Tamiya 1/35 'Pibber' Diorama in Mekong Delta

[rodrant]

Hi ,

only a photo of the main kit that I will build in this SiG , the Tamiya 1/35 Pibber Boat , will build a diorama in the Mekong Delta .

I will use another kit and some vegetation , artificial water :

[Joesdad]

Oooh nice rod, it's going to be interesting to see you do that wet stuff...

[AchtungPanzer]

1/35.. will be a Giant Good luck mate

[peppie]

Oh, one off my favourit boats.
I want to do something with water in the future, so I'm gone follow this.

Good luck with the build

[Twokidsnosleep]

Looking forward to your build

[benc123]

What a cool kit, I'll be watching this with interest!

Are you going to be doing natives with bows and arrows? A little apocalypse now inspiration? Lol.

[Desertfish]

In case you're looking for inspiration, Scalerama did a demonstration video of their water effects using a diorama with a PBR31 floaty thing in it. I wonder if this effect is as easy to achieve as they make it look in their vids;

Part-1
[youtube]3NRpMGMjRJU[/youtube]

Part-2
[youtube]9nmGi254EcY[/youtube]

[rodrant]

In case you're looking for inspiration, Scalerama did a demonstration video of their water effects using a diorama with a PBR31 floaty thing in it. I wonder if this effect is as easy to achieve as they make it look in their vids;

Long time I didn't come to my Vietnam Thread ...but time to start on this build !

Yes, DesertFish i take a lot of ideas from the web , and YT videos and yes, I already saw this and my idea is to do something similar toghether with a vietcong boat , the effect achieved by them is quite good and as you mention seems easy , will try to do something similar but with Vallejo watereffects or try some new stuff that I saw in my Local Hobby Store from , i think , Deluxe materials brand , already try in some dioramas , let's see how this go . Thank you for your suggestion !

[MarkVerploeg]

That is a very nice idea you have there
Looking forward to the finished build

[Desertfish]

In case you're looking for inspiration, Scalerama did a demonstration video of their water effects using a diorama with a PBR31 floaty thing in it. I wonder if this effect is as easy to achieve as they make it look in their vids;

Long time I didn't come to my Vietnam Thread ...but time to start on this build !

Yes, DesertFish i take a lot of ideas from the web , and YT videos and yes, I already saw this and my idea is to do something similar toghether with a vietcong boat , the effect achieved by them is quite good and as you mention seems easy , will try to do something similar but with Vallejo watereffects or try some new stuff that I saw in my Local Hobby Store from , i think , Deluxe materials brand , already try in some dioramas , let's see how this go . Thank you for your suggestion !

Adding the vietcong boat seems like a brilliant idea, especially since we don't really see a lot of waterbourne diorama's on here. This has the potential to end up as an awesome stunning dio. I'll definitely be following this build with a lot of interest. Good luck.

[rodrant]

SO Time to start on this build :

First some video that I found on YT explaining the use of the PBR boats in Vietnam :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bFxW_A3_aQ

i will try to do a diorama with the PBR boat ready to do some verification check on a small Vietcong boat , for this will use the Tamiya Kit above and a Verlinden resin kit toghether with some more acessories ( maybe a plam tree and some foliage ) and some water effects from Vallejo .

Here are some photos of the content of the box

No wings on this one ...

only the Parts of the hull :



Some small parts and the 'sailors'





More small pieces from the main hull and some line to depict the rope cables and a piece for the rotating MG turret in front



This are the Verlinden resin small vietcong boats



Two small boats with some nice detail



two figures and some acessories also :



On this there was a large Saipan also from Verlinden but the price was about 60/70 € and for the effect thonk that this is also do the business ...

The Tamiya kit has some nice detail on it , although it is a oldie kit I believe, the hull part mention 1997 , but the detail on the parts is very good ! No flash , only some mold ejection pins , but most of them are where we can't see them so , no big work on them .

Some History on the PBR Boat (Wikipedia source ) :

Patrol Boat, River or PBR, is the United States Navy designation for a small rigid-hulled patrol boat used in the Vietnam War from March 1966 until the end of 1971. They were deployed in a force that grew to 250 boats, the most common craft in the River Patrol Force, Task Force 116, and were used to stop and search river traffic in areas such as the Mekong Delta, the Rung Sat Special Zone, the Saigon River and in I Corps, in the area assigned to Task Force Clearwater, in an attempt to disrupt weapons shipments. In this role they frequently became involved in firefights with enemy soldiers on boats and on the shore, were used to insert and extract Navy SEAL teams, and were employed by the United States Army's 458th Transportation Company, known as the 458th Seatigers.

Design :

The PBR was a versatile boat with a fiberglass hull and water jet drive which enabled it to operate in shallow, weed-choked rivers. It drew only two feet of water fully loaded. The drives could be pivoted to reverse direction, turn the boat in its own length, or come to a stop from full speed in a few boat lengths.

The PBR was manufactured in two versions, the first with 31 foot length and 10 foot, 7 inch beam. The Mark II version 32 feet (9.8 m) long and one foot wider beam had improved drives to reduce fouling and aluminum gunwales to resist wear.

Crew :

The PBR was usually manned by a 4-man crew. Typically, a First Class Petty Officer served as boat captain, with a gunner's mate, an engineman and a seaman on board. Each crewman was cross-trained in each other's job in the event one became unable to carry out his duties. Generally, PBRs operated in pairs under the command of a patrol officer who rode on one of the boats.

Power :

The boats were powered by dual 180 hp (115 kW) Detroit Diesel 6V53N engines with Jacuzzi Brothers pump-jet drives. The boats reached top speeds of 28.5 knots (53 km/h 32 mph).

Armament :

Typical armament configuration included twin M2HB .50 caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns forward in a rotating shielded tub, a single rear .50 cal, M60 7.62mm light machine guns mounted on the port and starboard sides, and a Mk 19 40mm grenade launcher. There was also a full complement of M16 rifles, shotguns, .45 ACP handguns, and hand grenades. Some had a "piggyback" arrangement, a .50 cal machine gun on top of an 81mm mortar; others had a bow-mounted 20 mm Mk16 Mod 4 Colt 20mm automatic cannon, derived from the AN/M3 version of the Hispano-Suiza HS.404 and also found on the LCMs and PBRs.[2]

What the boats benefited in heavy firepower they lacked in armor or shielding. Although the .50 cal machine guns had some ceramic armor shielding and the Coxswain's flat had some quarter inch thick steel armor plate, the boats were designed to rely on rapid acceleration, maneuverability, and speed to get out of tight situations.

So after this Overview of the Pibber or PBR boats : let's start with the build , It will be a quick build I believe , after checking the instructions I decided to build the all Hull , primer it and apply the main color , that will be XF-58 Olive green or TS-28 Spray and the bottom of the hull TS-33 or XF-9 , will do the paint on spray as will cover better , then will paint the small details that are in the instrument panels , not too much here actually , only some instruments , fire extinguishers .
Also the guns are all tobe painted seperately and later added to the boat , seems to me that will be the better aproach , the last part to be added will be the coverage of the 'cabin' also to be painted with some mixture of XF-49 Khaki and XF-65 Field Grey.

But already initiated the Hull and goes very fast ...



Againd some sanding to be done prior to fixing the parts

Here the year of the Hull part ...1991 !!!

And some ejection pins but not to worry ...





This is the base that come with the model , it is nice and I was wondering now if to leave it like this o to go for the diorama

It is also a nice base to put the model when working on it



Now I put the upper part of the hull , it is instructed to use some tape to fixing it , it in't mention to use glue , I use the tape as it was usefull to get the part not to move , but I glue it later , really they do not mention this in instructions , hope that later I do not discover something odd in the build







Also fixed already the instruments and pilot cabin





so that's it for today , will now go to the rotating gun in front and the suports and armor plates on the rear , prime it and start painting .

[Daishi12]

Looks good so far, always wanted to build this one

[rodrant]

Another update ...

So after prime the boat painted upper hull with Tamiya TS -28 and bottom hull with TS -33 , I use Tamiya spray



Painted some details on the cabin , compass and radar screens and throttle levers and seats





will need to add some clear parts on the compass and radar screen , but will be on the end after apllying some Varnish coat .

Also painted the acessories , guns and some other small stuff





I use a pin vice to make the guns more realistic , so with a small drill bit make the holes on the gun barrels



More acessories added





Already added some more acessories already with decals



It is getting nice , aome weathering still needed , but this acessories give a lot of realism on the boat , I really enjoy the tape recorder ...use to have one almost identical





Now , I miss to do the figures , the upper coverage of the boat , putting the flag and some small stuff .

That's all for today !

Thank you for watching !

[rodrant]

New update :

So Paint the figures :







and placed them in the Pibber











Then Clear Coat (Tamiya Spray TS-13) , some weathering done, not too much :













Some green light slime from AK interaktive



Now to finish the boat a Flat Clear (Tamiya Spray TS-80) and placing the glass of the beacons and the flag ...but the pibber is now complete !

Meanhwile the rest of the figures for the diorama , the Vietcong Boat from Verlinden



All in a plastic bag



The all of the Bag ...





No instructions ...

All cleaned and ready for primer and painting :

Start on the boats ...as one of the boats will be empty , I will place soem cargo : Three Ammo boxes from some Blackdog stuff that I have in my stash , always usefull to have such acessories !

Will be something like this one of the boats with the VC's in it and will put a sort of rope or something connecting one to another !



Really do not like the hat's , think they are too small ...but will go like this !

well that's all for today , I'm now thinking on how will do the Diorama layout ...

thanks for watching !

[Twokidsnosleep]

The figures and boat details are well done and realistic
Looking good so far

[SyntaxModels]

Looks great mate! This is sure to be a beast of a kit when finished and if I managed to ever finish one of those with a dio I wouldn't be able to stop looking at it . Keep it up and those VC figures and boats look pretty good!

[UKguyInUSA]

That's it.....there's no need for me to enter into this GB, not with builds like this being entered too!

Looking fabulous so far mate....I'm looking forward to seeing your results with the water effects!

[rodrant]

Thank you guys for all the nice comments , so I make some more things , not much but still waiting for some vegetation to arrive for the dio...

In this update I now have all figures and boats ready , so start to see how the dio will look :



Actually too much action in the Pibber Boat , very calm Vietcongs

Some close up of the VC boats :



Thoose AK's aren't very well disguised , right ?



In this other boat I placed the ammo crates and make some sort of blanket covering it , it was made from Tamiya Epoxy Putty , it is some stuff that you can use to create this type of pieces or some small accessories if you have enough skills , then I paint it , and to me it is nice , onlynot to have the crates completely on sight , even so these VC's weren't properly the best users of stealth techniques , only miss some card mention :'We are carrying Guns ...a Lot of them' ,

apart from jokes I like the end result , only do not like their 'conic hats' , seem a little out of porpotion as I mention before ...

On the Pibber now it is finished , I place all clear parts and the Flag ...use some White Glue so to give the ondulation shape !



So next I must wait that vegetation , it is some Bamboo , some Jungle plants , only to add some terrain so the dio is not all water ...but it is getting shape and think it will look nice in the end

That's all for today

Thanks for watching this small update , be free to comment ,

[SyntaxModels]

Can't wait to see the dio come together mate! This is sure to be a stunning entry because it already is!

[rwsmith14]

It's coming together nicely !! love the VC boats...

[rodrant]

Thank you for the nice comments ,

well here is another update ,

Now only for the diorama do not be only river water , I will add some small shore were I will dd some vegetation and some rocks and so ...

I used some modelling clay :



Then add the first water layer , used Vallejo water texture were I add some XF-52 Tamiya Flat earth so to the water have that Vietnam river's color of earth ...just hope that after dry I doesn't get any surprise ...let's see when it dries :



For now I like a lot the effect :



Already add some small rocks in the margin :







Now it is time to work on the vegetation and start doing that vegetation , will later add some -vallejo water texture but with no color to depict the water 'turbulence' created by the Pibber . I now must wait for this to dry , with the current weather here in Portugal it will take a while as it is too dump and cold .

Still I'm waiting for another stuff to add to the boat , some blank 0.50 cal blank cartridges to put inside and near the rear and front gun ...

See you in next update ,

[JayCub]

Looking marvellous sofar, this will make an ideal center piece as this is well thought out, and im looking forward to the next update
Tom

[SyntaxModels]

Looks marvellous mate! Can't wait to see the dio finished! I think it'll give me some inspiration for future builds!

[rodrant]

Thank you for all the comments , just to say that to me this build is being very nice and learn a lot of new techniques , and I'm enjoying to be part of this SiG .

another update , this time it is time for the jungle :

Well start with this kit for making two hemp/cannabis plants ...



It is provided a wire and the pants in Hard paper , it is easy and the result is very nice







Now also make some bamboos , the kit brings three , I make two and a small one just to differentiate sizes

also very nice end result :



Then another pack , a jungle pack , miscellaneous of jungle plants :



Then prepare the small terrain , use AK interactive Damp earth enamel color , and add some dark earth pigment , the small rocks I painted in a brown color and add some light green slime effect from AK interactive also ...







Returning now to my jungle ...make some small palm tree , the palm log was made using some modelling clay and add the leaves that come in the Fredericus Rex jungle pack ,not perfect palm tree but it becomes nice with the leaves on it





I paint all this stuff now using Tamiya XF-5 matt green

Now added all the 'green stuff and make the small Vietnam jungle



It is a jungle so now all is mixed up , like the end result , but a lot of work gluing all the stuff , used CA glue

Also add now more Vallejo water texture , that will become transparent (I hope...) , till in some places the brown one still isn't completely cured ...but Will have to wait for the final detail to arrive , the blank cartridges ...









So , next will be the final update and then the Final reveal , maybe next weekend I hope and also must wait to see this water how it turns to ...about the water effect , I saw some Pibber Dioramas that show them full speed ahead with Big splashing waves , but I thought that in here wasn't real nice to see , as with the VC boats so near the waves will be like small tsunamis and throw them away to the margin

see you in my next update , fell free to comment and hope that you enjoy watching !

[Twokidsnosleep]

Coming along very nicely, I like the water effects
Cannabis trees would be very popular I bet

[SyntaxModels]

Looks great mate, I scrolled down the page and saw "First I bought some cannabis/hemp plants" and started to "Hey, wait... ermmm, ahh, well..." and then realised they were just for the dio . Looks like that jungle is great and I can't wait for the final reveal!

[rodrant]

So I received today the resin 0.50 shells ...





even this picture shows it is only the cartridges that are on the kit



Now painted in X-12 Gold leaf by Tamiya and already placed on the Pibber ...



It is a nice touch ...

Now the water now become transparent (the one that was white ...) and now will add a final water mixed with some foam , this Vallejo foam is some white acrylic to depict foam waves or snow , will try for the first time to mix it with the water texture product and see the final effect ...

[SyntaxModels]

Amazing work again mate! Looks like those resin .50 caliber rounds were a good purchase! They look great!