original pt-boat construction

Original Boat Redrawn

Around 1995 and due to the large number of photo's and books that I have acquired over the years I decided to redraw the boat as close to the original plans as is possible with a view to possibly making a museum quality model, as distinct from a remote control model.

This really started off as an exercise to see how close the original model hull was to the available historical data.

I did a couple of 3D design courses and found them fairly hopeless for what I wanted and then around 2016 I started messing around with the new Autodesk Fusion360 program and I have used it consistently since then to produce most of the boat fittings in 1/20th and other scales and as of 2023 I have almost completed every part necessary to produce a faithful representation of PT593 in 1/20th scale, as well as some of the earlier boat parts. All these parts are available on my shop on Shapeways. I finally reached the stage where I needed to do a stocktake of all the parts that I have drawn and what still remain to be drawn, so I decided to work on the hull itself, in 3D and from there I could assemble the complete boat with all it's parts and from there see what were missing, this would also allow me to rotate the boat into any pose so that I could compare it against the huge number of photographs that I have aquired over the 30 odd years that this project has taken me.

There are still a number of parts missing from the 3D model, notably the torpedoes are missing (as I have not yet drawn the propellers for them) as are the muffler flap valve levers, the radar is the wrong type for this model also.

This front view drawing is coming along but I needed to draw all the gun front views before I could finish it..

There's a lot more in this project than it first seems! Just as well I love drawing.

I have redrawn the "hull lines" from the new rib drawings that I have developed from the "original boat" drawings - for those of you who prefer "lines". I've never really understood the full use of hull lines before or quite how to draw them but I thought I would give it a go to get the new hull as perfect as possible. You have to go back and forth adjusting curves and this and that until all the views are good and with smooth curves in the right places and then you have "lines" that are slices through the hull both horizontally and vertically at 1 foot intervals. I was inspired to draw these "lines" by the hull lines in the book "Allied Coastal Forces" by John Lambert and Al Ross. My lines are slightly different from theirs (and I've added a few more lines) because the orientation of my hull is a little different and is raised slightly higher at the stern but hey I'm not starting again just to see if I can make them look the same!

There are a couple of curves at the upper front (sorry, bow) that I may adjust slightly and I haven't decided why the outside side curves are convex at the rear (stern) when it seemed to me that they should have been concave like the bow lines but they are compound curves and may well be correct, at least I've checked them many times and they keep coming out the same!

Stern View (no weapons)

Superstructure view from the stern at the rear of the superstructure.

The rear vertical box is an ammo storage cupboard for the 40mm Bofors Canon Shells

Superstructure view from the bow at the front of the engine hatch.

Superstructure view from the stern at the rear of the day cabin showing the cutout for the rear 50 Cal BMG Turret.

Superstructure view from the bow at the front of the day cabin.

Superstructure view from the stern at the helm section of the superstructure

I'm not sure whether the floor (deck sorry) was raised here or not - your choice!

Superstructure view from the bow at the front of the superstructure.

And why PT-593 ??? - Well when I started this project around 1999 I lived at number 593 Hull Road and it is a legitimate number for a late war Elco 80' boat.