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PT Boat Drawings By T. Garth Connelly
These are some of the 'drawings/paintings' of different PT boats that I have done since 2008. However, these are not my own 'creations'. Dick Washichek, who is the webmaster of www.ptboats.org was kind enough to supply me with his own drawings of the different hulls and drawings of the weapons and other fittings which were used on PT boats in World War II.
When I asked Mr. Washichek if he would be willing to give me these items, I assured him that I would not sell the drawings or to profit from them. Recently, he was kind enough to post some of the drawings (some of the ones you see below) on www.ptboats.org, so I thought I'd post them here to share with you.
Only five of them, the ones of PT-59 (configured as PTGB-1 an all-gun Gunboat), PT-66, PT-191, PT-556 and PT-559 are 'historically accurate', though I will say that they are not one hundred per cent accurate. The one of the Higgins PT boat in the two-tone gray scheme is how I think how a Higgins-built PT boat which was operated in the English Channel would have appeared.
I did these drawings as a self-confidence building exercise. That's all. The ones you see below are my best ones and are ones I am extremely proud of. I hope you will like them as much as I enjoyed doing them. Please feel free to comment on them.
Above, you see my representation of PT-66, a seventy-seven foot Elco PT-20 Class (second production series) boat. She is seen here as she appeared during her service in New Guinea in 1943. The camouflage scheme is an one-off 'design' apparently applied by her crew.
Above, you see PT-191, an eighty-foot Elco PT-103 Class boat, of the original production series. She's seen here as she appeared while she operated in the Philippines in 1944/45. She's wearing a variation of the camouflage scheme known as Measure 31/5P. The only thing that is not from Mr. Washichek in this drawing is the Type C roll-off rack for a depth charge behind the smoke generator on the stern. I drew the rack myself. I think this is my best PT drawing.
Above is my representation of PT-559 of PT Squadron 29. The 559 was an eighty-foot Elco PT boat and was one of four boats from that Squadron to be fitted with an experimental quad-20mm gun-mount the "Elco Thunderbolt" in lieu of the 40mm Bofors gun that the rest of the Squadron carried on the stern. The only thing in this drawing that did not come from Mr. Washichek is the "Thunderbolt" mount, although I did use one of his 20mm barrels to do it. The camouflage scheme is known as the Thayer Blue System.
Above is my PT-556, one of the 'stock' 'as-is' boats from PT Squadron 29. I think the light blue in this drawing better matches the 'hue' of the Thayer Blue.
Above is the PT-59 in her all-gun PTGB-1 guise. As a gunboat, her first skipper was John F. Kennedy, after he lost PT-109 after she was rammed and sunk.
Above, is a Higgins built seventy-eight foot PT-71 Class boat seen in a paint scheme one would be in as it operated in the English Channel in 1944.
Lastly, above is a 'generic' boat from PT Squadron 10. This Squadron was originally equipped with PTs 163-174. This Squadron also had its boats (for a short time) painted in the experimental scheme known as the Adaptor Scheme. The scheme depicted is not 100% accurate but is loosely based on the example of the scheme applied to PT-174.
More information on color schemes for PT Boats is available here
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