Merit 1/48 Elco 80’ PT Boat Early Type Ended

Just found this in the forum. I haven't built a boat/ship in 30 years - but is very interested in this one.  I tried to stay with 1/48, and there sure isn't a whole lot to pick from.  Your build is looking great so far.  I'm surprised though that there are no aftermarket items fro this kit.  Can't wait to see some more painting.

Waikong,

Thanks for checking out my WIP thread. I agree that there are not a great selection of ship models in 1/48 scale. Merit does have a late version of the Elco that I plan on building after I finish this up. 

I am hoping to get some white mottling done this week; however, using the airbrush means clearing everything off my work desk, so I have to plan accordingly. So I am keeping my fingers crossed and will post pictures.

Steve

I checked out your website and you have some beautiful models posted there!

So I'm curious, Steve, did you finish this kit? Any progress pictures?  Its been amost 8 months since the last update.

I finally broke down and got this kit, just fits into my display case :)

Btw, thanks for you kinds words about my models.  

I’m bumping this old dead thread as this will the next floaty thing I plan on finishing before the end of the year.

Although, like the Catalan Ship, if there’s no interest, then I’ll just post the finished model and call her done.

Steve

steve , I want to see anything you build , looking forward to it .

Totally forgot about this one. It’s been3 years since I commented here. Would love to see more pictures. I need to start on mine soon.

Buddy--you know how I feel about it. PLEASE POST!

Steve,

Please post all the steps that you've photographed and feel like showing us. I would certainly appreciate viewing your work as would others. We all can learn from each other and it's more than hunky dory viewing a WIP, it's a pleasure!

Thanks guys. I know I’m an extremely slow builder and when I see something shiny, well....

I’m attempting to finish as many wips and group builds as well as a monster Arizone by the end of the year. Heck I would be happy if I finish two by the end of the year.

Steve

Please post any progress you make on this.  I haven't started on mine, and I would love to copy all your good ideas!  :)

waikong

Please post any progress you make on this.  I haven't started on mine, and I would love to copy all your good ideas!  :)

 

Waikong,

Thanks for sticking with me! I’m going to try to get at least the hull painted this week, that will be a start at least. I also just received two sets of Master Model .50 cal barrels. I bought two because, they are actually for a 1/48 B-17G model. So why did I buy two of them?  Well because they have two flash suppressors in each set., so I needed four total for my machine guns. They are absolutely beautiful. I’ll post some pics of them. I’ll also end up a few extras that I can use on other projects.

I’m a bit scared to cut the barrels off of the guns and replace them with the metal barrels, but hopefully I’ll get them drilled and set straight. So wish me luck. Here’s a picture of the plastic .50s

Steve

*** Due to PhotoBuckets latest shakedown efforts, blurring all my photos on pretty much all my WIPs, unless I purchase more space, I’ve deleted all my photos from their site. But I saved off all them first. So, I’m going to be reposting photos slowly but hopefully surely. Since the Docs have said that building models would be great therapy for the nerve damage surgey I’ve been going through for the last couple of years. So, I’ll post a teaser of some actual work I’ve gotten done in the last five months. ***

Just a teaser of the Black thing becoming a Green thing. 

Steve

Thanks Tim!

S

Here are a couple of more pictures that I took with my iPhone. I spent a chunk of today uploading pictures to the big computer. So I’ll start off this week with a tale of happy and unhappy accidents in regards to the .50 cals.

Steve

As promised, here begins a tale of whoa and hopefully a solution. ie. "Happy Machine Guns."

The kit provided .50 cals were adequate to say the least. As seen here

Not being someone to leave well enough alone, I was going to enhance them with metal barrels from Masters Models' 1/48 B17g combo. Mainly because they cam with flash supressors as seen here.

So, surgery was begun with the glueing of the barrels with the flash supressors as seen here

The first part of the surgery was successful and high hopes were to be had

The dismemberment was also successful as seen in this picture.

And the mating of said barrels to the stock was successful at first

First set complete and not too bad, if I say so myself, which I do, although a bit of clean up would be required

Now, one would think that being fairly successful on the first set that the next would be a piece of cake....... except that fate, a harsh a mistress as there ever was step in. Whilst and at the same time, drilling the hole for the last stock went sideways. Both literally and figuratively...

So, after cussing up a storm, I had to figure out what the heck I was going to do to fix this mess. 

After trials that were unsuccessful, I remembered that Eduard sells some pretty nice 1/48 Brassin .50 cals. I procceeded to purchase said resin guns and so, test number 49,673 bore fruition. I unmated the the flash suppressors, you remember those really cool things that started this saunter down a twisted path, from the metal barrels and proceeded to mate them to the resin guns as seen here.

Then with a little putty and paint, they look like this. Except that I also painted the suppressors too.

And so ends this rather long and involved tale. So never give up, never surrender!

Now for another update. As I stated before, the gun supports on the Merit kit has the .50 cals at a perpendicular attitude. If you look at photos of the guns when not in use, they were usually pointing straight up and covered by tarps. Here is an example:

Steve

So here are the guns at the kit provided attitude

So to adjust their attitude I used a hair blow dryer very gently and not very long to pull them to a more upright position. I was afraid to adjust them to a straight up position as they might have broken. I'll post the completed guns in the next installment.

I’ve caught up on all the old posts so now we’re in the homestretch. Here are the guns dry fitted, well sort of, on the turrets. I’m attempting to lace the dodger on the aft turret now. Hopefully it will go well and that will be the next installlment.

Steve

Steve those weapons look fantastic!!

plasticjunkie

Steve those weapons look fantastic!!

 

Thanks PJ, I really appreciate the input. I would have liked to have the guns even more perpendicular but I was afraid that they wouldn’t take anymore manhandling.

It’s great to see you back and modeling again.

Steve

waikong

Great to see updates on this one!

 

Thanks for still following along Waikong. Did you ever build your PT Boat? I would love to see how you did your build if you did.

Steve

Here’s an update on the painting this beast.

The color scheme for the early boats were either Prewar #5 Standard Gray or Late 1941 5H Haze Gray, although I personally would go with the #5. In the PTO, they were painted Tropical Green. Both had Norfolk 65A Antifouling Red for their bottoms. There was no boot topping, it was the oils and crud from the water that is mistaken for the topping.

On this boat, I’m using Colourcoats from Sovereign. They’re an enamel paint and have been researched extensively to give the best colors available. It’s a bit more labor intensive for cleanup but they lay beautifully and the colors are spot on. So, US29 Tropical Green and US14 Norfolk 65A Antifouling Red.

Usally I paint the whatever the color below the waterline first. I did that and when I went to tape off the Red so that I could paint the rest of the hull Green, I found it incredibly difficult to tale off. I couldn’t get a straight line for the life of me! After a few choice words and trying to figure out what was going on, I decided to walk away for a bit.

It then struck me that maybe I was going about it backwards. Although I had never had a issue before painting in this sequence, I decided to try it the other way and it actually worked. 

So here a few pictures to of the process.

Steve

I started with a Black hull to see how this preshading technique worked.

And here’s the beautiful Red laid down.

As unbelievable as it might seem, I didn’t take any pictures of my trying to tape off the hull..... so here’s a picture of the hull with the Green on. I’ll post the the pictures of the of the painted hull right later.

waikong

I have not built mine, I'm waiting for you to finish as inspiration :) I do have to idea of having it powering thru the waves, but then I need some sailors, and have to learn to do waves... so some more things to acquire and skills to attain first. I was thinking of doing PT-41, the boat used to evac MacArthur from the Philippines, but not sure if it's the right type.

 

Waikong,

I think that it would take some major surgery and scratch building to get PT-41 out of the Merit kit. First you would have to shave 3 scale feet off the hull and add the beautiful upsweep forward of the cabin. Then you would need to scratch build pretty much the entire upper works.

Could it be done? Possibly but that would depend on your skill level. Here is are couple of beautiful wooden models that were done by Pat Matthews of the 41 and the 61.

Pesonally, I would love it if Merit would grace us with 48 scale models of the Elco 77 footers and the Higgins Boats!

Steve