I know Tamiya makes the patrol boat “Pibber”, which I have in my stash. But what im really trying to find and am coming up empty is a kit for the river monitor gun boats. As far as I can tell there are no kits for that. Does anyone know otherwise?
Masterpiece Models offers several 1:35 scale resin & brass riverine craft.
https://masterpiecemodels.com/shop/page/3/
Included are a Swift, Tango, CCB, Douche, ASPB and several others.
They are not cheap, but (with the exceprion of the old RM 1:48 Swift) tghey are the only game in town
Woo you aint kidding, $200 is a bit steep for a 1/35th kit… loks like ill have to start saving up lol, might find some stuff around the house to sell [H]
Hello!
This, or take an LCM-3, stretch it a little bit and then fit it out as a monitor…
I have thought about building a Tango boat in 1:72 this way…
Good luck with your projects and have a nice day
Paweł
Hmmm;
I feel your pain . I believe that Scientific models made one and plans are available from someone . I had Some LCM 6 boats for oil skim boats I do have a hull they are not that hard to build . Try NRG and see if they might have plans for sale .
My one hull is 1/48 . I think . It was a while back when I created it . T.B. P.S. There are two hull forms too .One had the rounded screw tunnels and the other had a tunnel that was flat on top and flat on the sides but slanted .
Both my oil spill boats were 6s , one flat tunnel and one round tunnel .
There is also the old Dragon Light SEAL Support Craft out there in 1/35.
Oh Yeah !
I forgot about that one . It’s a fairly decent kit too .
There is the old Monogram 1/48 RAG kit. Not a Monitor but at least a Vietnam era river boat.
Its not just a matter or splicing half-again the length and half-again the breadth into a LCM-3 to come up with an LCM-8. Totally putting aside the decking and superstructure the whole bow configuration is changed
See the instructions for the Masterpiece Tango boat to see what it would look like:
https://masterpiecemodels.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Tango-Instructions.pdf
It might be quicker to start with a hunk of wood and cut away everyting that didn’t look like an LCM
And to the OP, when you consider that the new Tiger Models Navy Commando boat (injected plastic) is on the market with a MSRP of about 90 USD. The price of these items is not too terribly out of line
Now that’s funny!
Would be easier to start from an LCM-6, which is what the protypes did.
The real pain is the bar armor.
I experimented with phot-etching a set (1/35), but they were actually too skinny (using the home PE stuff; professional shop could double surface etch thicker material and get a better effect).
I also tried casting a set, but to call the end result flimsy suggests a level of sturdiness a geometrical order of magnitude too great. Sigh.
Probably the answer is a hybrid, with fine styrene or brass tubing with cast resin surrounding it.
Ed, Capn - from what I know an LCM-6 is needed to start building the Vietnam river boats. Unfortunately there are no LCM-6s available in 1:72 or 1:35 as far as I know. That’s where my idea comes - to stretch an LCM-3. Looking at the drawings that’s very doable.
Now you’re right with that bar armor, Capn - that’s a challenge. I wonder it they could be 3D-printed. Shapeways has a limit on “supported wall” at 0,3mm - that’s how thin the detail could get, of course with some “cheating” as the armors would then be “walls” instead of bars. But I think PE technology can cope with wires as thin as the material thickness itself and then in stuff like 0,2mm stainless steel we could get really pretty bar armor. But as you said, that’s not something I would tackle at home.
Thanks for reading and have a nice day
Paweł
I’ve been wanting to build one of these as well looks like scratch building is the only way to go with out putting out some big money.
I also was looking for something (at a reasonable price). My brother served on a CCB and I hoped to build one for his birthday. I think scratch- building may be the way to go. I have a copy of the Osprey book on riverine craft, so that may help. Glad I"m not the only one interested in these boats.
Gary
The whole story of the brown water Navy is pretty neat, its too bad it isnt talked about more. It seems to be a part of the Vietnam war that isnt metioned much, I only know of one documentery about it.
Where do you guys go to pick up stowage kits? I cant seem to find anything specific for the PBR, but i figured i could use a stowage kit for vienam era tanks. Seems like ebay will be my go to, but is there anywhere else thats a good place to order from?
For those interested, this is a great site for background and photos.
http://www.rivervet.com/larry_irwin.htm
Gary
really good website! tons of really good photos
Some 30 plus years ago, I scratch built a Tango boat (ATC) using drawings from the Squadron/Signal Riverine book and photos from a book on the Navy in Vietnam in my college library. I built in 1/48 scale while I desparately looked for an old Monogram Swift Boat kit and the RAG boat to go with it.
As I recall, the bar armor on the boats was made from angle iron and reinforcing steel bars (don’t recall the size) and stood off from the surface of the craft a few inches to allow for the detonation to be disbursed over a larger area. On my build I used plastruct angles to form a frame and then glued lengths of 0.020" brass wire to form the bar armor. I don’t recall what I used to insure consistent spacing, but it came out good. Keep in mind this was pre-internet days so resources were limited on original photos and materials. I think my local hobby shop had to reorder the brass wire for me several times.
I still have the build. I’ll get it out and dust it off and try to post some photos.
Here is a link to a navy pub from the 50’s of Navy Boats. The LCM 6 was 6’ longer according to this and had the same beam, so the basic hull changes shouldn’t be too terrible. Now I am tempted to tackle another one of these!
http://www.hnsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/boatscat-250452-1955.pdf