1/32 Scale Lindberg Pt Boat Rebuild - R.C.

[Tankbuilder]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

Avast there mateys!

I have had this model for a long time. It is radio-controlled and over the years after many trips to the local pond it had suffered a fair bit of damage. I decided to refurbish it and this is where it's at now. This is not the same model as the In-Progress build I am doing in another thread.

It too is vastly modified from the original 1/32 scale Lindberg PT-109 kit.

The bridge area has been very heavily modified with lots of scratch-built parts added.

On the fore deck the hatches were moved to their proper locations and a small hatch for the anchor compartment was added on the extreme port-side fore deck.

The mesh in the bottom of the raft is a plastic mesh I often use for large-weave camouflage nettings. It was purchased at Wal-Mart.

The barely visible grating on the floor of the bridge area is a piece of fine-mesh plastic rug-hooking canvas. This canvas comes in various sizes of mesh and is perfect for gratings.

Here are a number of images of this other 1/32 scale Lindberg PT boat I am working on periodically as the mood strikes me.

Thanks for looking and comments are welcome.

This is the foredeck and shows the repositioned deck hatches plus the added small hatch for the anchor. Just in front (on the viewer's right) of the chart house is a platform for a mortar that was used to fire illuminating rounds..

You can also see the spray strips that I had to add to the hull because Lindberg doesn't include them.

The torpedo tubes are assembled the right way around and not according to the Lindberg instructions which has the assembly backwards. In this view you can see the scratch-built torpedo running out gear. The torpedo tubes were hand cranked outboard prior to the torpedoes being launched. I have made these torpedo tubes movable so I can have them with in the inboard stowed position or ready to be fired.

Forward starboard quarter view showing the spray strips on the hull near the water-line.

Starboard view showing from bow to stern, the torpedo tube, 4 scratch-built depth-charge racks and two 20mm Oerlikon gun ammo lockers for spare magazines. The depth-charges were used to discourage pursuing vessels and could break the back of a destroyer.

Aft starboard quarter showing the 20mm Oerlikon ammo lockers and the 20mmOerlikon gun pedestal.

Stern view showing rear hatch and six 20mm Oerlikon ammo lockers.

Aft Port quarter view showing the twin .50 caliber gun tubs, the rear torpedo tube turntable mount and the bridge area.

Port view showing the proper height of the antenna mount. The kit one is far too short.

Fwd Port quarter view showing the elegant lines of the hull.

Overhead Stern View showing locations of 20mm ammo lockers, depth-charge racks and aft Port .50 caliber gun tub.

Overhead Stern View showing locations of 20mm ammo lockers, depth-charge racks and aft Port .50 caliber gun tub. Note the two open lids on the starboard 20mm ammo lockers. These will be operable and will have tiny chains to hold the lids open.

PT Boat Rebuild 12 Overhead Bridge. This area is almost completely scratch-built. The cabin under the raft was heavily modified as the Lindberg cabin side parts had the wrong angles on the front and the bridge area was totally wrong and missing any details.

Note the different spacings of the rings on the torpedo tubes. The distance from the front of the tube to the first ring is less than the distance from the last ring to the end of the torpedo tube. This is what Lindberg has reversed in the instructions.

A closeup of the scratch-built bridge area and instrument panel. Note the hand-scribed deck planking.

The fore-deck showing the repositioned hatches and hand-scribed deck planking.

The fore-deck showing the added small hatch for the anchor.

The 40mm Bofors gun started life as a double gun mount on in ancient 1/32 scale Revell M-42 Duster kit. I cut the guns apart and used the receiver and barrel for a single Bofors gun.

Top view of the 40mm Bofors gun. A seat and a hand-crank need to be reattached to the starboard (viewer's left)side of the gun.

Rear view of the 40mm Bofors gun. The spent casing chute needs to be attached.

Closeup of the 40mm Bofors gun with parts to be added.

The twin .50 caliber guns are not Linberg's lumps of plastic. They are Italeri .50 caliber receivers with styrene rods used to represent the barrels. The mounts for these guns are entirely scratch-built and the ammo trays will be added later.

Top view of the scratch-built .50 caliber gun mount.

This is the reworked raft from the kit. In real life the raft was made from balsa. The mesh on the bottom of this raft is mesh from the fabric section of Wal-Mart. It is also good for camouflage netting if it is well washed.

There is much more to be done and I'll post more images as the work progresses.

Cheers and thanks from Peter

 

[Sherman 18]

Re:PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

More outstanding work there Peter!

Keep it up. Can't wait to she it finished

 

[Tankbuilder]

Re:PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

Sherman 18 wrote:

More outstanding work there Peter!

Keep it up. Can't wait to she it finished

Hi there and thanks Sherman.

I want to get the hull done soon because I'm going to hand-paint a design on the bow, that I saw a long time ago. I think some people here will really like that.

I believe that the ancient Lindberg PT-109 kit can be turned into a pretty good looking model with a *LOT* of work. But in the end it is really worth seeing this sow's ear of a kit turn into a silk purse. Before we condemn Lindberg we need to remember that this kit is from the 1960's and it was more or less intended to be a toy.

I plan to do most of the building of this model using styrene plastic whenever possible because I *HATE* working with photo=etch parts which can break off with virtualy no provocation. Besides that, this model is a working model and as such it gets handles a lot.

Often whilst running it at the local pond little children will come over to watch it moving on the water. I often let them pilot it for a bit. Right now the center prop is on a separate circuit from the two outboard props and if the center prop is the only one running I get a couple of hours of run-time on a single charge of the battery pack and the boat runs at a very realistic patrol speed as opposed to the juice eating high speed runs most people seek. The children get a real kick out of navigating the boat. Watching them with it really makes the model building worthwhile.

Cheers from Peter

 

[Tankbuilder]

Ahoy there.

I have a radio-controlled 1/32 scale Lindberg PT boat that I'm refurbishing. This model was built and used over 25 years ago. A while ago I had a thread here about this rebuild but it has disappeared. Such is life.

Here is an overhead starboard side shot from bow to the cockpit area.

The foredeck was lengthened 3/4" by moving the entire chartroom (fwd. deck cabin) and cockpit area, dayroom and engine room cover piece back 3/4". The bridge, seats and controls are scratch-built. The hatch right in front of the chartroom (fwd. deck cabin) was moved from the port side where Lindberg wrongly positioned it. These two hatches were modified so they can be opened and closed. One hides the radio receiver on/off switch.




Here is an overhead starboard side shot from the cockpit area to the stern.

The torpedo racks are heavily modified from the extremely simple kit offering. They are also moveable.

The four racks aft of each of the torpedo tubes are scratch-built depth charge racks. Aft of those are two 20mm ammo lockers.




An overhead shot from the aft end of the dayroom cabin to the bow. You can see the scratch-built details I've added to the cockpit area. They include the pedestal for the helm, the throttles and other instruments. Lindbrg just gives you a decal to put there and it's not accurate at all.




An overhead shot from the stern to the cockpit area. The two 20mm ammo boxes between the two deck vents are not cemented in place yet. To the starb'd side of the side 20mm ammo boxes (that's right side fer ye landlubbers) you can just see the ends of the depth charges.




Here are the scratch-built depth charges. They started life as Tamiya 1/35 scale fuel drums. The ends with the depth settings (bolts) were scrounged from the center sections of a 1/32 scale Revell M-42 Duster Anti-Aircraft SPG roadwheels.




Right now I'm working on the pedestal mounted 20mm Oerlikon cannon that gets mounted on the after deck.

I cut off the warped and crooked kit barrel and added one made from aluminium tubing.

Here are four views of the unpainted gun.

20mm oerlikon Cannon, 5 spare magazines (thanks for sending me those Lindberg) and the gun shield.



The muzzle of the 20mm guns. The kit gun is on the starb'd side.



The muzzle of the 20mm guns from overhead.



The 20mm guns from overhead. The kit gun is the lower one.




This image shows the reworked mufflers. The kit ones are really bad and all I salvaged from them was the center section. When on the boat the muffles are NOT vertical as Lindberg would have you put them but are parallel to the boat sides.

You can also see the underside of the rear deck hatch. I scratch-built a coaming for it. The hatch and coaming is that thing with the four clamps on it sitting in the caliper.

All the hatches on this model can be opened and closed.




Some of the other parts. The raft has a piece of nylon netting glued to its interior. I will be threading a grab rope along the side of the raft through the scratch-built eyelets one of which is missing I see. ;<) That HUGE white helm is the kit helm that I'm going to replace with the brown one.




A scratch-built later war radar mast and radar unit.




Because this model is radio controlled I am not bothering to change everything to the much more delicate sizes they would be in order to be really accurate. I'm just improving the model a bit so that it looks like an 80' Elco PT-103 Class boat. Lindberg marketted this kit as PT-109 but with the rear engine room cover pieces they supplied, 2
tall vents and one very large vent, they have a later war boat than what the 109 was.

More to come soon.

Thanks for looking and/or commenting.

Cheers from Peter

 

[moon puppy]

Peter, I find two thread you were missing and merged your post together.

Lots of work going on there, looking good!

 

[jknaus]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

Looking good there Peter. A Flower Class and a PT Boat, now you're going to need a Pig boat in the flotilla.
James

 

[Tankbuilder]

Peter, I find two thread you were missing and merged your post together.

Lots of work going on there, looking good!

Thank you Moon Puppy.

I see it was three years since I started the original thread. What a shelf-queen this rebuild has been. I hope to make meaningful progress on it on a regular basis now.

Cheers from Peter

 

[Tankbuilder]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

Looking good there Peter. A Flower Class and a PT Boat, now you're going to need a Pig boat in the flotilla.
James

Ahoy there James.

I have quite a navy in the stash.

Ah, they're not in any of my threads but I have the Revell U.S.S. Lionfish that I've converted to represent H.M.C.S. Grilse. I also have the Revell 1/144 scale Type VII C Undersebooten and the Revell 1/144 Type XXI Underseebooten with interior.

And then there's my Revell U.S.S. Buchanan, aka Revell H.M.S. Campbeltown that I'm building as H.M.C.S St. Croix.

Besdes those I also have the 1/72 scale Airfix and Revell German S-boats and a 1/72 scale Airfix Vosper M.T.B. to build. Later I'd like to get a 1/35 scale Italeri Vosper M.T.B. and convert it to radio control too.

Thanks for your interest and cheers from Peter

 

[Tankbuilder]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

Ahoy there mates!

A bit more progress on the boat.

I repainted the bottom of the hull with a darker red that's actually a primer as it looks a lot better that colour than the too bright red it was before. Apparently Krylon makes a primer that's a perfect match for the copperoid paint used on the real boats. This primer I used isn't Krylon but I like how it looks.




The 20mm gun mounted on the after deck is nearly done and is in position for the final work on it. The large rectangular access area of the deck is now cemented in place and will be faired into the rest of the main deck with putty and the deck planking rescribed where the joint of those pieces are now. I'll touch up the deck paint once that is done.



Closeup of the foredeck showing the mortar location in front of the chartroom cabin and on the port (left)side of the foredeck. I'm checking to see whether it mounted a 60mm or a 61mm mortar there.



Also visible in some images are some of the Lindberg kit crewmen that will be undergoing extensive surgeries to convert them to action poses. This boat's crew will be posed as if they are in action.

Thanks for watching and/or commenting.

Cheers from Peter

 

[moon puppy]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2



Making me want to pull out that big Italeri kit I have.

 

[Tankbuilder]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

Making me want to pull out that big Italeri kit I have.

Hi Moon Puppy.

Do you have an Italeri PT boat kit? If so, which one fo you have, PT-109 ot PT-596? There's also an upgrade kit from Italeri for the 109 kit to convert it a PT-103 Class boat into a later war variant.

Either of those Italeri kits are fantastic even built out of the box.

Cheers from Peter

 

[moon puppy]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

I didn't know they had PT109, think I would have gone with that one instead because the PT-596 looks just too busy for me. I like the cleaner look of the early Pt boats.

I have looked and looked for some aftermarket for this, is it still out there?

 

[Tankbuilder]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

I didn't know they had PT109, think I would have gone with that one instead because the PT-596 looks just too busy for me. I like the cleaner look of the early Pt boats.

I have looked and looked for some aftermarket for this, is it still out there?

Hi again Moon Puppy.

The Italeri PT-109 kit is a recent release as is the aftermarket set for it from Italeri.

What aftermarket stuff are you looking for to use with PY-596?

I bought a Dragon Quad .50 caliber gun turret to put on my PT-596 kit once I start building it.

You can build quite a few different boats with the PT-596 kit and you don't need to use all of the extra guns either. I too am building mine minus a lot of the forward mounted deck guns and rocket launchers as I find that a lot of stuff can get broken off when transporting the model to and from the pond, launching or landing it or retieving it via a fishing rod and a blunted treble hook if the battery suddenly dies.

I think that you can really enjoy building your kit even if you don't use all of the guns in the kit.

Cheersfrom Peter

 

[moon puppy]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

Don't know what i'm looking for, just stuff to solder I guess..

I would build mine just for static display. Not into the RC stuff.

 

[moon puppy]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

Wonder if you can rig a metal motor mount, something that can disperse the heat, or make some of the air vents active and get some breeze down in the motor room?

 

[Tankbuilder]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

Wonder if you can rig a metal motor mount, something that can disperse the heat, or make some of the air vents active and get some breeze down in the motor room?

Hi there Moon Puppy.

I never figure the motor would get that hot. I am definitely going with metal motor mounts. Have the vents open already. I wonder if the heat and high humidity were a contributing factor.

 

[jknaus]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

Maybe if you get one of the small 1" computer fans and hook it up to draw air in from the vent or to the vent, that might help. It should be shielded so wouldnt effect the the radio signal.
James

 

[Tankbuilder]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

Maybe if you get one of the small 1" computer fans and hook it up to draw air in from the vent or to the vent, that might help. It should be shielded so wouldnt effect the the radio signal.
James

Hi James.

Got some replies back on a RC forum. The motor should NEVER get TOO HOT TO TOUCH. I maght have too big a prop on the shaft. I'm going to try a smaller prop once I get the metal motor mount done. The temporary styrene one I had for test purposes melted due to theheat of the motor. Guess it was a good thing it did as the dogbone then fell out of the coupler and had to retrieve the model. Otherwise the motor might have been ruined or worse.

RC stuff looks simple but apparently EVERYTHING has to be matched to everything else in the system.

I'll post some images soon and hopefully a bit of video my friend shot of the boat underway.

Cheers from Peter

 

[Tankbuilder]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

Crikey but I hate it when I compose a post, add images to it, preview it, click Submit and then the post disappears. :<(

So again.

Ahoy there fellow RC model boaters.

I thought you might be interested in seeing my Retrieval Device I used to retrieve my malfunctioning dead in the water 1/32 scale Lindberg PT boat this past weekend.

The telescoping spin-casting rod and reel were bought at a thrift store many years ago for $2.99 including the line which is still good.

The float unit is simply a wine bottle cork with a small hole drill through it from end to end. Each end of the cork has a washer attached to it with silicone. the washers and the blunted and debarbed treble hook give enough weight to the unit to cast it quite a distance. The float is close to the hook to prevent the hook from sinking very far.

To use this all I do is cast the line over the model so that the hook lands past the boat. I then slowly reel in the line until the hook snags something on the model and then I reel the boat in.

This past weekend gave me two great opportunities to test this device - once when the boat got snagged in a weed bed and a second time at another pond the same day when the motor over heated and the dogbone connector between the motor shaft and the prop shaft disengaged.

This Retrieval Device is compact and is great insurance if something malfunctions and leaves the model drifting or if the boat runs too l ong and runs the battery down too far to return tthe boat to shore.

Here are two images of the Retrieval Device.





Cheers from Peter

 

[Tankbuilder]

PT Boat Rebuild = 1/32 scale Lindberg Kit #2

TORPEDO TUBES - IMPROVED FROM KIT OFFERING

Ahoy there.

Here are a few images of my improved torpedo tube mounts and torpedo tubes.

This boat only has the two forward torpedo tubes with the aft two tubes being replaced by four depth charge racks per side and two 20mm Oerlikon Cannon magazine storaf=ge bins per side.

Depth charges were used by PT boats to discourage destroyers. A properly placed depth charge exploded under a destroyer cpuld break the destroyer's "back".

The 1/32 Lindberg PT-109 kit is a very old offering. It was also designed more as a toy than a serious static model. Thus, a lot of the parts are greatly simplified. The torpedo tube mounts are immensely simplified.

I scratch-built new deck mounts for the torpedo tube cradles. I also made these mounts moveable so that the torpedo tubes can be swung out to their firing position. I added to thin stabilizing bars to the torpedo tubes between the cradles. Two of the images below sho the kit mounts without the main rod brace and the improved version I made as well as the deck mounts the torpedo tubes go on.

Top view.




Side view.




Underside view.




Thanks for watching and/or commenting.

Cheers from Peter