Revell PT-109

Here is a link to a site someone posted here a while back with lots of info on the PT boats.

http://www.battleshipcove.org/pt-museum-history.htm

Steve

It is your model and you may paint it any way you wish.    The plastic police will not break down your door at 2am for painting your model as you have described.  

There are no known color photos of the PT-109.   There are color photos of other PT boats later in the war in a green pattern camouflage.  The boats were delivered to the Navy at the ELCO plant in Bayonne painted in an overall gray with a dark gray deck - not bare wood. 

It has been determined, and generally accepted that the boats in Kennedy's squadron in the South Pacific were painted overall in theater in a home-brewed green paint.   White Ensign's Colourcoat line of paints includes this color.   It is not an olive.   If you must choose a paint which you have in your paint box -- go with a forest green.

The hull bottom was painted in Copperoyd - a trademarked antifouling paint.  It was a rusty-red color.  Lowe's Hardware store sells American Tradition paint - their Red Primer is a good match.   Out of the bottle - a 60:40 mix of Testors Rust and Insignia Red will get you close.

I'll give you the raft in gray.

On to the torpedo tubes ... the domed tip on the tube is a protective cap that blows off when the torpedo is launched.  It is not the tip of the torpedo.   It should be the color of the rest of the boat.  However, since these are expendable items they could come from the warehouse in almost any color - grey or another green.

The back end of the torped tube wasn't open.  It was a door through which the back of the torpedo was serviced.   It was hinged to swing inboard and held in place by a spiderweb of braces and thumbscrews.   It should be the hull color

You may not want to hsue the big numbers on the hull.    They were applied to the PT boat in President Kennedy's inagural parade.   The myth that they were there sorta stuck.   Use only the numbers on the front & sides of the chart room.   I'm not sure about a number on the pedestal of the aft 20mm gun at the time of her loss, but they were there when she was put on a tanker to be shipped to the South Pacific as deck cargo.

You may want to search through this MB for other threads on PT boats in general and PT109 in specific

subfixer wrote:

So, the life raft was left on the beach.... Sure would have come in handy that night, unlike that peashooter 37mm.

Just an FYI, depending on how historically accurate you want to be.  The deck in the Revell kit is way off.  The actual decks were plywood, not planks as with the kit. It is an easy conversion with one sheet of Evergreen styrene. 

If you really want to go all out the White Ensign photo-etch kit is awesome. It is kit # WEM PE 7205. It is a little pricey at about $50.00 but you will not be disappointed. There is more detail than Revell could have ever imagined.

The best part about this kit is that it is inexpensive, a staple in the hobby that never goes away, and PT boats were modified at the whim of their crews so you can really never go wrong. Have fun and experiment!

FMF Doc wrote:

The deck in the Revell kit is way off.  The actual decks were plywood, not planks as with the kit. It is an easy conversion with one sheet of Evergreen styrene.

Actually the decks were planked.   Al Ross, noted author, historian and model pattern maker for Bluejacket Models, has located some photos of the decks of 80' ELCOs which show that the decks were planked.   They just were not planked as grossly as the Revell model shows them.    Other photos in Victor Chun's excellent book on US PT boats during WWII seem to show canvas applied over the fore deck and painted down.  (Sort of like a fiberglas application).

Sanding the decks down is an easy night's work.   Be sure to backfill the hatches and torpedo tube bolsters with a putty.

If you choose to go the Evergreen route be sure to check your references to make sure that you put the correct amount of camber (i.e. crowning) in the decks.  They were not flat

I agree with Ed's comments about the color.  It's all speculation at this point.  However I did correspond with a gentleman who stripped down these boats prior to painting and he had everything down to the primer colors.  He was very specific about the color being "forest green" whatever that means.  If you look at the boats as they transferred to Rendova they are very dark.  My choice is going to be for a faded dark green and I'll probably rub some dark gray into the paint with pastels.  I'll have to experiment with that first. 

Speaking with Dick Keresey who was the skipper of the 105 boat, he thought that the boats were gray up until he gave up his boat at Rendova.  Take a look at the movie PT-109.  They were very careful with boat details and one of the crew actually was in the movie.  The boats are a dark green with gray tones.  So that may give us some clues. 

The life raft most likely was gone or lashed to the top of the day cabin.  The crew had scrounged a small boat that they used for getting around while at base. 

The mast is most definitely gone at the time of the 109 sinking and probably was never there from the time Kennedy had the boat.

If you're modeling it at the time of the 109 sinking remember that the port depth charge was blown off when the forward port torpedo launched accidently in high seas.  I would keep that in mind when installing the port toe rail and think about the repair that would have been done.  It will make for a nice detail to have a slightly newer shade of paint in that area of repair. 

I'm curious about the torpedo covers.  I've seen two types.  One that has large screws holding it in place and another that has a piece of triangular shaped metal held in place by three wires.  It doesn't look to me like these would blow off.  If anyone has any history on this please let me know.

Dave

Thanks for the info on the decks.  The camber is a very good point. The cabins and hatches will not mount directly without the camber! Learned that the hard way several kits ago.......

Please check the new thread I started on a great Vietnam conversion idea you can do using this kit.

PT Boat finish...

1.  No, the boat would not have had the gray bottom.  No clue where that color scheme came from and I've seen no photographic evidence to support it. 

2.  It would not have a boot stripe.  Simply a antifouling red bottom (redish brown) and whatever color above deck.  That said the boats sat in oily water.  Typically they would have a stain along the water line.  This can be duplicated with an oily wash of some sort.  Just don't over do it. 

3.  The mufflers were typically painted to match the boat.  So the bottom halves are antifouling red and the top matches the boat. 

Have fun

Dave

What I'm planning on doing is taking some ground black pastel chalk and a very stiff brush and running a narrow line along the water line.  Rub it out along the length of the line with a cotton ball and I think that would do the trick.  I think this will produce better results than if I tried using a liquid stain.

Good luck!

Dave

Steel Panther wrote:

Ed the boats 4 foot long and almost 13inches at its widest part,I also did 9 crew on deck,that was a another project.Check that web site.................Alan