Author Topic: lifeboat to gunboat (Read 2492 times)

sandsmodels · « **on:** February 12, 2013, 01:20:00 PM »

i was in a new project mode last weekend as the weather was so bad i could not get anything done outside on my jeep so i had a quick look in the loft stash and found this:-

it is a 1/72 scale model so would fit in well with the other ship we have.
untypical of revell, it is an awful kit the fit of parts especialy around the main cabin and bridge do not fit togther very well and even the main hull deck had thick flash along one side so the moulds are obviously not fitting together very well, it reminds me of those eastern european kits with lots of flash and warped parts, not up to the usualy quite good revell quality.
good job i was converting it.
i was after a sort of small patrol boat type vessel to allow us to use it on our river or as a protector for the playmobil cargo ship in some somali pirates games we are planning.

being a life boat the rear of the hull has a large recess to accomodate a small life boat so i made a fit in deck to mount the 20mm round gun tub, i chose the new west german 20mm a/a gun as it was originaly a german boat,

i did not use all of the bridge parts and converted it to my own spec, like a lot of my conversions i just go ahead and convert it as i go along,

for the front i wanted a smaller gun and chose a pintle mounted oerlikon 20mm,

the bridge did not fit at all very well so i used only some of it and you can see the green filler used, i also needed it to be a waterline model so that took a good 20 mins to chop the bottom of the hull off,

the mast was going to be removeable as it would get damaged in transit and storing, so i added some studs underneath and drilled holes into the rear bridge but still in the possition it would be originaly,

i added some metal life raft containers, some crates, bollards, a new front anchor, odd boxes and my own stanchions and hand rails, as you are supposed to bend the front ones around the front hull but of course it snapped into 3 pieces, my own are in metal with plastic rod rails so are in fact much stonger and this is the unpainted result:-

i decided to use some car plastic primer spray paint to see what it was like and this is how it has turned out:-

i still have a few odd details to add like life belts and some crew figs to paint, ready for the fictitious african naval units,
thanks for looking
shaun