I believe Lindberg has made two Elco 80' PT boats. The one in the ad to which Mr. Farrow directed us is the big one - and big it is. At various times it's been promoted as "ready for radio control." I've never built it, but my recollection of reviews in a couple of magazines is that it's big, kind of clumsy, and designed for fun, with plenty of compromises in the name of motorization and robustness.
The smaller kit was, if I remember, about a foot and a half long - slightly bigger than the Revell kit, which came out a little later. (It's worth noting that both Lindberg kits were originally issued before Kennedy was elected president. I'm not sure, in fact, whether they originally had the number 109. The Revell one, by no coincidence, appeared in 1963 - shortly after Kennedy's inauguration - and featured a miniature JFK in the cockpit.) The scale of the smaller Lindberg kit must have been in the neighborhood of 1/64. I did build this one when I was in grade school or junior high. About the only things I remember about it were the crew figures, which were excellent (complete with life jackets, binoculars, helmets, and separate arms), and the motorization system, which barely worked.
If I remember right, the little Mabuchi motor, powered by a pair of AA batteries, was supposed to turn all three screws by means of a little green rubber band and three plastic pulleys. There were a couple of problems with that system. One was that it was almost impossible to keep the hull from leaking without introducing so much friction that the rubber band couldn't overcome it. If you were careful you could get the screws to turn quite impressively (and noisily) on dry land. But as soon as you put the boat in the water the screws would stop. The motor would continue to run, but the rubber band would spin around the pulleys without turning them. If you replaced the rubber band with a smaller one, it pinched the pulleys together so they wouldn't turn at all. Oh, well.
Those old Lindberg kits actually weren't so bad for the time - and the company picked some offbeat subjects. How many other mainstream manufacturers would have considered doing an LSD, or a minesweeper, or a "bobtail cruiser," or a Coast Guard patrol boat, or an Air Force rescue launch? And one of my favorites was the 1/32 LCVP - complete with crew figures and infantrymen. (It also accommodated a Monogram Jeep quite nicely.) The motor in that one worked fine: it was coupled directly to the single screw. My father commanded LCVPs in the Pacific during the war; he and I both got a great deal of pleasure out of that old model. I'm sure the forthcoming Italeri kit will make it look pretty sad, but for its day it wasn't bad.
Enough. Please forgive the senile nostalgia trip.