I know ;
Everyone is familiar with these .They run the Gamut from Airfix’s offerings of the Vosper version of a P.T. boat with four torpedoes and then the drop deck with two torpedoes and last , the famous " Whaleback " R.A.F Rescue boat , which too , is very interesting.
These boats stand alone in their complexity , for the novice builder . The Big boat ( the Vosper 73 ) is one mean puppy if it’s warped . Now the same can be said for the drop deck version ( the 70 ) . The "Whaleback " does no better in this department .
It seems that Airfix thought it would be easier to mold the hulls so it took four or more parts to build just the hulls . I don’t know why . I spent a year super detailing the “73” so I could see how it compared to an O.O.B. version ( that the neophyte would build ). Nice Part ? They are all 1/72 scale !
Well , I have to tell you . If you took your time and were very careful with the fiddly small and thin parts , you could come up O.O.B with a darned good looking version of one of these boats . Superdetailing , just gave you a better , more time consuming version . Thing is , If you went "super " it was really hard to tell after painting and decaling.
Now going Postwar , there was and is a version of the VOSPER with The Codag type system out there . It was built for Malaysia . It was called the Perkasa ! It’s TAMIYA through and through ! The first time I saw one in the box I thought I had died and gone to modelers heaven . Gees ! A two color full hull all in one piece except the transom .WOW !
That and if you followed All the instructions properly as to painting as well .( at that time Humbrol was called out ) You certainly had a Museum quality model .Yours might have some boo-boos but when all is said if you were careful with the thing , it just sat there saying " You looking at Me ? "
Lindberg saw fit to release the American counterparts as did Revell , so they don’t fit here . Methods of assembly were the same except all the iterations of P.T.109 and the large version ( Lindberg ) that had the wrong bow shape ! Plus the Air Rescue boat that was a multi - part Hull , model. Converted to a nice yacht too !
All the British boats I’ve mentioned here could be modified without a lot of surgery and still looked different enough you could tell them apart . Now , here’s where I leave it . Would I recommend the re-release of the re-lease and so on ? Since they have obviously cleaned up the molds , Why Not ?They are fun builds that take a little more work that their Lindberg counterparts and look darned good when finished . Get one and try it yourself .They are old , Multi part hull , boats , that fit right in today ! T.B.