Overgunned Boat.

[chrisonord]

Whilst rooting around in my model boneyard boxes in the shed, I came across some 1/72nd scale PT boats both ww2 and post war. I did 2 WIFF's of Pt-19's about 12 years ago, the Tamiya ones whilst working away from home, one was a brown water craft with the torpedo's removed and and replaced with anti ship missile launchers, and I replaced both guns one with a SAM battery, and the front gun was rebuilt with a box turret around the gun instead of it being an open manual version, It is all there I think but in several bits and I was thinking of rebuilding it to compliment what I am going to do with the 1/72 scale Tamiya Vosper MTB.
I have removed the decking and wheelhouse etc, and glued in a blank styrene deck. On this deck I want to put an armoured wheelhouse/cabin, fitted with ERA and at least 3 AFV turrets fitted with Bushmaster cannons,a turret from a Scorpion reccy tank and some 50 cals in manually operated  positions, and a couple of m19 40 mm grenade launchers for good measure. For anti-shipping I was thinking of Harpoon missile launchers, and a RAM system for air defence, or a pack of stingers.
The hull, will also be fitted with armour, maybe a version of the appliqué armour fitted to AAVP's.
I am also tempted with a 120mm gun fitted in a "spare" M1 Abrams tank turret, or an M60 turret. But I prefer the M1 turret as it is a bit more low profile.
Any input would be appreciated.
Chris.         

[chrisonord]

Right them, I have stated the gun boat as per the last instalment, I have replaced the deck with a plain piece of styrene, made the cabin from styrene, and found something to use as appliqué armour for the front and back, I have used some airfix Ho platform bridge stairs, that I had in the bone yard, I marked them off against the angled front and rear and cut them to suit. The front has armoured shutters over the wheel house front windows, and I made these out of some splash shields from a couple of AAVP's I have installed these in the shut position, as I hate making windows. I have put a few odds and ends on the roof, some smoke generators, a radar and a few air purification units I need to make some sort of aerial array for it also. I need to get a hold of some angled styrene so I can armour the sides of the cabin and the sides of the hull.
The spares from my Dragon Bradley's AAVP's and Hummers, are certainly coming in handy, as I will be using the spare turrets from the AAVP's and the spare Bushmaster cannon Barrels, and some hatches that were spare are being used as access doors. I also found a 3 barrelled cannon from a 1/48th LHX Stingbat, which will make a good addition to the weaponry.
I will take some on going pics as soon as I get chance.
Chris     

[cthulhu77]

Us boat builders absolutely demand pics !!!!!!

[chrisonord]

I have just been looking at pics of your latest boat build, very nice, I started off modelling by doing R/C boats and have done a few military craft.
I have a 5 foot long German U-25 in my loft that I carved out of obeche laminates I made it 14 years ago.
Chris

[Weaver]

Interesting.......

The Scorpion turret's a good choice because it's alloy (so not as heavy as it looks) and the recoil of the 76mm isn't too bad either.

AAI actually proposed a Bradleyish gun system for naval vessels, based on the Minor Calibre Weapon Station they were developing for USMC vehicle projects in the late 1980s. It had a Bushmaster and two Stingers in a tank-like turret.

There was also, much earlier, a Vickers project called the Autonomous Patrol Gun, which was basically a Centurion's 105mm L7 gun in a self-contained two-man turret that needed very littel external support from the ship it was mounted on. When looking at anti-FPB guns in the late 1960s, the RN concluded that this gave the best performance of any available system, but unfortunately, it was them "improved", made vastly more expensive, and then dropped.

Another interesting system is Sea Vulcan 20, which was basically an upside-down AH-1G HueyCobra turret in a ball-like shell, controlled remotely. Advanced versions were proposed that would carry MANPADS as well as the gun. A number of these systems have actually entered service,  including on Honduran Navy Patrol Craft

[chrisonord]

Interesting.......

The Scorpion turret's a good choice because it's alloy (so not as heavy as it looks) and the recoil of the 76mm isn't too bad either.

AAI actually proposed a Bradleyish gun system for naval vessels, based on the Minor Calibre Weapon Station they were developing for USMC vehicle projects in the late 1980s. It had a Bushmaster and two Stingers in a tank-like turret.

There was also, much earlier, a Vickers project called the Autonomous Patrol Gun, which was basically a Centurion's 105mm L7 gun in a self-contained two-man turret that needed very littel external support from the ship it was mounted on. When looking at anti-FPB guns in the late 1960s, the RN concluded that this gave the best performance of any available system, but unfortunately, it was them "improved", made vastly more expensive, and then dropped.


Another interesting system is Sea Vulcan 20, which was basically an upside-down AH-1G HueyCobra turret in a ball-like shell, controlled remotely. Advanced versions were proposed that would carry MANPADS as well as the gun. A number of these systems have actually entered service,  including on Honduran Navy Patrol Craft

Marvellous information there Weaver, all I need to do now is find the gun that has snapped off the turret, unless I graft a spare Bushmaster barrel on to it.I have a couple of remote weapons systems that were spare with 2 Strykers I have, I think I could incorporate them also.

[chrisonord]

Here are some pictures of the build so far, there is no finesse to this build, if it fits glue it is the order of the day here.
I havn't decided on what anti shipping missiles to use as yet, as Harpoons will take up a lot of room. I was thinking of putting some sea skua missiles on a quad launch rail system to try and keep the unit compact, but I will have a look into that later. here is still a lot of work to do as yet but I think you should get the idea. The anti aircraft system is made up of parts borrowed from other projects ie, the gun was for my AD-160 future project, and the missiles from a air defence Hummer variant.

[Joe C-P]

These sites might give you more ideas:

http://www.rivervet.com/

http://www.mrfa.org/

And if they're not enough, there are plenty of links to other sites!

[Sauragnmon]

Certainly an interesting concept, reminds me of the river boats like the Soviet Bronenkater series tank-boats from WW2.

[chrisonord]

Last night, the boat got a bit of a re arrangement of its weapons, thanks to some expert advice I got
The 2 turrets to the rear of the cabin are moved towards the middle of the roof opposite each other, and the scorpion turret is now at the rear in an elevated central position.On the opposite side to the M19, is now a twin barrelled 30 mm gun on a remote mount. I have retro fitted a missile launcher onto the deck to the starboard front side of the wheel house. All I need to do now is some filling, some more aerials and  the hull ERA, and we're ready for some paint. I have also put some boxes and barrels to the rear of the cabin, mainly to cover any gaps lol.
Chris     

[Sauragnmon]

Well not exactly expert, but hey, I've picked up a Few things about ship design since I started - SR can attest to that, as he's bashed a few concepts of ship design through my head while shaking his own at my insane concepts.

Not bad thinking for the redesign though, and hey, boxes and barrels add character... as well as covering potential problems.

[Sisko]

This gives me some evil ideas!!!!

Can't wait to see how this turns out.

[chrisonord]

I should hopefully be putting some paint on tomorrow, so I post some more pics. 

[ChernayaAkula]

This looks great! 

[chrisonord]

Ok then here is the long awaited, nearly finished overgunned boat for you all.







She needs a bit more detailing and a bit of dirt here and there, otherwise she is a done deal.
Chris.