Building a Vietnam era Riverine Monitor from a box of contact lenses challenge

[Bushbaby]

I think the title explains what I am setting out to do.



Building this...



with this...

[von Lucky]

A sentence I never thought I'd read in my life. Bring it on!

[Wilkins]

Looks good so far...

(I just wanted to comment so that it's easier to keep track of this thread. Looking forward to seeing more!)

[Hupp n at em]

I look forward to this insanity. 

[Bushbaby]

A little about the river monitors:



During the Vietnam War, the US Navy's Brown Water Navy, operated its Monitors as part of their River Assault Flotilla One, which "initially" consisted of four River Assault Divisions (RAD); with RAD 91 containing 3 Monitors, RAD 92 having 2 Monitors, RAD 111 having 3 Monitors, and RAD 112 operating 2 Monitors.
The Vietnam Monitors were divided into two programs; program 4 would consist of the 40mm gun Monitors, while the later program 5 would entail the eight Monitor (H) Howitzer versions, and the six Monitor (F) Flamethrower models. All of the Monitors were converted from World War II 56' long all steel Landing Craft Mechanized (LCMs) Mk 6's.[9] When completed, they were 60' long, 17' wide, with a draft of 31⁄2', had two screws driven by two Gray Marine model 64NH9 diesel engines, could do 8.5 knots and were manned by usually 11 or more crewmen. They usually carried about ten tons of armor.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_monitor

Beam:   17.5 feet
Draft:   3.5 feet
Propulsion:   2 Gray Marine 64HN9 225 hp, 2 shafts
Speed:   8 kts Range:   Crew:   11
Weapons:   Mk I Mod 0 MON: 1 40mm L/60 Bofors, 1 .50 AN/M-2HB mg (co-axial), 3 20mm Mk 16 or 2 20mm Mk 16 and 1 40mm Mk 19 grenade launcher, 2 Mk 21 7.62mm mg, 1 81mm Mk 2 Mod 0 mortar.

Source: http://www.warboats.org/monitor.htm

I have decided to go for the Mk1 with the 40mm autocannon. It was ca 17 meters long, so in scale 1:50 it will be about 34 cm long, suited for 28mm gaming.



The tools of the trade. As you can see, I decided to use an empty roll of toilet paper in the project. Hope this is not considered cheating...



Carving up the box of contact lenses and assembling the hull. This is the bottom part of the hull.



The top of the hull with the mortar pit.

[DonVoss]

really like the thread title and the monitor so far....

Very cool.

Cheers,
Don

[Burnin Coal]

  ok...am liking this a lot...looking forward to following your progress...already admiring your intention

[fastolfrus]

Making it from the box. That would make sense. I wondered how you were going to make it from the lenses.....

[Bushbaby]

Making it from the box. That would make sense. I wondered how you were going to make it from the lenses.....

A true challenge!

Anyway, let's take a closer look at the blueprints before running into something without a plan. I need a superstructure, a bridge, bar/cage armor, three smaller turrets and a big one in the bow for the 40mm. The thing in the stern seems to be a winch of sorts.

[Bushbaby]

Octagonal superstructure



Roof

[Legion1963]

Indeed. A challenge. And you, Bushbaby Sir! deserve the CMMSB. The congressional Medal of Miniature Scratch Builders. Sorry, i got carried away a little. But it is good to see that 28mm gamin' in Da Nam is still going strong. I have some projects of my own that are in the development and execution stage that i will show soon. ;-)

[carlos marighela]

Making it from the box. That would make sense. I wondered how you were going to make it from the lenses.....

Yeah, frankly I'm disappointed. I demand you make another one using the lenses alone.

Nice work.

[Bushbaby]

The smaller turrets, made by genuine, state of the art toilet roll.



Added the super-super structure underneath the last turret.

[Bushbaby]

Added the bridge and the turret covers.



As you can see, the G.I.s are not painted. Why? Because I chose to start my Vietnam adventure with a river monitor, before having painted a single VC/US figure!



Started experimenting with the 40mm turret. Soon chose to drop the Pelican Rouge cup in favour of a standard, white plastic one I found in a dispenser at work. The smaller turrets are attached to the superstructure with nails, which allows them to turn.



Added added another layer of deck.



To protect the monitors from RPG rockets, they were fitted with slate or cage armor to disable the rockets before impact. For me, this is somewhat of a problem. How to make bar armor from a box of contact lenses? Well, the answer lied inside the cardboard...

[Golgotha]

Looking forward to seeing that completed - great start.