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1/350 US Navy 40ft Motor Launch
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February 2025 |
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| The US Navy used 40ft motorboats on many of their larger ships in the 1930's and 1940's. According to "Boats of the United States Navy", these boats were designed to carry 37 men, including the crew of 4. They had an overall length of 40ft and 1/4 inch, with a beam of 9.5 feet and a draft of almost 3 feet. Full load displacement was 20,140 pounds, and they could make 10 knots when fully loaded. These boats are ubiquitous on US Navy battleships, such as Arizona, Oklahoma or any of the Big 5. | ||||||||||
Click to enlarge images |
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| THE 40ft MOTOR BOAT | ||||||||||
| The packaging is a plastic clamshell container,
with a single print rafts containing the 3D printed parts, wrapped in bubble
wrap.
There are four 40ft Motor Launches in the package. The parts are printed in a garish orange color, which will probably require several coats of paint to cover. There is some decent detail, like the hand rails, a prop and rudder, and they come attached to a printed boat cradle. However...the portholes on the sides of the cabins appear over scale, and the shape of the rear cabin looks off. If you look at the plan and profile of the boat from "Boats of the United States Navy", it appears that Yao didn't incorporate the rounded shape of the cabin sides into the design. So, instead of the sides of the cabin tapering and rounding as tjey reach the top of the cabin, their cabin is completely flat sided, like a cake box. Oddly, they did get the shape mostly correct for the forward cabin. In the photos below, you can see the Yao's boats compared to the same motorboat from Swordfish Models, the latter being much, much better. |
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| CONCLUSIONS | ||||||||||
| I picked these boats up off
eBay to see what they were all about (you see the things I do for you guys?).
While they are relatively inexpensive - they currently list for $8.99 USD
plus $5.99 shipping from China - I find the shape of the aft cabin to be
a disappointment, and something that should have been caught during the
design phase. The same boats from Swordfish, while more expensive,
are of much better quality, and, in my opinion, worth the extra cost.
The only folks these motorboats from Yao might appeal to are modelers who
want to upgrade over the plastic parts in the old Banner Arizona,
but are on a tight budget. However, Caveat emptor.
Not recommended. |
