Brown water navy monitor

I know of no kits, if you are going to convert use the LCM

Joplin FX Models, later Viking Models, made a 1:72-ish scale riverine monitor. It was really sort of crude. They expected you to locate & use a set of ROCO HO scale 50 caliber guns in the turrets. The forward 40mm gun turret looked like it had been cast from a salt shaker ripped off from a McDonalds. No bar armor. It was a big hunk-o-resin with no details. Viking also made a PBR, LSSC, and a ASPB in the riverine series. They did a USS Texas and a couple of submrine models.

Viking Models had some troubles with the law after copying & using parts without paying royalties. They have gone out of business. Their demise is really no great loss to the hobby industry. They had severe quality issues and no customer service to back up their products.

You may be able to locate some of the Viking kits occasionally on eBay.

Caveat Emptor

thanx for the help guys looks like im in the market for an LCM so i'll have to hit the LHS tuesday any suggestions on a GOOD LCM kit i know there a couple out there Thx for the help i'm probably going to go 1/35 so theres plenty of room to work

Trumpeter & Italieri both make 1:35 scale LCM-3s. Since you are intenting on making a radical conversion from a WWII-era -3 to a Vietnam-era -8 based monitor, questions of detail and accuracy are probably second to thoughts of cost. Any money saved on the kit purchase will be spent on Evergreen needed to stretch the hull and build the superstructure. Hope you have a good set of photos or plans you can work off of.

Like to see pictures when you're done

There are kits out there!

Check this preview:

http://misc.kitreview.com/shipreviews/riverineseriespreview_1.htm

he he im up to my eyeballs in evergreen from making buildings and terrain for warhammer 40,000 from the pics i have and a few old DoD drawings/plans most of the work will be boxy the 40mm mount and turret will be the hardest part. i want something beefier to sit next to my tamiya PIBBER AARGH I SAY ARRRGH MATEYS

Hey,thats what I'm thinking about doing also.I have to pick up one of those LCM also.My father served on a riverine monitor in NAM.
I cant seem to find very many references for them though.
Can anyone help out there?

here's a couple of the sites i used
http://www.mrfa.org/riverine_assault.htm
http://www.usssatyr.com/home2.htm
http://www.riverinesailor.com/Weaponry.htm
http://www.rivervet.com/poster.htm (use the links at the bottom on this one)
http://www.eugeneleeslover.com/USNAVY/COASTAL-RIVERINE-CRAFT-ARMAMENT.html
I hope these help

THANKS!PanzerWulff!
These sites will help.Now I have to track down a LCM kit.They're kind of hard to find in my parts.

lol my bad it's not a 40mm turret as i first thought ( the flared muzzle confused me) it's a 105mm howitzer according to the references i have been reading. btw squid i have seen bolth italeri and trumpeter LCM's on greatmodels.com so i figure you could find one there

Thanks again PanzerWulff!
I'll check on that.I dont really like ordering on line since I dont have a credit card(they make me nervous).But if they'll take a money order I'll be picking it up!

A question for you guys:

A looooong time ago, maybe between 7 and 12 years ago, I think, in FSM there was a page with a release of a 1/72 scale Navy Monitor in Vietnam. I believe it was resin. Can anyone confirm this? if so, what was the company and how can I get one now? as far a Riverine/ Brown Water models I only have an LSSC from Calibre72 and some aircraft that can be included in that area. But everything else seems impossible to find in 1/72. I thought about buying an LCM3 and try to modify it to make a diorama I saw of a Huey landing on a modified deck, but can't get enough info or pictures. If anyone can help... please?!?!

Reread the thread and pay notice to my description of the Viking Models monitor.  They did their thing in the time frame you are talking about.  Viking also did several other VN riverine craft in 1:72-ish scale.  Caveat emptor!

The article about the helicopter-capable monitor appeared in Scale Ship Modeler (now out of business). 

Look at the 1:285 scale wargame models from GHQ.  They make a set of VN riverine craft

When you buy the LCM-3 - buy two of them because you are going to have to stretch a LCM-3 something like 8 scale feet in order to make a monitor.   It could also be done with a whole boatload (pun intended) of Evergreen sheet styrene and body putty.

I think I would look at the HobbyBoss 1:48 scale LCM.  Its cheaper than the Trumpeter/Italieri versions in 1:35 scale and would fit scale-wise with the Revell Swift boat.  Go to Tamiya's 1:48 armor accessories for the .50 calibers.  You will have to scratchbuild the 40mm gun & turret either way.

The monitors converted from LCM were also sponsoned out 18" on each side and a spoon bow added. I offer a set of plans based on the NAVSEA drawings for M-91-2 (a Program 4 monitor) at http://www.coastalforcesplans.com

Al Ross

Al, what was the boat shown/used in Apocalypse Now?

Gerarddm wrote:

Al, what was the boat shown/used in Apocalypse Now?

Wow, I haven't seen that flick in years!  I vaguely remember seeing one or two PBRs, but can't remember whether they were MK1s or MK2s.  A MK1 has a small triangular windscreen and the guns in the bow turret are close together.   A MK2 has a larger, rather curvy windscreen, widely-spaced guns in the bow turret, and an overhang at the transom. 

Al Ross

I don't know much 'bout them boats, but I thought it was a Pibber (PBR). Don't beat me up if I'm wrong. I know it had three gun positions. 1 in the front, a 60 behind the captain and another gun behind that, right?

PanzerWulff wrote:

tuesday any suggestions on a GOOD LCM kit i know there a couple out there

Well, for better or worse, the Mike boats out there are LCM-3, and the Riverine Forces used LCM-6, which are about 6' foot longer overall, and have a different raised rear deck and a different, if similarly-shaped steering station.  The latter two items submerging into the conversion, so they are not as important as the 2.25" length change in the well deck.

The real headache will be the bar armor.  There's tons of it.  There's not exactly a great wealth of specs on it either.  At 1/35, it's a rivet-counting toss-up as to whether you have to replicate the "rebar" look to it or not.  More vexing is ciphering up how the bar armor starts and stops.  The bow "spoon" and stern bulge both fair to the bar, but it's extreemly hard to find out if the hull comes up to the water line or not under the bars (that all the photos are of fully-laden vessels plowing through rivers does not help much either <sigh>).

It would probably be best to start off with an ATC, the Armored Troop Carrier, as it retains the most "lcm".  Command boat would probably be next best, with its mostly-filled in well deck. 

Biggest hassle will be in the combo 81mm mortar/M2 combo.  As far as I know, you have to scratch build every one you need.  Good news, though--it's a 20mm PT base (mostly), and the breech guard is very similar to the US 37mm breech guard.

Still makes for a cool thing to model up, though.  A Monitor is "gunned up" by any definition.  They often took the "lids" off the pilothouse turrets to keep cool in the dry season, so you can really detail the M2s or the Orlikon.

Can you tell I've wanted to do this a long while <g>?

leadfooterm535i wrote:

I know it had three gun positions. 1 in the front, a 60 behind the captain and another gun behind that, right?

Yep, in a nutshell.  The M60 positions were titanium plates stood up on the covers to the Detroit Diesel Marine V-6s.  The plates had two pintle mounts welded to them.  Normal load out was an M-60 to port & starboard.  It was not uncommon to see the hand-cranked M-8 40mm grenade launcher perched on one of the other pintles.

Three M2s, pair of M60s, 40mm grenade launcher, and crew sidearms makes for a heck of way to motor 33' of jacuzzi-driven boat about.

Masterpiece models makes several kits in 1/35th scale but they're pretty expensive.

Iknow this is kind of late since i'm posting this in 2014, but osprey has a book on riverine craft and squadron published a book titled Riverine, brown water navy is my favorite subject.