COBI Patrol Boat River Mk II Set 2238

COBI's Patrol Boat River Mk II is a 1:35 model built from 615 blocks, 28 cm long, with a fabric canopy, brick-built M2HB machine guns and a full crew of four figures with accessories. Wheels are hidden in the flat bottom so the boat rolls on a floor or table. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

Built for two feet of water

The PBR was a civilian pleasure-boat hull pressed into a war. Fiberglass, flat-bottomed, and driven by two water jets rather than propellers, it drew about two feet loaded — which meant it could work the Mekong Delta's side channels and rice paddies where anything with a screw would have fouled or grounded.

The jets did more than that. They could be reversed to stop the boat in roughly its own length, and steering came from vectoring the jet rather than from a rudder, so the boat still answered the helm at low speed. Crews used that to turn inside a canal narrower than the boat was long.

What it did not have was armour. Four men, a fiberglass hull and a great deal of firepower, patrolling waterways with vegetation on both banks at conversational distance. The crews called themselves the brown-water navy, and the boats stayed in US service into the 1990s.

In the COBI range

Part of the Vietnam War series in 1:35, alongside the M41A3 Walker Bulldog (2239).

Specifications

Pieces: 615 · Figures: 4 with accessories · Scale: 1:35
Model dimensions: 28 × 14.5 cm (11.0 × 5.7 in)