i am starting this and will post work in progress pics as i am taking pics to create a creative memories digital scrapbook of building an entire model. (nice to justify a model and paint by using it for your frau’s business. wonder if this would work with DORA?). not sure if it goes here or with the boat people. (i build ships too)
anyway i sat outside yesterday and sanded down the raised seams along the side of the hull. did a pretty good job. really proud of the work. then went looking for color schemes and found out 1. they seams represented welds and were suppose to be there (bad) but 2. didn’t represent them very well (good). so now i have to put them back in. someone used .04 half round styrene but i think i will use the “fill the seams on a cylinder technique” and tape a .5mm gap on either side (1mm total width), pack it with putty, rip the tape off and smooth it just a bit with fingernail polish remover.
probably paint it ocean grey 5-O with very little weathering. as i am into towed guns and remember some 105mm howitzers set up to fire on the way to the beach may do that. i have a senior master chief (ret) in my ship model club who can help with the details of securing the gun.
so much for posting in a timely manner. here is the hull. it’s roughly 17 inches long to give an idea on size.
i sanded the seams down on the hull. did a really nice job and found out they were supoose to represent welds. so i redid them using the tape method.
given the size of the model they can be a bit rough. they turned out nice and are easy to do. the sides of the cargo well had a lot of injection sinks to sand, hence the shades of silver paint on these sides. also don’t put delecate hooks and rings on at this point as they are likely to be broken off.
cargo well put together. this sits in the hull and is a good fit, originally used liquid cement but it came loose so i super glued it and that sealed ehatever perdeived gaps that might exist.
busy 2 weeks with work and nrg convention and wings over the rockies model show but got more done. these are pics of some sub assemblies. the .50 ammo boxes are closed but have a line of “bullets” coming out. not sure if i will cut the bullets off and store them on the deck or cut the top off and glue it back on at an angle with new .50 rounds made from crinkled foil or styrene. anyway here are the HMGs. old tire bumper and a couple of drums.
Nice job so far, I like the “weld fix”, looks better than some of the molded on stuff I’ve seen. Think I’ll adopt that technique for my kits.
I’ll keep checking out the build as I’ve been contemplating taking on this project but just haven’t commited to it. I don’t want to do an LCM specifically, but rather a 50’ work boat. These are still in service so offers plenty of subjects I could personnally go collect “data” (measurements, weathering, and fitting out) on. They appear to have identical hulls, just need to delete the ramp and apply a solid bow with a forward deck.
thanks. the “tape” method was from an fsm “how do do seams on cylinders”. i taped about .5mm on either side of the scribe line that i sanded off. packed it with squadron white putty. immediately pull the tape off. i knocked it down just a tad with a q-tip and fingernail polish remover as it needed to be raised a bit.
as these would be in pretty good shape, not a lot of weathering. i was thinking of doing a post ww2 island hopper. take off the conning tower and build a 3’ high bridge with windows, canvas top for shelter from the sun over the deck and garish colors and rust and dirt.
just picked up the squadron/signals pub on ww2 us landing craft. will post more pics this afternoon.
am thinking an anzio boat, maybe with the soon to be released trumpeter m16 quad .50 halftrack or the dragon (as i haven’t done a dragon afv yet) 81mm sp mortar driven in so they can shoot over the ramp while approaching the beach. all this TBD.
more pics. lost half of the little brackets along the side where the ramp cable runs so i had to fabricate 5 of those. foune some wire to replace lifting hook i broke off and some touch up painting. after this it’s put it all together. it says the liferings were leather colored. i’m sure they weren’t red and white but other than that…
boat hooks
props they look much redder in the pic then in reality (at least my reality). also shows some of the seams i made.
basic build is complete. off to nautical research guild convention and will finish it when i get back. will talk with a retired senior chief bosun who is also a ship modeler to get info on some weathering and staining, correct knots to tie off rope b.umpers and tires and may even build real rope bumpers. also how to tie down the halftrack which will be in the cargo well.
