US Navy PT 515 Ron 35 Ärmelkanal 1944

[Arjan]

So far Italeri have released two 1/35 PT boat versions, an early version PT-109 and a late version PT-596. The PT boats operating from Britain in June 1944 ( sometimes clashing with German S-Boote) differed in details from both these versions. This means I had to alter some parts from the PT-596 kit I used for this conversion.

PT115 (or PT116?) which inspired my conversion :



Portland England June 1944 :




PT 596

My first PT 596  model I built many years ago when it was first released by Italeri :





Three years ago I replaced the brushed motors by brushless ones :











Next time pics of my PT 515 build.

Arjan

[Arjan]

Original PT 596 kit part :



Modifications :








Original 596 kit part :



Modifications :









To be continued.

Arjan

[Urs Heßling]

moin,

das hier wäre doch einmal eine Herausforderung an die (umbauenden) Modellbauer
PT 59 Link 1, Link 2

Gruß, Urs

[Arjan]

Hallo Urs,

Building PT 59 (77 foot long) wouldn't work with the Italeri 80-foot Elco PT models. An interesting addition to some Elco 80 footers in the Mediterranean (Mittelmeer) was the 20 mm Oerlikon Vierling called "Thunderbolt". I've got a pic of these boats taken at Bastia.

Gruss,

Arjan

[Arjan]

Es geht weiter :

The engine compartment air intake was much narrower on the Channel boats. Compare PT596 and PT 515 :





I have cut the deck in half for better access :






Bofors gun differs in detail from the one on PT 596 :







To be continued.

Arjan

[IRON]

Arjan, sehr wenige Unterschiede aber die hast Du sehr sauber umgesetzt, schön, das Du die Teile zum Vergleich nebeneinaderstellst den im Gesamtbild wäre mir außer den fehlenden Raketenwerfer, den Fenstern zum Bug nicht viel aufgefallen.

LG

Christian

[Arjan]

Hallo Christian, there were quite a lot of other differences with late PT boats like 596. The Channel boats only carried two torpedoes and many of them had this cylindrical object on the port side of the bridge (I marked it with an arrow) :




It was actually a container for an inflatable rubber boat. On the subject of torpedoes, for some reason US PT boats had a very bad success rate with their torpedoes (also in other theaters). In most cases their torpedoes missed their targets or failed to detonate  .

Gruss,

Arjan

[IRON]

Thank you more details Arjan, very interesting, missing torpedos - especially on a model - could have different reasons (I talk from 1st hand experience), but it is good that you are so experiences on the differences. to 596 - Hell Razor.

Christian

[Arjan]

Another difference with late PT Boats is the socalled "airfoil wind deflector", a wing-like spoiler installed to divert the airstream/spray away from the faces of the men on the bridge. I marked this wing and storage brackets with a RED DOT :




The wind deflector didn't work well so it was removed later and replaced by a normal plexi glass wind screen. I bought a 1/35 wind deflector at Shapeways but it was far too small and not correct so I had to scratch built one myself. This was the hardest part of the whole conversion.

I also had to make some 4cm ammo boxes. An acquaintance of mine printed some decals for me (Squadron 35 sign and the name "Boomerang" of PT 515) :




The model after painting, I don't like the deck colour and I'm afraid I will have to overpaint this later ......






The clear varnish from a rattle can I used also caused blisters on the decals of the boat numbers  .:







To be continued.

Arjan

[smutje505]

Hallo Arjan 

[Urs Heßling]

moin, Arjan,
ein schönes Modell

Ich würde mir nicht so viele Sorgen um die "korrekten" Farben machen, in Wirklichkeit waren sie je nach Wettereinfluß und Sorgfalt beim Auftragen auch verschieden ...
... und wurden in "null komma nichts" verölt, verschmiert und verdreckt

Gruß, Urs

[Arjan]

Vielen Dank meine Herren ! Of these PT boats the fate of PT 509 (Ron 34) is best known :

https://www.squadron34.com/pt509

Some interesting pics of the Ron 34 boats :

https://www.squadron34.com/the-boats

Gruss,

Arjan

[schiggy096]

Mahlzeit Arjan,

Dein PT Boot sieht sehr gut aus.
Ein Elco 80 ist ein sehr schönes Schiff.

Ich besaß mal eins im Maßstab 1:20 von Dumas.

Mit Spannung warte ich wie es weiter geht.


Gruß Fabian

[Darius]

Danke Arjan für die Links




Darius

[Arjan]

Thanks for the kind words gentlemen ! Nice to hear you had a 1/20 scale PT model Fabian.

Like the Kriegsmarine and Wehrmacht the US navy also had "Bildberichter" filming their Channel PT Boats. Here is one :

https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675049265_United-states-Patrol-boats_invasion-of-France_DC-3-aircraft_50-caliber-machine-gunner

This clip is more interesting because it shows PT 515 and there are even some frames of a PT boat with a shark's mouth :

https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675049262_Patrol-boats_invasion-of-France_torpedo-boats_signaling-semaphore

There are also one or two frames showing what appears to be a shark's mouth painted on the head of one of PT 115's torpedoes. A bit similar to this one :




This clip is also very interesting it shows PT 504 (Ron 34) :

https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675049263_Allied-battleship_invasion-of-France_patrol-boats_life-jacket_coming-alongside



The interior layout is similar to my PT 596 model :








The model is still not finished, I still have to add the torpedoes, steering wheel, search light, dinghy and lots of details.



The pics of the model in the water are not great :









Thanks for watching.

Gruss,

Arjan