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 Author  Topic: Italeri 1/35 PT 109 corrections?
Jeff D

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Jeff D   Send Email To Jeff D Posted on: Mar 21, 2013 - 3:27pm
The short answer, "I have no idea", sorry. Hopefully someone else knows.

The only painting instructions I found on the ladder drawings stated "to be zinc chromated and painted to suit" (PT 565-624 drawing). Nothing is stated on the drawings applicable to the 109.

If you haven't seen them already, check the images Al Ross posted of PT 589's day room interior on page 2 of this thread:http://www.ptboatforum.com/cgi-bin/MB2/netboardr.cgi?fid=102&cid=101&tid=2290&st=0&nd=10&pg=1&sc=20. The ladder looks dark like you mentioned.

The engine hatch ladder is on separate drawings, and just confuses things:
PT 103-120: polish exterior surface
PT 121(?)-150(?): Paint rungs black, sides, support, etc. white

A total guess would be black since it is visible through the dead light, but then again the dead light had a blackout blind.



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David Waples

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of David Waples  Posted on: Mar 21, 2013 - 6:49pm
I remember those photos. It looks like you can slide a panel up to cover the window from the interior. Good find!
Dave

David Waples

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Stuart Hurley

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Stuart Hurley  Posted on: Mar 22, 2013 - 1:03am
Hello,
Thanks, I will probably go with black. Seems most likely.
S


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Jeff D

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Jeff D   Send Email To Jeff D Posted on: Mar 22, 2013 - 9:04am
I asked a veteran of PT 103, Master Chief Jack Duncan, retired, if by some chance he remembered the color of the ladder. He didn't although he's sharper than I am despite the added years. I though everyone would enjoy his response so asked and got permission to post it here:

I hate to disappoint, but if your guy is talking about "as built", I have no idea. By the time I got on the 103 in 1943, it would have been painted (if it was needed) with whatever paint could be purloined from whatever source.

The bureaucrats who knit-pick the tiny details had not yet been hatched, if you'll excuse the pun. The supply chain, logistics is the new word, was lucky if we got ammo, gas and that goddammed canned grapefruit juice that supposedly kept us from getting scurvy. A canteen cup a day to keep scurvy away when we went months without fresh food. Wait! I digress.

Near as I can recall, the whole interior was white, not dead white, but a white none-the-less to provide lighting. Your modeler would be safe in painting the ladder white, too. If a crewman can't remember, who will ever know? Authenticity was, in those earlier days ---- "whatever."

Except for when the Radioman, an out-of-shape, very nice, non-swimmer kid from NYC, was hiding out from all hands work, our dayroom was mostly unused except for stowing stuff we needed. Nothing extra! We were always fighting weight -- the lighter, the faster.

The tiny windows didn't provide much ventilation, even with the hatch open. Does stifling conjure up the meaning of the humid heat of the Solomon Islands? My Marvelous Marlene, son Jeff and grandson Zack will find out when we take the Valor Tour out there in May, 2014. Our desert heat of 120 degrees does not compare!

The only time I really have an intense memory of being in the dayroom was on our return trip from entering Simpson Harbor at Rabaul on Feb. 29, 1944. I was battered and bruised, the boat was taking a pounding and the skipper or someone told me to go crap-out in the dayroom. The crews quarters would have meant broken bones or further bruises.

A 5-gallon can of Tectyl stored in there, spilled and made a horrible mess during that wildhorse ride -- another memory floating in from God knows where!

All of you and your gang of aficionados are amazing with knowing tiny details of stuff that I not only don't recall, but doubt if I ever knew. We were only interested, I guess, in fighting the boat, not getting to know her innermost secrets.

I do have a vivid recall of when I transferred to the 318 we were derisively called "The Show Boat" Skipper Vince Marin and the whole crew decided we wanted to repaint everything below deck a dead white with all the metal work around the opening, doors, hatches, whatnot, a vivid scarlet. It really was purty! Vince "borrowed" some blue striped officers' bedspreads to cover the bunks. This would have been in late '44 as we were soon to leave our relative isolation at Emirau for Manus, Hollandia and Mios Woendi

And, so that, Mr. Davidson, is how to build a watch, since you asked me what time it was. };-) Jack


Jack served as torpedoman on PT 103 from 1943 to 1944. Jack also served on PT 62 and PT 318 as well as the PTFs of the Viet Nam era. He claims, without being refuted, to be the only WW II PT Boater to also have served on the PTFs. He's got a way with words, and let me post some of his life stories here: http://www.pt103.com/PT_Boat_Veteran_Stories.html. I enjoyed them very much and if you haven't read them yet I'm sure you will too.



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Will Day

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Will Day   Send Email To Will Day Posted on: Mar 22, 2013 - 5:13pm
Amazing stuff! I hope I am half as sharp at that age. Jack's recollectins certainly do reinforce the idea that Out There In The Area, very little about the boats remained pristine for long; each one became a reflection of maintenance supplies/facilities available, the operational tempo, and the dedication of the crews in keeping the boats shipshape. Something for us all to bear in mind when we start nitpicking specifics.


Will

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David Waples

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of David Waples  Posted on: Mar 22, 2013 - 9:08pm
Great stuff Jeff! Thanks for sharing that with us.
Dave

David Waples

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Jeff D

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Jeff D   Send Email To Jeff D Posted on: Mar 23, 2013 - 12:54am
You're very welcome.

Will, that's why I stick with "factory fresh with that new boat smell" for my project. Even then the number of minor and major changes, some undocumented in the drawings, is mind boggling... and why I use the word "guess" a lot.



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Frank Andruss

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Frank Andruss   Send Email To Frank Andruss Posted on: Mar 23, 2013 - 7:26am
It just goes to show the massive amount of work that was needed for the upkeep of these wooden boats. I had a good friend who restored a 20 foot wooden boat, and it took him 5 years to complete the job. I can only imagine the work on a 78 or 80 Foot boat in the war zone just to scrape and paint her, not to mention all the other upkeep of painting everything else, and keeping guns and engines in fine tune.


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Pat Hutchens

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Pat Hutchens  Posted on: Mar 24, 2013 - 5:29am
David, the easiest fix for the starboard window would be to hang a couple of those nice Royal Model resin life jackets right over top of it...no modification needed at all!

Pat


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David Waples

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of David Waples  Posted on: Mar 24, 2013 - 6:15am
Good idea Pat. The other thing I was wondering about is if that window is the same as those on the forward side of the chart house.

Jeff or Dick, if you're listening do you have any thoughts about this?
Dave

David Waples

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