Author Topic: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft  (Read 42126 times)

Offline LemonJello

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1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« on: February 02, 2015, 10:15:35 PM »
I promised myself that I'd take part in at least a couple of the Group Builds this year, so I'll cast off from the pier with this project:

I'm starting with a Revell 1/72 Elco PT Boat as the base kit.  It is going to be scale-o-rama'd into a 1/35 brown water/littoral gunboat.  I'm looking at two options: 1) the Spec-Ops support vessel with grenade launchers/heavy machine guns, modern comms/navigation and room for a SEAL/MARSOC/SAS team to be carried in/out, or 2)A heavily armed river/littoral shipping interdictor armed with an M242 (LAV-25 turret), armored bridge and Hellfire/Brimstone-type missile armament.  I'll have to play with some parts to see what looks as though it works best.

I'll post pics when there's been some progress.  All ideas, suggestions and comments are, as always, extremely welcome.

Offline jcf

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2015, 05:36:01 AM »
Scale-o-ramaed to @ 1/35 the ELCO measures out just slightly larger than the Seafox, so the SEAL route would
definitely fit. Evidently some were used as 'unoffocial' patrol boats off Lebanon in the early '80s.

There were Vietnam era proposals for riverine patrol craft of approximately the same dimensions @36'+ ~ 40'+ LOA, @ 9'6"+ ~ 13'+ BEAM, so again the scaled ELCO falls in the range.

One interesting proposal was for a larger 85' river patrol hydrofoil with shallow surface-piercing fixed foils, so foils of that sort
on an ELCO based 40' might look pretty cool.

Do you have Friedman's U.S. Small Combatants? Loads of inspiration in that book.

Jon
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Offline Cliffy B

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2015, 05:42:06 AM »
Scroll through the list of boats here.  Full of ship's boats, harbor craft, landing craft, and riverine craft.  Should get some light bulbs lit  :)

http://www.hnsa.org/resources/manuals-documents/single-topic/boats-of-the-united-states-navy/

There's info and drawings for each.  Some on one page, others on 2 or more.
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Offline LemonJello

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Support Craft
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2015, 02:35:59 AM »
OK. Some small progress made, so I'll post a few rough photos.  Comments and suggestions welcome, as always.

The kit:


The deck out of the box, notice the short shot on the forward deck - that's going to need some work!


So, I sanded/ground all the details off with the trusty dremel to get to this point.  I'm going to clad the entire deck with sheet styrene to give me a uniform base to start with.  Here is the armament I'm going with right now, just mocked up to see what works/doesn't work.  I had also played around with using the remote weapon station from my Boxer on this.




This is going to need a lot of additional supports after all the cutting I've done.

Offline Kerick

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2015, 02:59:08 AM »
Just my $0.02 worth. How about raising the turrets up a half inch or so? Might improve the fields of fire.

A Bradley turret would give you TOW missile capability.

This is a very interesting idea, I'll be watching!

Offline LemonJello

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2015, 03:27:48 AM »
Just my $0.02 worth. How about raising the turrets up a half inch or so? Might improve the fields of fire.

A Bradley turret would give you TOW missile capability.

This is a very interesting idea, I'll be watching!

Thanks, I was pondering raising the turrets, I've got to get the superstructure worked out between them...but I agree, raising them up from the deck will help.

Unfortunately, no Bradley turret (or kit) in the stash here. I was also looking at the LAV-50 Mecar 90mm and the AVGP Cougar turrets as options.

I do have some 1/35 AH-1W TOW tubes in the spares...maybe I can work something with those?

Offline jcf

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #6 on: February 08, 2015, 04:27:03 AM »
If the boat is to be still capable of getting up on plane, you won't want to put the turret too far forward.
“Conspiracy theory’s got to be simple.
Sense doesn’t come into it. People are
more scared of how complicated shit
actually is than they ever are about
whatever’s supposed to be behind the
conspiracy.”
-The Peripheral, William Gibson 2014

Offline finsrin

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #7 on: February 08, 2015, 04:34:59 AM »
Keep building :-*
38.9ft as 1/35
« Last Edit: February 08, 2015, 07:18:54 AM by finsrin »

Offline Kerick

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2015, 04:35:38 AM »
Armor adding weight would start to be an issue. Its a whiff, so build it as you like it!

Offline Frank3k

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #9 on: February 08, 2015, 06:00:08 AM »
Instead of continuing to sand away details, can't you just flip the deck over and then clad with styrene?

For turrets, if you don't mind scratchbuilding, there are a few free tank and AFV paper models that can be used as templates for a styrene version.

Here's a District 9 AFV with a smallish turret: http://myhobbycraft.blogspot.com/2011/12/mnu-apc-135-district-9.html
SA vehicle with a 30mm gun: http://myhobbycraft.blogspot.com/2011/08/mbombe-135.html
Bionix tank with a good turret: http://myhobbycraft.blogspot.com/2011/03/bionix-ifv-135.html



Offline LemonJello

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #10 on: February 08, 2015, 06:13:55 AM »
Instead of continuing to sand away details, can't you just flip the deck over and then clad with styrene?

For turrets, if you don't mind scratchbuilding, there are a few free tank and AFV paper models that can be used as templates for a styrene version.

The underside...that probably could have worked.  File that away under "The More You Know." 

Those paper models are amazing! I want a plastic Rooikat, but I may have to download the files for that one and see about converting/scratch building it. 

It's not that big of a deal with the donor turrets I'm considering right now - the kits that they come from are all going to be WhIffed with different turrets anyway, so these are surplus. 

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #11 on: February 08, 2015, 08:30:27 AM »
As it's a whif, you don't have to go with fully armoured turrets.

Perhaps just the frontal plates fully armoured, with the sides, top & underneath being lighter plate types.

Most turrets are designed that way, anyway, but you could have them more substantially lightened.
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Offline LemonJello

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #12 on: February 08, 2015, 10:16:41 AM »
Physically, it doesn't seem like much, but here is the deck, plus the bulkheads for the superstructure. 



Offline Kerick

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #13 on: February 08, 2015, 12:46:43 PM »
I'm going to file this under "do one of these myself pretty soon".
IIRC the Finish Navy had some sort of close to shore warships with interesting camo schemes.

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #14 on: February 08, 2015, 05:49:59 PM »
I've already got 2 planned. ;)

Plus a standard Tamiya PBR. :)
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline Kerick

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #15 on: February 09, 2015, 12:58:28 AM »
Here's what I was thinking of.




Offline finsrin

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #16 on: February 09, 2015, 04:24:56 AM »
Two pictures are cool 8)
Please - you guys build those PBR types mentioned.
After swap meet buys am back to progress on Aurora Moscow.
Enjoying floaty build as doer and viewer.

Offline LemonJello

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #17 on: February 09, 2015, 10:13:17 AM »
Latest update from LemonJello Electric Boat Works.

Another mock-up:


Forward turret:


Aft turret:

Offline jcf

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #18 on: February 09, 2015, 10:43:36 AM »
Otay, from yer layout I guess yer going for a heavy STCAN type vessel, slower speed 'punch-it-out' displacement hull type
versus the higher speed ASPB planing hull type.

BTW, the Sikorsky prototype for the ASPB II mounted a 105mm gun turret amidships on a planing hull along
with a whole lot of bar armour.
 ;)
“Conspiracy theory’s got to be simple.
Sense doesn’t come into it. People are
more scared of how complicated shit
actually is than they ever are about
whatever’s supposed to be behind the
conspiracy.”
-The Peripheral, William Gibson 2014

Offline Kerick

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #19 on: February 09, 2015, 11:32:21 AM »
Looking good! In pic 1, if the forward most bulkhead were narrower the forward turret would have a wider field of fire. Don't know what the rest of the superstructure will look like so just my $0.02 worth. How about an amidships TOW launcher?

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #20 on: February 10, 2015, 12:06:38 AM »
In pic 1, if the forward most bulkhead were narrower the forward turret would have a wider field of fire. Don't know what the rest of the superstructure will look like so just my $0.02 worth.

Gotta agree with that.

Maybe angle the front bulkhead back at about 15° to 30°, & about the same width as the rear of the front turret angling out to the 2nd bulkhead (can be less if you want your bridge further forward) & I'd reduce the height fo the front bulkhead & angle the roof up to the bridge. That should give you about 270° of traverse, maybe a touch more.

I'd look at angling the sides of the superstructure, too, as all these angled surfaces will give you better ballistic protection &, possibly, reduce the radar signature a little.

Looks like she's going to be a pretty mean beast whichever way you build her, though! :)
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline Kerick

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #21 on: February 10, 2015, 01:39:02 AM »
Angling back the sides of the superstructure would up the coolness factor. Angled plates provide better protection with less weight. Saving weight would be good on a boat.

Offline LemonJello

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #22 on: February 10, 2015, 08:47:08 AM »
Thanks for all the the constructive ideas, gents.  I played around with raking the front bulkhead back at about a 60 degree angle.  I still may go that route, but I want to work through some other issues before I decide one way or another.  Also, the sides of the superstructure ARE sloped, I just realized that all of my mock ups don't really show it, though.  I took the shape from a spare Stryker ramp/hatch in the spares.  I was going to use the actual part as a bulkhead, but instead I used it as a template for the other walls and for ideas on hatches into the interior spaces. 

Keep the comments coming.

Offline Kerick

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #23 on: February 10, 2015, 09:16:52 AM »
I looked back at the pic from Feb 8 and now I see what you mean about the bulkheads. Just one thought, could you use the Stryker hatch maybe on top of the superstructure as am ammo loading hatch or something? Looks too cool to hide inside the boat.

Offline LemonJello

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Re: 1/35 Riverine Assault Craft
« Reply #24 on: February 10, 2015, 09:46:42 AM »
I looked back at the pic from Feb 8 and now I see what you mean about the bulkheads. Just one thought, could you use the Stryker hatch maybe on top of the superstructure as am ammo loading hatch or something? Looks too cool to hide inside the boat.

Actually, I'm not using it at all now.  Since my design needs 2 hatches, I figured it would be better to make them both from the same materials and add my own details.  There will be some additional hatches added to the deck for provisioning of the boat and access to the engines. 

I am thinking of narrowing the front face of the #1 bulkhead and seeing what that does to the overall shape of the superstructure.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2015, 09:56:39 AM by LemonJello »