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1/72 Revell PT-109


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I am doing this one as JFK's boat the night it was rammed by the IJN Amagiri, my other

ship build. I plan on using the cannon from the Hasegawa 1/72 Jeep and cannon kit,

removing the wheels and lashing it to the fore deck. I am also going to attempt to scratch build

depth charges. So far the deck and hull are assembled and painted.---John

30960247601_17d5c7d5d3_z.jpgOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by jvandeu53, on Flickr

30960256701_07cf393e23_z.jpgOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by jvandeu53, on Flickr

30400078034_530788e518_z.jpgOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by jvandeu53, on Flickr

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Here's the same kit I built about 5 years ago. I was never happy with the outcome.

It didn't look right, no depth charges, the whip antenna was to thick, the balsa float

should have been on the day room roof and all kind of quirky problems. I now have the

time and resources to do it right.---John

31934460342_49274ce497_z.jpgPT109 7 by jvandeu53, on Flickr

Edited by john53
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Yup, ain't that always the way it goes! How "new and improved" is this

2017 1/72 PT-109? Hopefully they'll do the balsa float to look like a

balsa float and NOT a yellow rubber raft, and throw in some depth

charges for good measure!---John

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looks good, but I think you should a a M3-gun on the front of the deck:

 

it_5613_title.jpg

 

In the case of PT-109 before Lt(jg) John Kennedy took command, there was an accidental launch of the foreword starboard torpedo tube while in the stowed position and the departing torpedo took out the starboard depth charge rack and a section of the foot railing on its way overboard. The missing rack wasn't replaced by the time Kennedy came aboard. Like the other skippers in the field, Kennedy's crew'requisitioned' whatever heavy armament they could find and in Kennedy's case, an Army 37mm anti-tank gun. The crew lashed the gun to the foredeck atop some wood planking to reinforce the deck. This modification took place the day before PT-109 was rammed by the IJN Destroyer Amagiri. The rest, as they say, is history.

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  • 7 months later...

The statements "...the departing torpedo took out the starboard depth charge rack and a section of the foot railing..." and "The missing rack wasn't replaced by the time Kennedy came aboard" are quite incorrect ("before...Kennedy came aboard") , as well as speculative ("...took out the...depth charge rack and a section of the foot railing...") with no basis in fact.

The inadvertently launched torpedo, and it was the port -- not starboard -- forward torpedo, was jolted out of its tube in heavy seas in the Russell Islands when Lt. Al Cluster, JFK's squadron commander, was at the wheel of JFK's PT 109 as they maneuvered to obtain a pump from a destroyer to help bail water from Cluster's damaged PT.  Cluster had asked JFK for a turn at the wheel, as he had only experience with the earlier 77' Elco PTs and wanted to try his hand at the helm of the newer, PT 103-class 80' Elcos like the 109.  The 109 hit a large wave which jolted the port forward torpedo out of its tube, striking the (unarmed) port depth charge, knocking it through the foredeck where it fell into a bunk in the forward crew's quarters.  The torpedo started on a "hot run" sticking out of its tube, its propellers spinning, until JFK's executive officer, Ensign Lenny Thom, disabled and de-activated the torpedo.

There is no mention of the depth charge's rack, or any portion of the deck's foot rail being damaged or missing, in any account of the incident at the time or later, and the 109 returned to Tulagi to have the damage to the foredeck repaired, at which time any (unmentioned) damage to the depth charge's rack or deck foot railing, as well as the replacement of the port depth charge itself, certainly would have been done.  The ''missing" or "unrepaired" depth charge/rack/foot railing is pure speculation.

PT 109 would most certainly have had her port forward depth charge, its rack, and her foredeck foot railing intact and present when she set out on her last patrol from Rendova on August 1, 1943.

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