Italieri 1/35 LCVP

One more question.  I've read in some reviews of this kit that the .50 Cals. leave something to be desired.  For anyone who has built this kit, it is worth investing in the Verlinden upgrade?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

robtmelvin

One more question.  I've read in some reviews of this kit that the .50 Cals. leave something to be desired.  For anyone who has built this kit, it is worth investing in the Verlinden upgrade?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

Yes,  leave off the .50s.  

When they operated in the assault wave they carried .30s.   More often thaa not the gun tubs were covered and un-manned

Bob

The first thing you must decide is what era you intend to model. The LCVP originated for WWII but was used through the Vietnam war. The major difference was that the gun tubs were removed shortly after WWII. Also removed was the vee shaped wave breaker on the bow door. In later life all boats had flat doors.

The one thing missing from the kit is the gear for hoisting the boats on ships. The boats assigned to ships with a combination of booms and whelin davits had both a three legged wire rope sling with a large ring to connect with the hook from a boom and a couple of wire rope pendants to connect to the hooks on the whelin davits. Both were stowed in all boats hooked up and ready for use as you never knew when returning to the ship whether you would be assigned to a davit or deck stowage under a boom.

Except for some boats used in the Pacific for months at a time away from a mother ship you can forget the heavy weathering. The ship commander would not have wanted the boats to look any less "shipshape" than his ship itself. Ours always had a fresh coat of paint and no running rust.

Amphib

Amphib,

I'm planning on doing it for the Tarawa configuration.  I'm debating whether or not to invest in the  .30 Cal. upgrades (I forget the maker).  I don't know if I'm quite ready to tackle scratch building the gear for hoisting the boat on the ship.  This is my first build in over 30 years and I'll be happy if it comes out looking half way decent.

I appreciate the info on the maintenance of the boats.  I have been debating on how much weathering to do.  Obviously, since they were mostly made of wood there would be very little rust in evidence.  My thinking is to do this one pretty much "ship shape", with just a small bit of weathering.  I'm more interested in doing some dry brushing to accent the details and maybe some post shading to accentuate the panel lines in the hull.

I'm in the process of priming the larger pieces right now using Krylon Plastic.  So far, so good.  Once I get that done I'll start assembly of the various component sections and then paint them (airbush) before final assembly. 

Amphib,

I hope I'm better at modeling that I am at computers!  Posted that response before I was finished.

Again, I appreciate your help and advice and if you can think of any other tips please feel free to share them.

If the thing doesn't turn out to be a total disaster I'll post some pics.

Bob

Okay,  LCVPs at Tarawa it is.   Next up is a bit-o-research.   Check the order of battle for the Transport Group assigned to TF53 for the invasion  (pg 79). 

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-M-Tarawa/USMC-M-Tarawa-E.html

From there check the amphibious pages at Navsource  for the APAs & AKAs.    Cross reference the order of battle with photos of the ships involved.  

http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/03/03idx.htm 

(I like the rough stenciling of the LCVP numbers on the Zellin's boats.  More unique than the typically seen  block characters.)

http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/02/02idx.htm

Pay attention to the time period of interest (late fall '43).  The pictures show a wide time span.   I think you'll find that the ships involved were in Ms 21 (Overall Navy Blue 5N), Ms 22 (Haze Gray 5H over Navy Blue), with a smattering in Ms14 (Overall Ocean Gray 5O).   It doesn't look as the disruptive patterns (Ms 3x) were much in play at the time , but check the references.  That makes it easier as the LCVP would be patterned to match its assigned davit location on the mother ship. 

Modern USN Haze Gray (FS 26270) is incorrect for the time period.   Check White Ensign Models line of Colourcoat paints for the most accurate out-of-the-tin solution

I built this kit a few years ago as a tribute to my wife's late uncle.  He served on the USS Geneva at the end of the war so they didn't see much action.  After looking at photos I agree about the condition of the boats attached to APA's.  They were always well maintained very little sign of weathering.  I did use some light filtering and pin washing to break up the color just a little but it's hard to pick out in photos.

The kit itself is very straight forward and I didn't have any problems to report at all.  I made the following upgrades...

The kit .30 cal's were replaced with Academy .30 cal guns.  I replaced the Academy barrels with Custom Models barrels.  Here's a nice write up about .30 cal guns...I used Master Models barrels which came out after this article, but as you can see there's a  boat load (forgive the pun) of options as the .30 cal is very popular in the armor world which is highly modeled in 1:35.

  http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/30cal/30cal.html

I also used the Eduard photoetch set.  I highly recommend this upgrade if you can find a set.

The boat was painted with White Ensign Models Color Coats and lettered with custom dry transfers from Archer Dry Transfers.  A good alternative to custom lettering is available from Gator Masks if you have a specific boat in mind. 

Finally I added the U-Models upgrade set which is only available in Europe if you can find it.  It has some very nice resin improvements for the model which were appropriate for the boat I built. 

Here's some photos of the finished model...

Great info, links and a beautiful build in this thread! bookmarked for sure..cheers

Thanks for the tips and links.  They have been very helpful.  I hope to have the build done by the end of next week at the latest and I'll post some pics if it turns out halfway decent.  So far I've got the larger pieces primed and ready to airbrush, starting on building up the various component sections in preparation for final assembly.  I'd have posted some progress pics but things have been really hectic the last couple of weeks at work and my building time has been limited.

Thanks again for all the tips and links.

Bob

I've got the LCVP in the stash,  but haven't really touched it yet.  All I can say is that it is a lot nicer than the old Lindberg kit.  But I can comment on the next kit in your list....

Not to rain on your parade,  but IMO the Revell 1/72 Elco 80 foot PT boat is not a good kit.   We selected that kit as the subject for our club group build a couple of years ago-- the kit was a lot worse than I remembered.  The kit was designed back in the 1960s, IIRC.   It was OK for its time,  but the molds have seen a lot of wear since.  Fit is not great, there are lots of big sink marks to deal with, and lots of flash to clean up.  Then there's the whole issue of the inaccurracies-- for example, the model has engraved plank detail all over the deck, which shouldn't be there.  

White Ensign models makes a very nice detail set for the kit,  but do you really want to spend $40 to $50 to upgrade an old, old  $15 model?

Sorry to be "Mr Negative", but the Revell 109 kit is not one I'd recommend to someone returning to the hobby after a 30 year hiatus.  I think you'll be disappointed, especially after building a moderen kit like the Italeri LCVP.

I would agree about the comments on the Revell 109 boat.  It's a very old kit and reflective of when it was produced.  It does however have very good lines and can be the basis for a nice model if you have the patience for it.  I submitted my recent build of the 109 to FSM but not sure what they're going to do with it.  Here's what can be done with a lot of hard work and my submission to modelwarships.com....

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/misc/patrol/pt109-72-dw/dw-index.html

Revell's 109 is simply a trip down memory lane for me.  I'm well aware of the kit's inadequacies, but I remember building it as a kid (never got over my dad taking me to see "P.T. 109" at the drive-in in '63) and thought it would be a nice nostaliga trip.

I plan to take my time with it, perhaps as an "on again, off again" project and got the PE set and 37mm add on to try to make it as good as possible.  I do plan on putting a lot of work in on it over time to correct as many of the inaccuracies as reasonably possible.  I don't expect a museum quality build when I'm done, just a respectable representation of that famous boat.

David, I'm really impressed with what you did with the kit.  I plan on using it as a reference and hope you don't mind if I call on you for advice from time to time.  Great work!

Bob

Any time