AIRFIX RAF ASRL kit.  The modeler CHOSE not to lengthen the kit's hull the 11/16ths of an inch to make it into a 70 foot hull.  He did not do this after he looked at a few photos of the real MGB and at the kit's hull and deck.  He did not think it'd be worth the trouble to do so.  Do you know what guys?  I agreed with him, when you look at the finished model and a photo of the real MGB, you are hard pressed to see a difference.

Unfortunately, he did forget to widen the cockpit area - that's the most glaring (at least in my opinion) error.  But, in his defence, the photos we used did not show that area of the real boat to good advantage.  I like having modelers use photos rather than drawings as drawings could be subject to change AFTER the subject was built and photos - well - you cannot dispute what is in a photo.

I was told that, even though it was a nice build and a cleanly done build - I was wrong in my choice of subject, that if I wanted to use THAT kit for that conversion of the kit - that I should have done another MGB.  Hey ... ever since 1980, I have held a theory that the conversion that I had done recently COULD be done - and it was - and I love the finished model and I think it's darn-tooting close to the real boat ...

So, sir, if you'd like to do that conversion of those two kits and using those parts to accomplish it, ... GO FOR IT!

As a little boy, my parents gave me a kit of a Soviet torpedo boat ... and even though it has been lost down through the years, I do remember it looking like the drawing of a P-6 which Mr. Ross posted in this thread.  It was molded in dark blue plastic and I remember (even at that young age) that the hull reminded me of an Elco 80 footer and the torpedo tubes looked as if the Russians took them off of one of their Lend-Leased provided Higgins ...

I wish I could remember what manufacturer produced it and all that, but I can't.  I do remember that it was the size of the Revell PT-109 kit, that it was molded in dark blue and had an electric motor.   

Garth

 

 

  • Member since
    July 2009
  • From: US East Coast
Posted by Senior Chief (ret) on Monday, January 3, 2011 9:39 AM

Garth,

  You are probably remembering the UPC  "USSR P8-915"  (kit # 5008-100).  It is a kit of a Soviet P8 Class fast patrol boat.  This kit, and the others in the series, uses the same hull and motorizing mechanism as the Revell PT-212 (78' Higgins) kit, so the hull is not  accurate for the subject.  Based on drawings I've seen though, the topsides of the kit are failry accurate for a P8.

R/

Matt

"I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: 'I served in the United States Navy.'"

President John F. Kennedy, 1 August 1963, in Bancroft Hall at the U. S. Naval Academy.

  • Member since
    December 2005
Posted by PTConsultingNHR on Monday, January 3, 2011 12:52 PM

Matt,

No.  And ... I'm familiar with the kit you're referring to too.  That's not it.

From what I CAN remember of the kit I'm thinking of ... the deck was screwed to the hull with tiny screws ...

I do know it wasn't a UPC kit.

Garth

 

 

  • Member since
    July 2009
  • From: US East Coast
Posted by Senior Chief (ret) on Thursday, January 6, 2011 12:53 PM

Garth,

 Sorry, your initial description fit that kit, right down to the blue plasitc that the one I have is molded in. 

Matt

"I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: 'I served in the United States Navy.'"

President John F. Kennedy, 1 August 1963, in Bancroft Hall at the U. S. Naval Academy.

  • Member since
    March 2006
  • From: Bangor, Maine
Posted by alross2 on Thursday, January 6, 2011 3:42 PM

Matt,

I have one like you described somewhere in my stash.  I built it in the late 60s/early 70s, so it's not in the best of shape.  Mine was molded in a dark gray with a greenish tint.  Will have to see if I can find it.

Al Ross

 

 

  • Member since
    August 2008
Posted by tankerbuilder on Friday, January 7, 2011 6:54 AM

Well! I started somthin dint I?? Hey , GARTH .where did you find that goody? That has to be the most elusive model boat I have ever heard of. Must be a old timey stealth type??LOL LOL. I am still trying , for you GARTH and the RETIRED CHIEF to find the good photos of the "TULAGI TERROR" .I haven,t given up because I want to build another with the ITALERI kit!.Till then , "damned the TORPEDOS , I said full speed ahead!! Tankerbuilder

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