Tamiya PBR (x2), not really armor, but close enough for the Navy

My latest project is a boat (or 2). I am building 2 Tamiya (sort of) PBRs that will eventually go with a Masterpeice Models ATC(H) and probably a Huey and a couple smaller craft (zodiac and Vietnamese junks) in a Mobile Riverine Force diorama.

Here is how they started.

You may ask why one is white. Here’s the story. I recently bought a PBR kit off of eBay. When it arrived, it was in a cardbord box, not the Tamiya box. Upon further inspection, it contained about 1 1/2+ kits (2 of the main sprue, 3 of the secondary sprue, and 3 of the figure sprue, but only one hull, cabin, and rear/middle deck section). I started thinking about it and didn’t want to waste the other partial kit. I had the idea of vac-forming the missing parts for the second boat from the kit parts for the first boat. So I took out my trusty vac-former and some sheet plastic and got to work.

I ended up copying the cabin, hull, and center and rear deck sections. I then scratched the forward and rear gunwales and side plate armor on the cabin from sheet styrene. So far it looks good to me. The rest of the parts will come from the duplicate kit pieces.

Here they are after some more work. All that is left is the supports for the canvas cover and the painting and detailing begins.

I decided to put an engine in one since Tamiya makes one side engine cover removable. I looked at references of the big Detroit Diesel marine engines used in them. I found some great pics at Brownwater Enterprises in their PBR restoration section. A great resource for anyone building a PBR.

Here are the actual engines:

I made my rendition of the engine using an M113 block as a start and then added pieces from there. Here is the end result.


Along with the exhaust cross over.

I also added the exhaust outlets that Tamiya missed.

The pipes are 3/32 tubing and the bolted rings around them are Archer surface details decals.

Lastly, I added bulkheads and details to the engine compartment.

That’s how they are as of now. I hope to finish the details and get some paint on them soon. Let me know what you think.

I like 'em. Plus, I always enjoy seeing some scratch-building.[Y]

Thanks Russ. I’ll keep you posted.

Looks like it is going to be a huge river diomara! I’ll defnitely follow your process especially if you can show us how to make water/river for the diomara… that part scared me! LOL

Thats always scared me too, theres products out there to replicate water (even games workshop makes one) but i still think artists resin left to almost dry (till its just about past gooey) then attacking it with a crochet hook or something gives a good wake effect. I saw it done once. never tried it myself.

Gino,

Looks like you’ll be busy for next few months. As always, looks great!

OK…boats…first an aircraft carrier…now PBRs…well I hope they eventually will tow this

Now that’s a boat…a nice artillery barge[;)]

Vac-u-form…wow, ancient arts…we are pulling out all the stops. Nice work. I like the engine. Keep it coming (Hummm…and I thought I was the strange one around here!!)

Rounds Complete!!

Thanks Guys. I have done water before and had good luck with plain old fiberglass resin, tinted with acrylic paint. That is probably what I will use again.

Here are a couple examples of the fiberglass resin water. (sorry for the bad pics, I had a crappy digicam back then).

This one is on a sheet of glass with a thin layer of resin over top for some surface texture. Yes, the diver’s are “in the water” or under the glass.

Mike, just taking a little hiatus from tracks. I have plans and drawings for the Arty Barges too. One is on the to-do list as well…eventually. I had to dust off the old vac-former since it had been so long since I used it. I can pull a few tricks out when I need to though. Thanks for looking in on me.

Excellent scratch built power plants! Nothing says diesel power like ‘Detroit’

One day I would like to build the scene from ‘Apocalypse now’ when Lance was water skiing behind the PBR. That sort of R+R actually happened, just further out in the ocean away from the sight of higher ranks. Not accurate but a wakeboard would be cooler to me.[H] Possibly mid air? Dare to dream!

SF,

That is exactly what I was just going to type! Another idea could be where the PBR takes fire from the bank and Clean get’s shot. You could have have them all laying on supressing fire to the treeline while Chief tries to pull Willard’s head into a spear - great dio!

The forward .50s will be a build on their own!

Keep us posted buddy,

ATVB

Ben [Y]

Hinsky, great minds think alike!

Sniper’s in Vietnam’ is a soft cover book I read, it told of one sharpshooter who picked a Vietcong rifleman who was plinking at their boat out of a tree from a swaying PBR at over 900 yards! The rest of the crew couldn’t even see where the VC was untill he fell from his hide. As their creed it was ‘1 shot 1 kill’

FYI ~ After the conflict it was determined the average M16 fired 50 000 rounds per enemy KIA, sniper’s in Vietnam had a impressive average of 1.5 bullets per enemy KIA!

Gotta love “Apocalypse Now.” I have already built “PBR Streetgang” from the movie. I eventually want to do the scene when they reach COL Kurts’ lair with Dennis Hopper on the steps greeting them. Here is the boat.

More pics here.

The forward .50 cals, just like the rest of the kit, are a pretty easy assembly to build. They’re not hard at all and they are very detailed.

The kit comes with a 4-man crew in battle poses on the guns and a coxswain gunning the throttles. They are pretty descent and can be painted up nicely. You can see them in the pics below.

As you can tell, I really like the Tamiya PBR kit.

HeavyArty,

Awesome! Lance and Chef look very good. You captured the scene so well it doen’t require explanation.

‘Lance what is all over your face?’ Asks the captain.

‘Camouflage sir…’

‘What?’

‘So they can’t see me… they are everywhere!’ Replies Lance

‘Man those 50’s and get off the dope, stay alert up there… you have a job to do!’ Barks the captain.

I know the quotes are a bit early before your scene pulling up to Kurt’s encampment, yet interesting dialog regarding Lance’s state of mind and face paint.

…let alone dropping ACID and walking into that trench!

Willard “Hey soldier, do you know who’s in command here?”

Black Soldier (after blowing up the screaming NVA guy with the bloop gun) “Yeah”.

Just a perfect film-I wish they hadn’t included that awful ‘love’ scene at the French plantation though-awful.

How about an Apocalypse Now GB?!

How great would that be?

I see surfers behind PBR’s & crazy colonels galore!

ATVB

Ben [H]

Hinsky,

[ip]The plantation scene was included in the extended version or director’s cut. Also the longer beach scene showing Killgore ramble on about the war. I prefer the theater release cut that was a shorter version of the movie, excluding both those boring scenes.[2cnts]

'the Roach’ was the black hippy soldier sporting the M-79 40mm explosive launcher. It had a maximum range of around 400 yards, the projectile had to rotate 79 times to arm as its bore was rifled for spin stability. Basically a shortened break action 12 gauge shotgun on steroids.

Jimmy Hendrix’s 'Purple Haze’ was playing on the radio during the scene, the Roach turned it off to calculate the position of the taunting Vietcong.

Apocalypse Now GB?

‘Why’

‘Because Charlie don’t surf!’

*Play ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ by Wagner for inspiration….LOUD! [hdphns]

and…

'I love the smell of napalm in the morning!

Sounds good. Maybe I’ll put Kilgore’s surfboard on the skids of the Huey that will be sitting on the ATC(H) to tie it all together.

Or on “PBR Streetgang”

I liked the French Platation scenes (minus the whole gushy love scene) in the Redux version. I thought the plantation made the backward time stream flow better. French IndoChina was a missing link in the original theatrical version of the movie.

Gino’s building boats…

The horror…the horror!!

Sorry…I could not resist

Nice pics of the PBR. The old dios look cool…

OK…I will stop picking on you…I have two landing craft on the shelf myself[:O]

Keep it coming…and with all that water, keep your powder dry!!

Rounds Complete!!

Got this kit meself now I probably want to get another one as well. My cousin was a sailor on destroyers for a few years during Nam back in the 1960’s then went into the Riverine force later on on PBR’s and Swiftboats.

BTW I think it was Marlon Brando as Col. Kurts I didn’t remember Dennis Hopper being in the movie. And you forgot to add Martin Sheen’s charachter to the boat LOL[whstl].

Thanks Mike. I knew you had a few boats in the stash too. You try to keep your powder dry up there in the land of Noah’s Ark right now as well.

Mikeym_us: Dennis Hopper was the crazy photographer who greeted them as the reached the end of the river and Kurtz. He was all whacked out on drugs and pretty crazy. Not a far fetch for Dennis Hopper to play.

CPT Willard (Sheen’s character) is the one up on top of the former radar mast. By this point in the movie, they are down to him, Lance on the forward .50s, and Chef at the helm.

It is a little funny that the figure you made to represent Captain Willis looks more like Lawrence Fishburn instead. LOL

Have you thought of doing a dio of the scene where the PBR is being lifted by the Huey.