Out of the Vault - French Viet RAG Boat

From out of the storage box came a 1/48 scale craft that I had to research in order to find out exactly what it was.  River Patrol Boats during the Viet Nam conflict were something I was familiar with but only from film, and these were US boats when the US was fully involved in the fighting.  This is a French/Vietnamese boat from the early 50's.  The crew being Viet soldiers with only a US advisor on board.  The kit was not complicated as it did not contain that many parts, but then it looked too simple to me to pass up not trying to add some lacking (in my opinion) detail.

The simplicity is plain to see, but I did like the bottom of the hull.

The other thing I liked was the deck surface.  Even my brother does not recall what was used, but it was a good surface that I wanted to keep.  So what to do with this?

Of the five crew supplied with the kit only one Viet crewman remained in the Storage Box.  Try as I might to negotiate for other crew I was not prepared to spend almost $100 for the few kits of this Revell Model available just to obtain extra crew,

I thought some Camo was needed so I started in on masking and hand painting in on the hull and superstructure.

Both the 30 Cal and 50 Cal (previous photo) needed only some touch up.

I tried to give the Viet Soldier a proper sun exposed look.

Work around the 50 Cal was a bit challenging to paint the molded life rings.

The boat needed a Vietnamese Flag of the period (26 gauge wire - a favorite of mine) using some yellow stock.

Mounted Flag.

I found some other RAG boat models online which lead to me add tie offs for the "tire" bumpers I wanted to add.

Some rubber grommets from Harbor Freight cut and glued together made for old truck tires.

Three on the Port and.....

....two on the starboard side.

Next my attempt to put bales aft to somewhat provide protection of the crew.  I cut up and shaved some common felt pads I use for cabinet door bumpers.

A little paint and thread and call it done.

Oh!  Almost forgot that coming out of the storage box the prop was missing.  Months later while working on my 1/350 scale Destroyer Escort I realized I had extra propellers.  So a 350 scale Destroyer Escort prop become a 1/48 scale RAG Boat prop.  One uses what one has!