A while back I began my Dragon Wagon odyssey and planned to build a diorama with a crane loading an LCM3 onto a Dragon Wagon as show in this image:



The Dragon Wagon is now 95% done, and no more work can be done on it until it’s added to the diorama base, so its on to the LCM3!

First off, lets start with the available kits. There are two LCM3 kits on the market nowadays, one from Trumpeter and one from Italeri. For obvious reasons detailed on PMMS, I chose the Italeri LCM3 over the Trumpeter one. In case you haven’t read the comparison review, the Trumpeter kit is dimensionally wrong in a way that’s almost impossible to correct (the hull is too tall), and frankly has several other accuracy flaws which I’ve found in my research that the review didn’t mention. These include the machine gun mount bases, the size of the steering cabin, the ramp lowering mechanism, etc etc. Frankly, unless you already have the trumpeter one or get it for free, go for the Italeri if you want an accurate LCM3.

There aren’t many aftermarket add-ons for the LCM3 available these days. The only ones available are the Eduard photoetch sets for the Trumpeter and Italeri kits (sets 35735 and 35739 respectively), their ‘structural support framework’ set, a thatchweave bumper set, and a U-models French indochine conversion set.



Since I didn’t have the trumpeter kit, and didn’t plan to build the French Indochine version, I settled on the thatchweave bumper set, the Eduard Italeri-specific photoetch set and their structural support framework set. I also found an interesting source for a replacement propellor, which I'll detail in an upcoming post.

As far as books and research goes, I got really lucky. Clear close-up images of an LCM3 in operation are pretty rare it seems, but it turns out Thatchweave products is based in my hometown, and the owner is part of my local AMPS chapter! When I purchased the bumpers from him, he mentioned he had assembled as many images of the LCM3 as he could find and gave me a CD filled with them. Most are pretty low resolution, but some were worth their weight in gold. At the next local meeting I’ll ask him if its okay for me to upload the archive of them for you guys.

Entertainingly, another source of info worth its weight in gold was the Dragon Wagon books I purchased, in particular the ampersand book. It has several close-ups of the Dragon Wagon with an LCM3 loaded on it, and the images are beautifully clear and helped clear up a lot of details.



Finally, I downloaded a copy of ‘Skill in the Surf’, a 1945 WW2 navy training manual detailing the operation of the LCVP and LCM3. Thus far it’s the only source I’ve ever seen which has a semi-clear view of the control console for an LCM3.

Lastly, I got the Squadron/Signal ‘WW2 US landing craft in action’ book, but honestly, it turned out to be crap as an LCM3 reference. It only has two pages of actual LCM3 images, several of which are the pre-production models and none of which added anything to my build. Don’t waste your money on that one.

So to the Build!

The Italeri kit has surprisingly few parts, but what large parts some of them are! As you can see the hull barely fits in my photo tent!




I began by tracing the ribs on the lower hull with a pencil. The LCM3 has a thin steel hull stretched over underlying support ribs, and depending on the age, wear and tear, etc, these ribs show through. In some images they’re barely visible, in some they are moderately visible, and in some images they’re so pronounced the hull looks like a waffle.

I decided to go for a mild or moderately-stretched look, so I traced on the pattern of the ribs as accurately as I could based on the images I had (at maximum these should be three horizontal ribs, no including the top and bottom of the hull) and four spaced between them. I’ve seen some modelers add five or more, but the Dragon Wagon images, and several others are very clear in this regard). The white evergreen styrene filled the locating slots for the lifting plates, which I plan to replace with the Eduard photoetched ones later.

Once that was done 0.010 x 0.030 strip was glued on top of the pencil lines and allowed to dry.



While that was setting I moved on to the top and loading area of the hull. This might look like a lot of work but its actually only about 5 large pieces glued together, and then a few of the smaller details added.

This is one area where Italeri amazed me. When I saw these large pieces I thought I’d have to do huge amounts of seam filling and sanding, but amazingly there was almost none. As long as you go slowly the pieces all line up perfectly and I think I had to fill a total of maybe half an inch worth of seam. I was truly shocked. Well done Italeri!

After the main pieces of the deck were dry, I began detailing them. You can see the brass candy-cane shaped fuel tank vents which I made simply by bending brass rod to replace the molded on ones. These are actually an interesting source of variation amongst LCM3s. On the italeri kit there are two on the left side and one on the right side. On most LCM3s this is the pattern for them. But I have images showing two on the right side as well, an addition to some showing additional vents further forward.

You can also see the four large funnel vents spaced around the upper area of the deck. Italeri provides them in two halves. This means the outside seam is very easy to remove, but the inner one is in a complex three dimensional curve inside the vent which you can see because of the size of the vent openings. Also the vents themselves were made from thin sheetmetal and often seen dented or damaged in images, which means the Italeri ones are very overly thick. I don’t blame Italeri for this, as this is likely the best their molding machines could do, but it still leaves an ugly, overly thick, seam-filled part.

I spent about 6 hours cleaning and thinning a single one down to my satisfaction. I then realized what I’d done, said ‘screw this’ and resin cast the remaining three! I may never use this mold again, but at least it saved me several days worth of work.



Also as a side note, the vents are not standard on all LCM3s. These vents are smooth in the kit and in the LCM3 Loading image I have, but on several other LCM3 I’ve seen these vents square, rectangular, or round and segmented. If you’re doing a generic LCM3 then the kit ones will be fine, but if you want to build a specific one be sure to check what style that particular ship used.

Once the evergreen strips had set on the hull, I added a smooth, uniform coat of Tamiya Basic putty over them and left this to dry for a week. This technique was detailed in Tamiya Model Magazine issue 102. I also tried the technique they used in issue 109, which was to just tape over the strips instead, but found this produced ribs which were too pronounced for my liking. They would match some of the more weathered ships I’ve seen in some images, but it was too much for the LCM3 loading image I was basing my model off of, so putty it was!

Once the putty was dry I was left with a hull that looked like this:



Next up: The LCM3 pulley and propellor system!

OK count me in on this adventure!

Consider selling a set of those funnels! Mike

GREAT work on that hull! I considered rebuilding the entire hull with actual ribs and very thin wall Evergreen sheeting to achieve the same effect!

Looking good! I've just subscribed to this topic as I really need some inspiration on the couple of LCMs which are gathering dust on the shelves...

Keep it coming!

Hi Jason,

Interesting project. There was an excellent build somewhere where the builder (can't remember who) added foil I think it was over the added ribs, very effective.

I've built both the Trumpeter and Italeri kits and prefer the Italeri one but it doesn't come with the correct ladder arrangement for the British version which is a pity.

You're off to a grand start, look forward to developments.

Al

Sounds like this project is going to occupy a considerable amount of real estate, looking forward to watching the progress. I have a couple in the stash (Hobby Boss 1/48 & Dragon 1/72) and am surprised to how many options exist if you fancy an LCM3 - good for us!

The plan for my LCM3s:


A shot of the steering house, it may be similar to an original LCM3 layout but I'm not sure.

Mike,



I actually considered doing so but they're molded so thin the failure rate is a little high for that. I might go consider going back and redoing the mold if I decide to try selling them along with the Mk22 machine gun mounts I had to scratch build for this thing. The only problem with that is I have no idea how to photoetch on a large scale or who to commission to do so.

Al,



The foil technique was used in the Tamiya Model Magazine article. It looks great for a pretty distressed hull, but doesn't work as well for a moderate one like in the image I'm basing mine off of. I've seen a few images of some pacific theatre LCM3s where it would be spot on perfect though!

If you want to do a British version I'd almost recommend buying both the italeri and trumpeter kits and using the british-specific parts on the italeri kit. It would likely be a lot easier than trying to make the trumpeter one accurate.

Daniel,



I'm actually a little concerned about how much real estate this is going to take up. I was planing on building a second model display shelving unit eventually, but I think I'm going to have to bump up that priority!

Your project looks really neat! Entertainingly, the control console you have in that image is the one Italeri and Eduard both chose to model, so it should be easy for ya!

this is the only original image I've been able to find of the control console of a WW2 LCM3. It's from the Navy training manual and thus isn't that great quality, but you can see the differences!

""If you want to do a British version I'd almost recommend buying both the italeri and trumpeter kits and using the british-specific parts on the italeri kit. It would likely be a lot easier than trying to make the trumpeter one accurate.""

Yip works fine Jason.





Cheers

Al

Alan,

Nicely done!

Hi Jason,

Thanks. I picked up another about 18 months ago in a sale so it will soon have a friend bringing the total LC fleet to seven built and 3 to build, one of which will be an LCP L for which I acquired a hull a few months back.

Cheers

Al

The LCM3 pulley system is a little unusual if you’ve never studied the vehicle before, and is one area where there is some manufacturing variability. The Italeri pulley system has two pulleys integrated into the vertical support on the right side and three on the left, while the trumpeter one has two pulleys mounted on mounts which project off of the main supports.



Surprisingly both are correct… sort of. The Italeri kit as it stands is actually entirely correct for several boats I’ve seen. The trumpeter one is correct except on the left side there should be a third pulley projecting. Since the boats loaded on Dragon Wagons in Maastricht all have the trumpeter version, I had to modify the italeri parts. I scratchbuilt the mounts out of evergreen sheet styrene and turned a single pulley out of evergreen rod using my dremel tool as a lathe. Once I was satisfied with the part I made a silicon mold and resin cast the other 5 of them.

When done the pulley system at the front of the boat looked like this:



Next up was the propeller shafts and supports. This is one area where those Dragon Wagon books I mentioned in the first post came in enormously handy. They are the only clear images I’ve found of the underside of an LCM3.



Unfortunately this is one area where Italeri got it horribly wrong.

- The kit has two sets of strut supports per rudder, which is wrong, there should only be one. The two they provide are also spread way too wide.
- The kit has these rudder mounts as rounded, where they are actually flat on the bottom
- The kit has the rudder blades too thick, and the wrong shape, missing the part of the blade which extends on the other side of the pivot point.
- The kit has the proper three-bladed propeller, but the blades on them are way too small width-wise.

How did they get all this wrong? I actually realized how while looking up images of LCM3s. The propeller/rudder combination they used for the LCM3 is actually that of a late model LCM6!

Sadly I forgot to take any in-progress images of these corrections before priming the lower hull, but this is what it should look like in the end:





Next post: Remaking the terrible kit main control panel and other details.

Hi Jason,

I remember various discussions about the LCM 3 over on Shipwrights. There are differences across the boats depending on which company actually manufactured them, so what you see as incorrect in one picture might be correct in another.

Nice progress.

Al

I love the very distressed condition of this LCM headed for the Rhine. I hope to recreate some semblance of this on my model. Looks like they picked vessels for the river crossing that they did not plan to ever bring back.

[quote]Hi Jason,

I remember various discussions about the LCM 3 over on Shipwrights. There are differences across the boats depending on which company actually manufactured them, so what you see as incorrect in one picture might be correct in another.

Nice progress.

Al[/quote

Alan,

It could be, but I've never seen an LCM3 underside with a different style of propellor support/rudder than that one. Finding images of their undersides is difficult, but I've got one from a brand new LCM3 being loaded via crane, several one Dragon Wagons, and one from the navy training manual, and they all look like that. The only one I've ever seen that looks like the Italeri kit is from an LCM6 that's used as a museum piece. However who knows, right?

That being said, there is a ridiculous number of variations in relation to some things. The manual bilge pump I've seen stowed all over the ship, same with the cable ramp slide, the pulley system, the bilge pumps, and the anchor. That's not including the british vs american differences.

Michael,

Yeah, that thing is pretty beaten up!

That being said, some of the LCM3s I've seen loaded on Dragon Wagons were in brand new, freshly painted/repainted condition with almost no wear, so not all of them were sacrificial.

Italeri got a little creative with the main console for the LCM3 kit; namely I haven’t found a single image of a WW2 LCM console that looks like the one the kit comes with as a decal!

Eduard, ever helpful, doesn’t correct this. They just offer a photoetch and film version of the make-believe Italeri version!

The only actual image of an LCM3 console I was able to find looks like this:



Note that the clutch and throttle control levers are angled, not straight as they are in the kit. The instrumentation is also completely different, and there is a third level on the left side for the ramp clutch control.

All of this was scratchbuilt using sheet styrene and, entertainingly enough, leftover Royal models control dial film from my Dragon Wagon build.



The magnetic compass was also scratchbuilt and added to the conning tower on the Eduard mount.



The other small details/tools were modified from the original italeri pieces either because they were really poorly molded (the bilge pump and hooks) or inaccurate (the ramp cable slide and the hull side lifting plates).



The side lifting plates are originally Eduard parts, which are accurate for earlier model ships, but later on they got reinforced with a second plate of steel over the upper part. Since this is how the ships at Maastricht had their lifting pates, I modified the Eduard parts to match.

After the hull’s putty had dried and was sanded smooth, it was also time to add the hull details. The bilge pump outlets were made of 0.010 sheet styrene punched out with a punch and die, and the exhaust covers were made from the same sheet cut and bent to shape.



The arrangement of the outlets is something that has a lot of manufacturing variation. Sometimes there was another bilge outlet in front of the ones I added, sometimes they are different sizes, and sometimes they are in slightly different positions. I added mine based on the images of the LCM3s being transported by Dragon Wagons.

The other details were added now as well, including the cable slide. This also tends to change location based on manufacturer and if its an early or later model. I added mine based on the Dragon Wagon images.







Next post: The horror of the Italeri machine gun mounts and the insanity of scratchbuilding my own!

Nice work Jason

Al

I echo with Alan.
But lets go insane. Can't wait to see them results.

Groet'n

RJ

Wow!

Insane is good...

Warning, really long post ahead!

I’m going to be blunt here: The italeri LCM3 gun mounts, as well as the Verlinden and trumpeter versions, are terrible. They look nothing like the actual mounts and are simplified to the point of being jokes.

Technically I could have gotten away without them. There are many images of LCM3 without the mounts installed, particularly during transport. Even in the image I was basing my LCM3 off of they aren’t installed. But they are on several other of the same batch of LCM3s loaded in Maastricht, and so I decided to take on the challenge of building accurate versions.

What follows is NOT for the feint of heart. Consider yourself warned.

During WW2 the LCM3 carried what were known as Mk 21-1 pedestal single mount machine gun mounts. They were lightened versions of the Mk 21-0 with slightly smaller and thinner gun shields.

While several wonderful images of the real mounts are available here



http://gryphos.com/aamountsingle/

And even for sale, finding plans and dimensions for the mount was very difficult. I tried extrapolating from those images but the dimensions fluctuated too much as most of the images were taken at angles.

However I soon found myself lucky when I stumbled onto the book ‘Weapon mounts for secondary armaments’ by the US Army ordinance corp. On page 473 of this massive 1200 page book is a full side schematic of the Mk 21-1!





As a note, if you can find this book get it! It’s a fantastic reference. It has almost every secondary weapons mount used by just about every major army from WW1 up through 1957, including all sorts of experimental mounts. It’s truly a glorious reference.

The only flaw, unfortunately, is that while it has the side-view plans, it doesn’t have the exact measurements of the mount. So I based mine on the size of the perforated base of the mount included in the italeri kit, scaled down my plans from there, and went to town.

A word to the wise: if you don’t have a punch and die set don’t even bother trying. This mount pretty much mandates it!



Here you can see the initial parts of the mount. The biggest challenge here is making sure that all of the holes on both sides of the perforated 50 cal cradle line up with each other and match the plans. This is where the punch and die is crucial.

Next up came the gun shields. The ones in the Italeri kit are pretty much entirely wrong, being too short, too thick, having a notch taken out of one side and missing the 50cal cocking lever bulge. The Eduard ones, in true Eduard fashion, are exact copies of the Italeri ones with no attempts at all at making them accurate. Sigh.

So based on the scaled down drawing, and the images from the above website, I went about trying to build my own shield.

I tried sheet plastic of various sizes but it was either too thick, too flimsy, or wouldn’t hold the required bends.

This is truly where my insanity comes in. I decided, for the first time in my life, to try photoetching at home.

There are very few decent tutorials to do so on modeling sites, but there are tons for circuit board photoetching. So I read a few of those and off I went.

A word of warning. What follows is dangerous. Not ridiculously so, but enough that you MUST wear latex or nitrile gloves, safety glasses, and work in a VERY well ventilated area. When you first mix your chemicals and add the brass you will generate chlorine gas, which can badly damage your lungs. Yes, this is the same chlorine gas used in WW1. Only a small amount will be generated, but even so, be VERY careful and work in a VERY well ventilated environment. Outside and upwind is best.

This is what I found:

-many sites, especially modeling ones, suggest using ferric chloride as an etchant. This is the traditional stuff to use and can be hard to find. It can also be very expensive and hard to dispose of. Recently the circuit board hobbyists have been moving to a combination of hydrogen peroxide and Muriatic acid, both of which are much more easily available (the hydrogen peroxide is available at the pharmacy and the muriatic acid at almost any renovation store that sells pool supplies, eg Rona or Home Depot)

Read this page for additional details and mixing steps.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-using-Ferric-Chloride-etchant!--A-better-etc/

- You can etch almost any brass but the thicker it is, the longer it will take. Most websites say it will take a few minutes to half an hour, but this is for really thin circuit board copper. I made my shields fro 0.010 brass, and it took almost 3 hours to etch fully.

- The speed of the reaction is dependent on temperature and mixing, so I put my mixture on top of a food dehydrator turned to low heat, and put an aquarium air bubbler in it. This heats and mixes the chemicals gently. Remember not to put anything metal in the chemicals of they will be eaten by the high strength acid. This is not crucial, but speeds things up and is worth it if you plan to do this more than once. Also make sure it’s a low pressure aquarium pump! You want your mixture to be mixed, not for acid to spray all over the place. Cover your mixture too!

Here’s an image of my setup. Because it was too cold to do it outside when I decided to do this, I put my setup in my airbrush hood, which is vented directly outside, and removed the filter for maximum airflow.



I then took some 0.010 sheet brass and spray-painted it using Mr Surfacer 1000, which I use as a primer. Any lacquer paint should work, and I have since used tremclad from home depot, and both work. I don’t know if an acrylic paint will work, as it needs to resist the acid and I don’t know if the acrylic paints are strong enough.

After painting it, I scratched away the paint in the shape of the outline of the shield I wanted to etch with sewing needle. This outline was made by measuring out the side schematic and comparing it to the images, tracing it in pencil, and then scratching over the pencil.

You then simply drop the brass into the acid mixture, stand well far back, and wait!

Over time your mixture will turn greener and greener as the copper is etched. You then pull it out with tongs while wearing gloves, wash it off VERY WELL with water, and voila, done!

Another note here: the acid mixture can be reused many times according to the instructables website, so you might want to save it in a VERY CLEARLY labeled Tupperware container (non-metal!)

What you end up with is this:



Here you can see 4 shields I made. Three have been removed from the brass and the forth just needs to be snapped out. You can wait until it etches through fully but I preferred to stop it a little ahead of time and flex the shield a little. It then just popped out of the brass.

You can also see how much smaller the Eduard shield is in comparison!

I also cut out a semi-circle and a strip of brass for the cocking lever bulge and soldered it all together. Various other parts like the shoulder rests were made of brass rod and bits of sheet styrene.

The end result was this:





Not too bad, hmm? This took me almost a week and a half to make the two of them, and yes, they are movable still.

Sadly this is where things went wrong. Remember how I scaled down the plans based on the size of the Italeri base compared to the size of the base in the plans?

Yeah, apparently Italeri got that wrong too. The base of the kit mount is slightly too tall. I discovered this when putting the mounts on and comparing them to the size of the cabin. A Tasca 50cal also turned out to be 2mm too short when fitted to the mount.

It turns out I built my mounts at 1/32nd scale, and not 1/35th!

Fffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu........!!!!!!!!!!

*deep breath*

This is what happens when you have no 100% definitive measurements. So instead of using the base, which I later sanded down a few millimeters, I redid my measurements based on the 50cal itself, which is shown in the plans as an outline and is a fairly standard, known measurement.

And, after another week of punching, etching, carving, etc, I wound up with this:




This is the size difference between the 1/32 and 1/35th versions. Both shields are still much larger than the kit or Eduard ones and now a 50cal fits perfectly on the mounts. Admittedly I don’t intend to show the 50cals installed, as they rarely were in transport (although there are a few pics of that too) but at least I have that option.




So if anyone wants to replicate these mounts, scale your plans for 1/35th like this:



Next up: Painting, weathering and horrible hand-painted hull numbers!

Jason it's getting better everytime.
I admire the modeler in you.
I have to study your text on etch making, that's a craft I still want to learn sometime.



RJ

Hi!

Fantastic project Jason, and fantastic execution so far. I will follow for sure.

Cheers!

Marco

Some serious scratch-building there, Jason. Those gun-mounts are outstanding! Al

I love DIY. Hadn't heard about this etch method before, I might have to investigate. I had read about someone using Future dyed with ink (the ink was strictly to help see it) and apparently, it works. Future, it does everything! And some seriously nice work going on too.

Kimmo

Cracking job your doing there!

I have an LCM in my stash and will watch this with interest

Cheers Kev