Neil's Italeri 1/35 LCVP Landing Craft

[scottie3158]

Neil, the additions look excellent.

[Bri62]

Coming on a treat Neil

[Jim R]

Very good Neil. 3D printing is so convenient and cheap for smaller items like the steps and the anchor.

[Andy T]

Coming along very nicely.

Oh how convenient to be able to print additions like that. Brilliant.

[Guest]

There's not an anchor included in the kit, and I haven't found any contemporary pictures showing one(this is a restoration), but they MUST have had one, surely?

Not sure … these craft were not usually anchored just anywhere, AFAIK — they were often carried to where they were needed on larger ships, or moored in harbours much of the time. British landing craft all had a winch at the back with an anchor, which was put into the water shortly before touching the beach so that the winch could be used to pull the craft off the beach if it got stuck. But this does not seem to have been standard practice in the US Navy.

[Neil Merryweather]

Yes I remembered reading about just such a technique. I can't remember whether it was British or American, but artistic licence means that the anchor stays

[A_J_Rimmer]

Very nice work so far Neil!

[Neil Merryweather]

Thanks everyone for the interesting and encouraging comments.
Now we turn our attention to the bow door. It comes in two parts, which is going to make it easier to make the damaged bulge thing.


The PE set comes with replacements for the draw bolts in the form of sliding thingies. I was originally not going to bother because I thought they looked ok, but then I thought ’If I don’t use these bits now I never will,’ so I went for it and dutifully removed the plastic bolt detail and assembled the sliders.


There was some ambiguity in the destructions about where they should sit so I went through my references and all but two pics , one of which is a restored example, showed the bolts as per the original..... But all the contemporary pics show the bolts. DAMN!
I can only take artistic licence so far, so now I have to remake the bolts grrr.
So while I think about how annoying that will be I will get on with the bulgy thing.



So the first thing I did was cut off the steel beams , as I am going to replace the bulge with one made from copper foil. I don’t remember why I have copper foil- maybe one of the kids used it for an art project...but it’s ideal for what I want.



Looking at the refence pic there is a clear horizontal seam which will make life simpler than trying to mould a flat sheet into 3dimensions. I cut two pieces using the original as a template.


Then I traced around the original on a piece of 10mm foamboard, from which I stripped one layer of cardboard and shaped it to match the original


I pre-crinkled the copper and glued it over the foam using foam-safe UHU, which will take ages to dry so I've masking taped it to death.





When it’s dry I will remove the card from the back and stick it in place on the bow door. The foam will (in theory) support the foil and allow me to further distort it if necessary.
See you next time
Neil

[Waspie]

Nice work Neil.

By the way, have you seen they have made a commemorative coin showing a Landing Craft with bow door dropped. Caught the advert during lunch to day!!

[adt70hk]

Apologies for being late to the party. You've made a cracking start on this. Can't way to see you work your magic!

ATB

Andrew

[scottie3158]

Neil, love where this is going. Great work so far.

[JR]

Apologies Neil for turning up so late. Like the fact that methods and photos were discussed in a civil manor, very true to the forum ideals .
Stunning work as expected, esp the forming of the foil using foam board for the back support.

[Geoffers]

You’re turning this in to a bit of a masterpiece Neil, great work :smiling4:

Geoff.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Great work Neil

[Neil Merryweather]

Well patience isn’t my strong suit but I had other things to do so the glue had plenty of time to dry, and it seems to have worked.



I thought about trying to fabricate 4 identical bolts and then I thought ‘sod it , I’ll print them’- that way they will definitely be identical, even when they are handed.



Printing them also meant that I could rescale them when they proved to be too big... :rolling:
And the carpet monster claimed one of the eyes for the drawbridge cable, so I created one of those too and printed a pair of them.



So back to the front, as it were,



Inspired by scottie3158 I added extra bolt heads (which I 3D printed, of course) and weld seams- I reckon my guy would be kicked out of welding school, but hey ,there's a war on you know. And I bent the angle irons as per the image as well.
There’s also bling along the bottom , but whether that will be seen under the water in the diorama is a moot point ( especially as it's a bit higgledy piggledy).
So that’s all for now, thanks for following
Neil