Hi Guys,

Firstly, happy New Year to You All.

I don't usually post much in the figs section but these are two characters I've been working on for the deck of my LCM. First time I've used Archer Rank Transfers. After nearly 2 years I'm finally getting around to starting the loads and figures for the boat













Apologies for the rather stark pictures they were taken indoors with the flash. I'm not really happy about the officers haversack as I ciouldn't get a strap onto it in any meaning full way. Oh, the door has to go back onto the wheelhouse lol.

Cheers

Al

Al what can I say but I love these floaty things everytime you post update... The deck is suitably grimy and all in all very realistic. The drums have come up peachy, and (I guess I'd better comment on the figures;) the marines are a nice piece of work. What is to go in the Sergeants left hand?
HNY
Brad

Hi Brad,

Happy New Year to You. Nice work on the Sherman BTW really excellent stuff.

I hadn't as yet anything specific for the Sgts L hand! (a map?)

A few daylight shorts, it was a bit dull but I got a few without the flash which give a better representation. Added a strap for the Officers haversack. What do you think of the packing lables on the box?

Anyway, here you go.











Cheers

Al

OK Christmas is over

What say you figure guys about the Commandos or the RN for that matter?

Cheers

Al

I particularly like the red fire bucket filled with sand... Nice touch Alan.

Hi Murdo,

Well I'm glad you like the bucket lol, lol. Thanks for looking. I don't post figures often not a strong point with me. A bit frustrating when you're hoping for some constructive feedback. didn't think they were that bad.

Cheers

Al

A coulpe of shots of a medic who will be joining the load.







Al

Hi Guys,

Well it's Feburary now and things have moved on a bit.

Here's the progress on the LCM Load:










In between times I sorted some figs for the LCA:










Currently the 2 boats look like this:





I still have 3 new sailors to add and am now at the stage where I think I can start on the deep wading carrier, (the one in the pic is for other purposes)

Comments welcome before I glue these guys down.

Cheers

Al

You've certainly have done an excellent job of populating your boats Alan. I like the stoker/engineman rating popping up for a breath of fresh air.

Hi Dave,

Comments much appreciated, the boats are fun.

Cheers

Al

Kick a**.

I thought you had stopped doing this from the lack of updates but I guess I was wrong. Can't wait to see it done.

Matt

Hi Matt,

Being sort of boat focused I've been running a thread over on Shipwrights where this all started some 2 years ago. If you want the Full Monty, warts and all click below;

http://modelshipwrights.kitmaker.net/forums/111146&page=1

Glad you enjoyed the pics, it's moving along slowly

Cheers

Al

Wow
Hello alan now that you have some bods on the boats it is really starting to look great. I myself have never finished a figure and my models i feel suffer from a lack thereof , so keep up the good work, where did the large wooden crates come from or are they scratchbuilt?
all the best clarkie

Great stuff Alan, I must have overlooked these at Milton Keynes...
I agree, the weathering of those decks looks superb, and the figures are looking very purposeful in their positions. I too like the touch of the RN guy sticking his head out of the hatch... "Tell Ike that the 5th won't do, I won't be able to get this tub going untill the 6th..."
ohh, and those rope buffers and cargo nets look superb. Not 100% sold on the anchor rope/knot, (did the LCM carry an anchor?) but the rest of the cargo looks great, and great weathering on those drums.

A question, the guys in the small LC seem to be walking forward. But this is in a British Harbour? Would the troops not embark 'over the side' closer to shore?
Other than that, very nice, and good to see the progress Alan.

Henk

Hi Henk,

Glad you enjoyed the pics and thanks for the feedback.

Re the anchor, all boats carried an anchor it was the Danforth Mk II, so whilst they may not be the correct anchors, they certainly all carried them. It was one thing I was amazed Italeri, Trumpter and FM left out of the kits, a boat without an anchor is like a car without breaks lol, lol.

Re the troops you're confusing these chaps with my Pier 51 Dio which is a separate project. These guys are destined for the landings on Nan Red in support of the Canadian North Shore Regiment on D Day, a different project lol, lol.

If you're interested in the kit the boats carried or just want to know about them have a look here, you'll find the kit list under Appendix C

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/SurfSkill/index.html

This chap is the last of the RM for the LCM I'm working on - one man and his bike



and these guys are my RE mine clearing team for the beach exit:



Cheers

Al

I thought they were for the same dio as well. You have TWO of these monsters on the go??

Hi Murdo,

yip i'm afraid so. These are the original boats I built and the Nan Red Project was conceived for them. Then I got the 2 Trumpter kits at £10.00 each lol, lol and Pier 51 came into being as I needed to think of something else for them. The pier dio was originally conceived on a smaller scale, to have a dry run so to speak, but grew in size with the addition of Glenn's Lighthouse and additional thoughts lol, lol. The Nan Red project got a bit left behind, (1) because it took time to build up enough figures and (2) time to develop a skill to build them reasonably well - thank you God for rolled lead wire.

Getting all the bits organised took longer and more money; deciding the vehicles for the LCM more time yet. If you recall a long while back I did the deep wading Priest then decided it was inappropriate for the LCM although I have a pic of one on Nan Red within my build area . Various diversions into my armour projects also delayed any more work plus I find I have to be in a certain kind of mood to do a figure or figures and there area lot in this one, just as there are in Pier 51.

All part of the 5 year plan, I have a lot of techniques to develop and the water will take a few practice runs when I get to it. On Nan Red there are specific houses on the beach, the defence wall, bunkers, sea defences and stuff to be considered. I don't want a long thin run up the beach job but troops disembarking and moving in land, with different height levels and stuff.

I'll be starting on the deep wading carrier and a D7 Dozer for the beach this week so more challenges ahead.

None of these wil be done tomorrow or even this year, there is far to much work to rush them and I'll need to take the odd break to satisy my Sherman/Churchill fetish not to mention all the other great stuff that is buuilding up. Given my preference of build 2 or 3 of the same vehicle doesn't help either - lucky I stocked up on stuff before SWMOB arrived

The RN Signaller should be on his way from Wee friends so that's another part of the puzzel solved, and I want a beach party with the White Ensign there too lol, lol.

Lots of work ahead, hopefuly lots of fun too.

Cheers

Al

Hi Guys,

For those of you who don't visit shipwrights here he is onboard, sorry had hoped for a better pic.





That about wraps this figure post up. Thanks for the feedback.

Cheers

Al

Hey Alan,

Nice LCM. Who's is this? I read a report on a resin/PE one that was really good, but it was needing detail. Yours looks amazing and realistically like a bashed about hunk of metal that it was.

Looking really good, figures, boat and ancillaries.
NICE WORK!!!!

Hi Stuart,

This one is by Italeri although I have added the ladder and deck railings from the Trumpter kit.

There are some differences between the two boats, the Trumpeter version gives you the British fittings and the American option with pretty good .50 cals. It is also a bit bigger than the Italeri Kit, a deeper well and some of the fittings are different on the boats.

There is a good comparison on PMMS between the 2 boats. Although there are differences they were produced by various manufacturers in the US and I believe some differences exist in the real things as a result.

Here's a coulpe of pics of the Trumpter kits:

RN LCM 3 - Trumpeter



USN LCM 3 - Trumpter


Verlinded do a resin version I believe but very expensive. If you are lucky you might pick the Trumpeter kit up for about £10.00 it didn't sell as well as the Italeri kit as they had the addition of a set of US Rangers/Infantry that came with their kit.

Either will build into a good craft with a bit of work. Thanks for you kind comments - much appreciated.

Cheers

Al

Just catching up with this Al, I like the busyness of it. Where did you source the Mine detector? You certainly are working on a large scale.

Hi Pat,

The mine detector is home made, the plate is a piece of scrap plastic cut from a figures spur and shaped with the boxes and fittings added and the pole was made from 2 slightly different size peces of plastic rod and my friend the rolled lead wire lol, lol. Headphones are from plastic rod/and wire and the pack was an odd one I had into which I fed the plumbing.

The functional bit on the centre of the pole was cut from plastic bar and filed into shape with some knobs added.

He's standing at a bit of an odd angle in the pics but at ground level and in the sand he should look pretty good.

Another set of figures that are sorely missing, both for N Africa and Normandy, or an AM set would do.

Fig is the basic Tamiya sten gunner with his body filed to close in the arms and the arms re-shaped a bit.

Cheers

Al

hi,
this is some of the best stuff i've seen about landing craft, very impressive. the figures are very good & quite realistic.
but as you asked about those packing labels, everything i've ever seen from that era was painted on. packing labels are a fairly new thing. salt water ink & paper do not mix well.
having spent a lot of time on the water on small boats in the chop(waves to landlubbers) it's not a good thing to have stuff not tied down, like the fire bucket. one good wave and it's over the side. i've seen them on hooks on naval vessels.
please do not take this as criticism, but sometimes modern touches on period scenes are a bit glaring.
cannot wait to see more,
jake

Hi Jake,

Thanks for the feedback, fire bucket has been hung, should have thought of that before.

You're right most military kit would have been stencled, but I'm sure some crates and boxes had lables stuck to them as well. The lables IMHO are not that out of place or over powering as they have been weather into the cases and there are not that many of them considering the number of boxes.

With no suitable decals I'm afraid what you see is what you get, fair point though.

Cheers

Al