This is a general appeal to the after market manufacturers who may be considering parts for this wonderful kit. Here are some suggestions…
An upgrade to the cockpit is deffinately needed. We’re missing a lot of detail in there that would best be served by resin. Electrical boxes, conduit, loud speakers, etc. are all missing from the kit.
Everything about the MK 17 mount for the .50 cal machine guns can be improved upon. Especially the guns and ammo belts.
Backdate the radar to a type “SO” (dome top radar) for some additional subject opportunities.
Ammo - Some nice ammo in brass for the .37mm, and .40mm would be excellent. Something to improve the .37mm gun would be good. And while we’re at it some rockets for the rocket launcher would be nice.
Some corrected and additional boat numbers would be a great decal offering.
I think that about covers the key points for me. Does anyone else have anything they would like to see for this kit?
Thanks after market gods for everything you do for the community.
For back-daters, in addition to your items, how about depth chages and racks, 20 mm cannons and mounts, early style 37 mm and mounts, early style deck vents, early style cockpit details.
John Snyder of White Ensign Models, in a response to a similar request made on SteelNavy said …
"Peter Hall is working on a series of WEM PE sets for the boat and its weapons, rather than one big set. This will let modellers pick and choose how much they want to spend and how much detail they want to add. Just keep watching our website, and I’ll be posting more as things become available. We might even have a bigger surprise up our sleeves… "
After reading “DEVIL BOATS” the PT War against Japan by William Breuer, and with the forward written/endorsed by Admiral John D. Bulkeley himself. Mr. Breuer wrote about Lt. Bulkeley in chapter 3 titled “The Wild Man of the Phillippines” and I quote: His swashbuckling exploits had gained him a widely known nickname: Wildman of the Phillippines. A striking physical appearance strengthened that lable; he looked like a cross between a bloodthirsty bucaneer and a shipwrecked survivor just rescued from months spent on a desolate island. His shirt and trousers were soiled, wrinkled, and torn. He wore a long black, unruly beard, and his green eyes were bloodshot and red rimmed from endless nights without sleep while out prowling the coasts. On each hip he carried a menacing pistol, and he clutched a tommygun in a manner that caused others to believe he was itching to locate a Japanese to use it on. Bulkeley indeed was a wildman.
In chapter 4 “MacArthurs “Impossible” Escape” the General called “Johnny Bulkeley, the buckaroo with the cold green eyes.”
What I am trying to get at is that the crews did not dress as the “AM” guys have made them to look like, with full dress dungarees. The book also tells how the PT crews would cut off the toes of their shoes so that the feet could breathe and also cut off the pants to make shorts out of them, they wore no shirts or lifejackets to hinder thier movements. These are are the kind of figures we need to man our “PT’s”, not inspection ready sailors, but ruff and ready fighting men.
U-Models produced some very nice 1/35 depth charge sets for the PT boat. They were showing available in Europe through Blast Models but I think they’ve been out for a while. You may try to contact U-Models directly to see if you can buy some from them.
We’ve been trying to convince some of the after market people to do some stripped down Navy sailors to go along with the PT and various other boats that have come out in 1/35. So far nothing yet.
