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Richard M

Stuzzar's build will be reported here.
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Rich
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"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die."

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stuzzar · Posted: Wed 01 Jul 2009 15:39 pm Post subject:

Thanks Richard

I am undecided between either an Horsa or an LCVP Think

Cheers

Stu

James Russell · Posted: Mon 13 Jul 2009 16:30 pm Post subject:

Dear Stu,
If you go Higgins please look at my photos in the ATF ship and boat reference section.

Best of luck whether by sea or air.

stuzzar · Posted: Tue 14 Jul 2009 22:49 pm Post subject:

Thanks James, certainly will do as I have decided to build a clutch of Higgins Boats

Cheers

Stu

stuzzar · Posted: Fri 07 Aug 2009 11:42 am Post subject:

I am underway on this one, will be building these for wargames use so the small keel and propellor will not be fitted.

The props may be suitable to use on Duplex Drive tank conversions, will have to investigate.

These will be modelled as craft from the USS Samuel Chase APA-26, markings are included for craft from this ship in the Airfix kit.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/03/03026.htm

USS Samuel Chase landed troops of the 1st Infantry Division on Omaha Beach Easy Red Sector on D-Day, the landing craft were crewed by members of the US Coast Guard.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/03/100302605.jpg

http://www.uscg.mil/history/articles/h_normandy.asp

So to begin, I have cleaned up the hull(s) and have added the armour plate section along each side, photographs of LCVPs from APA 26 show them fitted with the armour plate.

http://www.uscg.mil/history/gifs/Omaha_landing_craft_2349.jpg

The armour plate sections were 8mm thick on the actual craft, I may have gone a bit over the top with mine but can soon sand them down.

Next I did a test fit of many of the internal fitings, deck, bulkheads etc. fit seems fine for the most part but some detail work will need to be done.

Will post some pictures later

Cheers

Stu

Hawk · Posted: Sat 08 Aug 2009 12:30 pm Post subject:

Sounds good!
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stuzzar · Posted: Wed 12 Aug 2009 21:45 pm Post subject:

Here is a picture update, slightly out of sinc with everything else but I am working all hours that god sends at the moment so prefer to spend free time modelling rather than uploading pics which takes forever on my ancient PC

So first up the obligatory sprue shots

The decals/markings

and the instruction sheet/s, these kits were received from Airfix after they were missed out of the original issue of the D-Day set so have a sort of Airfix/Heller hybrid feel to them, later kits have pure Airfix instruction sheets.

So here is the progress as described in my earlier post

Hulls have been cleaned up as have the floor sections

Ejector pin marks have been removed from the rear bulkhead

I am still undecided how far I want to go with detailing these, I believe that on the actual craft the 'seats' for the gunners were actually fixed to the machine gun ring and so swivelled around with the gun movement which would certainly make sense. If I decide to model this feature the kit 'seats' will need to be removed from this bulkhead and new ones made from scratch.

Armour plate added

As you can see I may have gone a little heavy on the armour plate, I can soon sand this down

.

Hope to get more done tomorrow evening

Cheers

Stu

James Russell · Posted: Fri 14 Aug 2009 02:42 am Post subject:

So far so good. Nice work on the armour plate.

I know the little gnomes that come with this kit don't look so hot, but I have had some success decapitating them and giving them donor heads from the Airfix US Marines (the larger, 1.72 scale part of the set). I've also used body filler to give them dungarees. With those two changes they look mighty good to me.

There are some nice looking metal USN landing craft figures too.

Have a good build. Looks mighty promising.

stuzzar · Posted: Fri 14 Aug 2009 10:53 am Post subject:

Thanks for the tip James, I was wondering how the kit figures might look with a bit of surgery, I may well give that a go.

I do have some of the Hecker and Goros white metal figures which I am using on my LCM build,

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/ftopic6943-0-asc-0.php

I may purchase a few more sets of those and also supplement them with figures from Milicast, they have a pretty good range of crew figures in resin.

Hope to get a bit more done on this at the weekend if I can get the Seafire build out of the way.

Cheers

Stu

stuzzar · Posted: Thu 20 Aug 2009 21:59 pm Post subject:

A little more progress

I have decided to remove the moulded on 'platforms' from the rear bulkhead and to make the seats for the gunners which would have been attached to the machine gun rings.

I used the pieces that I had removed from the bulkhead and carved them into what I believe to be the seat shape.

The following picture shows the stages of this process

Here are the six seats basically in shape

The actual seats were fixed to the machine gun ring and were able to be folded up thereby allowing the gunners to move around in a little more space. Next up I will be adding the hinge sections and the rod that fixed them to the MG rings.

Cheers

Stu

James Russell · Posted: Mon 24 Aug 2009 18:30 pm Post subject:

Good looking so far.

I don't know what the interior of the gun positions look like. If I see an LCVP in Normandy next week I'll try to get a photo for you.

Sgt.Squarehead · Posted: Mon 24 Aug 2009 18:45 pm Post subject:

Great work Stu.....You seem to have this kit well covered, so I reckon I might have to be having a change of plan.

All the best
Sgt.S
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hewman100 · Posted: Tue 25 Aug 2009 09:49 am Post subject:

Coming along brilliantly Stu!
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stuzzar · Posted: Tue 25 Aug 2009 10:44 am Post subject:

thomasweir · Posted: Tue 25 Aug 2009 12:47 pm Post subject:

Smart work

stuzzar · Posted: Wed 09 Sep 2009 17:57 pm Post subject:

Apologies for the delay in this update, I have been having internet connection problems with the home PC so have not been able to upload any pictures to photo bucket, have done these from the Parents PC

First up are further seat developments, I have added the hinges on the back of the folding seats using thin plastic tube and rod, these still require a little more work before adding the stem that attaches them to the gun ring

Next I cut some of the thin thread (provided with the kit) to the prescribed length and attached this to the base of each craft using the brackets

You get more than enough of this thread and it will prove useful for other ropes around and on the craft with still plenty left over, the following picture shows the remains from just one of the reels, I have already cut off the required amount for the 3 LCVPs

The floors were then installed in each craft and the holes drilled for the bilge outlets

As the bilge outlets are above floor level I felt it safe to assume that some form of pipe would be in place to reach beneath the floor ,this was created using a thicker rod and bevelling the top off so that it appeared to bend into the outlet hole

The above operation was carried out on both sides of each craft.

Just behind the step through point on the forward bulkhead is a raised box which contained the battery and provided a useful step between the two areas. I made these from sections of thick plastic rod topped off with plastic card

More to follow soon, hopefully I can get the home internet connection working again

Cheers

Stu

stuzzar · Posted: Sun 27 Sep 2009 17:38 pm Post subject:

Apologies for the delay in an update on this build, I have had all sorts of PC/internet problems and have been unable to upload pictures. This has now been sorted out so here we go.

I have been doing a little bit more research into the various bilge pumps, it now seems that the pump on the port side next to the Coxswain's position is the main automatic pump and this was supplemented with two hand operated pumps, one on the port side situated directly behind the Coxswain's steering position and the other on the starboard side opposite the main automatic pump.

This meant making up new parts for both of the hand operated pumps, these were put together with pieces of plastic rod of various thicknesses as shown in the following pictures.

These were based on a picture found on a French website featuring an LCVP restoration, when I find the link I will post it here.

Next up I decided to change the Coxswain's 'step', the one supplied in the kit is a solid square of plastic attached to the engine cover and steering column housing. In fact it should be two raised foot plates with a gap in between, this set up allowed the Cox to either raise his position by stepping up on the foot plates if he needed to get a better view of where he was going or what he was doing, conversly he could step down into the gap to lower his profile a little, presumably if things were hotting up. The port side foot plate can be seen in the pictures above, the following picture shows both foot plates in place beside the new engine compartment (more of which later).

You will have guessed by now that I am getting more than a little carried away with this build

So next I turned my attention to the engine compartment/casing, the one included in the kit is the wrong shape, the actual item has a smaller step at the back of it so I decided to make some new ones from plastic card basing them on the dimensions of the kit part and from the actual item seen in various pictures.

The new engine compartment alongside the kit part

The kit part with moulded on steering position and step alongside the the new part with the starboard side foot plate attached

I added a new top cover to the engine compartment and step, slightly bevelling the edges, the cover was split into two and hinged on the join so I scored across to replicate this and plan to add some hinges from bits of plastic card and rod.

The engine compartment with its new top cover on

New steering column housings were made from plastic card, these units had one dial on the right hand side of the front face and a couple of starter switches to the left of this. On the right hand face was the attachment piece for the throttle lever.

These parts were made from various thicknesses of plastic rod, the throttle lever has still to have a handle added to the top.

The steering column housing under construction

The following pictures show all of these elements in position, I have since made several adjustments to these items, the lid for the engine compartment and step had been given too much of a over-hang so these have since been trimmed back also the gap between the steering column housing and the engine compartment was found to be too large so this has been reduced allowing the steering wheel to fit better.

More later

Cheers

Stu

Sgt.Squarehead · Posted: Sun 27 Sep 2009 21:47 pm Post subject:

Absolutely fantastic work Stu!

I'm glad you are building these, as I would never have the patience to do so thorough a job.....Especially on three of 'em!

Can't wait to see more!

All the best
Sgt.S
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James Russell · Posted: Thu 01 Oct 2009 16:00 pm Post subject:

Dear stuzzar,
Here are some photos of the LCVP near Grandcamp, Normandy. I had to climb on some old German axles to get these shots. These two LCVP were resting on blocks about 2’ off the ground. The LCVP itself is 7+’ tall! I had to hold the camera over my head and hope for the best. Sorry if these images cause more questions than they answer.
I have some few little doubts as to whether they are the real-deal/came here in D-Day kind of LCVP, or some later craft, or whether these were modified in French hands in the years after the war. They are certainly old enough and made of the right material (plywood with sheet-metal capping on leading edges). Some things don’t look right to me – the “washboard” in front of the gunners’ cockpits is unusual. The cabinet/housing for the engine has been removed from one LCVP and the engine thus exposed does not strike me as a mighty 225hp Grey diesel. You’ll see some electrics and the bunghole for the motorized bilge pump you have so skilfully included in your models.
These LCVP are evidence for me that the boats used on D-Day likely had no side armour plates. The extra weight of these plates was not part of the balance of the original Higgins’ design and their addition made the boats apt to take in too much water when beached (the ramp being a 7’x7 ½’ slab of ¼” STS was enough on its own to make the boat dig its nose in). I’m not certain about this – just close to certain. A number of authorities say or suggest this to be true – foremost among them Maund, “Assault From the Sea”, 1949. The US Navy “Allied Landing Craft and Ships” 1944, says they had side armour, but this was published in September 1944, and I suspect reflects a change in priorities after Normandy. I’m pretty sure that prior to 6.6.44, the USN weighed the costs and benefits and decided to accept the casualties and do without side armour.

This is looking over the starboard gunwale into the engine space and cox’ position. The wood palate is an aggravating recent addition. Bottom right-hand is the bulkhead separating the engine space from the troop well.

Same boat from the starboard .30 cal. cockpit.

I have one or two more, would be happy to send – could you leave me a PM message?

Thanks for sharing your first-class modelling skills - one day I'll build my 3 LCVP and I'll be following (most) of your lead. Happy modelling.