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Rob Pollock
195 articles

Elco 80 – Part 2

December 15, 2017 · in Ships · · 14 · 1.9K

At the end of last month I posted photos of 's 1/35 PT 596 on its display stand, to show all the detail, as the drift of the project was to add crew and to place it in a dynamic seascape, and some of the detail would be lost to view at that point.

The 10-man crew was also an Italeri product, and while the detail is a little soft, it is certainly on a par with other manufacturers like .

Apart from the size of the model and the difficulties in photographing it, the issues are compounded by the sea spray/foam, which tends towards white-out when photographed conventionally.

I think I managed to get a couple of decent images of the detail of the waves, after trial-and-error with camera modes/exposures. The best seem to be when a Portrait mode was used, which includes a modest pre-flash effect and controls the washout effect.

PT 596 was based at Samar, Philippines, 1945.

Reader reactions:
6  Awesome

16 additional images. Click to enlarge.


14 responses

  1. Bravo! Well done, Rob - and your photos are excellent.

    Great work!

  2. Superlative work as always Rob! Looking forward to your next one...

  3. Wow - love your work on the waves and foam - the flecks of water throughout the foam and such is really incredible detail. Really gives this a dynamic look. The boat itself is of course a smash as well!

  4. Great job, sir. I think these craft became more like gun boats as the war progressed.

  5. Brilliant work, sir...very nice! 🙂

  6. Every time I see one of these small balsa wood life rafts it reminds me of playing in one as a kid... Your PT looks fantastic Sir ! as do all of your builds ... Two thumbs up.

  7. Terrific sea effect, Rob, and the crew are in good action poses. Maybe the deck would be awash in the conditions?

    • Probably, and I gave a suggestion of this across the bow and gunwales, but you have to draw a line somewhere, otherwise you end up with more sea than boat, so I went with the ‘representative’ version.

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