US Navy PCF

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

The PCF (patrol craft, fast)boats were used primarily in Vietnam where their shallow draught and high speed made them ideal for patrolling the rivers and estuaries  around the Mekong Delta among others. they were developed from working boats used by oil rigs etc and modified for naval use. The last ones were used by Malta a few years ago.  This boat has seen plenty of action and even has repaired battle damage. It's 1/48 scale, and was great fun to build. I added a few stores to give it a bit more of a used look.. Hope you like the result.

thanks for viewing, comments welcome.

[hifly 925]

More of your excellent modelling skills Al, fantastic paint job.  Have you started the Skylab I see in the background?

 

Seems you've solved you posting screenshots problem too.

[brett 2,315]

+1 Great paint work and cool model,  wouldn't mind having one in FSX.

[allardjd 1,853]

Ah, the famous Swift Boat.  Very cool!  Nice work.

 

John

[Gunner 69]

Awesome! Nice model. If you like ships, search the net for "world of warships". Its a free2play game, pretty cool for now.

[Quickmarch 488]

I'm pretty sure the hulls for those boats were molded by a company in Bellingham, WA, called "Uniflite". They did a great job on the Vietnam boats, but ran into problems when they started producing hulls for the public (vs the military). Seems the fire retardant resins were prone to osmotic issues and they had a run of trouble repairing hulls with osmosis blisters. So much so, that the hull repairs cost them a lot in lost reputation. 

 

There are still a lot of Uniflites in the Pacific NW. Those with hulls repaired are still viable but are dated designs (usually equipped with massive gasoline engines - 429's and the like) and are falling out vogue.

 

I had a "Northwind" which was a hull built on the Uniflite 28 foot mould with a different deck configuration. When I owned it gas was $1 a gallon and the boat had two GM 350's (5.7L ea) pushing it to an economy cruise of 22 Kts (max speed 35Kts) and burning 16USG (approx 63 liters per hour @ 22 Kts). There is no way I could afford to run that boat today when fuel in Canada is around $1.18/L.

 

Undoubtably, I had airplanes that did much better on a MPG basis than that boat.

 

 

[allardjd 1,853]

You could probably find locomotives that would do better than that.  

 

John

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

They are interesting craft. I have another of those kits that I intend to convert back to an offshore supply boat owned by Gray Mackenzie in the Persian Gulf. They did the crew changes and stores etc for BP and as such I spent a lot of time aboard as a passenger! They operated out of Ras al Khaima and you could hear them coming for miles. They were always a welcome sight as it meant mail coming aboard or that you were going home after a 5 month trip.

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

They are interesting craft. I have another of those kits that I intend to convert back to an offshore supply boat owned by Gray Mackenzie in the Persian Gulf. They did the crew changes and stores etc for BP and as such I spent a lot of time aboard as a passenger! They operated out of Ras al Khaima and you could hear them coming for miles. They were always a welcome sight as it meant mail coming aboard or that you were going home after a 5 month trip.

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

No idea how that went on twice!