# Revell RAG Boat



## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

This is an old kit now, first issued in the 1960's, modelled on the River Assault Group in South Vietnam, with a one-piece hull, two .30 cal. and one .50 cal. machine guns, and three Vietnamese crew figures and an American adviser figure. (Revell also issued the Swift Boat kit in the 1960's, then reissued it in the 2000's to coincide with John F. Kerry's bid for the White House, adding a new decal, that of Kerry's own boat, in the 2000's.)

The version I have is the 1980's boat-and-helicopter kit reissued to coincide with Rambo II, with the American adviser figure now a Russian adviser! New decals were added in the 1980's to match the Rambo film, but the original 1960's 'PT18' decals are also on the sheet. 

I didn't use any decals, however, as I have an old 1960's article in a National Geographic magazine profiling the work of the RAG fleet and its American adviser, and in the photos back then there don't apear to be any identification numbers on the boats. But if anyone out there knows different, and especially if you saw these craft in action, please reply and I'll see about adding the PT18 decals.


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

Here's a pic of the 1980's reissue box for anyone interested - it came with a Huey UH1B helicopter - both boat and Huey are 1/48 scale, as I should have said.

I should also have said that while the cylindrical fenders hanging down each side come with the kit, I added the tyres, finding them in a model shop specialising in radio-controlled boats and planes. 

The four crew figures are great, especially considering that the Swift Boat kit came with only one of the figures, but unfortunately two of the four crew are identical, and none of them has hands sculpted to handle any of the three machine guns.


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## Jafo (Apr 22, 2005)

cool, thanks for posting, i always wondered what kind of boat was in that kit


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

Thanks, Jafo, - and the one thing that kit doesn't have is a Rambo figure. Revell just reissued the two kits exactly as they were, into a 'set', and didn't mold any new features, such as Rambo himself!


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## hedorah59 (Nov 24, 2008)

Looks great, CMM. I wonder if there are any after market figures that would have hands for the machine guns?


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

Thank, hedorah, and I've wondered about that. The nearest idea might be the Tamiya 1/48 US Army figures sets, though the uniforms would need a lot of kit-bashing.


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