Revell PT Boat Kits in Plastic: A Review (MODELING AIDES)

This is more of a self published book, and could use some editing.First off, this book only covers the older Revell Higgins boat mold (H204 PT-212, H306 PT-207, H396 PT-212, H421 PT-212, H464 PT-211/212, et al), and Revell Elco boat mold (H310 PT-109, H312 PT-190 Jack O' Diamonds, H342 PT-167 zebra, et al).It does NOT cover the old Revell Vosper mold (H323 McHale's PT-73, H335 British Vosper MTB, et al), even though Americans used some of those.If you are looking for a step by step of how to make accurate the kits in a simple way to something decent, this is not directly that. There are 8 builds of the Elco, and three of the Higgins, so you'll have to pick and chose what to do. Three of the Elco, and all of the Higgins builds, are after the fact, without step by step photos. The others show some progress points. More small photos that are captioned as to what we are looking at along the way, would be better than referring back to large text blocks.There are four parts layouts for the Elco, and none for the Higgins. I would have much rather have seen two Elco versions, and one of the Higgins, with arrows pointing to the parts and areas needing work. Some box art is shown, but two are glaringly blurry. There are 32 pages of b/w period photos of various quality, but at least they are NOT pixilated as sometimes happens these days. There are 5 drawings of camouflage measures. There are three other construction detail drawings, but only references to other sources after that.If you are buying and building the modern post 2018 Revell Germany molds (05147 PT-109, 05165 PT-579/588, 05175 PT-160, et al), you may not want to go to this expense, but save up for other reference books instead.

See title page

Fantastic book on the Revell PT-109 kit

The book is full of color images, except for the historical ones, which are black and white of course. While the book focus' on building the Revell PT boat kits, the steps shown and accuracy details mentioned could apply to any PT kit you use, for both a Higgins version or the Elco style boat. This book isn't just about building the model. It goes beyond that. It shows the differences between different boats used during the war, and how you can modify your own model to be accurate. Get ready to scratch build, because making modifications to the existing kit, and how to do it, is the strong suit of this publication. Each image has a description explaining what's going on. I especially like the close up images of specific parts, such as arms / guns, and deck mods. If you want to build a PT boat out of the box as is, you don't need this book. But if you wonder if the kit is accurate, and want to make the changes needed for a specific WWII boat, this book is very helpful.

great read , lots useful imfo

A very useful guide to the Revell products, and helpful for those wishing to super detail their models

excellent ,