Background: The Patrol Torpedo (PT) Boat of WWII fame first came to the public's attention through the exploits published in They Were Expendable, and later in connection with the sinking of LT (j.g.) John F. Kennedy's PT 109. JFK's PT 109 was an ELCO eighty-foot PT of the PT 103 class. This was the definitive version produced by ELCO. The basic hull remained in production throughout the war, with some changes introduced in 1944 to the deckhouse and machine gun turrets.

Initially the 103 class was armed with four 21-inch WWI era torpedo tubes, two twin fifty cal. machine guns and a single 20MM cannon aft. But as the war progressed and the PTs' mission changed to barge busting and coastal interdiction, the crews scrounged around and vastly increased the armament they carried.

A typical boat by mid to late war carried the same twin fifties, but added a 40MM cannon aft in place of the 20MM, a 37MM cannon forward, a 20MM cannon on the bow, rocket launchers, mortars, and as many additional fifty cal. weapons as possible. As the mission changed away from torpedo attacks, the boats shed their bulky torpedo tubes in favor of lighter MK XIII aircraft type torpedoes on lightweight roll off racks, and added depth charges to dissuade pursuing enemy heavy vessels. The later boats came from the factory upgunned in this configuration, but the earlier boats were modified and outfitted with whatever the crews could find.

After extensively researching PTs I wanted to try some minor kit bashing and change the standard 103-class boat into a "typical" barge buster of the mid-war configuration. I used Revell's PT 117, which is the old PT109 kit first released in the early 1960s. The 117 boat was nicknamed "Munda Morn" by her crew and assigned to RON 6 in the Pacific. She was destroyed by an air attack in Aug 1943 one year after arriving in the Pacific.

While there is a good set of builder's photos of the 117 as she was initially configured, I have not found any of her in the war zone. My kit shows what the PT 117 might have looked like by late1943-early 1944 had she not been destroyed.

CHANGES

1. Added a bow tow hook and tow lines.
2. Removed several bow fittings and re-located the raft to the pilothouse.
3. Moved the 20MM to the bow from the original stern location. Used the kit mount rather than scratch building a tripod mount. Tripods were favored but both were in use.
4. Added an army style 37MM cannon on the bow. PT crews initially mounted available army field pieces and later used 37MM cannon scrounged from the Bell P-39 Airacobra. The Airacobra 37MM later became a factory standard installation.
5. Mounted an 81MM mortar on the forward right side. Mortars were used to fire star shells for night illumination, and occasionally for shore bombardment.
6. Added numerous ammo and equipment storage boxes, and 5 gal. "Jerry" cans.
7. Added a whip antenna and scratch built an early model radar. Note the power supply cable.
8. Added two additional single fifty cal. weapons.
9. Removed all torpedo tube fittings, scratch built two torpedo racks. Used aircraft torpedoes from the REVELL HE111, which fairly accurately represent the MKXIII. Added torpedo props, which were originally the eight-bladed contra rotating props from a 1/700 scale TU-95 Russian bomber.
10. Added a 40MM cannon aft. This gun is modified from a German 37MM from the 1/72nd scale Hasegawa 8ton half track anti-aircraft vehicle kit; gun is visually compatible with a standard 40MM.
11. Added two depth charges in place of the aft torpedoes. It was common to remove the aft torpedoes as the number of large targets dried up throughout the war.
12. Filled in the day cabin windows with clear glue to make windows.
13. Drilled out the muffler exhaust ports and used stainless steel welding rods to replace the prop shafts.
14. Modified and added crew figures.
15. Replaced Revell kit fifty cal. weapons in the turrets with ROCO weapons. Lowered gun tub railings.
16. Re-located the smoke generator from its original stern mounting point to a starboard fore and aft position.
17. Added some decals and an aircraft recognition "star and bar" to the day cabin roof. Left off the bow large number "PT 117" decals supplied with the kit, as these were never used on other than early 70' and prototype boats.

    Jeffrey Vail

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