Hello all.
Seeing as though many of the other build threads have been very useful to me, I thought I would post my own as a bit of comic relief for you guys. Martin can Sticky it as a "what not to do" thread.
The Boat:
I like military boats, but I don't like big warships - too many other people do them, so I was looking for something a bit different. Barry at Westbourne Models suggested the PCF - Patrol Craft Fast used in the vietnam war, and after a bit of research I decided to have a crack at it.
The boats were 50' long, 13' wide and had a draft of only 3 foot. They were used throughout most of the vietnam war for fighting in the delta's. Speed was 32kts.
Armament was twin .50 cal machine guns in the turrent, and a weird device in the stern which mated a .50cal machine gun with an 81mm mortar.
104 were built in total - actaully they were originally designed as an in-shore tender, but the Navy dropped the large turrent in the top of the deck, added armaments and a little armour, and bob is your mothers brother.
Only one still survives - it has been re-built by surviving PCF members in the US.
The Model
The model is a caldercraft kit - now out of production. I understand that this is the last kit to be sold in the country.
The kit comprises of a GRP hull, ply for the structures and lots of white metal for the fittings and weapons.
Power will come from 2x speed 700 motors. twin rudders are used, and a mixer will sit between rudders and props so that the individual props speed up/slow down in relation to the rudder movement.
From a scale point of view, below the waterline the kit is a long way out. After a lot of fiddling with the included white meal rudders and props, I decided that everything below the waterline would be functional, rather than scale, so good quality - and large - rudders were fitted, along with some decent semi-cleaving three blade props.
The Histroy:
I first started building this model about a year ago. It is the last kit in the country for a reason - that reason being that it's a bit of a lemon, and also caldercraft don't offer much support on it any more.
The hull is very poor. The image below shows the state of the hull after it's 4th coat of hi-lift primer - there are still significant depressions. There were also chunks of the hull combing missing - not the green stuff at the bow and stern.
<<green stuff - this is an epoxy putty sold by Games Workshop and has been invaluable on this project - I truely believe epoxy putty is very valuable addition to any modellers toolbox.>>
next step was the deck. This didn't actually fit - in any direction - so a heat gun, lots of acetone and clamps were used to try to pull it into a rough shape that fit. Then the gaps were Green Stuff'd again.
Most of the wooden components didn't fit in at least one place - truely the worse kit I have ever dealt with - to get as far as the images below took about three months, and the model became a chore rather than a pleasure.
In the end at the advice of some of you chaps here - I put the model in the loft and forgot about it for a while.
This is where it got to:
The Present
recently I was digging in the loft and came accross it again. And after a good dose of looking at it I actually felt like I might want to resurect it. A second dose of looking at, and going back to my photo - sources made me decide that it was a good plan, so I heaved it all down and set to again.
Many of the issues that I was having now don't seem to bad. However, before I can crack on with it, my previous choice of pulling the deck in is now coming back to haunt me. Somehow, the deck has taken on a compund curve, and is now bent in two directions.
<<poor image - bends go to about 6mm in places>>
After a lot of thinking, I've decided that I'm going to skim the lot in body filler and get it back to flush, so I have a solid base to work from. At that point I might then lay down a thin layer of ply, so I can go back to working with Wood - wood joins.
The dremel came out this morning and the combing for all the deck area's was removed. Next step is to get a flat and even working surface. And then I'll start again.
I'll keep posting as make progress. However, you should probably expect more questions than interesting pictures and observations.
The plan, after a post on this forum, is that I'm not going to build the boat "pristine" - like most models are. PCF's led a very hard life, and this model will be made to look the same. I'm not sure how far to take this yet. One photo I have shows the deck covered in blood and three wounded navy men, and bullet holes in the deck house. I'm kind of tempted to go this far, but it might be a bit disrespectful to the fallen.
Steve
<<Oh - just so you don't think badly of me - the stand is - i know - possibly the worse contructed thing that you have ever seen. My friend made me a lovely stand when I first got going on the model - but it rapidly started to get covered in glue and muck. So that got put away, and the shoddy stand you see here was knocked up in ten minutes just for the build and paint phase.>>
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Topic: Build thread - PCF - "Swift Boat" (Read 7937 times)