Assault Support Patrol Boat, 1/72, by Georgi

G

Georgi Grigorov

Joined
Apr 23, 2024
Messages
10
Points
23

Hello,
I've been wanting to diversify my usual 1/700 work with something in 1/72 to go with my tank collection for quite some time now. And also because some models just won't look good in "normal" scales. And as my first subject (or series of subjects) I chose the boats used in the Mekong Delta. Practically all the boats used there are very, or very very, interesting, so the choice was quite difficult. But in the end I settled on ASPB. As I mentioned, I have been planning this project for quite some time, but first the Chinese plague intervened, and in the last two years, the war in Ukraine.Last week, while tidying up my office, I discovered that I had even bought quite a few books and magazines with materials and decided it was time to take action:) I re-read the collected materials to refresh my memory, I also searched the Internet for additional information, and that's how I came on this forum and on this post in particular:

Viet Nam era ASPB

One of the more unusual designs to come out of the Viet Nam war was the ASPB. These plans are from the ASPB manual.
shipsofscale.com
Which turned out to be crucial, because the proportions of the schematics in Friedman's book (and the last two in this post) appear to be quite skewed. At the moment, I don't have much to show, although the preparation I have done is key and time-consuming. That's it for today, we still need to work on the main projects.
My plans for ASPB are to do it in several configurations, moving in chronological order.



ASPB_WIP_01.png
 
With small steps (my son recently wrote a report at school about this great man and I am still on this wave) we are moving forward. It is very unpleasant that even the drawings from the manual differ in the different projections, fortunately in the table of the same dimensions. Also yesterday I found some very good pictures of the bottom of this boat, and I will measure the distance between the screw channels from them, it also shows the shape of the screws themselves. Having the case as geometries I played around a bit with the slicer, this will be a 16+ hour print!ASPB WIP 02.jpgASPB WIP 03.jpg
 
Unfortunately, this project died. A few minutes ago I came across very nice photos of Swift, and saving them in the BWN directory I found that it is empty!!!! None of the housemates admitted to touching my computer. I'll check tomorrow to see if I have a backup at the office. But not everything is so black. Firstly because due to a lack of pictures of the front of the early boats I had almost decided to skip them and start with the second series. Then the most important part - the photo analysis is still in my head, so I'll catch up quickly, but it's still kind of annoying....actually, it's quite annoying, but I'm trying to look ahead. And I had just finished modeling the superstructure :(
 
As a famous uncle with a cigar said - Never give up, never surrender:) The positive side of the story is that while I was restoring the collected photos I came across several new ones. I also read some good stuff. I couldn't find any pictures of the boats from the first series though. But given that the hull differs significantly so and so there isn't much continuity in design......in short after a lost day I'm back to where I was before the "loss". Only the nice stand I had drawn is missing.ASPB_01.jpg
 
Georgi Grigorov said:
Hello,
I've been wanting to diversify my usual 1/700 work with something in 1/72 to go with my tank collection for quite some time now. And also because some models just won't look good in "normal" scales. And as my first subject (or series of subjects) I chose the boats used in the Mekong Delta. Practically all the boats used there are very, or very very, interesting, so the choice was quite difficult. But in the end I settled on ASPB. As I mentioned, I have been planning this project for quite some time, but first the Chinese plague intervened, and in the last two years, the war in Ukraine.Last week, while tidying up my office, I discovered that I had even bought quite a few books and magazines with materials and decided it was time to take action:) I re-read the collected materials to refresh my memory, I also searched the Internet for additional information, and that's how I came on this forum and on this post in particular:

Viet Nam era ASPB

One of the more unusual designs to come out of the Viet Nam war was the ASPB. These plans are from the ASPB manual.
shipsofscale.com
Which turned out to be crucial, because the proportions of the schematics in Friedman's book (and the last two in this post) appear to be quite skewed. At the moment, I don't have much to show, although the preparation I have done is key and time-consuming. That's it for today, we still need to work on the main projects.
My plans for ASPB are to do it in several configurations, moving in chronological order.
Click to expand...
Hallo @Georgi Grigorov
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
 
You should know there are two versions of the ASPB, actually there is a 3rd but not under that abbreviation. The Program IV was created for the Mekong theater in '66 -67 timeframe. It was a good boat but had flaws. The aft was open so when the boat would power down it could become swamped by the wake. This could and did cause a few of the boats to sink. The second version Program V was a touch wider with a closed aft and few other modifications. You are working with a Program V boat drawings. This is also why earlier drawings you research aren't matching these spec's.
If you're really interested, the ASPB was the only boat created for the war and all were left in country. None exist in the United States country of origin.
Another tidbit of information, the Program IV boats were in RivRon 9 and 11. After the Navy figured out the boats were susceptible to flooding they had a modification they would perform called a Fram job. This widened the boat similar to Program V width and filled that space with foam to keep the boat afloat. The fram also enclosed the aft of the boat similar to the Program V ASPB. There is only one ASPB that I can document this modification to have happened too. I am the son of the sailor on that ASPB. The call sign of that boat is Dragonfly Alpha 7.
 
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