Originally Posted by Brake Weight

Days ahead of y'all.

Replacement parts are always costly, but c'mon. Just these four plastic bits well exceed the price of the boat already by a big margin, and I haven't even gotten to the motor, esc, radio or drive train components yet.

Originally Posted by unusual_rc

I see tunnels and rudders underneath the hull?

I did not know there were propeller versions of the famous PBR.

When I saw the movie as a teenager I knew I wanted one RC one day!

You made me curious, as a model shown on that same restore website show nozzles. So I did some quick research. It would appear that this was not a 100% faithful-to-the-original build.

It would seem that surplus pumps cost $18,000 each and are not really available, so for budget and simplicity reasons he decided to go with prop drive. Details of the rebuild here: http://www.pbr721.com/story.php

Originally Posted by AirDOGGe

Whatever you do, do NOT break anything plastic...

Originally Posted by AirDOGGe

Replacement parts are always costly, but c'mon. Just these four plastic bits well exceed the price of the boat already by a big margin, and I haven't even gotten to the motor, esc, radio or drive train components yet.

That's ridiculous. makes me not want one as much knowing that if I break anything in the rapids it's going to cost an arm and a leg to replace it.


One other thing I have noticed is that the front turret that just sits down on the steering servo seems like it doesn't seal...will water not just wash up over into the boat every time you go through some rougher water?

Originally Posted by AirDOGGe

It would seem that surplus pumps cost $18,000 each and are not really available, so for budget and simplicity reasons he decided to go with prop drive. Details of the rebuild here: http://www.pbr721.com/story.php

I did some research myself about the PBR a few years ago (for a RC scratch build...), and never saw a prop driven one.

One of the reasons the Navy converted this civilian pleasure boat (instead of a purpose designed one) was the shallow water ability made possible by the two Jacuzzis. So I was a bit flabbergasted by the pictures




Thank you for the additional story, interesting to read!



But, as being a big jet boating fan, it hurts a bit to see it like this.

Of course I fully understand the reasons behind it. Nevertheless the property which made this Vietnam boating icon stand out of the crowd is missing...

I just pre-ordered one of these things.
Being a builder, I can't leave it alone, so it will get the weathering treatment along with additional details that I'm hoping to find pictures of on the Web. One thing it needs for sure are sailors. Guess I'll start at the toy stores to look at action figures and maybe figure out if there is a train scale that is close to this for additional stuff. Anyone know if the canopy on the original boat was some kind of fabric, or was it metal? Time to dig out that Tamiya scale model of the Pibber that I have stashed away somewhere in the dungeon.
Sigh...March is a long ways off...

It definitely needs weathering!!!

Originally Posted by babblefish

I just pre-ordered one of these things.
Sigh...March is a long ways off...

Supposedly the proboat 23" river jet boats are arriving and ready for my pre-order pickup at my local hobby store on Feb 28th so I would assume these are too... so 1 week to go

Originally Posted by ShotToTheDome

Supposedly the proboat 23" river jet boats are arriving and ready for my pre-order pickup at my local hobby store on Feb 28th so I would assume these are too... so 1 week to go

Yeah, but when you're a sixty something year old child, one week is a lonng time...

Originally Posted by babblefish

Yeah, but when you're a sixty something year old child, one week is a lonng time...

Wish it were that way for me. 57 and it seems like a week goes by too fast nowadays...Is it trash day again already?

get off my lawn

This is now releasing before the River Jet Boat?

I see one on ebay already!

Robbie's Hobbies posted that ad. Looks good, but shipping is horrible! I think I paid $20 each to skip my 24" speedboats (Atomik, Joysway)

US $274.99

Shipping: $82.05

Originally Posted by AirDOGGe

Robbie's Hobbies posted that ad. Looks good, but shipping is horrible! I think I paid $20 each to skip my 24" speedboats (Atomik, Joysway)

mark-up

Originally Posted by fweasel

mark-up

Yup. $299 for the River Jet plus tax comes out to about 322 out the door if you buy from HH. So 275+ 82 for the shipping and the guy is making 35 bucks. Maybe this is a deal for the Aussies. Seen one site selling for 539 AUD or ~407 USD.