"Brown Water Navy" Topic

Have talked about the Brown Water Navy here and even got several book recommendations. ( The signal book Riverine is great! Thanks ) Some pictures of three of my boats found here: link

Enjoy

Joe

Nicely done! Great work

That's just great! It's not my thing, but you have done a wonderful job of it.

Are they 15mm?

These look very nice.

But could perhaps do with some weathering?
And perhaps a little wear and tear?

Nice.

Thank you all for the kind words. Daithi, yes they are 15mm.
Lonkka, fair observation. Actually the tango has some of both though it doesn't show up well in the photos. The Alpha just looked so pretty I didn't want to do anything to it. The Monitor was just finished in time for the photo shoot. I will weather that one.

Thanks again all.

Joe

Wow, looks great. Are they Battlefront boats?

Those are some very nice boats, terrain, etc., Joe !

When I was with to 101, in '83, we deployed to Panama, The CZ. And worked with the USN's PCFs along the rivers there. We also used US ARMY LCMs, and at least one had been converted to an armor command craft. And used along the rivers there as well …

The USN's PBRs were deployed further South, so we didn't get to work with those, sadly.

PTG,
The Alpha is Battlefront. The Tango and Monitor are Gomi but heavily modified. For some reason Gomi doesn't give you barrels for the turreted MGs. So those are tooth picks. The decals are from Battlefront.
Legion,
Cool. Now that I have the boats I have been thinking of other uses for them. Good to know they were used in Panama. Of course Portugal used them in Africa. I wish the French had used some in Africa; they must have somewhere. Zaire had some lake forces.
I guess when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail now!

Joe

Yes, and the PCF Sailor couldn't help themselves and played the Rolling Stones' song, "I can't get no satisfaction", while speeding about the waterways of Panama, at times.

Legion,
ya never know (maybe you do) the CO of the boat might have been a lifer who was in NAM late 60s early 70s.
I started recalling scenes from "Apoc' Now" when you mentioned that.

Yes, I think the Skipper was a younger Officer, but some of the crews looked pretty "salty", a little older in some cases. As in those days some of them had beards as well. And I know some of our senior NCOs and Officers were Vietnam Vets. Even a couple SGMs served during the Korean War as well. So some of the PFC crews may have served in Vietnam.

And of course, our PSYOPs/MI guys along with our chopper pilots had speakers mounted on their Birds and very loudly played "Flight of the Valkyries" …

Great looking stuff ! .. great idea on the wooden gun barrels for the monitor . That would make it table tough .

Since now all I do is Sci-fi … some of may "Riverine Forces" … TMP link

And of course, our PSYOPs/MI guys along with our chopper pilots had speakers mounted on their Birds and very loudly played "Flight of the Valkyries"

How the heck do you get *anything* loud enough to be heard over the thunder of a Huey?

They managed to get it pretty damn loud, by generally you had to be very close to hear it …

Regardless I think it was more for "us than them" … PSYOPs per se, can work both ways … Our moral, etc., vs. theirs …

Oh, the BF Mekong River mats are pretty nice, I recommend getting the set and the separate reverse-S mat. Each mat is 2x4' vinyl, two straight sections and 2 curves. They line up either way, and the two straight sections are different in how the tributaries to the big river line up.