[WIP]Elco PT-boat

[Gunits]

Title says it all. I trying to build a PT-boat and after messing around for a couple days i'am now confident enough that i can make it playeble.
Of course i will have some major problems and i will need some help because my modding abilitys upon now where zero/null/nada.

So far:



[img=http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/937/elco6qf8.th.jpg]

[img=http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/1118/elco5vz6.th.jpg]

[img=http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/3603/elco4pm8.th.jpg]

I know its possible to put the picture here directly but i'am messing something up :s

[Charlielima]

Slick! I can't wait. I knew some were gunned up with 40mm Bofars or 37mm Oldsmobile guns
@ http://www.ptboats.org/20-01-05-ptboat-009.html
But? CL

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Gunits

Title says it all. I trying to build a PT-boat and after messing around for a couple days i'am now confident enough that i can make it playeble.
Of course i will have some major problems and i will need some help because my modding abilitys upon now where zero/null/nada.

So far:








I know its possible to put the picture here directly but i'am messing something up :s

Helped you a little with the pictures.

You have to write a title for the picture then mark it an click the "Insert Image" button. After that you have to enter the link to the image and you're good to go.

[JU_88]

Looking good!

[Rolf Eschke]

Hello !
Some PT-109 Pics



and a very good Video about this Boat



Can´t wait to attack a Convoy,
Regards
Rolf

[Gunits]

Well i encounterd my first serious problem .
You can see in the pictures that there is still a periscoop in the center of the boat.
The problem is i cant get rid of it so far whitout messing something else up.
The only way i could disable it so far is by disabling the Z01 node in the submarine DAT-file. Problem is that when i do that i also loose the crew and the AA-guns and de UZO. If i go too the inside of the conningtower the periscopes constantly are raising .
Ideas are welcome

[akdavis]

PTs carried a pretty impressive array of weaponary, much of it customized to the particular boat. Some even exchanged torpedos for extra MGs and cannon to serve as gunboats.

Type of weapons found on PT boat included but not limit to the following: Lewis - 30 cal machine guns, Browning - 50 cal machine guns, Oerlikon - 20 mm gun, Bofor - 40 mm cannons, M3 & M9 - 37 mm rapid fire cannons, Thunderbolt System, 4 - 20 mm guns in turret mount, Mark VII & VIII Torpedoes, (long - tube discharged), Mark XIII Torpedoes (short - roll-off rack), 300 & 600 lb. depth charges, 8 tube-rocket launcher for 5" rockets, Hedgehog rocket launchers, Deck mounted mortars, Miscellaneous side and shoulder weapons.

Most needed for the sim would be the dual .50 mount. Not sure the 37mm are worth modelling when the 40mm Bofors already exists. I would assume rockets would prove the greatest challenge.

[Charlielima]

I'll be the first to snivel for 4 blue jackets with BARs on the boat. With the 20mm, 40mm, and Torps I think the boat would be ready for the group. 50 cal and 37mm should be the next step for modders to kick in. Rockets and depth charges? I'd like a green or camo boat skin and crew dressed for PT boat service first. What mods do we need to be ready for this when this boat is ready? I believe there was a PG version too. No torps. More or heavier guns. BZ Gunits! Your project has interest, momentum, and input. That should = success. CL

[akdavis]

Originally Posted by Charlielima

I'll be the first to snivel for 4 blue jackets with BARs on the boat. With the 20mm, 40mm, and Torps I think the boat would be ready for the group. 50 cal and 37mm should be the next step for modders to kick in. Rockets and depth charges? I'd like a green or camo boat skin and crew dressed for PT boat service first. What mods do we need to be ready for this when this boat is ready? I believe there was a PG version too. No torps. More or heavier guns. BZ Gunits! Your project has interest, momentum, and input. That should = success. CL

The Elco 77' boats PT 59, 60 and 61 were converted to gunboats. Here is a model of PT-59:

In late 1943, the USN saw that the Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands were beginning to supply their troops in heavily armed and armored landing barges. The standard gun armament package of the early PT boats, consisting of two twin .50 caliber machine guns in turrets and the Oerlikon 20mm gun were seemingly not having much luck against the armor of the barges. Something had to be done and it was found that the 110' PGMs (Patrol Gunboat, Motor) that were built on the hulls of the 110' wooden hull SC were too slow to accompany the PT boats. What was needed was a vessel that could keep pace with the PT boats. The only answer to that problem was another PT boat.

Originally, PT-59, 60 and 61 were set aside to be modified in the field to the all-gun gunboat configuration once the Elco eighty-foot boats superseded their effectiveness as torpedo boats. The torpedo tubes were removed and were replaced with three shielded machine gun mounts on each side and a shielded Bofors 40mm gun (Army type) was placed fore and aft on the centerline. The original two turrets containing the twin .50 caliber machine guns were retained and the boats received SO Type radar sets and the machine guns, Bofors guns and some of the upper works was plated with STS armor plating.

PT-60 and 61 received twin .50 caliber machine guns along their sides where the torpedo tubes were, however the 59 just had single mounts. But, on the 59, possibly left over from her days as a PT, at frame 22, were (on both sides of the boat, just forward of the cockpit) two twin .50 caliber machine guns. This can be backed up and verified by the accompanying photographs secured by Chip Marshall from the National Archives.

The 59 boat was assigned to Lt. J.F. Kennedy as his second combat command after losing PT-109 and third overall command, as an instructor at the PT Training Center at Melville, Rhode Island, he commanded the seventy-eight foot Huckins PT boat, PT-102. However, PT-59 was his second command in a combat zone. She was, according to Robert Donovan's book, undergoing conversion whilst Kennedy was recovering from his ordeal after having the 109 rammed.

The Higgins PTGBs had .50s down the centerline:

[Charlielima]

Ah Hah! I see now why the 50 cals are a must. Especially since I'm bringing up the PG boats. 2 or 3 of these making a run in an unfriendley harbor at night with the 2 x 40 mike mikes barking might be funner then shooting torps while dragging the boats' keel on the bottom of the harbor. Is that model of PT-59 yours? CL

[peabody]

Originally Posted by Gunits

Well i encounterd my first serious problem .
You can see in the pictures that there is still a periscoop in the center of the boat.
The problem is i cant get rid of it so far whitout messing something else up.
The only way i could disable it so far is by disabling the Z01 node in the submarine DAT-file. Problem is that when i do that i also loose the crew and the AA-guns and de UZO. If i go too the inside of the conningtower the periscopes constantly are raising .
Ideas are welcome

Sorry you didn't get any answers. Looks like you're not going to. I am new with this modding so probably not much help, but I don't think you need a conning tower to have guns. The Deck gun on a sub in not in the conning tower. The nodes I have seen for AA guns are labeled A01 A02 etc. I think if you get rid of the conning tower you can put the AA guns on the boat. Put them in the dat for the boat. But you will have to check to see, I think there is a controller in the .sim file that would have to go in the boats .sim.

There may be a simpler way but I copied the Parent ID from the .sim controller and then go to the .dat window and select "find" from the menu and paste it in the box and it will show you what it controls, at least what it is linked to. So when you find the controller for the AA you can move it to the boatl. The one on mine is an "obj_Turret" so I assume it is the same for the rest of the AAs, but each one links to it's own controller, I think. You could put one in manually if you know how. And I also think you may have to add the AAs to the equipment file in the PT boat.

The crew? I haven't got that far yet.

Peabody

[Xantrokoles]

You should begin with the AI boat files.
Required for a playable unit are:
-submarine sim file
-submarine torpedo tubes(minimum one)
-submarine cfg file
-submarine upc file
-submarine dive planes
-submainre roster file

when you won't have some things you must set the visibility to 0, do not delete them!

Please read the toutorial for adding playable units