Trumpeter 1/35 scale LCM - Completed

Great work with the weathering on your LCM! Having the bow ramp activate the motorised tank is an interesting idea.
I've seen this particular toy 1/32 Sherman in the past, and it's quite heavy, being diecast metal - how does it affect the "seaworthiness" of the LCM when operated on water?

I always assumed that LCMs carried tanks as well as lighter vehicles, as the old Airfix 1/72 kit is usually boxed with a Sherman! Maybe this is another Airfix inaccuracy, like the "BT-K" squadron code on their first Spitfire kit (which was never historically used on a Spitfire)

EPinniger wrote:

I always assumed that LCMs carried tanks as well as lighter vehicles, as the old Airfix 1/72 kit is usually boxed with a Sherman!

A combat-loaded M-4 Sherman weighed in excess of 66000 pounds (i.e. 33 tons)  http://afvdb.50megs.com/usa/m4sherman.html    A LCM-3 had a cargo capacity of a 30 ton tank or 60000 pounds of bulk cargo. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/Transport/transport-2.html

An LCM-3 would not have had the reserve buoyancy to deliver a combat loaded Sherman through the surf for landing in a combat assault.   LCMs were able to carry Shermans across fairly placid water (ie. rivers),  but these tanks were not ready for immediate combat.  The old Airfix pairing of a Sherman and a LCM continues to propagate mythic capabilities to this craft.  

A more appropriate vehicle to be carried by a LCM-3 in the assault would be a halftrack.   In later waves, artillery or logistical equipment such as bulldozers or deuce-and-a-halfs would be landed via a LCM-3

 

EPinniger wrote:

. I've seen this particular toy 1/32 Sherman in the past, and it's quite heavy, being diecast metal - how does it affect the "seaworthiness" of the LCM when operated on water? I always assumed that LCMs carried tanks as well as lighter vehicles, as the old Airfix 1/72 kit is usually boxed with a Sherman! Maybe this is another Airfix inaccuracy, like the "BT-K" squadron code on their first Spitfire kit (which was never historically used on a Spitfire)

The boat has quite a bit of displacement, and can carry the heavy toy with ease.  The model actually needs the ballast- I usually run it with the tank aboard.

A combat loaded Sherman was really too heavy for the LCM(3)-- that's why the LCM(6) was developed.  The LCM(6) was simply a (3) with an additional 6 feet of lenght added to the hull amidships.  There' a picture in the Naval Institute Press book on Allied Landing Craft of WW2 that is relevant-- it shows a boat with the unpainted 6 foot section added it the middle, and a Sherman aboard as cargo.