We've started on my Elco. The hull/deck are glued together, the charthouse and instrument panel are glued together, and the holes are drilled out in the deck. Did any of you do that on yours?
He's just going to work on it while I'm there with him, ... that's fine with me, the 191 in 1944/45 was not exactly a stock early Elco 80-footer, ... HA HA. But, I've got to tell ya, I'm impressed as Hell about this kit. When Stan glued the deck on - I heard it click into place, as well as the instrument panel into the charthouse piece. All of those things had nice tight fits!
I'm now thinking that I'll do an article on this project. But, I'm kind of confused over one thing from the instructions ... it says to cut-off/remove two sets of hinges for two hatches, one on the foredeck and the one on the aft-deck (near the 20mm - on the stock early Elco) ... but I have a photo of the 191, with the foredeck's hatch opened, and the hatch is opened as if the hinges were attached where Merit tells modelers to cut/remove them.
We'll be using the Mark XIIIs and their roll-off racks which Merit gave me. We'll use the 40mm that Merit gave me. We'll use the late-war engine-room hatch that Merit gave me. We'll use the rest/stop for the radar mast. I bought a 1:48 SO-Type radar from a vendor from Shapeways (3-D printing), but he didn't do the rest/stop for it. He has the Mark XIIIs and roll-off racks in 1:48 but for $76 and change - I AIN'T GONNA PAY THAT MUCH for those! We'll use two of the 20mm guns (on tripods) that Merit gave me. I've gotten the mufflers done in 3-D printing and some depth charges and a .30-cal on a tall tripod and I'm waiting on a 1:48 3-D printed 37mm M4 on a tripod.
A friend from Australia is creating a 48-star cloth flag and I've asked him about (if he would) creating a decal sheet for the PT-191. Her numbers (in 1944/45) were a green color with grey shading and she had a distinctive kill scoreboard ...
I'll keep you abreast on the build.
Tim