Revell 1/72 P.T. 109 w/WEM PE

Gentlement I present for your approval my 1/72 Revell P.T. 109 built with WEM's PE set. The model is supposed to represent the 109 at the time of her loss. A good degree of artistic license was used, since hard evidence as to what she looked like, from the color of her paint to mast vs no mast is hard to come by and much of it is contradictory. I used WEM Colourcoats paints and elected to paint her Tropical Green. The .50 Cals. are WEM gunmetal and the Oerlikon is flat black. The torpedo tubes were stripped of all detail except for the very front and rear parts and all detail is either from the WEM PE set or scratch built. I elected to show her with her mast, as this is a disputed question and I like the look of the boat with the mast in place. I used the kit mast, depression rails for the twin .50's and for the Oerlikon since those parts in the PE set seemed too 2 dimensional in this scale.

This kit took me about three months off and on to complete. Some of this time was spent with the build on the shelf waiting for some items to come in from John R. Haynes. I finally got tired of waiting and finished her with the kit parts and the WEM PE. I'll use the Haynes items on another P.T. I'm considering. One of the biggest tasks was to sand off all that molded on deck detail. The 37 Millimeter is lashed down with actual hemp.

This build was a labor of love for me. I must have built this kit a half dozen times as a kid, though nothing like this turned out. My dad took me to see the movie "P.T. 109" when I was about six and I guess it marked me for life - I've never quite gotten over it and have been fascinated by the 109 and her story ever since. I recently had the treat of sitting down with my seven year old grandson to watch "P.T. 109" with him and he loved it!

Now, without futher ado:

Bob