Good Morning All,

This is one of my many on-going project, the Italieri LVT(A)4. Much of it is OOB, I added the sandbags and stowage from the Verlinden set. Unfortunately I had already added the lights and guards before I bought the AM set... I was happy to find that Italieri had included the bilge pump discharge housing in the kit, I added a section of 1/16 tubing to represent the actual discharge which you can't see in these pics, and strengthened the kit sprockets by using 3/32nd tubing as recommended by David Harper in his book on building the LVT. I took the hatches from an LVT(A)1 which I am converting to an LVT(A)2 to replace the hatches which came with this kit as they depicted the plexiglass domes. The hatches were detailed with grab handles and periscopes. I'm planning depict a Marine LVT from Iwo Jima. Comments are always welcome and appreciated.

John-- looks great. In what color pattern will you paint her? Do you know when the Marines painted there LVTs gray with red bands as I see in several publications? Looks like a Navy battleship gray with a red band in the middle of the vehicle.
thanks
DJ

I'm going to go with a four color scheme I've seen frequently in books on Iwo Jima -- it consists of patterns of a green, a tan/sand, a red brown and if memory serves me a black. The colored bands you mentioned temporary markings for a particular operation to signify what beach the vehicle is assigned to i.e. 2 red bands on the pontoons = Red Beach 2. It is not uncommon for old markings to show through. The Marines discontinued painting the LVT's grey in 1944 although they were not immediately repainted until the vehicle went for overhaul.

John-- thanks for the information. Looking forward to seeing the final product of your effort.
DJ

John-- I started mine last night (you are an inspiration). I found the initial steps on putting the road wheels together challenging. The alignment has to be worked several times before everything falls into place. Let it dry over night and will re engage tonight. I want to ask you about the bilge. You noted that you added some tubing can you provide a photo of your efforts so I can appreciate what I should attempt?
thanks
DJ

DJ-

Here ya go, you'll see the mounting point on the driver side bulkhead, I used a section of 1/16th aluminium tubing cut just shorter than the guard and placed on the pontoon just forward of the first weld and superglued it in place with a gel AC. The suspension can be a pain, it takes a bit of fiddling and some clamping but you get a decent fit for your efforts. If you run into any problems give me a shout and I'll do what I can to help ya.

John-- thanks. I shall display the fruits of my labor shortly. I am going with the gray base with red stripes. I may rework the shields for the two machine guns which I think are really cool. Nice break from Sherman building.
Appreciate your help.
DJ

DJ,

You're welcome, any time. Be careful with the treads, I ended up reinforcing mine with 1/4in light duty staples from my staple gun, if you're careful with positioning you can hide the staple between the shoes, it porvides a secure join. I'll be looking forward to seeing the fruits of your labor. It is a welcome break from the more run of the mill projects.

John

John--totally agree on the use of the staples. I will take some photos in the morning and post when I get to work on Monday. Nice kit to build.
DJ

John here are several shots of my work. I filled in the space between the hull and the top deck in several spots. My plan is to paint her flat black then a light gray with a red stripe on both sides.
DJ

DJ,

Looking good, the fit between the upper and lower hull does leave a bit to be desired on all the LVTs from Italieri I've built. The Harper book on LVT construction actually recommends using Tamiya XF18 (actually a medium blue) for the grey paint(I've read that it was in reality a shade of blue-grey). You've definitely got a winner going there! I just picked up the Concord Book on Amtracs/Amphibians at War the color plates show several good shots of the grey color scheme, and one of an LVT(A)4 with the grey and a sand pattern... If you haven't gotten it it might be worth your while, or I could try to scan a couple of the color plates for you.

John

John-- appreciate any and all assistance. I will experiment with the Tamiya colors. I also used Tamiya putty to mend some of the separation parts and found it easy to use. The overage was policed up using a method passed on by some great soul on this site. I applied with a Q-Tip a non acetone nail polish remover and the excess wiped away. Did a nice job. If the separation continues to distract, I am going to hang some field gear over them. Just one area up front and a small one at the rear.
DJ

DJ,

Been down that road...I'll try to get those pics scanned in, but like I said, you might find them interesting and/or helpful. HTH.

John