75th Anniversary of 1943 (World at War)

I don't know, Steve.  The last book I read on the subject said the crew made it to Plum Pudding Island by clinging to a plank.  Kennedy, of course, famously swam and hauled "Pappy" McMahon there by gripping the strap of his kapok life preserver in his teeth.

It's hard to imagine the 109 didn't have rings, since the 37mm on the bow displaced the usual life raft, and it doesn't seem like the crew stowed it anywhere else aboard.

I haven't ever put people on 1/700 ships, but I thought that PT boats without a crew would look kind of like little "Mary Celeste's."

The only suitable crew I could find came from Blue Ridge's 3D printed 20mm crew.  The have serveral different poses.

They come out of the package like this.

I cut three lines of them out of their nest, then cut each little person apart and stuck them on lids from water bottles, so I could handle them.

I used Vallejo paints; first time I used them and thought they were really good for figures.

Then I tried to brush them with Micro's flat finish, but the flat finished refused to be flat; left them all glossy, even though I shook and stirred the bottle.  I ended up putting them all on a strip of masking tape, then spraying them with Humbrol Matte, and they turned out much better.

Some I painted as officers in khaki's, but I used Vallejo's Iraqui sand color; the Vallejo Khaki I thought was too dark.  The rest got crew uniforms in light and dark shades of blue.

The only time I tried 1/700 3D figures I kept breaking the feet off when removing them from the tree. They sure look better than 2D PE figures though.

Thanks, Steve.  I used sprue cutters to detach them from the attachment points, but at this scale, who can say if I didn't also remove some footwear?  

Torpedo tubes painted:

I gave them a faint highlight of the lightened base color, and a black pinwash; same thing with the life rafts.  Everything received a final top coat of Humbrol "Satin."

One item that wasn't easily available were the boat numbers.  Commercially, I couldn't find anything small enough, so I used aircraft numbers from Starfighter Decals 1/700 Midway set.  They included white numbers, and enough of them to do the three boats.

I placed them below the window line, because there wasn't enough room above it, where it appears most boat numbers were placed--although a few models of PT boats I found on the net show the number below the window.

Technically, there should be numbers on each .50 gun turret and on the base of the aft 20mm--but I didn't have enough, and nothing nearly small enough for the tiny 20mm base.

Finally, I rigged up a base from cardboard covered with aluminum foil, painted to represent waves and wakes with acrylic craft paint.  Not overly thrilled with how it turned out, but at least it gives the PT's something to "sail" on.

I love this build. So cool! That foil teqniuqe works quite well. All this with figures in 1/700? Crazy bud. Looks great so far. 

Thanks very much, Griffin.  

I should be able to post finish-photos tomorrow.

The water looks great Check.

I showed the Scharnhorst and Kirishima at EagleQuest yesterday and they both won Bronze. I was pleased with the result consedering the competition, including Ed Grune's Coast Guard Surf Boat behind the 1/200 Arizona

Aaron was there as well.

He told me not to let the FBI see the picture. Oops!

Congratulations Steve! Well deserved honor’s. 

Well done Steve and deffinetly well deserved.

Check, very impressive work there in such a small scale. I think i wil stick with 72nd and bigger for figures, those things would strain me to breaking point.

I think that water looks damn good, looking forward to seeing how the boats go on there.

Steve, right on - congrats!

----------------------------

Check, those boats  are looking quite good.  I did know there were resin figs available in that scale, wow!

regards,

Jack

Way to go Steve! 

Thanks very much, Steve; Bish; Jack.  One advantage to 1/700 figures is that they're too small to see any mistakes.    There isn't much left to do--each boat only has about 8 PE parts to add, now.

Congratulations, Steve!  Exceptional work.  Glad that you received the recognition your skills deserve!

Which technique are you going to use for highlights and lowlights on their faces? What size brush are you going to use for the eyes?  

I pulled a whisker from one of the cats; she'll never miss it.

Congratulations Steve!  Absolutely well deserved.

Check, I have never seen people at that scale before.  Very interesting build.  But keep that kitty away.  They look too much like bugs, and my kitties would eat them!

Thanks, Dwayne.  Blue Ridge produces several different sets of 1/700 figures:

https://freetimehobbies.com/ships/ship-model-accessories/?_bc_fsnf=1&Scale=1/700&Subject+Type=Figures&brand=413

After this PT boat project, though, I'm not likely to crew a large warship with them--at least until my eyes re-focus.

And I probably should come clean about the kitties:

"No cats were harmed in the production of these PT boats and their crews.  All whiskers remain intact and where they belong."

Honest!

I save my cats whiskers when they fall out. Great for 1/35 cigarettes and various other small gauge items  Seriously

Thanks for the congrats guys! 

Griffin25

I save my cats whiskers when they fall out. Great for 1/35 cigarettes and various other small gauge items  Seriously 

Well, that's a new one on me, Griffin!  I'll keep an eye out; but usually I only find claws that they've shed around the house.

Whisker cigarette  No cat was harmed 

 

Now that is exceptionally clever and very realistic, Griffin!  

Steve out standing a double bronze I will make a drink called that !

Griffin wow all you need is the smoke from the cigarette!

here are my latest pics from the B-24 put the halves to togethere and aline the nose that comes separate. painted the deice boots and masked ready for some preshading.

Looking good nick. I think the B24 was the best looking bomber of ww2 era. That's Minicraft right? How is that kit from a building perspective? 

Nice work, Nick.  I've built a few of these over the years, and joining the nose to the rest of the fuselage was usually a challenge.  Looks like you've managed it really well.

Griffin I built this same kit in 92 made a bunch of mistakes  on this kit you some times don’t follow the instructions but so far so good

CMK I glued the Fuselage 1st then the nose Separate alined the panel lines then used tamiya glue but it’s a good kit 

Nick:  that's what I ended up doing with the last one I built, four years ago for the "Longest Day" GB.  Before that, I'd tried gluing each nose piece to the fuselage, then joining them together.  Don't think that worked too well.

But, the Academy molds are about the best, if not the only, B-24 out there in 1/72, and they do build up nicely.

One thing I do remember, cuz it was kind of embarrassing:  the kit directions show the wrong way to put the vertical stabilizers on the tail plane--unless they've changed them by now.  The directions with the kit I had resulted in getting them on upside down.   

Someone in the GB noticed and let me know.  I had a spare set in the parts box from an earlier failed attempt, but I had to get a new set of decals just for the tail markings.

Finished the PT boats.

First, for reference, PT 109 about to ground herself on a penny:

Which isn't too far from wrong.  Reports are that PT 109's engines failed when JFK was running her in for refueling.  He smashed the boat into the dock.

Unfortunately, my camera is twelve years old and doesn't have the resolution that newer ones have, so I had a hard time getting sharp photos in focus.  But here's what I was able to shoot.

109

162 

157

From a more normal viewing distance

That's about it!

Those look great Check. The water looks fantastic