------------------------------------------------
Latest news:
I apologize to all my loyal viewers for no updates but this past year or so has not been the best with a few personal issues.
21st November 2007 - Shop and Links updated and free plans downloadable
29th January 2007 - Superstructure for Hull-2
29th January 2007 - 1/24th scale roll off rack
13th October - If you can see this - Moved web hosting to Linode - much faster and spam free
9th October - Servo page added
11th July 2006 - More Schnellboot
1st June 2006 - German WW2 Schnellboot or S-Boat begins
5th May 2006 - Zenoah petrol engine page added
23rd April 2006 - 6' Hull-2 (1/13.33 scale) with belt drive gearbox and 3 x 60mm props being developed
14th April 2006 - Zenoah petrol powered 4' Hull-2 (1/20 scale) developed with MHZ counter-rotating gearbox and two 63mm props!
14th March 2006 - New 1/35th Rudders
27th Jan 2006 - New 1/35th Hull-2 page
9th Jan 2006 - small video files converted to mpg's
10th Dec 2005 - Torpedo Tube drawing update
26th Nov 2005 - small video files of Hull-2's performance
23rd Nov 2005 - Updated Flag details
16th Nov 2005 - Newer brushless motor performance data with 12 cell batteries
12th Nov 2005 - Revised rudder mixer circuit for brushless (or brushed) controllers.
30th Oct 2005 - Updates to book section and torpedo's and rockets
8th Oct 2005 - New Batteries on the market
30th Sept 2005 - New rudder mixer circuit for brushless (or brushed) controllers started.
13th August 2005 - New Torpedo Tube Starts
29th July 2005 - New Laser Cut Deck Kit
24th July 2005 - Castle Creations - Barracuda 80Amp - brushless controller review
23rd July 2005 - Newer brushless motor performance data
17th June 2005 - Hull-2 with three brushless motors
Impressive, most impressive!
"They were expendable" - the movie, with John Wayne, Ward Bond etc. has been restored and is now out on DVD. My son bought it for me a while ago and I've watched it many times. This movie is only black and white but it gives some fabulous footage and detail of real PT Boats of the early war era - PT41, PT43 and others - Elco and Higgins boats, propellers, torpedo's etc..
-------------------------------------------------
The Original PT-Boat(s)
Redrawn Original Hull Construction Plans
The original Helm and controls
-------------------------------------------------
The Elco PT593 Model
General model Photo's "Boatographs" Hull Construction Photo's Drive Train Photo's Electric's Photo's
Cabin Construction Photo's Dinghy Construction Photo's Raft Construction Photo's Mast Construction Photo's
Mast Support Construction Ammo box Construction American Flag 1939-1945 Rudder Brushless Motors
Mufflers and manifold Numbers Crew Roll Off Rack VeeDrive Gearbox Propeller Propshaft Packard Engine
Lasercut Deck Other Builders Boatographs Servo's and how they work
Hull-2 1/20th scale Skeleton Kit Hull-2 1/35th scale Skeleton Kit
Weaponry - (The good stuff !)
Torpedo Construction Photo's 40mm Bofors Canon Rocket Launcher
37mm Canon 20mm Canon 50 Cal BMG
-----------------------------------------
The S-Boot Model
-----------------------------------------
Parts, Photo's and other stuff for sale
E-Commerce Shop by shop of shops
-----------------------------------------
Hull-1 Rib Plans
I have put the existing boat hull (Hull 1) Rib Plans on the web site as large .gif files.
OK, OK, I have made the Hull-1 gif files free again, too many sad stories I suppose, however I still don't get enough donations to cover my website hosting costs even though many hundreds of people have downloaded the files for free. Send me an email with your details and I will give you access to the gif file section, but - no details - no access, I want to know who has them and I will absolutely not give your details to anyone else or junk mail you!
Donate a dollar or two to keep this site alive
I need to cover the cost of site hosting at least or this site may disappear!
-----------------------------------------
My thanks to many people for their input and especially Beaty Lay and Roy Copeland for their input on torpedo's and to all the crews and people involved in all other PT-Boat websites, books, and the dedicated ex crewmembers for having such a rich selection of photo's and memorabilia.
Any info, comments, criticisms, donations, drawings or photo's gratefully received (please don't send originals)
What an awesome craft for 60 years ago, or more!
In my many years of research I sometimes stumble across people who have old photo's or drawings or other memorabilia stashed away somewhere, and in all seriousness, if you have anything pertaining to PT Boats, it needs to be preserved! There is very little left of an awesome chapter in history!
I know many have an opinion about the sale of memorabilia on the likes of Ebay but from my perspective, it is a great source of information, and certainly gets stuff out of the attic which would otherwise probably end up at the rubbish tip!
In my humble opinion US PT-Boats and crews operating before and during WWII around Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and many other Pacific island groups, did more damage to the Japanese military supply chain than anything else to save Australia from probable invasion and there is almost zero history of those events recorded in Australia. There were apparently PT Boat bases in Cairns and Darwin but I am unable to find any definitive details of these. I did recently find reference to a quantity of 11 British style Fairmile-B boats having been built at Lars Halvorsen's boat works in Ryde in N.S.W. in 1942 but I would be interested in any further information, where did they serve? What weapons did they have? - I have had a couple of responses to these questions and now found a couple of books.
Please do not harvest details from this website, I am not interested in any of your junk email.
All Drawings on this website are (c) copyright 1998 - 2008 by John Drain
(or are credited to their respective owner(s))
You may use them only for your own personal use.
All website hosting survival donations gratefully accepted, please use the Paypal link above!
