Trumpeter release of the LCM(3)

I want one! My father spent some time in LCMs in the Pacific (though he was more familiar with the LCVP). The university where I work, East Carolina, also owns an old LCM. It's used as an operating base in the underwater archeology program. (Its official name is Murphy Base, because its hull and machinery consistently follow Murphy's Law.) It's been modified so many times that it's barely recognizable as an LCM, but the basic underwate hull (I guess) is unchanged.

I must always take may hat off to Trumpeter for their ability to be different and creative in their model releases - new subjects & new scales!

I wish some company would make a Higgins landing craft. I've lived al my life in New Orleans and thats where they were built. Ike said " If it was not for the Higgings boat, we would never have pulled off D-Day"

The term "Higgins boat" is actually a little deceptive. Andrew Jackson Higgins's company in Louisiana built all sorts of craft for the Navy during World War II, ranging from landing craft up to PT boats. When most authors use the term "Higgins boat," though, they seem to be referring to the LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel).

Lindberg released an LCVP in either 1/32 or 1/35 scale back in the early sixties, and I believe it's still available. My recollection of the ones I built (when I was in junior high school or thereabouts) obviously are not entirely reliable, but I remember it as being a not -bad kit. The LCVP has a simple enough shape that it would be hard for a manufacturer to mess it up too much. I remember that it featured an electric motor (hidden inside the genuine engine housing), a hinged bow ramp (which operated when you pulled a string that came up through a hole in the well deck), and a generous assortment of sailors and marines (pretty crude by modern standards, but not bad for the day). I remember putting a Monogram jeep in my LCVP and showing it off to my father, who commanded such boats during the war.

I haven't examined one of these kits closely for many years; I imagine if I did I'd see all sorts of defects that didn't bother me at that age. But I think I've seen it for sale in the stores fairly recently. I suspect it would make a decent basis for a serious scale model - and the LCVP is a simple enough subject that improving it wouldn't be an enormous project.

I believe another, limited-run French company produced an LCVP recently; it got a decidedly mixed review in FSM. Whether that kit would be a better basis for serious modeling than the Lindberg offering I don't know - but I suspect the Lindberg one would be a good bit cheaper.

Further to what I posted a few minutes ago about the LCVP - I found the FSM review of the recent kit. It's from Fonderie Miniatures, and it's on 1/35 scale; the review is in the December 2002 FSM. It's accessible on this website. The reviewer didn't think much of the kit - which costs over $50.00. The old Lindberg one is worth checking out.

The review also contains a link to <www.Higginsboat.org>, a group that has recently built a reconstruction of an LCVP. That site contains some nice photos and some drawings.

Nice looking kit. Great diorama possibilities!