Elco 80 ft PT Boat by Uncle T

2,551 bricks.

My version of the U.S. WWII Elco 80 foot PT Boat (Patrol/Torpedo Boat). It's an approximation, not a 1:1 replica, and a lot of details have been omitted due to brick count, editor restrictions and Bob being the chunkiest of thicc bois.

I kept the interior to a minimum to save bricks, but also because this has been one of the most frustrating builds I've ever done due to the weird water physics and the not so brilliant Float mechanic. I've spent well over 25 hours trying to get this thing to move reasonably fast and not wobble too much and not suddenly flip over for no apparent reason when stationary. Since it's working OK-ish now I don't dare add any more interior since the whole balancing act would get messed up again. It's displacement is about twice the real thing, but all that weight is needed at the bottom to keep the boat upright.

The PT Boats served against the Japanese in the Pacific theatre, but also against the Germans in the Mediterranean and they even played a part during D-Day. They came with a variety or armamaments, but this one has a rather typical one closer to the end of the war and it packs a formidable punch for such a small (compared to most naval vessels) boat.

They typically had a crew of 3 officers and 12-14 crewmen, depending on configuration.

This version is armed with 4 x Mark 13 torpedoes, 2 x eight-cell Mark 50 rocket launchers, 2 x twin M2 .50 cal machine guns, 1 x 37 mm M4 autocannon, 1 x 20 mm Oerlikon autocannon, and 1 x 40 mm Bofors autocannon, so this boat could put down quite a bit of fire on an enemy vessel or beach fortifications.

CONTROLS Captain's seat/Helm A/D: Steering. Throttle lever: Throttle forwards and backwards. If the engine doesn't shift between forward and reverse gear automatically use Shift and Ctrl. Navigation lights: Button on control panel. Searchlight: Button on the left wall. Control by directly interacting with the actuators. Fire action 1-4/Num 1-4: Fire torpedoes. Fire with a second or two delay between the torpedoes on the same side to avoid collisions. Aim by steering the boat. Each torpedo has a camera only viewable from the captain's seat. Up/Down arrows: Rocket launcher elevation. Note that these are the rockets that come with the game so they have no trajectory, i.e. they fly completely straight. Aim horisontally by steering the boat. Fire action 8/Num 8: Fire pairs of the rockets in sequence. Keep the button pressed to reload. Reload time is about 15 seconds and the launchers will swing in to facilitate reloading. Once they start swinging out again stop pressing until they're in position. The reloading process is also whon by the red lights on the captain's left wall. Once it turns green again, release the button to avoid misfires until the launchers are in the correct position.

All cannons and machine guns are controlled with Alt + Mouse or Arrow Keys, Fire with Fire Action 1/Num 1. Each gun has a camera sight or two only viewable from the correct seat. The 40 mm Bofors cannon can be controlled and fired from either seat.

The Smoke machine, the gas flask looking tube aft starboard, is operated with a button on it. It's mainly for roleplaying purposes since the smoke in the game sadly dissipates far too quickly.

Feel free to add a more detailled interior if you wish but don't ask me to rebalance the flotation and handling of the boat. ;)

A note: I know you can make autcoannons with timers and I have done so in the past, but here I ran into some issues since I wanted the recoil to work as well and be timed with the firing so instead of spending hours trying to get that to work with sensors I built a mechanical solution. This means that sometimes (quite rarely during my testing the cannon may get stuck on firing as soon as the actual gun is reloaded again. To avoid this keep the trigger pushed down a brief moment after the last shot.

As always feel free to edit, but if you reupload publicly in any way please acknowledge the original creation and creator,

Have fun!