Kitbashing a RTR model of an American patrol boat into a Norwegian Stridsbåt 90N

The model and the prototype

A couple of years ago  I bought a (military) radio controlled boat. It was a Ready-to-Run model of a Combat Boat 90 made by ProBoat, and was made as an American version of the Swedish designed Combat Boat 90 or just CB90:

ProBoat's heavily armed American Ready-to-Run just out of the box

This Combat Boat is of the same type as the Norwegian Stridsbåt 90N (N for Norwegian), 'the Navy's Terrier', which was used by the Norwegian Coastal Artillery, and are now in service with the Norwegian Coastal Rangers. ProBoat's model has several differences from the Norwegian versions:

So an idea was born to try to make my 'American CB90 Proboat' look more like an early version of the Norwegian Stridsbåt 90. The newer and upgraded versions have remote controlled weapon stations and differs even more from the Proboat visually, so that's why I opted for the earlier versions. My plan was not to copy exactly all the Norwegian details as there are more than 400 modifications from the original Swedish Stridsbåt 90, but to include those most visible details on the Norwegian version and make it recognizable as a Norwegian Stridsbåt 90N. This is a 'project' that's spendt too much time on my workbench, usually overtaken by other projects (over and over again). Does anyone else recognize this situation? Anyway, it got revitalized after I tried out some naval wargaming earlier this autumn and it was now about time to finish this project.

Making some few 'Norwegian' details

First of all some parts needed to be sourced, up-scaled and made on my 3D-printer. The file for the 'Gunner' was removed from Thingiverse when I was looking for it there again, but I manage to recreate the file through 'Wayback Machine'. The HMG-mount was part of a complete boat i a smaller scale, and I needed to remove all from that file BUT the mount it self and resize it. I think the M2 .50 cal is from a 'GI Joe' file. Together these few parts will probably contribute to make the boat look a little more 'Norwegian'.

Primed to easier spot imperfections::

Then sprayed with filler to get a smoother surface:

Then the parts was primed with 'car primer'. Too bad this gray color didn't match the gray color on the boat, or the tan (from the filler spray) to the Norwegian tropical uniforms, so some color-mixing and painting was necessary. 

Ready painted:

I also 3D-printed some parts to make a crib, so it would be easier to work on the boat:

Then it was time for trying these new pieces and detail on the boat, so see what it would look like:

Choice of prototype and painting

A visit to the Norwegian Naval Museum this summer gave answer to one of the challenges I had to replicate the camouflage pattern, which are about never photographed from the top. On the Naval Museum I found a Model of the boat, which I photographed top down and gave me the Camouflage-pattern for the decks.

The Camouflage-pattern on the Norwegian CB90s are all the same pattern but are different colors for different periods and versions. The most common is the one with different browns and dark grey, which meant that my whole boat needed to undergo a major paint job. But I found some very few photos showing that at least 2 Norwegian CB90s was painted in lighter colors for International service in the Mediterranean sea and in the Bay of Aden. Actually I only found 5 photos of boats in these colors. These boats also used this scheme in their service in Norway later on. This meant that I could keep the original lighter grey base color of the ProBoat as a base for this version:

The crew on the photos below wear the Norwegian version of 'Desert Camo' which I tried to replicate on my Gunner:

The camouflage pattern isn't very complicated,  but it really takes time to mask it:

It's taken a while to paint this boat, but to prevent the paint 'bleeding' underneath the masking tape for the camo pattern, I've varnished (matt) 3 layers along all edges from the masking tape to the areas to be painted each time. I also painted 3 coats of paint each color for a even and solid coverage. I kept the weathering just to a bare minimum and just to the grilles, figure and the HMG. I feel like painting this boat has been like painting my military G-scale rollingstock, being like:

Name and Number

I found a "hole" in the Navy's pennant number system for the Norwegian Combat Boats, an unused number, so I decided to assign this to my model; L4529, as this is also close to the 2 other vessels painted in this color scheme (L4527 and L4528).

These ships are also named after old Norwegian Coastal Fortresses (as they were first used by the Coastal Artillery. The KA-pennant numbers are from this period), and I found that one of our local Coastal Fortresses from where I live haven't given name to any of these boats (yet). So I decided to name my 'L4529' 'Rauer' after Rauer/ Rauøy Coastal Fortress. 

Rauer or Rauøy Coastal Fortress it self has a very interesting history as it was the very first one to open fire except for warning shoots and briefly engaged the German invasion-fleet bound for Oslo in april 1940, and surrendered after heavy fighting with German ground forces set ashore on the island. In the latter skirmish the Norwegian casualties was 2, while the Germans officially lost at least 60 but according to local eyevitnesess about 200. It could be a likely scenario for a future wargame perhaps.

These name boards are a mix of different STL-files blended together, resized and 3D-printed

The final result

When ready painted, it was about time to reassemble it with the 'Norwegian details' again to see how everything fit together again:

Conclusion 

This conversion from a 'ready-to-run' American patrol boat into a Norwegian one has taken considerably longer time that I've expected. I did have plans to finish it this year, but actually much earlier so it would still be season for taking it to the pond. But this project has been overtaken by so many others that it didn't. I managed to finish it this year at least. So after sitting at he workbench for about a year it's finally finished. I guess I will have to wait until next year to take it to the pond or a nearby lake though and then some updates will follow. This is how ChatGPT suggest my Combat Boat 90N will eventually look at the water:

20 Stridsbåt 90N was acquired for The Norwegian Navy in the 90ies, but today only 6 (very) upgraded are left operational. One is given to a museum and a number have been donated to the Ukrainian Navy along some Swedish ones. In Sweden they have also started to develop these boats into USVs (Unmanned Surface Vehicles). So I guess these iconic boats are about to become part of the 'Naval History' in Norway. I hope I managed to capture and preserve some of this history with my fictional Norwegian Stridsbåt 90N.

I'm really looking forward to bring this boat to the pond or a nearby lake for a test. As this 'Workbench Queen' are finally ready for some action, my workbench is 'cleared' and ready for new and other projects. Please become one of the followers to this blog to receive updates continuously.