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ť Forum Category: PT Boats of WWII
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ť Forum Name: PT Boats - General
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ť Topic: PT BOATS in ACTION
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I have just recieved my book early this morning. Although I did look through the book briefly, I was happy to see some of the COLOR PHOTOS that were used. From a modlers stand point, the photo;s should prove very benificial. Many of the photos were ones that I had seen before or actually have in my own collection. The book breaks the boats down into sections using ELCO, HIGGINS, and HUCKINS. HIGGINS has the majority of the color photos and there are some shots I have not seen before.

Test in the book is really just a rehash of information that we as PT BOAT Fans already know. There is one nice color shot of a torpedo that those who are constantly after that right blend of color for their models will appreciate. All and all the book is not bad as far as photos are concerned. It offers nothing really new in written material for any of the boat sections, but in my view, I think it is worth the price. Just the color shots alone would be worth obtaining the book. For modelers, I think it would make a nice addition to your collection.............

Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Apr 3, 2010 - 9:05am
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am

I also received both of Doyle's books today and was generally pleased with them.

As Frank noted, lots of new photos in this version of the In Action book. Given the accuracy problems of their naval titles in general, I think Squadron wisely eliminated the bulk of the normal text, depending instead on expanded captions. All but one of the substantive errors of the original monograph have been eliminated, but a few new ones have crept in. The hold-over error is the drawing for the 70' ELCO. This drawing is based on an old Marine Model Company kit drawing and isn't even close. The rest of the line drawings are more or less OK, although the rudder size on the Higgins profile and the rudder placement on the Huckins are both wrong. On the Huckins, the rudders were outboard of the transom, much like those on the 70' VOSPERs. A curious error is the rendering of PT 174. The color scheme on the rendering does not correspond with the text and the forward 40mm looks like it's in a well on the foredeck. Lastly, Doyle describes the ELCO and Higgins boats as deep vee hulls while describing the Huckins as a planing hull. The former do not exhibit the characteristics of a deep vee and all three were planing hulls (as opposed to a displacement hull).

The Walk Around book has a lot of very useful photos and fairly decent drawings. My only caveat here would be that readers recognize that many of the ondeck details of PT 617 are reconstructions and, therefore, not necessarily accurate representations of the originals. One of the turrets, for instance, still incorporates a Viet Nam era MK56 gun mount used on the PBR MK2. These are very different from the MK17 PT mounts.

Bottom line: for me, these books are a very inexpensive way to acquire a lot of generally clear and detailed photos. I'm glad I bought them.

Al Ross

Posted By: alross2 | Posted on: Apr 3, 2010 - 12:00pm
Total Posts: 993 | Joined: Oct 30, 2006 - 8:19pm