Land-Wasser-Schlepper No. 1071

[Guest]

Lately, my modelbuilding has focused a bit on local history, mainly a Churchill AVRE and a Sherman V as they were left behind after the Second World War. Time for a slight change while sticking to the same theme, I thought.

Here’s a photograph of a Land-Wasser-Schlepper (LWS, the name translates from the German as “Land-Water-Tractor” for those who don’t speak the language):

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Apparently, this was taken during trials in 1942, which I have no reason to doubt. More interesting to me is that the background let me know exactly where this photo was taken: on a beach in Vlissingen, the Netherlands.

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That’s what it looked like last Tuesday, though from a bit further from the windmill than the WWII picture was taken, and the line of the coast has changed a little since then (the skyline too). Incidentally, at the foot of the windmill is a German Regelbau 143 observation bunker that has been dug out and restored some years ago, and is open to the public on (IIRC) Wednesdays and Sundays during the summer.

For those keen on military history, here’s almost the same area about 2–2½ years after the photo of the LWS was taken:

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Or if you would rather have a map of the situation during the war:

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This is from a British map with Defence overprint of (off the top of my head) October 1944. The LWS is probably about where it says “Steep slope”, the LCAs are in the sheltered part of the beach above the “5 Rows stakes” — AKA Uncle Beach as it was known then.

As a further aside, Brits with an interest in maritime history might recognise the town from it being the place of birth of someone who visited the Chatham naval shipyards a few centuries ago.

[Guest]

So now to build this piece of local military history. Many years ago (well, it can’t have been more than ten, and probably closer to 7–8 or so) I bought the Bronco kit of the mid-production LWS:

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Really for no other reason than that I liked the look of it, and it was on sale for about half price (stickers on the side say I paid €40 for it instead of €78). This is quite a big box, I must say, but it needs to be:

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It’s not quite filled to the brim with sprues, but the contents wouldn’t have fit a box the size you might expect for a Sherman or a Panther.

Examining the instructions, I found out the kit includes exactly the decals needed to reproduce LWS 1071 as it was in Vlissingen — a minor stroke of luck, really, as I hadn’t originally bought it with that in mind at all.

In true expert modeller style, I began construction by cutting up part of the kit:

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There are nice etched brass screens for the air intakes on the rear deck, but the recesses they go into are moulded solid, so you’d have the screen sitting right on top of a plate. I put in the plastic surrounds, marked their internal size, and cut out the plastic — they’re the long fore-and-aft slots in the photo, on either side of the deck.

After that I took care to remove the mould lines from the main hull. There are some fairly visible ones either side of the bow, as well as running along some of the edges around the lower bow and the vertical rear corners. Nothing some careful scraping with a sharp knife couldn’t solve, though.

Next, putting the hull and deck together:

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This is a bit tricky, since the upper sides of the hull bend inwards a little, so you can’t easily get the downward projections underneath the deck to sit between them as they should. Start at the back, then put some rubber bands around it, and work your way forward. I had to tape down the sides of the bow to get them to sit flush, plus more rubber bands and a few clamps at the back, but it’s not exactly difficult to do. Once all this was on and the parts lined up, I ran liquid cement into the join and let it dry.

[Jon Heptonstall]

The photographs-then and now- are really interesting. Whereabouts in NL are you?
Jon.

[Guest]

I live on Walcheren (hence my interest in the fighting around here). Vlissingen is only a fairly short bicycle trip away.

[Jon Heptonstall]

I did wonder if you were on Walcheren.Some great aerial photos of the sea defences pre- and post Lancaster.
Great start with the LWS.
Jon.

[papa 695]

A great reason and idea for the build Jakko, it looks like a lot of plastic for your money. And some nice detail from what I can see.

[Guest]

I did wonder if you were on Walcheren.Some great aerial photos of the sea defences pre- and post Lancaster.

I know someone who owns original prints of some of those, and I’ve got very high-res scans of a few of them. There is also quite a good book about aerial photography of Walcheren in WWII, though only in Dutch AFAIK.

[Guest]

it looks like a lot of plastic for your money. And some nice detail from what I can see.

The kit probably has about as many parts as your average tank, but it’s rather bigger than that. Detail looks to be pretty good, with rows of very fine rivets all along the hull and superstructure for example. It certainly looks good enough for my standards, so I doubt I’ll add much that isn’t in the box.

[grumpa]

Great kit! Always wanted to build one of those, I'll be watching.
Jim.

[Ian M]

Hmm dont think we have had a LWS build before. Interesting subject.

[Si Benson]

Morning,

An interesting vehicle/ kit....don’t think I’ve seen the bronco version built before? Looks like your wrestling it into shape already :thumb2:

Si

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
A very interesting build and also I like the personal connection. What exactly was the role of these vehicles?
Jim

[Guest]

don’t think I’ve seen the bronco version built before?

There’s a good step-by-step build/correction here (though note his English doesn’t seem to be too good, so when he says “part-line mis-match” he probably just means “mould line” ), and if you read Estonian (I don’t), this forum thread is also about building this kit, though the builder appears to have used the suspension from another kit. Google Translate seems to do a decent job with it, though. There’s also a review on the Perth Military Modelling Site.

[Guest]

What exactly was the role of these vehicles?

Mainly transporting cargo etc. during amphibious landings — basically the role originally envisioned for the American LVT, before the US Marines began using that as an assault vehicle. The LWS apparently had a floating trailer capable of carrying 18 tonnes, plus a roomy interior with a roof hatch so it should have been possible to carry a fair amount inside the vehicle too. Accommodation was 20 troops, according to the instruction sheet, but I wonder where those would have sat — the only place available seems to have been on the floor, as the only seats are for the three-man crew.

[Guest]

The suspension is made up of a fair number of parts:

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(Hmm … maybe I shouldn’t have photographed my iPad’s shadow as well. Anyway …) For some reason Bronco gives two different numbers for parts that seem to be identical, or at the very least interchangeable. There are eight small roadwheel arms without axles, for example, and though they have two different numbers, I couldn’t spot the difference so I treated them as one. The pieces with the leaf springs all had a large sink mark on the front, so I filled that and filed it down before doing anything else. These also have obvious mould seams running all around that need to be scraped off.

All these parts assemble into eight bogies:

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I cemented the wheels to the suspension arms with axles, then put these together with the other half of the suspension arms. I also added the small pins to the square plates. Once the glue on these parts had dried, I put together the bogies, but only put cement on the pin that connects the square plate to the triangular one with the axles — nothing else was glued at this stage. As you can see, that leaves the bogies fully articulated.

When the glue had dried again, I cemented the bogie back plates to the hull, and also let that dry. This left me with:

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Straightening everything out is luckily not difficult. You may wonder how to determine the angle at which the roadwheel arms should sit, but that’s quite easy: on the real vehicle, the arms will be pushed up until the spring won’t let them go any further. Thus, the simplest way to get everything straight is to put the model on its wheels, and gravity will take care of pulling the hull down so far that all the roadwheel arms will be up against the springs. Using a piece of glass helps, since a work surface or cutting mat isn’t necessarily flat enough:

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(That came from a picture frame, by the way, for those wondering where to get a relatively small piece of glass.) Now it was just a matter of letting some liquid cement flow into all the joints that I hadn’t glued yet, and leaving the model on its wheels until that had dried.