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1/72 RCN British Power Boat Co. Motor Torpedo Boat


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Here's some background information about the RCN's MTB's, summarized from various Internet sites;

 

The boat I’m building is a 71”- 6” Motor Torpedo Boat of the Royal Canadian Navy’s 29th MTB Flotilla. These boats had a 20’-7” beam and 5’-8” draught.  The boats were originally designed as Motor Gun Boats (MGBs), but were later modified and re-designated as Motor Torpedo Boats.  They were driven by three Rolls Royce or Packard V-12 Supercharged 1250 H.P. engines, each with a 2,500 gallon capacity of 100 high-octane gas.  The boats had an operational radius of about 140 miles while cruising at 25 knots, and a top speed of 38 to 41 knots. Two Ford V-8 auxiliary engines could be clutched to a shaft for silent running at about 6 1/2 knots.  Armament on my boat will include one 6 pounder gun, four .303 Vickers machine guns, two 20mm Oerlikon cannon, and two 18” torpedo tubes.  The boats of the 29th Flotilla were supplied and maintained by the Royal Navy, and were manned by the Royal Canadian Navy.

 

The 29th Flotilla MTB’s were designed and built by the British Power Boat Company (BPC).  BPC was founded in 1927 by Hubert Scott-Paine, an avid designer and racer.   He battled the British Navy Admiralty before the outbreak of World War Two to get the Admiralty to accept his new boat design.  These hard chine boats were designed to travel over the surface of the water instead of forcing their way through it.  They attained high speed with commercially supplied engines.the first all metal racing boat "Miss Britain III" was the first person to achieve in excess of 100 mph on salt water in a single engine craft, in

By 1937 BPC had become the largest and most advanced boat-building establishment in the world.  By April 1942 it employed over 2000 employees in two locations in Great Britain. This made the British Power Boat Company the most sophisticated boat-building production establishment of the Second World War.

 

Scott-Paine continued to develop larger and more powerful craft as he was convinced that war with Germany was inevitable, and that ultimately the US would become involved. With war clouds rising, production of military craft was stepped up, and contracts to build BPC boat types under license were negotiated with ELCO in the USA (the first American PT boat squadrons were equipped with boats based on Scott-Paine designs.), Canadian Vickers in Canada, and the Cockatoo Boat Company in Australia.  During WWII some 954 craft were built in the United Kingdom, and 476 craft were built in the USA and Canada.

 

Sadly, the British Power Boat Company closed at the end of the Second World War.  Hubert Scott-Paine had spent the war years in the United States, and stayed there at the end of WWII.  He suffered a stroke in April 1946 and after a long illness, died in April 1954.

 

If you're interested, more detailed information about the Royal Canadian Navy motor torpedo boats can be found at the following links;

 

http://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol02/tnm_2_3_31-45.pdf

 

https://www.friends-amis.org/index.php/en/document-repository/english/fact-sheets/195-canadians-and-coastal-forces/file

 

http://www.naval-museum.mb.ca/mtb/

 

http://www.canadiancoastalforcestrust.com/pb/wp_96617197/wp_96617197.html

Edited by JohnS
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Next up, the large deck air vents.

 

I raided the parts bin to get the material to make four large size vents located behind the bridge & beside the Oerlikon ‘bandstand’.  I used a Phoenix missile body left over from a 1:48 F-14 build, and plastic tubing, to make the circular vent openings and bases.

 

044 Large Air Vents.jpg

 

The finished large vents;

 

045 Large Air Vents.jpg

 

There are seven smaller vents located beside bridge and on the foredeck.  I used plastic tubing and plastic bar & sheet to make these vents.

 

046 Small Air Vents.jpg

 

Here are the finished smaller vents;

 

047 Small Air Vents Complete.jpg

 

And, here are the vents test fit on the boat's deck;

 

048 Air Vents.jpg

049 Air Vents.jpg

 

Next up, I'll start making the deck hatches & hardware.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

:cheers:

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A short update.

 

I just finished the final group of deck vents.  These are called mushroom vents,

 

There's a total of 22 mushroom vents visible on the deck.  I made these using plastic tube and straight pins.

 

Here's a photo showing a couple of the completed vents.

 

050 Mushroom Vents.jpg

 

I test fit all the vents on the deck (6 large vents, 7 small vents, & 22 mushroom vents).  Whew! 

 

051 All Vents.jpg

 

052 All Vents.jpg

Edited by JohnS
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Thanks again Hajo.  Yes, progress is relatively slow.  But without a lot of documentation, I seem to be spending half my time researching the boat's design, surfing the Internet & reviewing old WWII photographs, and then finally trying to figure out how to make the parts.    As you can see, I'm trying to incorporate as many of the visible details as I can in 1:72 scale ... as long as my eyes & fingers cooperate, lol :coolio:

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A little more progress.

 

I've scratch build the five access hatches located on the main deck, using plastic sheet & stretched sprue.

 

These tiny items were simple to build, but their small size added a little complexity.

 

Here's a photo showing the completed hatches;

 

053 Deck Hatches.jpg

 

,,, and another showing the hatch locations on the deck.

 

054 Deck Hatches.jpg

 

One more step closer to finishing the deck hardware.  

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Here's a really small (or should I say 'tiny') update. :rolleyes:

 

I've completed the mooring line deck hardware, including the Sampson post, bollards & fairleads.

 

The Sampson post & bollards were made from plastic rod & sheet.  The fairleads were made using plastic tube (cut in quarters) & plastic sheet.

 

055 Mooring Hardware.jpg

 

Man, these things are tiny in 1/72 scale.

 

056 Fairleads.jpg

 

:cheers:

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Don´t sneeze! ;)

 

How do you glue your tiny plastic parts? I remember having some problems with mine during the RCB-built. The classic plastic glue wouldn´t set and I had to use super glue instead...

 

 

HAJO

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34 minutes ago, Hajo L. said:

Don´t sneeze! ;)

 

How do you glue your tiny plastic parts? I remember having some problems with mine during the RCB-built. The classic plastic glue wouldn´t set and I had to use super glue instead...

 

 

HAJO

I've already lost a few tiny pieces during this build. :crying2:

 

All the white plastic is from Evergreen.  I found that Tamiya Super Thin liquid glue works best for these parts.  The Tamiya glue melts the plastic to give a good bond.  To get an extra strong bond, I add a small bead of CA (Super) glue around the joint with the tip of a needle or pin.  The CA glue is great because it can be sanded to give a nice rounded joint where the parts meet, when I need a rounded profile instead of a sharp corner.

 

You have to be careful using the Tamiya Super Thin glue, as it melts the plastic quickly, and it can damage the parts if too much glue is used.  On the other hand, the glue drys quickly and the plastic won't bond if too little glue is applied.

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I've chosen MTB 486 as a guide for this build.

 

589a7bc7a6b56_057MTB486.jpg.ff3c0a943482d7248de8ff40c67bc840.jpg

 

MTB 486 was commissioned in August, 1944 and joined the 29th Flotilla under the command of Lt. Cmdr. C. Anthony Law, the senior officer in the flotilla.

 

The next step in this build will be to paint the boat's deck.  Most Coastal Forces boat decks were painted B15 Ocean Grey.  You would think finding that paint colour would be easy ... not!

 

First of all, after reviewing colour photos, it appears Coastal Forces used many shades of B15.  The following photo shows four Fairmile D's moored together.  All appear to have different deck colours.

 

589a7c0fcdf02_058DtypeMTBDeckColours.jpg.9df8fd5571c392bb0286200362f1b682.jpg

 

To make matters more difficult, the model paint manufacturers don't seem to agree on what the B15 Ocean Grey colour looks like, e.g. Tamiya XF-82, Humbrol 106, & Model Master 2057 & 4866 are labelled as Ocean Grey, but all appear to be different shades.  My solution was to find an actual Royal Navy B15 paint chip on the Internet, and custom mix paint to match (see http://steelnavy.com/images/chips/RNchip02.jpg).  I chose Humbrol enamel paint & experimented mixing various colours close the B15 chip.  After a lot of the trial & error I finally came up with a close match.  Unfortunately, I lost track of how much of each colour I mixed. :bandhead2:  I sure hope I don't run out of paint. :rolleyes:

 

589a7c3553d39_059CustomMixDeckPaint.jpg.60892c17530498b049fd506fc5ff5f45.jpg

 

Once all the scratch built bits & pieces that will be painted B15 were added to the deck, I prepared the deck by removing the rough edges, excessive glue, etc., and gave it a good cleaning.  Next, the white areas on the deck were painted, using WWII colour photos as guides.  It's probably easier to apply the white paint on my white primer, than to paint over the darker B15 Ocean Grey.

 

589a7c5a0bd60_060AlliedStar.jpg.d51cc3cd37990d0a4dc251b02a2263d5.jpg

 

589a7c81a7f6d_061CarleyFloatArea.jpg.0f480c49027c30d8a5bd6d6a7fbd4fef.jpg

 

589a7cb0e4b64_062BandshellArea.jpg.91545b48fa3f8cce9e900f1832a4173d.jpg

 

Once the white paint is fully dry, these areas will be masked before the B15 colour is applied.

 

589a7cd69d04d_063Deckreadyforpaint.jpg.434a177b6af47b8e2e403f93d66d60bf.jpg

 

Let the masking begin!

 

Thanks for looking.

 :cheers:

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This is looking great John. I do so wish someone would do a nice plastic version of one of these. The BPB boats had a rakish look that the Vosper boats rather missed to my mind. I've got the Airfix Vosper boat & a couple of the BPB rescue boats, one to bodge into a 60 footer but one of these bigger ones would be really nice, & as for a plastic Dog boat, well I guess I can dream, I might just have to follow your lead on carving these out.:dontknow:

Steve.

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Thanks Steve.

 

7 hours ago, stevehnz said:

... I do so wish someone would do a nice plastic version of one of these.   ...  one of these bigger ones would be really nice, & as for a plastic Dog boat, well I guess I can dream,  ...

Steve.

I've been waiting for these boat kits in plastic, for a long time.  Coastal Craft Models in the UK have BPB & Fairmile resin kits.  Here's a link to their site  - http://www.coastalcraftmodelsuk.com/model_kits.php

 

John

Edited by JohnS
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The deck was masked, & painted B15.

 

It was a pain to mask, as the masking tape didn't like sticking over the ribs on the deck & the ribs made it difficult to mask the required shapes & sizes.  The circular area under the bandstand & the Allied star on the bow were especially tricky to mask.

 

I removed the masking tape today & I'm pretty happy with the results.  I think the custom mixed paint colour is close to dead-on B15 Ocean Grey.  I will need to do a little touch-up, but overall it looks good - much better than anticipated.

 

Here are the photos;

 

589e4222dbbbc_064DeckPainted.jpg.42ab184ca19837455ff85f09e4dc8de4.jpg

 

589e423ac5ef9_065DeclPainted.jpg.8a8cbbafa79d0dbddf6d2f1a3e1f1f3f.jpg

 

589e4250d4c30_066DeckPainted.jpg.ad3be9bf0544459a34896ebdc36b3734.jpg

 

Next up, I'll paint vents & hatch covers and add them to the deck.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

:cheers:

 

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This just looks better & better. That deck really helps to bring it together. Thanks too for the link to coastal craft, unfortunately a bit spendy in resin for me, especially with the detail bits that'd be required too I'd imagine, of course, I'd want to do one like this & a whale back one too..........., best I sharpen up my carving skills & learn to follow your example, theres nothing to loose by this method as you're showing so well. :thumbsup:

Steve.

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Thanks Steve, for your feedback.  A few coats of paint & it doesn't look like a piece of wood anymore. :rolleyes:

 

I came to the same conclusion about the Coastal Craft kits.  However, I did buy their Oerlikon, 6 pdr, & torpedo tube kits separately for this build, to add a little more detail than I could by scratch building.  I'm anxious to see how these kits fit together.  

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