Building the 1/72 Revell Vosper 70' Motor Torpedo Boat

by Richard Eaton

This month's adventure gets me back into the world of 1/72 Motor Torpedo Boats. This kit represents the Vosper 70' boat armed with torpedoes and depth charges. This British design was built both in England and in the US in limited numbers. Revell's "British" Vosper MTB kit is one of the type built in the US and fitted differently than the typical RN boats. These boats were sent lend-lease to the Soviet Union. I chose to finish the boat OOB and it therefore represents a Royal Navy craft. Hey it's a hobby after all!

A restored boat of this type was used in the production of the 1960s TV show "McHale's Navy". As I recall Revell once put out a version of this old model with characters from the TV show.

The History

Despite some pioneering work in light craft in WWI, by the 1930s the Royal Navy's coastal forces lacked modern designs due to the Admiralty's scarce funds being poured into the capital ship programs. Nevertheless, Vosper pioneered a small 70 foot "hard chine" boat powered by huge aero engines, rated at over 1000 bhp each. These early boats (under the designation Vosper private venture boat) were designed by Commander Peter Du Cane CBE, Managing Director of Vosper Ltd., in 1936. This design became a standard, as a Motor Torpedo Boat, MTB, for attacks by torpedo on coastal shipping and as antisubmarine platforms. Most boats were built at Vosper Thornycroft's shipyard at Woolston, Southampton.

Early in the war Vospers were crewed by two officers and eight men, and during 1939 and 1940 they saw active service mainly in the English Channel. One of the greatest challenges during this period occurred during `Operation Dynamo', the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk. Many boats crossed the channel no less than seven times. When the destroyer HMS Keith was disabled by a bomb from a Stuka dive bomber, MTB 102 was used by Rear Admiral Wake-Walker as his flagship for the last two nights of the operation. As she carried no Rear Admirals flag, one of her crew made one from a navy dishcloth, and MTB 102 proudly flew the `proper' flag!. This boat was the third-to-last warship to leave Dunkirk. Later in 1944 she carried Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower to review the ships assembled on the south coast for the D-Day landings, and so saw both the desperate evacuation of the British forces from Europe and their determined return!

The Model

This is an older kit with fairly good detail and little flash for its era. Ejector marks are typical of older kits and no different here. I built OOB, though several assemblies would have benefited greatly from scratching up thinner parts.

I spray painted the major colors while the parts were on the sprue. I used Testors Euro I Gray for decks, camouflage and neutral gray for hull and bulkheads, and flat red for the keel. I was going to try out a new system for weather washes and drybrushing with this one.

The deck was first sprayed camo gray. I then painted in the decking with Euro I gray. Finally, I used intermediate blue for hatch tops to complete the British tri-tone camouflage effect.

I assembled the basic components onto the main deck and proceeded to weather them. I wanted to work in weathering and detail with drybrushing prior to adding the numerous small parts. I sprayed the assembly with Glosscoat to allow the weathering wash to run into crevasses more readily. As an experiment I decided to try acrylic washes with this kit. I mixed Tamiya scale black and brown and diluted with water and alcohol. A liberal brushing with this mixture seemed to work pretty well. The torpedoes tubes were weathered separately in a similar manner.

After drying overnight I drybrushed the surfaces with light gray. This really seemed to bring out the details. The one piece hull was painted in a series of color & masking steps. First went camo gray. Then I masked off the wave design on either side and went with neutral gray. Finally the lower hull was sprayed flat red.

Final assembly was pretty straightforward taking the deck and hull in two sections. First the deck. The only way I differed from the instructions was cementing thin clear plastic packaging material to the inside of the windows with clear parts cement instead of using the thick kit supplied part. The boat really started to look mean as I added the weapons. The 20mm is passing but the .50s should really be replaced. With all the various fitting in place I worked the hull.

The aft portion of the hull has some really interesting detail. After pre-painting all parts I assembled the mufflers in position. The rudders, steering mechanisms, and rear plane assembly are detailed and really add to the look of the boat. I added prop shafts and screws and touched everything up. The screws were painted with Testors metalizer brass. I have never seen a better brass paint and applied it with a brush despite the admonishments to the contrary.

Once the various assemblies were done it was largely a simple matter of fitting and alignment. The hull and deck fit well with minor adjustments and require no filling. From there, final touchup, decals, and rigging (black sewing thread) and it was done. The kit comes with a passable paper Royal Navy ensign that adds a tad of color to the kit.

Conclusion

Despite the age of the mold, I recommend this kit to PT boat and ship lovers of average experience. It really does build up to an impressive boat and more experienced modelers could go to town detailing and scratching parts on this one. I want to thank Barry at Rosemont Hobbies for providing this kit.

Sources

Knights of the Sea Website
www.ships.co.uk
The Royal Navy website

MTB102 - Surviving WW2 Motor Torpedo Boat of the Royal Navy: The history of this MTB, from 1937 to today