1/35th PT-495 build-WIP photos

I fixed the feeders on both 50 cals and added the PE ammo belts.

The ammo belts are from Eduard. They are pre-painted but only on one side. Usually not a problem but with the gun elevated you can see the back side. I found that you can fold the belt over on itself and glue it together with a little CA. It gives the belt some thickness and they look good for either side. If you fold it over an exacto blabe right between 2 rounds near the middle of the belt, they line up really well.

Ed

The ammo belts look great.  Are these from the Academy set or did you use something different?

Dave

I fixed one of the mounts last night. I cut through the joints holding the ammo belt feeders to the mounts and smoothed up the mount points. Then I cut 2 thin rings from some 7/32" (.218") plastic tube. I sanded the upper half of one side on an angle so it would be thinner at the top. I glued this to the face of the kit's feeders' attachment points. I set the height, with the guns horizontal so that the lower portion of the rings just spanned the attachment bar. This put the center of the rings at the same level as the gun's feed ports.

Then i sanded the back side (toward the guns) of the kit's feeder so it was flat and even with the ridge molded into it. The feeder is "D"-shaped. This was then glued to the added ring so that the top curved edge of the feeder matched up with the top edge of the ring when the barrels were pointing up and the flat side of the "D" was down.

 It came out pretty good. I painted it to match the mount and will install an ammo belt tonight and try to get some photos. Getting the PE ammo belt to fit and twist may be a PITA. In retrospect it may have been easier to to glue the feeder to the ring and leave it off the mount until the ammo belt was glued into the feed port on the 50 cal. The belt could then be passed through the feeded and twisted without fighting everything. Once the belt/feeder looked right it could have been glued to the mount.

Time will tell. I'll see how it goes tonight and may do the second mount in stages.

Ed

Great build.

Keep the pics coming.

Jim

Not sure on the raft.  I think they are painted gray typically with a slightly lighter colored banding.  Not sure of the components either.  I have no color references.  I suggest that you reach out to the guys that served and see if they can provide an answer for this particular boat. 

Let me know what you learn.

Dave

weebles wrote:

It looks fixable but I feel your paint.

Funny. I liked that. Going to be a PITA to fix, especially without breaking the post the pivot is part of. Very weak.

Any idea how the raft should be painted? The oars and cask?

Doing the blue first would be counter intuitive since normally you would want to lay dark colors last.  But I'll take your word for it.  It looks fine from here.

I saw your post about the races for the ammo belt.  You are correct that the race (not sure what else to call it) would stay horizontal.  It caused me to go pull the box off the shelf.  They did get this wrong on the kit unless you are modeling the guns in the horizontal position.  Even the art work on the box is wrong.  It looks fixable but I feel your paint. 

I checked out your lead on the masks.  I'm going to keep that one.  Could come in useful.

Dave

Thanks Dave. I've learned at lot about the boats, met some great PT vets and families and have learned to do stuff I've never done on a model before, like cast my own parts.

The insigna use masks:

http://www.gatorsmask.com/

I e-mailed him and told him what I needed. He made 495s for me too. The masks were a bit tricky because of the curves and angles of the cabin and all the molded in details on the deck house. It just took some attention to details. The masks worked a lot better than trying to mask it off with tape.

I did the blue today. If I was doing it again I would do the blue disk first.

Here are some photos:

Lot's of details to do now. I started on the ammo belts. When I go to the 50 cal turrets I found a error in the kit. The slot in the things that feed the belt are supposed to stay horizontal. In the kit they pivot with the guns. I wanted to pose the model with the 50 point up and ammo belts in place. To show the belts now I would have to display the gun level, live with twisted belts or figure out some way to fix feeded. Fixing them would have been a lot easier before building the mount. Grrrr!

Glad you like it.

Archer has a couple of decal sheets for late model boats. One fixes the kit decals. 

Ed

Hi Ed,

Looking good.  A couple of questions...

1.  How did you do the national insignia?  Did you do your own mask or did you find something aftermarket?  Are you laying in the blue as well?

2.  What are you going to do about the numbering?  Are you making these yourself or do you have somebody doing them for you?

This is a great project to watch.  Thanks for sharing.

Dave

Thanks. Still more to do but it is progressing.