Vietnam era Hydrofoil Gun Boat

It was the AURORA Tucumcari Hydrofoil kit. I believe the kit stated

1/72nd scale but I think it was an unknown box scale. All in all a neat kit from that era. The actual boats saw limited combat in vietnam. They were mostly used as costal patrol vessels. Top speed for these boats are still classified.But I have heard rumor that they have been clocked at over 100 mph in the Puget Sound up in seattle WA. cheers John Geigle

Yes! This was the PGH-2 Tucumcari hydrofoil gunboat built by Boeing. The kit was released in 1969 and, in my opinion, this was one of the coolest kits produced by Aurora. The instructions indicate that the kit is 1/84 scale. This was also one of Aurora's more detailed kits. It included three hydrofoil struts, one in the bow and two on the sides near the stern, that could be folded up or lowered down along with a

40mm gun on the bow that could swivel. Five crew figures were also included. One of the really cool features of this kit, for its time, was the inclusion of rail standards that you could tie thread around to make deck railings. This feature really added a new level of realism to the model. This is one of my all-time favorite kits but I never figured out why the Navy would name a water-jet powered hydrofoil boat after a town in the desert of New Mexico?

Here are photos of the box and assembled kit: Box:

FWIW: Revell released models of the USS Tacoma and USS Defiance gas turbine (J79 turbojet) powered gunboats in early 1970s. These weren't hydrofoils, but were larger, shallow draft fast gunboats designed for Vietnam. They made a great compliment to the Tucumcari and, up until recenlty, the USS Defiance kit was available from Revell-Germany.

;^)

Martin

Here is more info on the tucumcari and other hydrofiols

USS Plainview is sitting on the Washington side of the columbia river about 50 miles from where I live I may have to go see the boat cheers John

The Collector wrote:

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If you go to google earth type in fly to "astoria OR" look at the astoria bridge go north to the WA side then go east about 1.5 miles you can see the ship.

(masterpiecemodels) wrote: '' It was the AURORA Tucumcari Hydrofoil kit. I believe the kit stated

1/72nd scale . . . The actual boats saw limited combat in vietnam. They were mostly used as costal patrol vessels. Top speed for these boats are still classified.But I have heard rumor that they have been clocked at over 100 mph in the Puget Sound up in seattle WA. cheers ''

This would be a wonderful subject to be done up in 1/48 scale. That would sort of go a long way to complete the line of the Boats used in Vietnam and have them in the same scale. It would only be about two feet long. It would look great on the shelf next to a Swift Boat and a couple of RAG boats.

Are there any of these boats still left in service today. And if not WHY........???

They would seem to be the pefect thing for running down those fast drug runner (Miami Vice) boats and have more then enough fire power to handle them all.

And with these so-called ''Pirates'' trying to hijack ships again they could run them down in minutes & make short work of it.

Silly ME ..... I thought ''Pirates'' still got HANGED for doing what it is they do...!

... Carl ..........

,,

Greetings from Saigon,

Look up the url for the Mobile Riverine Force Association. Or the Brown Water Navy. Those were the guys who used them. They robably could tell you something about where they are, etc.

I worked on them myself, but just a fw times.

Doug Reese

I believe only a couple, maybe three, were made. I know the Tucumcari hit a reef and had a lot of damage and had to be scrapped. I picked up one on eBay for a steal several years ago. Neat looking kit.