Construction

For an injected plastic kit, this one was as crude as they come! But then again, some parts showed promise, such as the hull, which was flawlessly moulded with an overall shape that looked good to my eye, so I decided to give it a go.

The first thing to do was to take stock of the parts. I made a couple of lists, one with items from the kit to keep, and one with the parts I would need to add or replace because they were either not included in the kit or were too crude to use.

Hull and Troop Deck



This is the start point according to the instruction sheet and seemed like the logical place to begin the build. The detail on the cargo deck is somewhat soft, but usable. Unfortunately, it does not have any of the access panels as seen in my references so I first penciled in the lines and then scribed them with a dental pick, using a steel ruler as a guide. The plastic is quite soft and the scribing proceeded smoothly. The circular depressions (which I assumed are finger holes for lifting or maybe for latches) were added with a drill bit in a pin vise.



The cargo deck fit inside the one-piece hull without any interference. I did have to shim it a bit at the rear so it would sit level. The rear bulkhead has the gunners' seats moulded to the bulkhead. These were cut off and sanded flush. I added some braces (a pair of aircraft oleo legs scavenged from the spares box) and what looks like a piece of the engine exhaust pipe.

Here is where you need to lay the kit's string/cable across the bottom. If you don't do it now then there's no way to run the string once the cargo deck is in place. My original plan was to use the string to represent the ramp cable as intended by Heller but I didn't like the fact that it was very fuzzy and I had doubts that it would stand up well to being painted. Instead I sourced some six-pound test braided nylon fishing line. I did run the string as per the instructions but now its purpose was to act as a 'fish line' for the braided fishing line later in the build.

USN30 needed appliqué armour added to the exterior of the hull which I cut from a sheet of 0.010" plastic. Lines were scribed to represent plates. The kit is missing the prominent tow rings so I fashioned a pair, measured out their location and glued them to the hull. A hole was drilled in the stern for the engine exhaust and a pipe made from plastic rod added, drilling out an opening. I also added the ring that goes around the pipe.

Detailing the Hull Interior and Cargo Deck



I could see that the kit's port side storage rack and starboard cable guard were not up to snuff and desperately needed to be replaced. First, the bulkhead was glued in place. For the storage rack a set of five triangular spacers were cut from some plastic strip. These were glued to alternate ribs (5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 when counting from the bow). New ribs from lengths of plastic strip were glued on top of the spacers. When dry, the ends were trimmed and sanded flush to the edge of the spacer at rib 5.



The new cable guard/equalizer was a bit more involved.

On a real LCVP, the cable guard/equalizer is a U-shaped channel containing a slider with a cable running from each end. From the aft end, the cable runs to a pulley in the ramp winch. From the fore end, the cable runs in two directions. To port it runs under the cargo deck, up through a hole in the deck, then around a couple of pulleys to the ramp. To starboard it runs up through a hole in the deck, around another couple of pulleys and then to the ramp. So, when the handle on the winch is cranked, the cable running from the winch moves the slider, which then pulls on the fore end cables to either move the ramp up or down.

My reference photos showed at least three different styles for the guard. I chose the more common variant. First I made measurements for length and then constructed a U-shaped channel from plastic strip. At the fore end I replaced the kit pulley. A cover was fashioned from pieces of plastic strip. Lines for the access panels were then scribed. Hinges and latches were made from small pieces of plastic strip. On the back side I added plastic strips to aid in placing the cover over the U-channel. Since the cable was going to be hidden from view by the cover I made a solid anchor point for it at each end of the channel. After gluing it in place I had to add spacers between it and the hull because the guard is straight while the hull is curved.



I cut the kit's engine cover to add the missing the step at the rear. I also added a new top, scribed a hinge line across it, and put on some hinges chiselled from a spare AFV hull. The driver's station should have a space between it and the engine cover. I left this as is because fixing it would have also forced me to make a completely new bulkhead. Instead I just added the missing foot well. A new ramp winch was made from plastic sheet and rod using the kit version as a template. A manual bilge pump and a battery box were scratch built from plastic sheet and rod. The bilge pump needs to exit the hull so a hole was drilled here and the pump's outlet pushed through. The end of the pipe was drilled out.



Some scrap brass was bent into a loop for the fire extinguisher bracket and a piece of plastic rod with a hole drilled in the top was used for the flag holder, both being attached to the fore side of the bulkhead. At this time I also fashioned an emergency tiller (bent from a piece of piano wire with a socket made from plastic rod), and a fire extinguisher using the one in the Trumpeter LCM(3) kit for dimensions. Thin solder (The Source Nexxtech 0.6mm (0.022") Solder, item no. 6400013) would be used for the hose.

Deck and Gunwales



The moulded-on gun tubs were wretched. They are conical in cross section, versus the correct cylindrical shape, with deep grooves in the plastic. First, the old tubs were cut from the deck (not an easy task), and, try as I might, I couldn't get a very circular opening. Strips were cut from 0.010" plastic and rolled into cylinders for the new tubs. At the point where the ends joined I added a small strip of plastic for support. The tubs were inserted into the holes, measured for height, glued, and left to set thoroughly. Once dry the excess plastic sticking down below the deck was trimmed flush.

The new tubs did not quite fill the holes in the deck. My options were to either fill and sand the gaps or cover them over. After some thought I resorted to the latter and cut four thin strips from some plastic sheet. Each tub got one strip wrapped around its base, and one wrapped around its top. A few drops of thin cyano glue filled any gaps and some light sanding removed the seams. Tub covers were thin slices cut from a piece of 0.45" plastic tubing. They had to be sanded to match each other in thickness. The kit's lower gun shields were thinned and glued to the tubs. Using the 1/35 scale Italeri LCVP kit for reference, I fashioned some new gunners' seats. The kit's gunwales are much too thick. New ones were cut from 0.020" plastic using the kit pieces as templates. The new gunwales were extended some so they would meet the gun tubs as per my reference pictures. The new gunwales were notched so they would fit between the plastic strips previously placed on the top and bottom of the tubs. The forward ramp supports are moulded to the kit's gunwales so these were cut from the gunwales and used as templates for copies made from 0.020" plastic. I added a brace to the bottom of the ramp supports as per my references.

Both the kit's gunwales and deck have indentations to locate the gunwale braces. I filled each of the deck indentations with some plastic strip. To figure out where the edge of the deck would run along my new gunwales I used the top of the indentations on the kit gunwales as a guide and I drew a line along the length of my replacements. Attaching the gunwales to the deck uses a simple butt join. Keeping the gunwale in place while applying the glue looked to be difficult. After some experimentation I found that a Gunze Sango paint bottle spanned the gap of the deck perfectly, so with a couple of bottles inserted inside the deck opening, I slid the gunwales between the bottle and the deck and ran some glue along the seam.

Like all of the small parts in this kit, the gunwale braces are chunky. New braces were made, each comprised of three parts: small plastic strips were used to cover the previously filled indentations in the top of the deck, then a matching strip was glued to the gunwale, and finally a new angle brace was added. Once the braces were in place the deck assembly was very strong. On the inside surface of each of the kit's gunwales is a set of four tie downs which I chiselled off and glued to the inside of my new gunwales. The kit's pulleys are not great. The U-shaped support was acceptable so I trimmed the kit pulleys from their supports, punched out new pulleys, glued them to the underside of the supports (first scraping them with a hobby knife to thin them some) and then glued the pulley assemblies in place. The ramp pulleys on the gunwales need to have a support plate under them which was cut from 0.010" plastic. The finishing touch was adding axle ends cut from some round plastic rod.

The kit's access panels on the rear deck are soft-looking. They were scraped and sanded off and new panels made from pieces of plastic card. In the centre of each I added a rope post plus a cap from a punched piece of plastic sheet. After looking over my references again I felt that the posts should have been more towards the boat's centreline than where I have them. At this time I also added an emergency tiller cover plate, punched from some plastic sheet. The plate conveniently covers the hole in the deck for the kit's flag pole. Between the gun tubs is a plate with a loop style tie down. I replicated the plate with a piece of plastic. The tie down was a piece of copper wire bent into a half-loop and inserted into holes drilled in the plate. For the link I liberated an AFV tow rope loop from my spares box.

The kit's MG shields were sanded to a thinner profile.

The Ramp

The ramp detail is barely adequate on the walking surface side, and the rib detail on the outside is much too soft. I removed the outside detail and replaced the ribs with L-shaped plastic strip. There are two holes in the ramp to run the cable through, which is incorrect, so I filled them and made some attachment eyes. A dry fit of the ramp revealed a gap at the bottom between the ramp and hull. A strip of plastic along the bottom of the ramp interior closed the gap.

Painting, Part 1

With the interior complete it was time to paint it. The interior colour is a dark-blue grey. I custom mixed this, using some Humbrol Flat Blue (H25) with some Testors Flat White (1768) and Navy Blue (2055). I sprayed this over the interior, underside of the deck, inside surface of the ramp, the cable guard cover and the emergency tiller. A shot of Testors Glosscote sprayed straight from the can followed. I weathered the interior assuming the boat would have been heavily used, with a lot of foot traffic in particular, so most of my weathering was to the troop deck. I dirtied up the deck with pin washes, dry brushing and airbrushing with my favourite dirt coloured paint, Testors Africa Dunkelgrau '42 (2103). Some additional dry brushing afterwards with Testors Intermediate Blue toned down some of the more exaggerated weathering. My flat coat finished the interior painting.

Deck, Hull and Ramp



Before joining the deck, hull and ramp, I had to do some extra work inside the hull to save myself some future grief. The emergency tiller was attached beneath the cable guard. Two small strips of lead foil were formed to represent the holders, glued to the ribs overlapping the handle, and touched up with some paint applied with a brush.

Now it was time to run the braided fishing line under the cargo deck. I tied the fishing line to the string, keeping my knot a small as possible, and then pulled on the string from one end to drag the fishing line through. My only worry was that the knot might snag on its way under the deck. Much to my relief, everything proceeded as planned. Now I routed the line around the pulley and the anchor inside the cable guard and attached the guard cover.

The deck-to-hull join is not good. I managed by gluing them together a few inches at a time with Methylene Chloride and applying clamps as needed. Care was needed not to break any of the items already on the deck. Where the hull meets the ramp I had to use some cyano glue because the Methylene Chloride just wouldn't want to hold on its own. Here I also noticed that the deck was about 1mm shorter than the hull. A small piece of plastic was glued in the gap and trimmed to fit. With the deck on I then glued the ramp into place with cyano glue and the cable was routed, one side at a time, first through the hole in the deck, then around the pulleys, and finally tied off at the eyes on the ramp, then hit with some cyano glue to keep them in place. I also noticed that the arms of the hinges on the ramp and on the hull did not touch, leaving a gap between them, so I cut thin spacers from some plastic rod and glued them between the arms.