TankerEasy

I know Tamiya makes the patrol boat "Pibber", which I have in my stash.  But what im really trying to find and am coming up empty is a kit for the river monitor gun boats.  As far as I can tell there are no kits for that.  Does anyone know otherwise?

 

Masterpiece Models offers several 1:35 scale resin & brass riverine craft.

https://masterpiecemodels.com/shop/page/3/

Included are a Swift, Tango, CCB, Douche, ASPB and several others.

They are not cheap, but (with the exceprion of the old RM 1:48 Swift) tghey are the only game in town

Woo you aint kidding, $200 is a bit steep for a 1/35th kit..  loks like ill have to start saving up lol, might find some stuff around the house to sell

Hello!

This, or take an LCM-3, stretch it a little bit and then fit it out as a monitor...

I have thought about building a Tango boat in 1:72 this way...

Good luck with your projects and have a nice day

Paweł

Hmmm;

 I feel your pain . I believe that Scientific models made one and plans are available from someone . I had Some LCM 6 boats for oil skim boats I do have a hull they are not that hard to build . Try NRG and see if they might have plans for sale .

 My one hull is 1/48 . I think . It was a while back when I created it . T.B.  P.S. There are two hull forms too .One had the rounded screw tunnels and the other had a tunnel that was flat on top and flat on the sides but slanted .

 Both my oil spill boats were 6s , one flat tunnel and one round tunnel .

There is also the old Dragon Light SEAL Support Craft out there in 1/35.

Oh Yeah !

I forgot about that one . It's a fairly decent kit too .

There is the old Monogram 1/48 RAG kit.  Not a Monitor but at least a Vietnam era river boat.

Pawel

Hello!

This, or take an LCM-3, stretch it a little bit and then fit it out as a monitor...

I have thought about building a Tango boat in 1:72 this way...

Its not just a matter or splicing half-again the length and half-again the breadth into a LCM-3 to come up with an LCM-8.   Totally putting aside the decking and superstructure the whole bow configuration is changed

See the instructions for the Masterpiece Tango boat to see what it would look like:

https://masterpiecemodels.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Tango-Instructions.pdf

It might be quicker to start with a hunk of wood and cut away everyting that didn't look like an LCM

And to the OP,  when you consider that the new Tiger Models Navy Commando boat (injected plastic) is on the market with a MSRP of about 90 USD.   The price of these items is not too terribly out of line

EdGrune

 

It might be quicker to start with a hunk of wood and cut away everyting that didn't look like an LCM

Pawel

take an LCM-3,

Would be easier to start from an LCM-6, which is what the protypes did.

The real pain is the bar armor. 

I experimented with phot-etching a set (1/35), but they were actually too skinny (using the home PE stuff; professional shop could double surface etch thicker material and get a better effect).

I also tried casting a set, but to call the end result flimsy suggests a level of sturdiness a geometrical order of magnitude too great.  Sigh.

Probably the answer is a hybrid, with fine styrene or brass tubing with cast resin surrounding it.

Ed, Capn - from what I know an LCM-6 is needed to start building the Vietnam river boats. Unfortunately there are no LCM-6s available in 1:72 or 1:35 as far as I know. That's where my idea comes - to stretch an LCM-3. Looking at the drawings that's very doable.

Now you're right with that bar armor, Capn - that's a challenge. I wonder it they could be 3D-printed. Shapeways has a limit on "supported wall" at 0,3mm - that's how thin the detail could get, of course with some "cheating" as the armors would then be "walls" instead of bars. But I think PE technology can cope with wires as thin as the material thickness itself and then in stuff like 0,2mm stainless steel we could get really pretty bar armor. But as you said, that's not something I would tackle at home.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

I also was looking for something (at a reasonable price).  My brother served on a CCB and I hoped to build one for his birthday.  I think scratch- building may be the way to go.  I have a copy of the Osprey book on riverine craft, so that may help.  Glad I"m not the only one interested in these boats.

Gary

The whole story of the brown water Navy is pretty neat, its too bad it isnt talked about more.  It seems to be a part of the Vietnam war that isnt metioned much, I only know of one documentery about it.

Where do you guys go to pick up stowage kits?  I cant seem to find anything specific for the PBR, but i figured i could use a stowage kit for vienam era tanks.  Seems like ebay will be my go to, but is there anywhere else thats a good place to order from?

For those interested, this is a great site for background and photos.

http://www.rivervet.com/larry_irwin.htm

Gary

really good website!  tons of really good photos

Some 30 plus years ago, I scratch built a Tango boat (ATC) using drawings from the Squadron/Signal Riverine book and photos from a book on the Navy in Vietnam in my college library.   I built in 1/48 scale while I desparately looked for an old Monogram Swift Boat kit and the RAG boat to go with it.

As I recall, the bar armor on the boats was made from angle iron and reinforcing steel bars (don't recall the size) and stood off from the surface of the craft a few inches to allow for the detonation to be disbursed over a larger area.   On my build I used plastruct angles to form a frame and then glued lengths of 0.020" brass wire to form the bar armor.  I don't recall what I used to insure consistent spacing, but it came out good.  Keep in mind this was pre-internet days so resources were limited on original photos and materials.  I think my local hobby shop had to reorder the brass wire for me several times.

I still have the build.  I'll get it out and dust it off and try to post some photos.

Here is a link to a navy pub from the 50's of Navy Boats.  The LCM 6 was 6' longer according to this and had the same beam, so the basic hull changes shouldn't be too terrible.  Now I am tempted to tackle another one of these!

http://www.hnsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/boatscat-250452-1955.pdf

One more link-this one is from 1967 and has drawings and dimensions of the different boats, including the Riverine craft.  Wish I had this 30 years ago!

http://archive.hnsa.org/doc/boatcat/index.htm#toc

Dhenning> Thanks for the link to the drawings.  I think that if I can't scratch-build a model, I may try a 3d model.  As to the reinforcing bars, from the photos in the link I provided they look about 1" rebar.

Out of curiosity I checked on what was available and came across some basic models.

https://www.stlfinder.com/3dmodels/vietnam-in-hd-episode-1

Gary

Tankereasy I built this PBR about 5 years ago it's cleaned up a bit now I have a proper crew with her and thanks to Tanker Builder and his insight I was able to improve the diorama alot more than compared to the photos in the thread. Also it got 3rd in surface ships at the IPMS Roscoe Turner in Indianapolis 4 years ago again I give the thanks to that to Tanker Builder and his suggestions. http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/t/156055.aspx?page=2

Some really good info here! I am missing one thing, and even with google and youtube I cant seem to find any resources for it, but I need photos of the captains area on the PBR so I know what colors to use, if anyone has a link or pictures for that it would be much appreciated!  I'm currently building tamiyas Pibber.

Here's one. 

 By the way, everything was pretty much GREEN!  (along with some purple and pink on this rebuilt one.)

   Nino

Pawel

But I think PE technology

In 1/72, PE would be just fine.  At least at a guess.

The bar armor was 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/8 angle stock (20 x 20 x 3mm) with 5/8" (16mm) reinforcing bar, which was stood off 12" or 18" (30 or 45cm) off the hull.

Now, at 1/35, you are right at where the "upset" (the raised texture) on the bar would "show"--this is what was frustrating in my ancient attempts.

That 20mm angle iron is about 0.6mm at 1/35; at 1/72 only 0.2mm.

TankerEasy

Where do you guys go to pick up stowage kits?

This is a bit of a rarefied market, so, there's not much to get that's explicit to the topic.

Riverine used gear in an ad hoc way.  If you were doing a "school" setting at Dam Neck or Little Creek, it would be all straight-up Marine-style gear.  For "in country" it's a mix of gear, Army suspenders and Marine belts, mis-matched ammo pouches and the like.

Crew gear will be M-1 helmets, typically without cloth covers, they will have either M-56 or M-61 flack vests near their stations (or donned if in contact).

There will not be a lot of packs, bedrolls or the like as those will be stowed below (even on a PBR).  Items sstowed in the open are going to be things like coolers, mermite cans, round water cans/coolers and the like.  Those will all be lashed down securely.  Ammo, fuel, and water cans will also all be lashed securely.  Doubly so in PBR, as they could do a 180º in just 110% of their length, at speed.

Camo nets were a random sort of thing, if aboard, they were neatly stowed.

Hope that helps

Oh My ;

 I took my old boat after a flip off a shelf and converted it to a Newfoundland mail Boat . the thing looked like a modifird Lobsterman . I had sliding side windows , mail - sorting rack ( with mail in it  )and a lower cabin nap and relief area .

 I used figures from Monogram's Patton M-48 A-1 heavily modified into Sea -Going civilians . It lived through seven moves and two different Live -Aboard boats and then died after settling in Texas . 

 I still have the hull somewhere . it's a great model for modifying and so is the Swift Boat  . Swift Style boats have been used for years as small and large crew transport boats to the closer offshore Oil Rigs . Also as Tanker Ship Crew taxis .

 The Monogram kits were an open door for any Mod you wanted to do to them .

My "peeve", being now a CRC (Certified Rivet Counter), is models that have an array of weapons "laying around".

Bill CRC

CapnMac82

 Now, at 1/35, you are right at where the "upset" (the raised texture) on the bar would "show"--this is what was frustrating in my ancient attempts.